Chapter Eighteen: Shopping Shuffle

Disclaimer: Twilight will never be owned by me, or you, unless you are Stephenie Meyer.

~ O ~

BPOV

Today as the 10th of December and it is 7:45 in the morning. Rose and Alice had knocked on my front door this morning promptly at six am to tell me that we were doing the majority of our Christmas shopping today.

Alice told me this morning, as I blindly stumbled into the bathroom to have a shower, that today was the day where the shops began to reduce prices for Christmas sales as it was two weeks until Christmas, but it was early enough that the stores had not already been half emptied by other Christmas shoppers.

I do not know how she comes up with all of this logic. It's truly frightening.

If Alice were to donate her body to scientific research, scientists would spend years alone on her brain.

And even then they'd probably never figure it out.

I bet her brain would be pink because she loves that colour, and it would just be... so... Alice.

Moving on Bella. No one cares about Alice's pink brain.

It had been just under three months since my birthday. Edward and I had had a few more dates, none of which were planned by Emmett, or were at my restaurant.

Ever since that date that we had confessed our love for each other, we cannot refrain ourselves from constantly voicing that confession.

It honestly made my heart race every single time Edward said those eight letters; three words to me.

I truly believed that he means it too.

I mean, that was always a plus, right?

Alice interrupted my inner monologue. "Bella, I swear, if you are thinking about you and Edward being corny to each other again, I will put you into eight inch heels."

First of all. How did she know what I was thinking? And secondly, eight inch heels? Do they even make them?

I voiced my concerns. "Surely there cannot be such a thing as eight inch heels," I stated.

Rose looked at me in the rear view mirror. Eyes on the road missy.

"Oh yes you can Bella. Alice has three pairs and I own one. I intend to buy my second pair today actually. Well, more like pick the pair out and charge it on Emmett's credit card," Rosalie smirked.

Ah, Emmett is so whipped.

"So how's Emmett's eyebrows now?" Alice asked Rose.

Rosalie chuckled. "They've grown back practically. Though, every time Emmett walks past a mirror he seems to check himself out to make sure that they're still there. He's so paranoid that it took him a month to turn on an oven again."

I nodded. I knew that. We had to keep on getting a cook or kitchen hand to turn on an oven for Emmett whenever he needed one.

Such a wuss. Reminds me of the time that he was on the coffee table with Alice and I when that evil spider decided that it wanted to share my lounge room with me.

Sorry Mr. Spider, but I do not share my living quarters, unless it's with Edward (I wish)... and a block of Cadbury Top Deck chocolate.

Loud sigh.

Chocolate! Must be me some of that today at the supermarket while Alice and Rose look at eight inch heels.

Again Bella, move on.

As soon as I shook my head clear of thoughts of Edward and Chocolate. (oooh the two together would be yummy) Alice announced to me that we had arrived at the mall.

Well more like she squealed in my right ear.

Note to self: Get myself a hearing aid too.

I glanced at my watch. It was almost 8:30 in the morning. The mall had been open for half an hour.

My left arm was yanked by Rose as she wanted to go to Victoria Secret and La Perla before all of the 'extremely Emmett worthy sexy' night gowns and cute matching pairs of underwear (or lack thereof) were sold.

Perhaps I should pick up something for myself, and Edward.

To show him when we eat that block of chocolate together.

With whip cream.

And strawberries.

Loud sigh again.

"Isabella Marie Swan, if your father ever heard you say those things out loud together he would handcuff you to the door of a nunnery."

Oh crap, I had said my fantasty out loud hadn't I?

And this is when the situation should get awkward.

But with Rose and Alice, nothing is ever awkward. They were too blunt and upfront about anything.

They had no modesty when it came to describing things.

Sometimes I wish I had their low modesty levels. Then I would totally straddle Edward and pour water all over him because he had worn a thin white button up shirt like he had worn on our first date.

"Bella, you're saying things out loud again. But man, you should do that! Want some pointers?" Rose quipped.

Another thing, when the three of us get absolutely drunk together, usually when Emmett and Jasper go out together on a men's camping adventure (this was before Edward came into the restaurant... sigh.), we would have a massive four hour D and M and they would drunkenly give me pointers... detailed pointers.

"You already have sweetie. Six months ago when we last got smashed together," I reminded Rose.

She frowned. "Six months ago? Really? We must do that tonight. That's it. Alice we're getting smashed tonight!" she yelled to Alice who was across the store looking at corsets.

An old lady gave us the dirtiest look.

Why was she in here anyway? Wait, don't judge Bella. You would want to have sex when you're old... if it was with an old Edward.

"God!" Alice exclaimed. "I heard that from over here," she added.

I should probably also buy duct tape too. And some blue pens. You can never have enough blue pens.

I wandered around aimlessly around the store until I had found a matching bra and panty set. It was fiery red, with black straps and lace. The straps were lined with little silver fake diamonds and a tiny clear bead dangled down the front.

I must buy this.

Rose saw what I had in my hand and she nodded her approval.

I guess that meant that I had to buy it now, or one of the two shopping monsters would, along with others for me.

They told me that I had to make at least one purchase in nearly every store or they would choose items and clothing for me and pay for them themselves.

Such a pushy pixie and a thorny rose.

You've got to love my use of alliteration, adjectives and imagery.

Four hours later we were sitting outside of a cafe, eating Caesar Salad rolls and sipping some sort of honey cappuccino that Alice insisted I try.

I had found presents for my mum and dad, Jasper, Emmett, Jessica, and I even managed to sneak off to get Alice and Rosalie their gifts.

For Jasper and Emmett, I ordered them personalised business cards titled the 'EmJ Stalking Co' with both of their personal numbers on it.

They were going to love them. I mean, who wouldn't?

For mum and dad, I bought a blank scrapbook and I plan on scrapbooking their past together. They got married on New Years Eve thirty years ago.

For Alice and Rose, I bought them each a pair of eight inch shoes. Apparently they do exist and even though they had bought themselves a pair today, they would definitely never turn down another pair of shoes.

Unless they were ugly sports shoes or something which won't match any of their outfits.

And now for Edward.

I had no idea what to get him.

Obviously I'll try and go for sentimental value, I hope. But should it be store bought? Homemade? A bit of both?

Decisions, decisions.

To buy or not to buy, that is the question.

I had also managed to convince Alice and Rose to buy a Slip N Slide water slide thing that you can put in the backyard and slide down on.

Who cares if we are twenty seven and twenty eight year olds?

But I had to bribe Alice with a 'Dress up Bella with no vetos' card.

Hang on a second. Why did I have to convince them to buy one?

It was purchased with my own money.

Ah drats.

Bell Swan loses again.

Alice jumped up and down. "Time for the epic part of our shopping trip!" she squealed.

Ah yes, this part. We always have this game that we play at every shopping trip.

"Alright. This time the item is... musical instruments." It was my turn to choose. Rose and Alice giggled.

"What?" I asked.

They just continued to stare at me blankly.

"Oh ssh."

Alice and Rose looked offended, but I knew it was feigned. "What? We didn't say anything," they said in a mock offended tone.

IT was my turn to look at them pointedly.

"Okay...okay. Let's go. Everyone has twenty minutes. Remember to grab your receipt," Rose stated.

The aim of the game, and I bet you just lost the GAME, was to find the cheapest item, that is chosen, in the time frame allowed.

So the aim today, was to find the cheapest musical instrument. We had to keep the receipt as proof of the price.

We all dashed off in different directions.

I headed off towards KMART in hope that they sell musical items of some sort.

Would you believe it when i noticed a sale on children's instruments almost as soon as I walked in the KMART door.

Grabbing a yukalaylee, I headed for the checkout, when something caught my eye.

I know what I was getting Edward for Christmas now.

I retraced my steps and grabbed the item.

Exactly twenty minutes later we placed our item on the table at the cafe we had lunch at.

We took a step back and looked at the three instruments.

"What the hell, Rose?" Alice and I said together.

"What? You didn't specify what type of musical instrument."

She had a point there.

"Rose wins," Alice sighed.

Rose grinned widely.

Her instrument was a plastic tiny Barbie sized guitar.

Trust Rose to pick a Barbie item.

~ O ~

AN: Only 12 more chapters to go according to my outline (: I have a twitter account and am using it to keep people posted on my writing. So if you ever want to know which chapter I'm writing or story or how far along I am, follow me. I may even give one liner teasers. My name is xxtwilight7xx over there. I've gotten so many alerts but now as many reviews lately. Review your favourite line or part. It's much appreciated.