The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com

Prompt: Department Store
Pen Name: Mcgt
Pairing/Main Character(s): Bella
Rating: M

This will be a multi-chaptered story.

Photo prompts can be viewed here: thetwilight25[dot]com/round-six/prompts

A/N

Thanks to LittleRedScientist for helping beta this for me and Jenequilter for her prereader skills.

Chapter 5 –Hit the Road Jack- Department Store

Throwing open the curtains of the little cottage, Alistair turned surveying me closely.

"You doing okay? You're looking a little peaked today. The sun is supposed to make an appearance, figured you could use some cheering up."

"I don't need cheering up. What I need is to know what is going on!" I snipped, obviously still a little peeved from the night before. I did have one question that I definitely wanted answered, "Who was that man that stopped by last night? Where did he go? I want to see him. And where the hell did my island go? Not that I mind. This is really quite cozy now that I look at it." I couldn't shut my ramblings off. And of course just like he always did, Alistair dodged my questions.

"It appears there are a lot of visitors waiting for you. And here I didn't think you were popular."

Who was waiting for me?

These visitors that weren't really visitors were beginning to piss me off. Sure, they bought with them nice rainbow and puppy dog type memories but honestly, it wasn't going to make me any less dead than I was.

I just wanted to get on with it already.

Apparently my impatience had carried over into the afterlife.

"I must say, I'm not sure how you managed with this one. She's a right daft one if you ask me," he mumbled, exiting the cottage and leaving me all alone.

Closing my eyes I wondered where I was headed this time. It seemed like every visitor brought me to a new location, a new memory that was supposed to make me feel better about myself.

Well, unfortunately the past was the past and just because I was kind or generous in my younger years didn't make it so now, right?

I mean, I basically had died penniless. A pauper in a sense. Why couldn't I just go join the other angels with their harps and clouds for eternity? Why did I need to relive every stupid memory I had? Just to prove that I had grown up to be a complete idiot? Super, thanks for the memories.

Sighing, I opened my eyes only instead of being in the little cottage by the sea; I was now in McCurdy's department store, in the bustling metropolis of Port Angeles.

I couldn't help but smile at the memories that it evoked.

My mom taking me there to get my Easter dress every year.

Dad stopping there to buy me a hot cocoa at the coffee counter on our way home from Seattle.

Going there every Christmas to see Santa and riding the kiddie monorail around their holiday display.

Making out with my first boyfriend in the bedding department behind a huge display of comforters.

Lastly, and apparently the real reason for my visit, meeting my best friend Alice.

"Ah… I love the smell of polyester in the morning." Emmett chuckled, fingering the tuxes that were sprawled out around the men's rental department in anticipation of this year's influx of prom goers. "I still can't believe you agreed to go with me. I mean really Bells, you could go with Josh or Aaron, or many other fine upstanding young men."

Elbowing him in the side, I playfully reminded him that I didn't want to go with anyone but him, my amazing and handsome gay best friend. He had only just revealed his sexual orientation to me a few weeks prior but he didn't want the school to know, especially the baseball team who he knew would treat him differently once they found out. And with the state championship on the line it was one secret he was willing to keep to himself. Of course since I'd recently been dumped by my boyfriend, I too was dateless for the prom, so we agreed to go with each other.

"I'll meet you up there in about a half hour? Go pick out some fancy dress that will make all the idiots at our school drool over that fabulous bod of yours."

"Yes dear," I mocked, but obligingly wandered up the escalator to the juniors section where I hoped to find some sort of dress I'd actually not hate wearing.

A perky girl I vaguely remembered seeing around our school introduced herself as Alice and that she'd be available should I need any help finding something or getting a dressing room once I'd made my selections.

Nodding in reply, I continued to look through racks of pale pink chiffon, turquoise taffeta, and sea foam green silk. It was all overwhelming and I was just about to give up when Alice popped up by my side holding out a forest green dress that was simple and elegant.

"I don't take you for a wedding cake topper. How about you try this one on? Size four, right?" she asked, shoving the dress in my arms and leading me over to one of the dressing rooms that sat side by side near the register.

I'd barely had the thing zipped up when the door came crashing open, Alice looking panicked.

"What the-"

"Shhhh. Please. Just let me hide in here for a little bit, please," she pled, standing up on the small bench and crouching down, hoping to avoid being seen by whomever was on the other side of that door.

"Who's looking for you? Are you in trouble?" I whispered, urging her to tell me quickly what was going on.

"I broke up with my boyfriend today, he knows my schedule here and needless to say, he's not happy." Rolling up her sleeve, she showed me a large bruise in the exact shape of someone's hand on her forearm.

Nodding, I understood perfectly and there was no way in hell I was going to let someone lay a finger on this petite girl.

My dad had taught me how to defend myself and even in this stupid dress, I'd do what was necessary to make a point. If there was one thing I couldn't understand was how people stayed in abusive relationships. At an early age my dad made sure that I knew, no matter what, hitting a girl was unacceptable. He'd seen too many tragic cases in his career and as his only daughter, he wanted to make sure it never, ever happened to me.

"Alice, I know you're here. I saw you." A voice called out from the other side of the door, his voice eerily calm yet menacing all the same.

As I looked over, the tiny girl was shaking, her eyes shut tight and waiting for the inevitable when the man would yank the door open and find us huddled inside. Deciding to be proactive instead I slipped out of the dressing room, calling out for Emmett as a ruse to try and get the man to look elsewhere.

"Emmett? Where'd you go? Don't you want to see this?" I shouted around the junior department, turning around to survey the abusive man's location.

There he was whipping clothes up, looking beneath the racks, and behind the registers trying to find Alice.

"Hey, you seen the girl working here?" he shouted across the rows of racks separating us once I'd made eye contact with him.

"Nope, the dressing room was open so I went in. Sorry," I answered, shrugging as nonchalantly as possible, knowing lying wasn't my best skill.

Before I could return back to the dressing room, I heard a crash from behind me.

Shit.

Alice had tried to sneak out of the room and instead knocked over a stack of clothes waiting to be put away.

The man ran over, pushing me out of the way, growling that I was a stupid, lying bitch as he passed.

I watched helplessly from the floor as he dragged Alice off the ground by her hair until she was standing. Looking into her eyes, he screamed, "You think you can get away with breaking up with me? Think again sweetheart." He tugged her by the arm saying when he was done with her she'd never dare leave him again.

She was screaming for this man James, to let her go as he yanked her away from me.

Scrambling off the floor, I ran after them but I needn't have bothered.

The greasy guy with the ponytail who I now assumed was James, got knocked on his ass with one punch from Emmett who thankfully had just come up the escalator to witness the entire exchange.

Pulling Alice into his side, Emmett leaned down into the man's face, telling him that he'd never come near her or else he was going to make sure his face never looked the same again.

We all huddled together while security took him away in handcuffs screaming profanities the entire time.

"Are you okay?" I asked for probably the hundredth time in the past half hour.

Nodding her head, I could tell she was biting her lip to keep herself from breaking down from the emotional weight of the day.

I did the only thing I could think of at the time to help get her mind off the cluster-fuck that was this afternoon.

"You know what? I could really use your help. I really need to get a dress today. Do you think you can find another one that might work for me?"

A smile cracked across her face and she stood up, taking my hand and chattering all about styles and shapes, colors, and fit. All of which went right over my head but she was happy and I didn't want to change that.

It was Emmett's suggestion that we all go to prom together. Cause after all, wasn't two dates better than one?

That day was the beginning of a friendship that had lasted over ten years. When we went back to school on Monday we became known as the three musketeers because we were almost always seen together. Partly because we were afraid if she was ever left alone James would drag her into a bathroom and work her over, but he never did.

It seems Emmett's threats, along with all of his baseball team's did the trick. We never did see James again after graduation. I only hoped he'd gotten help for his abusive nature because I never wanted to anyone else to get hurt by him.

The vision dimmed from view and I heard Alistair once again requesting me to rest up, that I'd have another visitor in a little bit.

Thinking about this visit made me long to see Alice just one more time. I'd neglected her since meeting Aro and felt horribly guilty about it. Unfortunately, it seemed I'd run out of time and wouldn't have the chance.

Curling up on the bed in my cottage I began weeping for the life I left behind. The first time I really actually missed someone or something since I'd gotten here.

A/N

Thanks for reading. Next chapter will be up tomorrow. I'm headed out of town, so a little early treat for you. Thanks for following along.