Chapter 13: Shopping

B POV

It had been two weeks since the dinner with my grandfather. I knew that my disposition had taken a huge blow. I felt like I had taken a step forward only to be forced two steps back. I had attended the last two Friday night games but refused to go to any more after game parties, using Charlie as an excuse.

Edward seemed to notice that I was more standoffish, but he kept trying to get me to talk anyway. Rose and Alice too. It wasn't until lunch one day that things got desperate.

"Bella!" Edward calls from a few tables over. He waves and then walks over.

"Hey!" He greets the table looking at Lauren, Jessica and Angela. Lauren and Jessica's eyes are glued to him, hell they were pretty much undressing him with their eyes. Angela acknowledges him then turns back to her conversation with Ben.

"Hey Edward." I answer. "What's up?"

"Well," He starts with a trace of pride in his voice. "Guess what I just got in the mail this morning."

"What?" I play along.

"You have to guess!" He declares.

"Hmm," I purse my lips. "Well it couldn't be a summons for jury duty." I rule out. "Or a draft into the army because you're not eighteen yet."

"No," He smiles wider.

"Can I get a hint?" I ask.

"Yeah," Edward nods. "The hint is More Time."

"More Time?" I ask.

"Uh-huh." He chuckles.

"I don't know. I give up." He pulls out two skinny, long pieces of perforated card-stock with a bunch of printing and hands me one.

"What is this?" I look at it for a minute.

"That would be your ticket to the Needtobreathe concert three weeks from now." Edward brags.

"WHAT?" My mouth drops open. "No, I can't accept this! This is your ticket. Don't you want to take Emmett or Jacob?"

"No," he answers a little hurt. "You took a rain check on me, remember? Not to mention I'm cashing in your oath bond thing on this. You're going Bella, that's final."

"What if I'm busy that weekend?" I fire back at him.

"You're not." He answers flatly. "I already had my mom call your dad to make sure it was okay. He was thrilled."

My eyes get wide and I'm speechless. "Umm," is all I can manage to get out. Think Bella, think! Isn't there a way you can get him to take someone else?

"I take that as a yes." He winks as he walks back over to Emmett and Jazz. His head gives a slight nod as Alice and Rose break into a clapping applause. When they see my face and immediately stop.

Rose grabs Alice's arm and they come marching over. "Bella, you're coming with us." Rose directs as Alice grabs my arm and drags me off to the girls bathroom.

Rose leads the way in and pulls her make-up from her purse. "Okay spill." She demands. "What are you thinking?"

"Why me?" I ask in shock.

"That's easy," Alice answers. "Because you're the only other person we know who loves Needtobreathe as much as Edward does."

"Well sure." I answer.

"And because you and him get along so well." Rose adds.

"Okay-" I start again.

"Not to mention it would be good for you to get out of town." Alice interrupts.

"Oh and it also gives you a good reason to update your wardrobe a bit with us." Rose turns back to me.

"Oh God." I let my head drop into my hands.

"Oh stop it." Rose commands. "It'll be fun."

"Are you sure?" I whine.

"YES!" Rose and Alice shout in unison.

"FINE!" I shout in return, agreeing to both shopping and going to the concert. Alice and Rose both jump up and down and then hug me.

The concert is two weeks away, Rose and Alice are picking me up soon to go shopping in Olympia.

Alice entered to win a $5000 shopping spree at a mall there and ended up winning, lucky little pixie. However, she decided to split it with Rose and I evenly. Although I have a feeling that this is actually going to be an episode of one of those mini makeover shows they have on the Style Network, starring none other than me.

I wait in the kitchen for the honk to ring out. Charlie is reading his sports section as I bite my nails.

"So where are you going?" Charlie asks as he peeks up from behind the page.

"Making a day trip to Olympia." I shrug. "We'll be back by tonight."

"Okay," He puts his eyes back on the sports section. "I'm gonna go get that new radio put in your truck then."

"Thanks," I say just as Alice's honk alerts me to the fact that she's here. I stand and peck Charlie on the cheek. "Love you dad."

"Love you too Bells. See ya when you get home." He bids ruffling his paper a little.

I let myself out the front door and climb into the backseat of the Bug. Rose shuts the door and we're off.

The drive is relaxing, I sit in the back listening to music most of the time or Rose and Alice banter back and forth about Emmett and Jasper.

"Emmett may be big and bulky," Rose argues, "But he is graceful for his size. And he is especially gentle where it counts." She gives a salacious grin.

"Oh God." Alice nods, "Jazz's hands. I swear to God they work miracles."

"Doesn't it bother you that your trading information about your brothers?" I chime from the backseat.

They both look at each other, then shrug. "Not really." Alice says. "I mean they are our brothers, but we just try and be mature about that kind of thing."

"Huh," I look back out the window.

"Look at it this way. Jacob is like a brother to you right?" Rose asks.

"I suppose, the closest thing to it anyway." I nod.

"Well say Leah and you were talking girl talk and she shared some bedroom info with you about Jacob. Would you be grossed out or not care?"

"Depends on how far she went." I answer. "If she's going to describe in detail every inch of his dick then I might be uncomfortable. But if it's just that he's a good lover then not really."

"See?" Alice asks. "Rose and I don't go into detail, just basics. And if you would hurry up and realize you have feelings for Edward..." she trails off.

My mouth drops open. "ALICE!" I cry. "What the hell?"

"Don't even deny it Bella." Alice argues. "You know you do. I see the way you look at him sometimes."

"That is so not even close." I try in vain to defend myself. "I don't know how to feel about him. I mean I can see that he's a nice guy and all. I just don't think I could handle anything other than a friendship right now."

"Yeah I can see why you would feel that way Bella." Rose consoles. "But after my bad break-up I didn't think I'd date again until I was in college. That's when I found out that Emmett had been crushing on me since middle school. He basically kicked the shit out of the guy who was spreading rumors. I was so thankful and it didn't take long for him to sweep me off my feet."

I smile at Rose as I think about how our paths in life have been so similar. But in the end, she's her and I'm me. She's gorgeous and any guy would love to have her. I'm plain and fat and no guy would want me.

"Bella," Alice scowls at me from the rear view mirror. "I know that look on your face. Stop thinking about that kind of shit right now. You reinforcing those thoughts and ideas only make it worse on yourself. I don't think you see yourself very clearly if you have such a low self-esteem."

"That's easy for you to say Alice," I snap back. "You never had a guy use you and then discard you. You don't have a grandfather who says shit to you like 'Maybe you can't get a job because you're too fat' or points out that if you want to get married you're going to have to get a guy drunk first. You've never had someone make pig faces at you in the hallways and girls write fat slut on your locker. I may be insecure, but I have a reason to be don't you think?"

"Yes," Alice sighs. "I know you do. But things are different here in Forks. Try compartmentalizing your life. If your life were a scrapbook, the first part of it would be dark and filled with awkward and negative pictures and comments. But flip the page, start new. Don't let everything you experienced before taint the things you experience now. Let Edward in."

I pout and cross my arms over my chest. "Don't pout Bella." Rose says. "It induces premature aging."

I stick my tongue out at her. "I'll think about it. But it's not going to happen overnight. I've agreed to let you guys play dress up on me. I've agreed to go on this concert road trip with him. That's huge for me. I just need some time to get used to it." I take a deep breath.

"Good," Rose nods. "Then let's forget about this for the time being and enjoy this free shopping weekend brought to you in part by Alice Cullen." With that she cranks up the Vanessa Carlton song. I let myself relax and enjoy this song..

We spent the rest of the drive listening to chick anthems and discussing the stores we wanted to visit. Alice insisted on going to Vanity. Rose wanted to go to Wet Seal. They both agreed they would take me to Torrid, whatever stores those were. We got there around noon and stopped for lunch, then the torture began.

I soon learned Torrid was a plus-size only store. All of the clerks were plus-size and the sizes were ranked from size 0 which was really a 10/12 to size 4 which was comparable to a size 26/28.

Alice and Rose shove me into a changing room and bring stack after stack of clothing.

"Bella I don't know why you don't show more skin. Your complexion is gorgeous. Not to mention I would kill to have your shoulders." Rose compliments, and in this moment I completely agree with her. The selections they bring me include tanks, tube tops, dresses, and halters that I fill out perfectly. They help me find out that I'm mostly a size 1 with some size 0's and 2's thrown in depending on the cut or cling of certain shirts.

As I try on article after article of clothing, none of it being too small, I gain a little more confidence. Pretty soon I'm doing spins and cat walking out of my dressing room. Alice and Rose whistle and clap like a good audience.

In the end I walk out of Torrid with a dozen or so new tops, a few pairs of jeans, a couple pairs of shorts, a dress, a new swim suit, some cute pajamas, three new size DD bras, (they measured me and found out I had grown since I bought my last bras.) and these awesome things called Spanx, which pretty much suck everything in and re-proportion my body.

When the cashier hit total my eyes bugged out of my head. Alice and Rose had to remind me that it didn't even add up to a fifth of what we had. I couldn't argue with them and walked out with three huge bags of clothes.

Rose got to drop a few hundred in Wet Seal and Alice did the same in Vanity. We made a pit stop to drop our bags at the car and went back for round two.

We visited a shoe store and bought a couple of pairs of shoes each. I being the bargain shopper managed to get four pairs for the price of two of Rose's. I ended up getting a pair of flats that I loved, a pair of heels that Alice insisted I get, some gladiator sandals they both said were adorable and a pair of boots that I would be needing soon with winter coming.

Cosmetics were pricey as well. Rose and Alice indulged more in make-up then I felt the need for. I did buy an amazing smelling perfume though.

"Hmm," Alice flips through her receipts figuring out how much we have left. "We still have about a grand and a half left."

"Well," Rose ponders, "Bella, weren't you saying how your room is still the same as it was when you were a baby?"

"Oh yeah!" Alice cries. "I'm going to call Esme now!" Alice pulls out her phone and speed dials Esme. "Esme," Alice greets. "We have an idea but need your expertise."

"Why does she call her mom Esme?" I whisper aside to Rose. "I call Charlie and Renee by their names but never when I'm talking to them."

"Oh," Rose looks surprised. "You didn't know? Esme isn't Alice or Emmett's real mom. Carlisle's wife died in childbirth with Alice. Then Esme came along with Edward two years later and joined the Cullens. Edward was three at the time. I thought you knew that."

"Whoa, now I'm confused." I shake my head.

"It's not that hard to understand. Emmett is two years older then Edward, but because he was sickso much during third grade, they held him back. Alice was so close to the cut off date to join kindergarten that they just took her and Edward the same year. That's why Alice and Edward are juniors and Emmett is a senior." Rose explains like it all makes perfect sense.

"Oh," I nod. "I guess I can try and wrap my head around that."

"Okay!" Alice gets our attention. "I just got off the phone with Esme and she's super excited about redoing Bella's room. So first thing's first. Let's visit a department store and find some paint!"

It only took me about ten minutes to finally decide on a color scheme. I chose a shade of blue called Gentle Wave, a brown accent color called Winter Delta and a trimming dark blue shade called Homecoming Blue.

We found a bedspread, sheets, accent pillows and a rug in a clearance bundle package. Then we came across some cute wall decorations and organizers that would help tie the room together.

By the time we finally had everything packed up and in the car I was crammed between a bedspread and five bags of clothing with a trunk full of stuff as well.

"Well ladies." Alice dusts her hands together. "I think we have accomplished what we came here to do. Let's head home."

We get home at around 8, Rose and Alice helped me carry all of my bags and new room stuff into the house and up to my room.

"Hey Bells." Charlie calls from the living room.

"Hello Chief Swan!" Rose and Alice call back in my place.

"Oh!" Charlie gets up to help us. "Well hello ladies. Nice to see you! How was shopping?"

"Amazing!" Rose answers.

"We made out like bandits!" Alice giggles as she hands Charlie a couple of bags. "There's more in the car, but this is all Bella's."

"ALL OF IT?" Charlie shouts.

"Yeppers." I grunt as one of my bags hits the banister of the stairs.

"Holy jeez Bella!" Charlie breathes. "How much did this cost me?"

"Not a dime Chief Swan." Alice brightly informs him. "I won a five thousand dollar shopping spree to a mall in Olympia and split it between myself, Rose and Bella."

"Well that was awfully nice of you." Charlie thanks as we lug everything into my room.

"It was my pleasure." Alice chirps. "Oh by the way. Esme wanted to know when a good day to come over and start was."

"Start what?" Charlie asks looking from me to Alice and back.

"Oh," I blush. "Esme, Alice and Rose have taken it upon themselves to redo my room."

"Alright!" Charlie brightens. "I was going to suggest you at least paint the walls and get a new bedspread." He looks down at the hand stitched quilt my grandmother made me when I was born that lays across the bed. The faded material is covered in circus animals dressed in top hats. "We can put that in the attic for when you have kids." He points at the family keepsake.

"Cool," I nod. "When can Esme start?" I ask Alice.

"Well she said she'd like to start as soon as possible. She's got a new bookcase and desk for you if you're interested. Well it's her old ones that she replaced last month. She hasn't been able to get them to Goodwill yet and figured if you liked them that maybe you could have them." Alice offers.

"If she's sure," I pause. I had already accepted enough from the Cullens, but if they were just going to Goodwill then maybe I could offer to pay for them.

"Then in that case," Alice chirps, "We'll see you bright and early tomorrow!" Her and Rose wave goodbye as they bound down the stairs and out the door before I can protest.

I look up at Charlie and shrug my shoulders. "Cheerleaders." I say as if that is all the explaination needed.