"Let's see… flowers, decorations, table centrepieces…"
"Alice, I'm sure the restaurant staff can deal with all of this," I say to a much frizzled Alice.
"Bullshit they can! Like they say, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself! The only way this will get organised is if I do it myself."
"Of course…" I mumble.
"Look, it's exactly twelve hours, twenty seven minutes and fifteen seconds until the wedding starts. I can't leave anything not-done."
"I know Alice, I know…" I've heard this conversation before. Why am I up this late? I should be in bed. But no, Alice had to drag me all the way to mansion to see if things were ok. At eleven 'o clock? Really? Ugh. It'll be twelve before I get home, and twelve thirty before I actually get into bed. Edward's probably already asleep.
We had our bachelor/bachelorette parties on the same night (a couple of nights ago), to avoid one of us being extremely tired on two days. We had to hire a babysitter, as Alice was at my party (she hired a male stripper… I made her swear not to tell Edward. I mean, unless she doesn't want her head).
"Can we please go home now?" I whine.
"Alright, alright," she fusses. I start to walk towards the door, but Alice makes no move, looking around one last time. I pull her arm and pull her out the door, to her constant protesting.
She's making me feel worse about tomorrow. Not that it won't be the best day of my life, it's that I'm so nervous about it. I'll probably fall over in the long dress and high heels. Mind you, I have been in some outrageous costumes… But what if I stuff up my vows? What if I lose my train of thought by looking at him?
I shake my head, trying to get the worrisome thoughts out of my head. Alice notices.
"Bella are you okay?" she says, quickly glancing towards me and back to the road again.
"Yeah, I'm just thinking of all the things that could go wrong tomorrow…" I bite my lip.
"Well don't. That's my job. Your job is to be gorgeous and marry the man you love. You will have a smile on your face the whole time, trust me," she reassures me. I smile. "That's the spirit!" Alice says with enthusiasm. I roll my eyes.
When we got home I went straight to bed, almost falling asleep on the stairs. When I finally crawled into bed, Edward was already asleep. Or so I thought. After about three minutes of lying there next to him, I felt a pair of familiar arms snake around my waist. A pair of equally familiar lips kissed my neck.
"I missed you," they say, pausing from the kissing for a second. I smile. Of course he would miss me, even though I was only gone for about three hours. I yawn again; my jaw was getting sore from it. Edward notices.
"Yes, go to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow. Heck, that doesn't even begin to cover it…"
He may have said some more, but I was already asleep.
A shrieking voice woke me up in the morning.
"Get up! Get up! Get up! That means you too, Bella!"
Alice. She had come to give us a wake up call. How nice of her… The warm arms disappear and I hear him get out of bed. I open my eyes and give Alice a glare. She is looking at Edward with a strange expression, like disgust crossed with… well, the look you pull when you see someone attractive. I look to Edward, who is still getting up. Oh. I forgot that Edward sleeps shirtless… Well, I don't blame Alice for staring. Not at all. In fact I find it hard to take my eyes of him all the time. I shake my head to wake myself up, and slowly get out of bed. Alice continues to shriek at us until we are both vaguely presentable and fully fed.
The door bell rings and Alice gets up from her stool to answer it.
The house has a quite simple layout, much like the one in America. Downstairs there are several rooms, including a massive lounge room, a few bedrooms, and the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen bench has high stools on the other side of it. The dining room is an extension on the kitchen, with elaborate furnishings. Upstairs there are several bedrooms, a study, bathrooms and a rumpus room. One of the bedroom has turned into a nursery.
The person at the door is Edward's high school best friend, Jacob, who is also the best man. I realty like Jacob. He's so nice and a great friend to Edward. He stuck by him through everything. And even years after graduation, they've still kept in touch. Hs girlfriend, Leah, is also very nice.
"'Sup you guys?" Jacob says in his usual slang. I smile. You can't help but smile around him.
"Not much, just a wedding to organise, brides to make gorgeous and numerous other stressful things," Alice says sarcastically.
"Alright Alice, calm down. The wedding will go off without a hitch, trust me," Jacob reassures her. Alice sighs in frustration.
"Where's Lizzy?" Jacob asks. Lizzy is the nickname Jacob decided to call our daughter. Sounds like lizard to me. Ugh.
"Asleep," I answer. Honestly, I don't know how she can stay asleep for so long. Even the loudest noises don't wake her. She's an angel. Alice suddenly points to me.
"You. Come with me. Now." I get pulled by her surprisingly strong grip (despite how tiny she is).
She pulls me upstairs. She stops halfway up, and turns to Jacob.
"Get out of here. Go do what guys do before weddings. And remember, he can't see her until she walks down the isle," Alice says to Jacob in rush.
"Wait, I'm not going to see Edward until… the wedding?" Alice nods once. I think for a minute. Then I rush down the stairs and hug Edward. Inn my peripheral vision, I see Alice roll her eyes.
"See you at the alter Miss Swan," Edward whispers with a chuckle.
"I'll be the one in white," I say to him, playing along. He grins at me, and kisses me passionately, leaving Alice and Jacob looking away. Then Alice decides she's had enough, and grabs my arm again. I reluctantly pull away from Edward, getting dragged by Alice. I wave half heartedly and go up the stairs with Alice.
Alice sits me down in front of the bathroom mirror, looking quite annoyed and stressed. I decide to keep my mouth shut, and refrain from telling her to chill out. Trust me, that would only make it worse.
She starts to run a brush through my hair (it has a lot of tangles in it). As she brushes it through, I notice she doesn't seem to care about how painful it is to brush it with such force.
"Ow! Alice!" I squeal when she hacks at a particularly bad tangle.
"Sorry, Bella. I'm just so stressed! Planning a wedding is harder than it looks you know. Especially when you have to plan it in a month." She glares at me in the mirror.
"Hey, you should be thanking me. Edward wanted to have a Vegas wedding," I scoff.
"He did not!" she gasps. I nod. "Honestly, boys really don't know what girls want do they?" I shake my head in agreement. "I would have thought he know you better than that. I mean, hello? You're a celebrity! They're renowned for having glorious and massive weddings. Goodness me!" she rants. I smile at her expressions.
"Question. How many people exactly did you invite to my wedding?" I ask curiously. Of course she'd given me veto power on the guest list, but she had never actually mentioned it. She was a sneaky one.
"Well… it's not… that many people I guess. I mean compared to other weddings it's not that much. I mean it wasn't like I invited the entire Hollywood community or anything-"
"Alice!" I snap, to make her get to point.
"…maybe a hundred and fifty people…?" she says quietly. A hundred and fifty people?
"How are they all going to fit in the marquee?"
"Bella, you do realise I hired a circus tent, right?" she says almost sarcastically. I stare at her blankly. A circus tent?
"How much is that going to cost me?"
"Nothing you can't afford. It's about $1000 dollars an hour I think. We'll only have it for about 8 hours. And the restaurant we booked isn't more than that either. Like I said, nothing you can't afford."
I sigh. Trust Alice to figure this out already. If there's one thing my sister never is, it's disorganised.
"So who'd you invite?" I ask casually.
"Um, I think I invited all the studio staff from L.A… obviously Steve couldn't make it… some celebrity chums of yours, Matthew Bellamy, Fergie, Gwen Stefani, all of the All-American Rejects, Lady Gaga, Lea Michelle, Diana Argon, Adam Lambert, Bruno Mars, Jason Derulo, Kelly Clarkson… umm…"
"Just to name a few…" I say sarcastically. Alice nods enthusiastically, to which I roll my eyes again. I seem to do that a lot in her presence.
I look at my hands, to avoid looking in the mirror. I start to fiddle with the dainty diamond ring on my third finger on my left hand. I smile at what that ring entails. When Alice's hands leave my hair for more than two minutes, I look up. I gasp at the intricate braiding my hair has become.
"You like it?" she asks. I nod, at a loss for words. Alice grins and pats my head. She gets out numerous bags, which opens to hundreds of make-up utensils. Alice gets out the foundation.
"I don't want much of that… I want people to remember me for my actual face, not layers of make up…" I say, remembering how awful some girls look when they have foundation on. Alice nods.
"I figured that would be the case, which is why I've got a brush, so I can apply it lightly, to areas where your skin tone is uneven. Which, I might add, is in not many place," she says in a matter-of-fact tone. I sigh. She's thought of absolutely everything.
Alice continues to make me look gorgeous, and fits me into the dress. I'm scared to look in the mirror. But Alice convinces me. I gasp at the dazzling figure in the mirror; this beautiful creature cannot possibly be me. Alice goes to change, while I admire myself.
"Edward is going cry over how beautiful you look," Alice states, no manner of joke in her tone. I turn around and gasp at her; she looks equally as gorgeous.
"Alice you look better than I do!"
"Pah. It's all about you today. Remember that, ok?" I nod.
We hear a car horn honk from outside.
"The car's here, we've got to go." I start to hyperventilate. "Bella, breath. Deep breaths. That's it. Don't panic, everything will go off without a hitch," she reassures me again.
This is it. I know I'm going to trip over or something.
Eek.