Author's Note: I'm sick, so I update! Thanks for all the lovely reviews, they really make my day. Read and Review!
Jasper started the car before Edward and I got in. He was backing it out of the driveway when he hit Edward. I screamed, and very nearly threw myself behind the car, but Edward laughed.
"Nice, Jasper." He turned, and saw the horrified look on my face. He was by my side in an instant, his stone arms around me. I swallowed the huge lump I had in my throat, and threw my arms around his neck. I felt him take a deep breath, inhaling my scent. "You should know I'm a little more durable than that, Bella." He breathed out, and Jasper backed the car around us, so that I was standing right next to the passenger side door. I heard a whirring noise as she rolled down the window.
"Come on, I want to get going. Stop manhandling her, Edward, and help her get in!" Alice's level of impatience was reaching the breaking point; she had trouble keeping her voice level.
All at once, I was hit with a wave of calm that nearly knocked me off my feet. The window rolled back up, and Alice sat back in the seat, obviously not in as much of a rush. My eyes felt heavy, and I knew Edward was bearing most of my weight. He opened the door, and settled me behind Alice. Jasper was in the driver's seat. Edward shut my door gently, and almost before it closed he was in the car next to me, his arm draped lightly over my shoulders. I laid my head on his chest.
Jasper turned off the calm, and Alice looked agitated. "Thanks, Jasper." She punched him in the arm playfully, then turned around in her seat to look at me.
"I think we should skip the movie, and just go shopping." She said to me, but the groans of Edward and Jasper were audible. I smiled, knowing very well that she was going to get her way.
"That's fine by me, Alice. I wasn't really in the mood for a movie anyway. Where are we going?" I tried really, really hard to sound interested, but it fell flat.
"Seattle." She turned back around, and fiddled with the radio. Edward leaned over me, and put his lips to my ear.
"I wanted to go to a movie." His cool breath curled around my neck, drifting up toward my face. I inhaled deeply, and the scent was breathtaking. His fingers traced a line from my ear to my collarbone. I shivered, and he laughed under his breath.
"Why?" I barely got the word out, and his lips were on mine. I opened one eye, and saw Jasper staring at us incredulously in the rearview mirror. I smiled at him through Edward's kiss, and reminded myself to breathe. Jasper averted his eyes out of politeness. Edward pulled his lips from mine, but only enough so that we were no longer kissing. I still felt their marble smoothness barely touching me.
"Haven't you ever wanted to kiss in a movie theatre? I thought that was what teenagers did." He had my face in his hands; I felt his lips move as he talked. His tawny eyes stared into mine, and I felt the strangest sensation. It took me a second to realize what it was: my insides melting.
"I never really thought about it." I managed to stutter. Edward's laugh echoed in the car. Alice turned her head to look at us, a highly amused look on her face.
"I have." Edward whispered against my lips. I tilted my face forward, so that our lips met.
"Will you two please quit that? It's getting nauseating, and I'm not human!" She mocked us. Edward smiled his mind obviously somewhere else. I rolled my eyes.
"Oh, come on Alice. You've never gotten gooey with Jasper?" I asked, highly curious. Alice and Jasper didn't act like regular couples. If you weren't around them on a daily basis, you probably wouldn't know they were a couple.
Alice looked at Jasper sheepishly, and I felt like I had tapped into something. I stared at them disbelievingly. "Do you?" I asked again.
Jasper shot Alice a look. She smiled. "Not in front of people, the way you two do.
You flaunt your relationship, almost as much as Rosalie and Emmett." She looked at Edward when she spoke.
Edward came back from his mental vacation. "Excuse you, Alice. We are nothing like Rosalie and Emmett." It took me a while to pinpoint the emotion in his voice. I finally realized that he was offended.
"Oh, don't be like that Edward. I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just that you and Bella are very matter of fact about your relationship. The point I was trying to make is that Jasper and I are low key, more so than other people." Alice was treading lightly, trying not to offend him further. From the look on his face, I didn't blame her.
Edward broke the tension by smiling. "It's fine Alice. But I still think you're wrong. Bella and I are very discreet." He drove the point home by kissing my neck. Alice looked at me matter of factly. I shrugged.
"We're here." Jasper said quietly, and I looked out the window for the first time. The city of Seattle sprawled before us. I smiled. It had been awhile since I'd been in a big city, and I missed it. Edward's arm tightened around me.
Alice gave Jasper directions to the nearest mall, and chatted quietly with him in the front seat.
Edward sat up straight. "Are you ready for shopping with Alice? We could go off, and do something just us. Please?" His velvet voice pleaded with me, and it was almost impossible to deny him. But Alice ended up doing that for me.
"Shut it, Edward. Just try to enjoy yourself, okay? And no stealing Bella from me. I'll hunt you down." She smiled sweetly, just as we pulled into the parking lot.
Edward exhaled slowly, as if he were trying to keep his cool, which he probably was. I honestly didn't blame him. I really wasn't up for this either. When the car came to a complete stop, and Jasper had shifted into park, Edward got out of the car, pulling me with him. Alice kept her eyes on us the entire time.
"You're not going to get away, Edward. Stop trying." Alice grabbed Jasper's hand and walked with him into the mall. Jasper seemed pretty resigned to the fact that Alice was taking him shopping.
I thought about it for a while. Alice loved to shop, yes, but I'd never actually seen her in action. She'd talked for months about going shopping here and there, but something always came up. Now that I actually stopped to think, I was kind of excited. Then, Alice asked Jasper for the money. She really wasn't into carrying purses. My mouth dropped open, my stomach falling with my jaw.
The bills weren't twenties, or fifties, or even hundreds. They were thousand dollar bills. And there were a lot of them. Edward raised his eyebrows.
"Is that all you brought?"
"Yes. It's a small shopping trip. I don't plan on going overboard." She glanced at me. My mouth was still open. Her cool fingers pressed against my jaw, closing it. I was still in shock. There must have been $30,000 there. A small trip?
We finally make it into the mall, and Alice heads for the first store. I didn't even pay attention to the name. Edward's arm was around me, and I kept getting these incredulous looks. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
"Alice, Bella and I are going to look at some clothes for me." Edward steered me toward the men's section, and Alice narrowed her eyes.
"Don't try anything." She hissed, dragging Jasper off to the women's section. Once Edward and I were in the men's section, he grabbed a couple shirts without even looking at them. He pulled me to the dressing rooms. He locked us into a stall, threw the shirts on the flimsy bench and turned to me.
"What are you doing?" I breathed. I was so confused.
"This." He grabbed my face and kissed me. I suddenly understood. I wound my arms around his neck, and pressed my body closer to his. His fingers splayed across my back. He wasn't holding me carefully, and the pressure of his hands sent shivers up my spine. I parted my lips, and breathed out. Edward tore himself away from me, and at first I thought it was because I was going too far. Then, the stall door shook violently. I looked at Edward in panic. He had one of the shirts he'd grabbed on. He hadn't been wearing it before. He bent to my ear swiftly.
"Play along." He kissed my cheek. I nodded numbly. The shaking door finally flew open. He looked down at the shirt.
"How do I look, Bella?"