I kept glancing around as I walked, trying to take in every little bit of everything that I could. I passed coffee shops, book stores, high-end stores, and about every other possible shop you could think of. I walked back up to the shoe store and walked in, glancing around. No luck, they were gone. My pocket dinged.
B,
We're at a sushi restaurant called "Happy Tongue." What
a dumb name… we saved a spot for you, come join us!
It's only, like, two blocks up from the shoe place we were
at, p.s. I bought such sexy shoes, hnnnng. Come see!
-A
I rolled my eyes and smiled. Sushi was my favourite food ever, aside from pasta, and Alice knew that. I bet she chose the restaurant as a way to "make up" for Travis' forgetfulness.I walked out of the shoe store and down the street, glancing around. I could have sworn I walked by Happy Tongue earlier today when I was trying to get out of the shoe store. I walked about a block and a half when finally stopped in front of it. It was medium sized with an outside patio that was filled to the brim of people eating expertly rolled sushi in designer clothes. I looked around, trying to spot one of the Cullen's without much luck until I finally heard "BELLA" from across that patio. I squinted into the sun and saw Jasper waving his arms around like a lunatic. I smiled and walked over to where he was standing, worry still drawn on his face. When I got to where he stood he pulled me into a giant hug.
"Bella, we've been so worried! Are you okay?" He said, pulling back and checking my face for looks of terror or hurt. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm sorry to have worried you, Jasper, but I'm fine! I just needed to get away from everything for a little bit. You know how I am" I said, giving him a small, but reassuring smile to let him know that I was okay. Slightly. As much as I usually am, that is.
"Good, I'm glad you're okay." He said, squeezing my shoulder and dragging me to the table the other Cullen's were perched at.
"I'm really, really sorry Bella. I didn't mean to scare you like that" said Travis, staring up at me with wide eyes from where he sat perched on a metal chair that looked too small for his body. I shook my head at him.
"It's fine, Travis, really; I was being overdramatic, I'm sorry I stormed out of the store" I said, smiling at him, trying to reassure him that I wasn't mad at him and that it was all a big misunderstanding. I think it worked, because he smiled widely at me and continued to talk to Edward about something I didn't really pick up on. I snuggled myself in between Alice and Emmett as they talked over me about some movie about killing zombies that Emmett wanted to buy, that Alice deemed unnessesary and a waste of money. I stared at the menu, trying to decide what to order. By the time the waitress came around to order, I had chosen to get california rolls and green tea, with a glass of water with lemon as well. Everyone was chatting happily amongst each other as we awaited our food, and I continued to stare at the table drawing figure 8's on it with my fingers.
"Bella, It's rude not to say anything when being asked to lunch" Rosalie said to me across the table, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth as she tried to keep a straight face.
"I'm so sorry, Rosalie; I completely forgot everyone was here! With all the loud noise and boistorous laughing, I kind of got caught up in my own thoughts" I said, grinning at her. She began laughing and I joined in, having the table look at us like we were from another planet or something. We stopped and looked around at everyone, then back at each other, and began laughing again. It got to the point where it wasn't even funny, but we couldn't help but laugh at the way the other was reacting. I've missed this, being able to laugh with friends and know that they were laughing with me, and not at me. Our food arrived and we all dug in, Emmett, Jasper, Travis, and Edward having a competition between them to figure out who could stuff the most sushi in their mouths without puking. The girls, on the other hand, looked at them in disgust.
"That's absolutely repulsive" Alice said to Emmett, faced distorted in disgust. He opened his mouth wider and went 'AHHHH' and then cracked up with the rest of the boys.
"Ew, that's fucking gross" said Rosalie, scooting her chair closer to us, away from the disgusting faces of the boys.
"Tell me about it; how can they be so gross?" I said, joining in on the boy bashing. I shuddered; I didn't think they were going to be that gross in front of us, even though 2/3 of us were siblings.
"How do you pull living with them off? You poor, poor girls" I said, giving them sympathetic pats on the back and started grinning at them. We started cracking up as the boys looked at us trying to figure out what was so funny. We were clutching our stomachs and wiping the tears from our eyes.
"Um… what?" Edward said as he finished the last piece of sushi on his plate. We all looked at each other and began laughing again.
"Nothing" I said, laughing along with my girlfriends.
"Okaaay, now that everyone is done we're going to go shopping. You guys can do whatever you want, including getting the bill" Rosalie said, pulling Alice and I up by the elbows and darting towards the door. Courses of "hey!" and "that's not fair!" came tumbling after us. When we were safely down the block we began dissolving into giggles.
"Oh Rosalie, this is one of the reasons I love you so much" I said, giving her a side hug as our giggles began to subside.
"Okay girlies, where are we going to now?" Alice said, looking between both of our faces.
"Um, I'm not sure. I don't shop. Where would you two like to go?" I said, looking between the both of them. They looked up at me with grins that automatically made me believe that I shouldn't have given them the choice. They began talking in animated voices to each other, as I stood awkwardly trying to follow what they were attempting to say.
"I think we should either go to Gucci, Prada, or True Religion. I vote True Religion first, I need new jeans and short-shorts desperately. Mine are too big, and they make me look frumpy. Do you think I look frumpy in this?" Alice said, finally pausing for a breath at the end of her sentence, looking at the two of us with wide eyes.
"We'll go to True Religion, and of course you don't look frumpy, darling; we wouldn't be seen with you if you did" she said, linking arms with Alice and dragging her down the street before she could make a comment about Rosalie's comment.
"You coming, Bella?" Rosalie called over her shoulder. I rolled my eyes and jogged towards the duo walking with purpose towards the looming "True Religion" sign. I cringed at the loud pop music blasting out from the door and the windows of the store. Rosalie held the door open and we all strolled inside, our eyes having to adjust to the sudden darkness of the store.
"Are there like, flashlights or something so I can maybe see something?" I said, unable to mask the annoyance of my voice.
"Nope, they don't want you to be able to see the prices. Silly, silly Bella" Rosalie said, rustling my hair. I hissed at her retreating back as she went to look at a pair of jeans on the other side of the store.
"Don't worry, Bella; I'll guide you so you don't hurt yourself" Alice said, giggling, and grabbing my hand and walking me towards where Rosalie was contemplating between two different pairs of jeans, weighing the pros and cons of each.
"If it means anything, Rose, I like the dark ones" I said, trying to get into the conversation her and Alice were having about the jeans.
"Hm, That is helpful. Thank you, Bella! I'm going to get these ones" she said, smiling, putting the lighter pair on the rack of other jeans. Alice and Rosalie were at it for what seemed like forever, but in reality was only fourty five minutes.
"Bella, you know it's go faster if you actually looked at something, right?" Alice said, eyebrows raised. I rolled my eyes and explained to her that this isn't my style, and I wasn't like her or Rosalie or my sister. And, I just looked awful in "these" types of clothes. But no, Alice just wouldn't let me off the hook that easily.
They've gone insane. They've gone completely, and totally insane. And they would not give up. They told me that unless I tried on and bought something from this store, we were not leaving. And to be 'frank, I believed them. When these two set their minds to something, hell, they followed through whatever they said they were going to do. I figured that it'd be best if I cooperated first, and then just accidently misplaced whatever I was forced to buy, or whatever they bought for me; I never really knew how these things were going to go.
"Seriously, Alice. Why are you making me do this?" I whined, pairs of jeans, tops, and dresses piled so high in my arms I could hardly see over the stack.
"Oh Bella, oh naive little Bella" Rosalie said, mock sympathetic.
"Come on, Bella. You want to impress either Travis or Edward; you don't know which yet, though. And if you want to impress them, new clothes is what will do the trick. You may think they would be put off by this stuff, but no guy is. And trust us, we know" Alice said, smirking at me. I rolled my eyes and sighed, letting myself be lead over to the changing rooms. I shuffled my feet and avoided the other shoppers like wild fire, who were looking so intensely between the pile of clothes in my hands, and my current outfit. This is why I don't do this I thought grimly to myself.
"Go on, Bella. Go try some stuff on!" Alice said, squealing and pushing me and my armful of clothes into a change room, hearing it click behind me. I sighed and began undressing, might as well get it over with. All the clothes fit me surprisingly well, and they all looked decent enough on me, I suppose. But it's not like I looked spectacular or anything. I put on a floral romper and inspected myself in the mirror behind the heavy oak door. I like this, I like this a lot I said to myself, nodding. I took a deep breath and stepped outside into the openf ire range, knowing that that's what Alice and Rosalie wanted me to do. Their faces were insane. They both had wide eyes and their jaws were set on the ground, gazing up at me.
"…What? Is it up my ass or something?" I said, turning around and checking my ass on the door at the front of the change room.
"Bella, you look beautiful" Alice breathed, coming over to make small adjustments to the top. I blushed. Rosalie came up and started stroking the material between her fingers.
"Jesus, Bella. Who woulda thought you had a bod?" she said, winking at me. I rolled my eyes and giggled. I thought me trying on this would be good enough, but no, apparently it wasn't. Alice and Rosalie were practically salivating, yelling "YOU BETTER BE BUYING THAT" and other threats at me. I was too scared to tell them that I was going to buy it regardless of if they wanted me too or not, so I figured I'd just let them pretend that they were threating, and buy it regardless. Keep everyone happy, right? I twirled in the mirror a little, pretending that I knew what I was doing as Rosalie and Alice still giggled and gazed up at me. I changed back into my normal clothes, abandoning all the other ones I tried on. I waited on Rosalie and Alice to try on armfuls of clothes each, until they finally decided on what to buy. I walked out of the store with one tiny bag, whereas Alice and Rosalie both walked out with three bags up and down their arms. I rolled my eyes at their purchases.
"You two are insane" I said, shaking my head as we pushed through the door and were back on the street. We stopped a couple feet away and stood in a wannabe circle, which turned out to be more of a triangle, tapping our toes.
"Okay guys, where do you want to go next?" Alice said, looking at us both intently. I was craving Starbucks, but I doubted that either of them would want to go. But I might as well ask, right? There's no harm in asking.
"Um, can we go get Starbucks? And then go to Wet Seal? Pleaaaase?" I said, batting my eyelashes at both girls individually. They both started giggling.
"Sure, Bella" We might as well go to at least one store you want to, plus I'm dying for a frapp" Rosalie said, grinning. Taking off down the path, Alice and I watching as she bounded down the street.
"Well then, I guess it's settled" Alice said smiling at me. She looped her arm through mine, and we bounded down the street after Rosalie, who was stopped in front of a Starbucks.
"Took you two long enough" Rosalie said, rolling her eyes at me. I laughed and shoved her, walking into the air conditioned sitting area of Starbucks where there were several teenagers and a few university/college students that were on their laptops working on god knows what and drinking or eating various items. I walked up to the counter and peered over the tall head of the cashier, glancing at the list of items.
"Hello" he said, grinning at me. He was cute, he had sandy blonde hair and brown eyes, and he had dimples when he smiled.
"Hey" I said back, smiling. Rosalie and Alice rolled their eyes from beside me.
"What can I get you girls today?" He said, winking at Alice who giggled back in response.
"I'll have a Grande vanilla bean Frappuccino" I said, smiling at him.
"Um, I'll have… a vente chocolate mocha." Rosalie said, chewing on her thumbnail as if it was the most important choice she'd have to make today.
"I'll have what Bella's having, but in a vente" she said, batting her eyelashes at the cashier. He grinned and went to make our drinks, Rosalie and I turned to Alice, grins on our faces like we were accusing her of something.
"Whaaaaaat?" She said, whining at us.
"Oh… nothing, Alice." Rosalie said, grinning at me. She stomped her foot and pouted a little bit, realizing she looked like a child already she stuck her tongue out at us. We all laughed as the cashier came back with our orders.
"My name is Andy, by the way" he said, grinning at the three of us.
"Well I'm Alice, this is Bella, and this is Rosalie" Alice said, introducing us as we paid for our drinks.
"Nice to meet you girls, maybe I'll see you around" Andy said, winking. He turned away from us to help another customer. Alice sighed and we all began walking towards the exit.
"Ouuuuu, Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiice" Rosalie sang, highfiving me before we fell over laughing as she glared at us.
"You two are dumb" She said, glaring, trying to drink her drink at the same time.
"Oh darling, we are not" I said, smiling at her and giving her a reassuring pat on the back.
"Jerks" She muttered, as we continued on our journey.