Chapter 9
"I said I'm sorry!" I repeated for what felt like the hundredth time today. It was Saturday, the big game was Friday night and Homecoming was Saturday night, so this was the shopping trip that I was forced to endure.
Edward laughed once and gave me a small, understanding smiled before turning back to our she-devil.
"Please, Alice… all I need is a plain, solid colored tie, the pattern is over-doing it," Edward begged the pixie-like Alice. Alice was holding up two ties side by side in front of Edward who was in a classic black tux- looking stunning, I might add.
"Hmm, yes you are right on that one Edward," Alice finally agreed after thinking for a minute. I sighed, happy that we finally agreed on something. Luckily, Alice had already picked out my dress ahead of time on the internet so all I had to do was try on a few and I was finished under and hour. Edward, on the other hand, took longer.
"Lets get out of here!" I cheered, but Alice gave me a shocked look instead.
"Bella! Snap out of it, we still have shoes and accessories!" Alice reminded me as if I was a complete idiot. I sighed again, but this one was because I was so exhausted.
"I'm sure you can take care of it, Alice. I'll just go back with Edward and then everything will be great!" I tried to smile excitedly, but Alice knew me better than I liked. Alice looked thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled mischievously… uh oh, what had I gotten myself into now.
"That's fine Bella, but remember, that I get to pick out any shoe I want- without your approval." I grimaced, thinking of how fancy and tall the shoe could come out to be. But I really did want to get out of here…
"Fine," I huffed, agreeing to what could be my death sentence. Alice giggled and clapped her hands together happily.
"Yay!" I rolled my eyes at her, shopping was an addiction and unhealthy in her case… Alice needed some meds. Edward came back out from the fitting room, with the tux on a hanger in his hand.
"Okay, can I go tell them that I want this one?" Edward asked Alice. He was a smart boy. Rule one when shopping with Alice: Never ever assume that you are right; you always ask… no matter what! ...I learned that one back in our diaper days, when we used to play with the pretend grocery carts. Even as a baby, that girl was insane.
"Yes, hurry the line is going to be longer in a few minutes," Alice replied and Edward gave me a quick, brief smile before walking off to the sales persons. When he got back, which didn't take long, he looked between Alice and I trying to understand what was going on.
"So…?" Edward prompted after a long ten seconds.
"We are going to get accessories," Alice simply stated. I gave Edward a sympathetic look,
"You don't have to come for this one, Edward, its fine. I'll just ride back with Alice after we're done, Jaspers going to pick her up." I told Edward, I knew that he was going through all of this shopping, dreading every second of it, but putting a smile on.
"It's fine, how about I go pick up some food while you guys shop and then we can eat together, Jasper too," Edward suggested, compromising. Alice wasn't even paying attention anymore, she looked eager to go get shoes. Edward and I talking was not breaking her 'shopping concentration.'
"Okay, sounds good," I replied, nodding along with Edward.
"I'll be back then, what do you want?" He looked between Alice and I, waiting for an answer. Alice looked at me, impatience prudent in her gaze.
"Whatever looks good to you, Alice?" I looked expectantly towards Alice, hoping that she would spare Edward a quick answer.
"Anything; Edward you know what Jasper likes right?" Alice double checked with Edward, he nodded.
"Okay, see you ladies, later," Edward breathed.
"Bye," I answered meekly, mostly scared of Alice's shopping sprees. Edward have me another sympathetic look. I tried to smile, but it probably came out terrible. Edward then left, twisting his way through people in the store.
"Come on, Bella," Alice immediately jumped into action, pulling on my arm. I let her drag me out of the store and into another store. This one was completely full of shoes, it looked like it was all that the sold there. Alice set out, inspecting every shoe there.
I sat down in a chair, resting and waiting for the boxes of shoes I knew Alice would force me to try on. It took less time than I expected.
"Here, Bella," Alice handed me one of four boxes. I opened it and inside was a pair of high heel shoes, the heel wasn't too bad, I've experienced worse, so I didn't complain. I put them on and looked to Alice, waiting for her approval or disapproval.
"Nope," she stated and I, well trained, took them off and put them back into the box. I opened the next box and met another pair of shoes. We went through the same routine, again Alice sending them back.
On the third pair of shoes, the highest ones yet, Alice approved.
"Fine," I grumbled incoherently. I didn't even care anymore I was so exhausted from shopping. I needed food for an energy renew. Alice seemed happy at my little 'give-up' and went to pay for them. I took my time putting my shoes back on, I didn't want to walk anymore just yet. We still had accessories.
Alice came back with another shopping bag from the current store.
"Alice I have to go to the bathroom, I'll meet you somewhere?" I said. She gave me a skeptical look.
"Okay, just outside Nordstroms. I have a feeling that you'll take extra long in there so you don't have to shop and I'll be done already." I smiled involuntarily.
"Okay!" I practically cheered and went to find the bathroom. I noticed some kids from my classes as I was walking through the mall. All of the girls had bags for their dresses, the must have been doing what Alice and I were, except they probably didn't force the stores to ship in specialty dresses.
"Bella!" I heard a very familiar voice boom at me from far away. I whipped my head around, eyes searching for him. Finally, I found him; I smiled up him, his blue eyes shining. He was on the second floor, so he speed walked to the escalator, coming down to me.
Almost roughly, he pulled me into a huge bear hug, my feet lifting the ground and spinning me in circles. I wrapped my arms around him neck. After a few twirls, he set me back down.
"Hello," he smiled brightly, like a little kid; purely happy.
"What are you doing here?" I asked playfully, poking him on his chest. Now that I thought about it, I forgot to ask him what he was doing while I was gone shopping.
"What everybody else is doing, Homecoming stuff," he sighed, it didn't seem like he was having any fun… well that makes three of us now. Me, Tristan, and Edward.
"Can I see your dress?" he asked me excitedly. I pretended to think about it though I knew the answer. After a moment I shook my head.
"No way!" I answered, I wasn't about to do that. Tristan looked down and huffed,
"Darn," he mumbled. I giggled at his reaction, which made him look up at me.
"Can I have hints to what it looks like?" he asked, anxious. I nodded,
"Only 3 questions, though," I amended. Who knows, he may ask me so many questions by the end he'll have a perfect mental picture planted in his head.
"Is it short or long?" Tristan asked quickly, I gave him a look.
"Short," I said slowly, analyzing his face… he was such a pervert!
"Sorry, I am a guy after all," Tristan put his hands up in surrender. I shook my head, but was laughing with him.
"What color is it?" he asked.
"Not answering that question, too detailed." I corrected.
"Is it a color?" Tristan rephrased the question.
"Yup." This time Tristan was careful not to show too much in his face, he didn't look surprised in the least bit. He took a little more time in his last question.
"Do you look sexy in it?" Tristan asked more quietly, teasing. My mouth dropped open, but I was smiling too. I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, but winked at him seductively. Tristan's eyes widened.
"Bye T," I yelled over my shoulder, walking away from him. I came up with the little nickname a while ago, but yet had used it.
"Hey Bella!" Tristan called to me, I stopped and looked back at him.
"Daddy likey!" he had his hand shaped like a claw and was acting like a cat. I had to laugh after that one… that boy was just plain funny. Once, I reclaimed my composure, he waved sincerely and blew me a kiss. I kissed the air, pretended to receive it.
"Bye Tristan," I said quietly and went to find Alice.
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"There you are, Bella!" Alice jumped up from the chair outside of the store she was sitting in.
"Where were you?" she asked.
"Oh, I saw some people so I was talking to them…" I replied, I didn't want Alice to get all excited about nothing. She just nodded, and pulled out here ringing pink cell phone.
"Hey Jazz," she cooed.
"Did he call you?... okay… we'll be out in a minute… bye!" and with that she snapped her cell phone shut.
"What did he say?" I asked her, I was getting hungry and wanted to eat something soon.
"Jasper is right outside, he's picking us up. And Edward is going to meet up with us at the park, we'll have lunch there then head back to school," Alice explained, she was walking awfully fast and it was hard to keep up with her though she was so tiny.
"Okay," I said in between my uneven, out of shape breaths. Quicker than necessarily, we made it out the sliding doors and Alice immediately recognized Jasper's glossy, black convertible… a car for a movie star.
"Hey Jasper!" she greeted with a smile, opening the passenger door; I slid in to the back seat. Once Alice got in, Jasper leaned over and gave her a quick kiss… they were so cute!
"So we're meeting Edward, correct?" Jasper checked once again, accelerating. Alice nodded and turned on the radio… blasting the stereo system.
When we got there, Edward and already there and waiting outside of his car. I must admit, he looked fine leaning casually against his silver Volvo. Wait! I can't say that… I have a boyfriend, I have a boyfriend, I have a boyfriend.
"Hey Bella," he greeted me once I got out of the car. I gave him a warm smile in return.
"I got you a chicken burrito and a Coke… is that okay?" he asked, I couldn't help but notice how green and sparkling his eyes were. Looking in them was like falling into a world of emeralds.
"S- s- sure," I stumbled for words, he was so… dazzling and… intense. Words truly cannot explain what happens. He nodded to me, and then, very casually- as if he didn't even notice- he took my hand and we followed after Jasper and Alice, who were already situated at a picnic table.
Jasper was already taking out the Styrofoam boxes of food out of the paper bag,
"Edward you got me a steak burrito, right?" Jasper asked him, opening the boxes to hand out lunch.
"Yeah, and Alice, I got you a taco salad… I thought that you would like it," Edward gave her a smile. Alice beamed, taco salad was her favorite. Jasper and Alice sat on one side of the wood picnic table, while Edward and I sat on the other. It was unusually quiet while we were eating… we were all starving.
After we were finished, Jasper and Alice got up off of the worn down bench.
"We're going to go take a short walk, we'll be back soon," Jasper announced. I nodded as did Edward; Jasper and Alice intertwined hands and walked off into the more woodsy part of the park.
"So, are you excited for Homecoming?" Edward asked me conversationally. I shrugged while talking another bite of my burrito. He waited for a verbal answer. I swallowed my food and wiped my mouth with a napkin before answering.
"Yeah, I guess. It sounds like it will be fun," I tried to say as enthusiastically. It seemed like Edward was evaluating me, but I must have been imagining it.
"Our dances aren't that great, but the people are fun to be around. They make the party." Edward was always so… collected. As if he always knew what to say at the exactly right time.
"It was the opposite at our old school… the dances were always top-notch, but everybody was too worried about what other people thought, they didn't have any fun," I remembered our last school dances… they weren't very fun for me. I was always set up with dates by Alice and Rosalie because nobody ever asked me.
"I suppose that is how high school is for everybody, but the level of insecurity would vary from school to school." Edward said, mostly to himself.
"You know, you don't talk like everybody else…" I notified him softly.
"How am I supposed to talk?" he asked, confused but amused.
"I don't know… lots of slang and curse words?" I suggested, giggling a little.
"I'll try," Edward promised sarcastically. Our eyes locked for a moment, both dancing from our entertaining conversation regarding Edward's vocabulary. Blushing, I turned away quickly, Edward seemed reluctant to do the same, but no the less adjusted his gaze on the overly green forest.
After a moment of awkward of silence, I began another conversation just so it wouldn't be so silent and… opportunistic.
"Do you know what we're doing before Homecoming yet? I think Alice mentioned all of us going to dinner or something along those lines."
"Emmet and Rosalie wanted to go get their picture taken before dinner and the dance, which Alice and I thought was a good idea. So we will most likely end up taking pictures first, then dinner and then the dance," Edward said, at the end he was almost breathless. I laughed, I've never seen him so… stressed. No, that wasn't the word, but I couldn't exactly describe how he was acting.
"Sounds good to me," I agreed whole-heartedly.
"Are you going to do anything with Tristan?" Edward asked, the atmosphere was grew a little tense.
"I don't know, we're just going to do our own things," I shrugged. There wasn't too much to explain, though it certainly felt more complicated than that.
"That's good, well I hope you have fun with me… I have a tendency to be a little 'out-dated' as Emmet calls it," Edward seemed embarrassed when he said this. It made me instantly curious.
"What does that mean?" I asked, smiley hugely. I felt like somebody was telling me a secret.
"Well… Emmet says that 'I don't dance right,'" Edward made little quotation marks with his fingers. I laughed out loud. –LOL
"Huh?" I shook my head, not understanding. Edward looked like he couldn't believe he was telling me this.
"He makes fun of me because I don't… freak dance," he said softly, almost so you couldn't hear him. And that was when I burst out laughing, so hard, I could barely breathe. I felt for doing so, I but just couldn't stop!
"You'll be happy to know that I'm not much of a dancer myself, then," I admitted. Edward seemed truly surprised.
"You're just trying to make me feel better," Edward mumbled. I shook my head in defiance.
"No, really. Alice and Rosalie once paid a random boy at our school to come to my house and teach me how to freak dance. Unfortunately, they got it on camera and I was forced to burn it," I confessed. This time, it was Edward's turn to laugh.
"That's really too bad you ruined the film, I would have loved to see it." Edward flashed me a bright smile.
"Oh no, I am truthfully glad that I destroyed the evidence… the rumors that were actually true were bad enough," I sighed, Edward was so easy to get along with… too easy.
"Have you talked to Tristan yet?" I asked Edward. His initial expression was anger, which shocked me, but it softened to a mask of emotion. What ever he was thinking, he was not about to show it on his face.
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Edward's POV
Bella's face was blushed from laughing as hard as we were for so long. She looked beautiful.
"Have you talked to Tristan yet?" she asked me in a soft voice.
"Edward Cullen!" I heard a voice call from behind me, I turned around only to meet Bella's current boyfriend, Tristan Ashburn. I stopped walking and waited for him to catch u;, obviously he was going to talk to me about how I asked Bella to the dance this morning and how she said yes. I smiled to myself… she said yes.
"Hey," I smiled at him, now was not a good time to get on his bad side. Tristan patted my shoulder twice… in an older, superior, brotherly way. I was uncomfortable.
"I need to talk to you about Homecoming… you know with Bella," he stated, this time with a hint of authority in his voice. I nodded, I knew that this was coming all day and was determined to play it cool.
"How do I put this?," he took a deep breathe to gather his thoughts.
"I know you're a good guy, Edward. Just don't try anything," he said menacingly. Okay, this I was not going to take. If he thought he could control me or force me into something by using brute force and fear, he had another thing coming.
"I'm not going to do anything to her," I said between my clenched teeth. Now was not the time to lose my temper, I tried to calm myself. Tristan gave me a look, evaluating my current expression and body language. His face softened.
"I just care about her, okay," he explained breathlessly. I pursed my lips together and nodded.
"I understand… I would never do anything to hurt her," I promised sincerely. Never, would I ever hurt Bella; would hurt myself before I hurt Bella.
"Okay, well have fun at the dance then," Tristan gave me a quick smile before walking back from where he came from. Once, he turned around to look at me, almost suspiciously. I didn't give it a second thought and continued to walk on, reminiscing about today's previous events.
"Uhh… yeah, I've to Tristan," I composed myself quickly. Bella's face urged more information from me.
"So, what did he say?" she asked as if it was obvious that I was supposed to continue without the question.
"He said that he hoped that I would have a good time," I cut out the other part.
"That's all?" she asked, looking pleased. I nodded slowly.
"He really didn't say anything else?" Bella's tone had a hint of disbelief in it, her big brown eyes were pleading.
"Just the regular boyfriend talk," I shrugged. Bella nodded, seeming to accept my answer.
It was then, Alice and Jasper came walking out of the forest, hand in hand still. They were almost glowing with happiness, together they were so… radiant. I couldn't find another word to use.
"Hey guys!" Alice chirped to us when they were about 5 feet away.
"How was your walk?" Bella asked, the question directed to Alice.
"Bella! It is so beautiful here, the trees cover everything and…" Alice drowned on and on exuberantly, talking about the scenery here in Forks.
"… we should probably head back, now. Rosalie should be getting back now; she called me earlier saying that she was coming back in time for dinner," Alice finally ended. I nodded and we piled into the two cars, Jasper and Alice in one, leaving Bella and I into my Volvo.
"Long day, huh?" I commented conversationally while we were on the road.
Bella nodded while looking out the window.
"Shopping is just so fun," she noted sarcastically in a monotone. I chuckled quietly. We stayed in a comfortable silence all the way home, which was a short drive. You could say that I drove… excitedly. But Bella didn't seem to mind.
After I had parked in the Bridgeton student parking lot, Bella and I walked to our dorm building. All through the elevator ride, I was debating whether or not I should walk her to her door. It would be the gentlemanly thing to do… but possibly awkward. The sliding doors opened before I could make up my mind.
"Are you going to be okay going to your room?" I asked in a rush. Bella smiled,
"I'll be fine, but thanks." I nodded.
"I'll see you later, then," I said.
"Sure," Bella smiled and I walked through the elevator doors and to my room, collapsing onto the couch the moment I got through the door. Jasper came in about five minutes later, smiling hugely.
"Alice is possibly her," he breathed.
"What do you mean by 'her'?" I questioned him, sitting up to evaluate his expression.
It was a second before he answered my question. The look on his face was so… sincere, I had never seen him like this. Jasper was so certain.
"I mean her, Edward. She's the girl who I have been looking for. Everything about her is perfect. When I am around her I feel… hope. It's like I know everything is going to turn out okay, no matter what because I'm with her. I can't explain it… but I know it."
Holy shit, Jasper is in love.
I'm so sorry, I've been really busy and I had writers block.
So frustrated.
But I am interested in who you wanted Bella with,
Tristan or Edward.
Leave me a review with your answer. thank you!