Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Friday, July 9th

“But I have nothing to wear.” I couldn’t believe how much I was whining to Alice. Tonight was her ‘last night as a single woman’ and although she had her official bachelorette party a couple of weeks ago, Rose and I were taking her to her favorite club for some drinks and dancing.

“Oh, please, Bella. Are you forgetting who you’re talking to? I have it all taken care of, don’t you worry your pretty little head.”

I was standing in front of my closet, wrapped in a bathrobe with my wet hair twisted in a towel trying to figure out what outfit to wear tonight. Normally when we went to the bar, I just wore jeans and a t-shirt, but we were going dancing, and this was a special occasion, and ‘special occasion’ clothes and Bella did not match.

“Ok, Alice, but nothing like that hot pink shirt you snuck into my closet, which I still haven’t forgiven you for.” I could hear her giggles on the other side of the line.

“I promise, you’ll look HOT and be completely comfortable. Just make sure you’re wearing the tightest pair of jeans you own.”

Alice and I hung up and I went to fix my hair as per her instructions; loose, wavy and a little ‘messy rocker chick’, whatever that meant. All I knew was that I was to leave my hair down and make sure the waves were present.

Rose and Alice were just getting ready to come over when I had called in my panic. We were all meeting here before we hopped in a taxi that would take us down town. I had strict orders to have shot glasses ready, my face without make-up and loud music on.

Just as I was finishing what I thought Alice wanted my hair to look like, my front door flew open and an explosion of laughter entered my house. I made my way into the living room to find Alice dancing around and Rose filling shot glasses in the kitchen.

“Bella!!!!” Alice cheered as she threw her arms around my bathrobe covered body. “We need to get you ready!” She grabbed my left hand, picked up a huge pink duffle bag and charged towards the stairs.

“HOLD IT!!!” Alice and I both stopped dead in our tracks before turning around to see Rose standing at the entrance to the kitchen holding two shot glasses filled with a caramel colored liquid. “No one is going anywhere without a shot!” Her evil smile could have taken over the world. Alice immediately dropped my hand and her bag, skipping over to Rose, excitedly clapping her hands the entire way and grabbed both shot glasses. She skipped back to me and handed me a shot as Rose filled up a shooter for herself.

“Now,” Rose started in a faux-serious voice, “a toast to the soon-to-be Mrs. Mary Alice Whitlock. May the wedding be beautiful, the groom be charming and the sex be mind-blowing.”

“AMEN!!” Alice cheered as she enthusiastically downed her shot. Both women swallowed their drinks effortlessly and turned around to find me still holding mine in my hands.

“Bella…” Rose said in a threatening tone, “don’t make me force it down your throat.” I lifted the mystery liquid to my nose and took a smell. Holy butterscotch, Batman. I looked back up to see Rose slowly start stalking towards me and quickly shot the drink back to stop her from coming any closer. GAHHHH! What the hell did I just drink?!?! My face must have shown my utter confusion at the drink as Alice and Rose both started laughing.

“They’re Buttershots, Bella,” Alice laughed. “You can barely taste the alcohol. Perfect for getting nice and wasted.” Alice and Rose were already taking a second shot by the time I went back into the kitchen to put my shot glass on the counter.

“It tastes like I just chugged a glass of pure syrup.” I went and grabbed a glass of water as Alice and Rose took their third shot. When we were all done with our drinks, Alice once again grabbed my hand to pull me upstairs as Rose grabbed the bottle of Buttershots.

“Ok,” Alice started as she pushed me to sit on my bed and placed her pink bag beside me, “here are the outfits for the evening. And before either of you think about making an argument, this is my night and I want to play dress-up.” By the time Alice’s rant was done, her smile was huge and there were tops and shoes scattered all over my bed, not to mention the hundreds of make-up brushes, cosmetic containers and bottles of hair product.

“Rose, this is for you” she said as she handed Rose a sequined tube top that had black, gray and silver sequins in diagonal lines all leading down the shirt, crisscrossing each other. Along with the shirt was a pair of shoes that scared the living hell out of me just by looking at them. They were pointed toe, metallic silver, three inch heels. They could maim someone if Rose got pissed enough.

“This is for me,” Alice said as she picked up a pile of pink and moved it to the side, “and this is for Bella.” Her smile took up her whole face as she handed me a pile of black. The first thing I noticed was that I didn’t have shoes; she had handed me a pair of pointed toe, knee high boots. Luckily the heels weren’t too high. The pile of black was a tank top that had a tight waistband, but flowing top, and the sleeves were covered in what looked like long buffed silver studs, continuing all the way into a v-neck. There was bunching around the bottom of the studs in the neckline, and that was when I noticed how low the neckline actually was compared to the armholes.

I looked up at Alice and she gave me the ‘no arguing’ look. With a heavy sigh, I conceded as Rose sat behind me on the bed and started to go through the make-up. “Alright ladies,” Alice squealed, “hair and make-up first. Bella?” I turned to look at her to see the evil grin she was giving me, “you’re first.”

I sat there on my bed, still dressed in my tight jeans and bathrobe as Alice did my make-up and Rose fixed my hair. “What did you do back here?!?! It looks like you haven’t brushed your hair in weeks!!” Rose chided as she tried to untangle the ‘messy rocker chick’ look I had attempted. It looked like she would have to start all over.

“ARG!!! Bella, you need to get out of this ratty bathrobe. I can’t do anything back here with it getting in the way.” Without missing a beat, Alice turned around, reached into my closet and grabbed an old ratty, white tank top. “Here,” she said as she lowered her make-up brushes and started untying my robe. I quickly shot my hands down to stop her and got off the bed. I grabbed the top Alice threw at me and headed to the bathroom to change. I knew it was stupid and that it was just changing a top, but I wasn’t comfortable undressing in front of others.

I came back into the bedroom now wearing my tightest jeans and an old holey tank top and resumed my position on the bed. Alice quickly finished my make-up and helped Rose fix my hair. Rose, armed with her curling iron and Alice with a straightening iron, smoothed out each of my waves into sassy curls in no time.

“Alright, little missy, you’re done. You can go get changed now.” Alice proclaimed with a nod of her head and a satisfied look on her face. I went to my dresser, grabbed my black bra and the clothes Alice brought for me and went to the bathroom to finish getting ready.

Holy shit!! I look hot. I didn’t know what Rose and Alice had done, but I didn’t even look like myself. My hair was a large mass of perfectly wild curls while my make-up made my eyes look so much larger and brighter. I was really glad that it didn’t look like I was wearing a load of make-up and was especially glad that the only thing on my lips was gloss. I quickly brushed my teeth before changing into the top Alice had chosen. It was definitely not me, but it still looked good. The band at the waist fit nice and snug and made my hips look smaller, while the low neck line actually made me look like I had a chest. I looked down at the boots and tried to slide them on under my pants. How the hell does she expect me to wear these boots with these pants? I got so frustrated trying to get the leg of my pants to stretch enough to go over the boots that I just gave up and walked back into the bedroom carrying them instead.

“What’s wrong with the boots?” Rose asked as she stared at me through the reflection in the mirror.

“I can’t fit them under my pant legs. These stupid pants are too tight.” I huffed and actually threw the boots on the bed.

“Bella,” Alice said as she walked over to me, while still straightening her hair, “the boots are supposed to go over the pant legs.” She smiled at me and winked, before turning around and picking up another piece of hair to straighten.

I looked over to the boots and picked them back up, easily sliding them up and over my pant legs.

Both girls were made up and dressed 30 minutes later. Rosalie looked completely ‘femme fetal’ in her tube top, tight black jeans and killer shoes, while Alice looked absolutely beautiful in her pink outfit. Alice’s top was a pink tube top, but it had so many different layers of detail, it simply floated over her body. The top of the shirt had a layer of delicate floral lace, then there was a satin ribbon that tied into a loose bow under her chest and then the shirt continued with thick pleats. At the very bottom of her shirt, the floral lace from above stuck out under the pleats. It was truly a one-of-a-kind shirt that I was certain Alice had made herself.

On her feet were these soft velvet pink shoes, which matched the top perfectly, and had a large flower on the outside of each foot.

“Alice!” Rose gasped, “you look amazing! Did you make that top?”

Alice beamed at Rose and started bouncing up and down. “Yea, I just finished it last night. What do you think? Is it too busy?” Her eye’s bounced between Rose and me, looking for approval, but above all, honesty.

“It’s absolutely beautiful, Ali.” I smiled at her and went to give her a hug. I never understood how this confident ball of energy could be so modest about her own designs. Alice was an amazing designer, and her clothing line was actually getting picked up by some small local shops.

The three of us all put on our finishing touches of jewelry and accessories and headed downstairs to catch the cab Rose had already called.

The club was insane. The music was so loud we could hear it from inside the cab as we pulled up. Alice and Rose were so excited, while I was simply terrified. The girls dragged me past the bouncer, who somehow knew Rose and let us cut the line that was around the corner, and dragged me straight to the bar.

“Paul!” Rose yelled as she managed to push us to the front of the bar. A large man with a cocky smirk turned around and came straight over to us.

“Rose. I didn’t know you were coming in tonight. Is Emmett with you?” he asked as he reached under the bar, pulled out three shot glasses and filled them with two different types of clear liquid.

“No, he’s at home with the boys,” she said as she took one of the shot glasses, downed the drink and passed the other ones to Alice and myself. “This is Alice and Bella,” she said, as she pointed to each of us, “Alice is getting married tomorrow.” Alice pounded down her drink and Paul immediately filled it back up for her, giving her a wink.

“Well, congratulations,” Paul said. “Better live it up tonight.” She giggled as she downed the second drink in a second flat. Paul handed Rose a beer, which she immediately took a long pull from, and they struck up a quick conversation.

“They’re polar bears,” Alice yelled at me over the music. I looked at her with confusion. She looked pointedly at the shot glass that still sat on the bar in front of me. “They’re polar bears,” she said again, “they taste like chocolate and mint.”

I looked down at the clear liquid and with a bout of courage, quickly brought it to my lips and threw it down my throat. It actually didn’t taste too bad.

After Paul brought Alice a beer and me my typical vodka, cranberry and Sprite, we left the bar and found a table near the back of the dance floor.

“Paul bought an old Harley that Em and I restored last year,” Rose explained, “he’s kinda blunt and cocky, but he’s a good guy. You should go and talk to him Bella, I think he just broke up with his girlfriend.” She gave me a nudge and a snarky smile as she took another draw from her beer. I slunk back in my chair just as Alice jumped up and grabbed my hand.

“OH MY GOD!!! I love this song. We have to dance”.

I tried to pull my hand out of her death grip, but that only made her pull harder. Before I knew it, I was on the dance floor between Rose and Alice, both of them dancing excitedly around me while I slowly swayed back and forth to someone singing something about how some guy can’t read and poking her face, or…something. I recognized the song, one of my students was playing it one day when they came in and said it was Lady Go Go, or Gee Gee or something like that.

I looked around and saw all these people dancing like they should be in a music video. Girls were rubbing themselves all over guys and guys were touching girls suggestively. It was like an orgy on the dance floor, while I simply swayed back and forth. LOSER!

After the’ poking her face’ song was done, a song that I actually recognized came on. Once again, without fail, Alice screamed as “Single Ladies” pounded through the speakers.

“This is it girls, the last time I’ll ever be able to dance to this song.” Rose just laughed at Alice as they both started dancing with more energy, both of them singing the words at the top of their lungs. I stood back and watched as both Rose and Alice started to move closer and closer to the center of the dance floor and hot man upon hot man started to surround them and dance with them. I just stood there on the outskirts of the dance floor watching my best friend and her soon to be sister-in-law lose themselves in the music and the dancing men around them.

All of a sudden Alice stopped dancing and started searching the crowd. It wasn’t until her eyes landed on me that she stopped looking. “BELLA” she screamed over the music but I barely heard her. She was waving her hands at me to come back out on the dance floor. I gave her a weak smile and a shake of my head. I was fine watching her and Rose have fun.

I saw Alice step up onto her toes to talk to the guy who she was dancing with. I don’t even think that she noticed that he had his right arm around her waist as she said something in his ear. When she was done, he pulled back to look at her, she nodded and pointed to me, he looked over to me, turned back to Alice and shook his head, laughing. Alice stood back with a shocked look on her face and the guy put both hands on her waist and started to dance with her again.

I knew what she was doing, it was the same thing she did every time we went out. She was trying to get someone to dance with me, or at least talk to me. But just like every time before, when there was the option of Alice, Rosalie or me, Alice and Rose got swarmed and I was treated like I had the plague.

I lowered my head, not wanting to see the rejection, again, and started to walk back to the table that we were at before. Amazingly, the table was empty, but there was a huge “RESERVED” sign displayed on it. With a heavy sigh, I turned around to see if there were any other tables available. Of course there wasn’t an empty seat in the place, there was barely any standing room with all the people in here. I got pushed and knocked around, but miraculously ended up at the bar. There were only two men behind the bar and I situated myself on Paul’s side.

After waiting there for a good five minutes, Paul seemed to notice me cowering in the corner of the bar, pressed tightly against the wall and made his way directly over to me.

“What do you want?” His voice was loud and crass and made me cower even farther into the wall.

“Just a bottle of water.” I told him as I buried myself further into my nook. He immediately turned around, opened a mini fridge under all the bottles of liquor and produced my water. He walked briskly over to me, shoved the water in front of me and started walking away. I began to call him back to ask him how much, but he somehow turned around back to me before I got a sound out.

“That table’s for you girls,” he said, pointing to the reserved table that was previously ours. Before I could tell him thanks, or ask him how much for the water, he was already serving another customer.

Amazingly I made it back to the table and found Rose and Alice already sitting there with about a half dozen guys surrounding them. It was like a fortress around the girls. There wasn’t even a seat for me at the table.

I pushed my way through the men, trying to get to my friends, but the men took one look at me as I bumped passed them and just closed themselves even tighter, blocking me out. One tall guy with long black hair and really tanned skin actually pushed me back out of the way. Alice and Rose didn’t even see me or hear me when I called them.

Disheartened, I ended up leaning against the wall by myself, a couple of feet away from my friends, watching them laugh and drink shot after shot as men fawned all over them, while those same men had literally elbowed me away.

After six songs and an unknown number of shots, I saw Rose start looking through the crowds of men, apparently looking for the waitress so they could order more shots. She spotted me leaning up against the wall and gave me a confused look as to why I was not with them. I just shook my head at her and motioned for her to continue her fun. Her face immediately got angry as she pushed the gorgeous man that was sitting beside her away and whispered something to Alice, who immediately whipped her head to me, grabbed Rose’s hand and pushed her way through the group of men surrounding them.

“What the hell?” Rose started, but ended up cutting herself off with a very unladylike alcoholic burp. “What are you doing standing all the way over here by yourself?” In all honesty, I was actually surprised they noticed. They never had before tonight.

Alice came to my left side and curled herself into me, wrapping both her arms around my waste and burying herself under my left arm as if she were a cat, whereas the reality was that she was just plastered. Rose seemed ok, although she was a little tipsy on those killer heels.

“I tried,” I yelled back at Rose, “but the guys wouldn’t let me through.”

She scoffed at me and shook her head. “What the hell are you talking about?” I was about to answer when I heard a soft sound coming from my left side. I turned to see Alice passed out, leaning against my body and emitting tiny snores. I had to laugh at the sight of my best friend, completely wasted and passed out, but somehow still holding onto me and standing in her four inch heels.

“Never mind,” I told Rose, still looking at a sleeping Alice. I looked up to see Rose swaying a bit and catching herself on the wall, “let’s get her home.” Rose nodded as we walked right past our table and out to catch a cab.

I let Alice and Rosalie sit in the back seat together, leaning on one another as they both eventually passed out. I sat up beside the driver and gave him directions to my house. Just as he pulled into my driveway, Rosalie woke up and pushed Alice. “Damn Alice,” she yelled, “you drooled on me.”

Alice woke up and gave a tiny yawn before rubbing her eyes. “Why did we leave the club?” I just laughed at her tiny, sleepy voice as I paid the driver and led the girls to the front door. Alice was one of those people who everyone was jealous of. She could be drunk to the brink of death and all she would have to do is get some sleep and she would be fine. She wouldn’t be sober by any means, but she would be functioning with little worry.

I opened the front door and held it open for a stumbling Rose and a surprisingly peppy Alice. Rose grumbled as she passed through the doorway, and immediately threw herself on the couch. Alice, however, stood with me in the hallway as I closed and locked the door. When I turned around, she was standing there, staring at me with a smile on her face. She immediately came up to me and wrapped her arms, once again, around my waste for a hug.

“Thank you,” she whispered to me, as muffled grumbles came from the living room. “Thank you for coming out tonight and for taking care of Rose and me.” I just smiled at her and hugged her back. She truly was my best friend, the only family I felt like I had. We pulled back as Rose’s drunken mumbling got louder and laughed. We took off our shoes and made our way into the living room where we found Rose completely spread out over the entire couch with her face pressed into a throw pillow.

“Rose?” I asked as Alice sat down over the back of Rose’s legs on the couch.

“I’m bored,” she declared as she turned her face to look at me, “I need to do somthi…”. She cut herself off and got a gleam in her eye which showed that what she was thinking was definitely not good.

“I KNOW…” she yelled with surprising excitement for someone who was as wasted as she was, pulled her legs out from under Alice, causing her to almost fall on the floor, and bolted upstairs. She was down less than a minute later, proudly holding the evil Buttershots. “We’re going to play ‘never have I ever’,” she exclaimed as she went straight to the kitchen to grab the shot glasses.

“Rose,” I started, “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to keep doing shots when we need to get up early tomorrow and get ready for the wedding.” In all honestly, I knew that we would all be fine tomorrow, but I just really didn’t want to play.

“Yea, Rose,” Alice chipped in, “maybe we should play something else.” Alice shot me a look that told me that she knew I didn’t want to play. She knew if we played ‘never have I ever’, it would just bring up feelings of rejection and loneliness that I’ve been trying to fight back all day.

“To bad, bitches,” well hello belligerent drunken Rose, “we’re playing. You both know the rules, we take turns asking questions and if you have done the act in question, you take a drink. I want to change it though. If you get the other two people to drink, and you don’t have to take a drink yourself, you can ask another question, otherwise, if only one person drinks, or if no one drinks, the next person gets to ask the question.”

Alice and I just looked at each other as Rose put shot glasses in front of Alice and I. I was sitting on the floor with Alice beside me, while Rose was sitting on the couch on the other side of the coffee table.

“Ok, I’m first”, Rose said excitedly, “um….oh! Never have I ever seen a family member’s junk!” She was laughing by the time she finished her question. It was a cheap shot at Alice since both Rose and I were only children and Alice and Em were twins and slept in the same room until they were three. Of course at one point in her life, whether she remembered it or not, she had seen baby Em’s ‘junk’. Alice took the shot and it was my turn to ask a question.

“Never have I ever…” I paused to think of a question that I actually wanted to know the answer to, “cheated on a boyfriend.” Alice and I both looked at each other and Rose took a shot. “REALLY???” Alice asked in disbelief. “You…you cheated on…Emmett?” Alice sounded heartbroken. She really loved her big brother, her 5 minute older big brother.

“No, it wasn’t with Em, it was with the guy I was with before Em. Remember Royce? I was still with him the first time Em and I kissed. I was trying to break up with Royce but he just kept pulling me back in. Once I found Emmett though, I was done.”

Alice gave a little “awww” as she gave a thankful smile to Rose, although I could see in her eyes that she had a great question waiting. “Ok,” she started excitedly, “never have I ever masturbated at work.”

“Damn it Alice, I told you that in confidence!!!” Rose yelled as she took her shot. Alice and I cracked up laughing as Rose re-filled her shot glass. The game went on like that for another half an hour. The bottle of Buttershots was half done and I had yet to take my first shot. By that time, Alice was drunk again and Rose was a complete mess. I looked at the two girls who couldn’t stop laughing at the stupid things that they had confessed during the game, while I sat back, with my legs crossed and my hands folded in my lap, really seeing how much of a life I didn’t have.

“Bella?” Rose’s drunken, slurred voice asked, “is that still your first shot?” She was back to the uncontrollable laughing again as I lowered my head to hide my tears. “Holy shit,” she continued through gasps of breath, “what are you, some type of prude or something? How have you not taken a single shot yet?”

Tears were falling from my eyes as Alice scooted closer to me and took my left hand into hers. I looked up at her through blurry eyes to see her giving me an apologetic smile. But Rose just kept on going as if she hadn’t noticed my tears at all.

“I mean seriously, Bella, are you some kind of Mother Theresa or something, some kind of untouched virgin?” She was off cackling again. “Poor little Bella, so innocent and virtuous. She can’t even play a little game.” She was completely mocking me now, as Alice tried to get her to shut up. But there was no use, everything she said was true. I was innocent, in every meaning of the word, I couldn’t play the game and I was an untouched virgin. But the fact that Rose was continuing to make fun of me, even with Alice telling her to stop, just made me furious.

“FINE!” I yelled, my anger coming out in full force. “You want me to play? I’ll play.” I got up on my knees behind the table, face to face with Rose.

“Never have I ever been picked up or hit on at a bar.” Rose just sat there looking at me with a confused and flabbergasted look on her suddenly ugly face. “Come on Rose, you wanted to play, so play. Take the damn drink.” She slowly picked up the shot glass and threw it back. Once she was done with that shot, I took the glass from her hands and threw it across the living room and handed her the bottle.

“Never have I ever been held by someone… never have I ever spent the night with a man… never have I ever had sex… never have I ever had someone tell me they loved me… never have I ever been called beautiful… never have I ever been out on a real date…” Between each statement, Rosalie hesitantly took a drink straight from the bottle. Tears were streaming down my face with no way to stop them.

“Never have I ever felt more humiliated in my entire life, then right now.” With that, I got up, turned to apologize to Alice and ran upstairs, slamming my bedroom door behind me and flinging myself onto my bed. I started balling uncontrollably as soon as I was alone. I could hear Rose downstairs talking to Alice. “Holy shit,” she whisper yelled, “I didn’t know she was a virgin, I was just kidding with her. Did you know? How the hell did I not know that?”

I heard footsteps downstairs in the living room, then on the stairs up to my room. With a light knock, Alice opened my bedroom door and let herself into my room, laying beside me and pulling me into a hug. Even though she was completely plastered, she still knew enough to check on me.

“You ok?” she asked as she lightly pushed my hair back to get a look at my blotchy, tear stained face.

“I’m fine,” I sniff, “just go back to Rose. She probably feels like an idiot right now.” I turn away from her to re-bury my face in my fluffy, white pillow.

“I don’t care if she feels like an idiot. She is an idiot. I care about you and I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine Alice, I’m just sorry I ruined your night, again. Just go back and continue your party with Rose.”

“But, Bella…”

“Alice,” I interrupted her with a pitifully weak voice, “please just go.”

With my eyes pressed tightly closed, I could hear her getting off my bed and walking back downstairs. The music continued to play in the living room, as I cried myself to sleep.