Updated FanFic: Bon Voyage - Chapter Thirteen
Title: Bon Voyage
Author: chelleanddan / cchellez on FF.net
Characters/Pairing: Bella/Edward
Rating: PG-13 to Chapter 8, M from Chapter 9 on.
Category: Friendship and Romance.
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: It's all SM's stuff... I'm just piddling in my free time. PS: its my very first FF so please be gentle.
Summary: Bella is trapped in the small town of Forks, lost in a world where she feels like she doesn’t belong. With a desire to get away from her now remarried family, what will the senior trip to Europe have in store for her? AU/AH B&E
Chapter Title: Pink Goo Fixes Everything
Chapter Summary: Alice offers Bella a haven to get away from the emotions that are plaguing her inside. While Bella appreciates the thought, she doesn't exactly agree with all of Alice's methods. A phone call threatens to end the happy outing until Bella has a heart to heart with her possible new BFF.
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@ FF.net: 1 ♥ 2 ♥ 3 ♥ 4 ♥ 5 ♥ 6 ♥ 7 ♥ 8 ♥ 9 ♥ 10 ♥ 11 ♥ 12 ♥ 13
A/N: First, need to apologize that this chapter is so late. I had concerts and other massive projects I've committed myself to and I didn't mean to take that long.
Second, thanks to my beta druscilla831. She is the best at beta'n for me when I'm in a rush. :D
Third, want to say hello to all of my new readers from Twilighted. I'm trying to get all of my chapters up over there too. :)
Lastly, the legal stuff: I don't own the characters, SM is queen bee & I'm just the drone.
The color was returning to my face after a few hours, but I couldn’t decide if it was from taking a scalding bath or the absurd amount of makeup Alice was painting on my face. I was currently perched in a dainty vanity chair, surrounded by a sea of colored powders, shiny glosses and a multitude of various hairstyling contraptions. You’d think that I was getting married in a few hours with all of the effort she was putting into my appearance. Quite the contrary actually, she was dragging me out in public like this for her favorite extra circular activity; shopping.
‘Nothing cures a bad day like retail therapy,’ I recalled her chiming her life’s motto after I had complained earlier.
I moaned at the thought of going out in public with the way I was feeling and more dreadfully, how I was looking. While the layers of liquids and powders may conceal the mess that was my face, they couldn’t cover the disaster that was still trapped inside. Even though Alice had been nothing but gracious and caring since dragging me from the airport, I still wasn’t ready to talk about my feelings for her brother or the catastrophe with my parents. The wounds were still too fresh; I imagined that if they were external projections, they’d be deep gashes across my pale flesh, still oozing the crimson blood as it attempted to clot. I shook my head gently to shake the image from my mind, causing Alice to huff in frustration.
“You know, lip stain isn’t exactly the easiest thing to cover on an albino,” she said as she grabbed a damp tissue and wiped the stain from each side of my face. I imagined I looked like the Joker from Batman as she wiped at the red color which made me giggle.
“Sorry Alice, I was trying not to think about something,” I apologized.
Her pale eyes turned from frustration to maternal concern.
“Want to talk about it?” she questioned gently.
“No, I’m okay now,” my giggles fell silent.
She had been very cautious with my delicate feelings, only asking if I wanted to talk about it when I would bring it up. I feared the worst would come after we arrived at the hotel earlier this morning and she checked us into a bigger room away from the rest of the travel groups. When she opened the double doors to the massive suite I nearly ran back downstairs to request my previous standard room. The opulence was far more than I deserved for just a few nights of sleep in Rome. I was positive this would be her bargaining chip; she’d pile on the luxury and in return I’d pour my soul out to her so she could psychoanalyze me. So far I’d been lucky; she was letting me get away with saying I was just okay.
Alice grabbed up the lip stain again and the tiny brush to signal she was ready to apply the torture once again.
“Pucker up,” she smiled as I made my face look like a fish.
I drifted back into my thoughts as the brush caressed my bottom lip gently. I did feel bad that this predicament was turning out to be a one way street. Alice was doing all of the giving and I was doing all of the taking; it wasn’t fair and I knew it. Could I really trust her though? It wasn’t like she was someone that I knew very well, and making confessions to strangers usually got people into trouble or further into embarrassment than I needed. The worst possible scenario was that she would relay all of the information back to her brother, which would be totally mortifying. The other concern was talking about my argument with my parents about NYU. Why would she be concerned about my parents’ feelings about my college choice? I’m sure that I’d be wasting my breath talking about it; I decided to keep my glossy red lips sealed.
****
After another hour or so of picking out just the right outfits, we were making our way through the lobby. I felt like a Barbie doll; tight jeans and a screen printed t-shirt with some ridiculous shoes that Alice insisted I wear. She was making her way to the front door when I stumbled, almost falling to the carpet behind her. I regained my balance and stared down at the strappy contraptions on my feet, cursing them for the trouble they were already bringing me.
“It takes real skills to trip over a flat surface Bella,” I heard Alice chuckle as she moved through the doorway.
I scowled at the back of her pretty little head and seriously gave some consideration to checking into my original room with Angela. The front desk was only eight or nine feet away and it would save me the guilt of trying to keep mum about my thoughts and the torture of playing dress up tomorrow. I could see Alice staring at me through the glass; no doubt she knew what I was thinking as my eyes shifted from the glass to the front desk. She frowned at me at first, and then the look turned into an honestly hurt expression. It was that second look that made my resolve dwindle; I didn’t want anyone else’s feelings hurt while I was still dealing with my own.
I blew out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding and made my way through the golden framed doorway. The doorman bid us farewell as we walked down the sidewalk. Alice began to walk around and unlocked the door to a bright yellow car, something that looked far too expensive for me to even be within a hundred feet of without breaking something.
“Alice… “I stammered in shock, “What are you doing?”
“Did you really think I was going to make you walk around Rome in those shoes?” she giggled in delight, “I’m not that crazy!”
“Did you really have to go through all of this?” The little Porsche logo glared up at me from the sunny yellow hood.
“Well it was either this or a Ferrari, and someone had already called in to reserve the F430,” her face fell like she was disappointed at the thought.
“Why not something a little less conspicuous, like a Honda or something?” I couldn’t believe she was serious about this.
“It’s just a rental Bella! It’s not like we’re stealing it or making a long term purchase. Although I may have to have a talk with my dad when I get home,” she was almost purring as she ran her hand across the roof’s sparkling paint, “I might need another graduation present.”
My jaw almost hit the pavement. Granted I had deduced that Alice and Edward’s family was not average, anyone taking a look at Alice’s wardrobe could figure that out. But a Porsche for a graduation present? After she already gotten something else? The extravagance was far more than I could ever get used to.
“Are you scared? I assure you that my driving skills are superb, with an automatic and a stick shift,” the way her face turned devilish at the last two words made me roll my eyes as I opened the door and plopped myself into the smooth leather seat. “It’ll be fun Bella! I promise.”
Fun was not what I ended up calling it; death by Alice was more like it. Despite the bustling streets of Rome, she took turns at ridiculous speeds and weaved in and out of cars until we got to our destination. My hands hurt from where I was mangling the seatbelt strapped to my body, knuckles turning bone white as I tried to grip it tighter. I remember her tinkling laughter filling the car as she’d watch me cringe and squirm in my seat. I didn’t even have the energy to scowl at her, all of my focus was tuned into trying to stay alive and praying the seatbelt would save me.
Now that I was back on solid ground, I was nauseous but thankful I’d lived through that reckless ordeal. It was oh so tempting to drop to my knees and kiss the pavement. I would happily walk anywhere; even drive my horribly old and slow truck, than go through another terrifying ride with Alice Cullen.
She had a smug smile on her face as we shopped around the Viale Marconi area. The store fronts were all filled with bright colors of summer clothing and banners advertising the current deals. We had resorted back to the weird silence that we’d had back in the hotel; her not wanting to push and me not wanting to speak. I watched as she’d flutter around each store, curious as to where she was going to fit all of these additional clothes in her luggage. I didn’t say much, just tossed in my opinion here or there, most of which she ignored due to my obvious lack of fashion expertise.
My phone started ringing when we got to the third store and someone kept calling back every fifteen minutes until I finally had to put it on vibrate. Alice arched her eyebrow at me suspiciously over the rack of low cut tops clearly wanting to ask who I was avoiding. I knew it was one of my parents or Jacob, everyone else would give up trying to reach me after the second time I didn’t answer. I intended to call them as soon as I could to tell them I’d go to UCLA, I just had to get away from Alice long enough to do it.
I scanned the rack in front of me for a top that wasn’t totally out of the question, furrowing my eyebrows together at how difficult the task actually was. The downside of summer clothing in places where it actually gets warm is that there’s barely any fabric covering your parts. In Forks I could hide under t-shirts and hoodies, in warm weather people expected me to wear less. Eventually I gave up hope and settled on grabbing the first thing I found in my size. I grabbed an orange top and turned to head to the fitting rooms.
“I’m going to go try this on okay?” I smiled at Alice, trying to make it more believable.
“Okay! Let me know when you’re dressed and I’ll come look!”
I walked back to the fitting room and closed the door behind me, hanging up my bag and the top that I had grabbed. Only now that I was alone did I take a good look at it and my face fell into a horrified expression. It was a halter top with two straps that tied around the neck and a deep V neck that would leave barely anything to the imagination. The pale tangerine color popped off of the white wall it hung on, daring me not to put it on. I realized that I had to actually try the garment on, if only to show Alice and make my façade look real. I jerked off my t-shirt and grabbed the halter from the hanger, throwing it over my head and pulled it down so it fit properly. The reflection in the mirror mocked me; the bright top looked like a creamsicle on top of my dark jeans.
I grabbed my phone from my purse and it vibrated in my hands as the alerts showed all of the missed calls and text messages. There were a few texts from Angela and Jessica, which I skimmed through quickly. My mom had called the most and a few calls from my dad’s house where scattered in the list. I’m sure they had done some talking, and then decided to call me at the exact same time, battling it out as to who would get to me first. My mom had the benefit of knowing how to work speed dial on her cell phone.
The phone started to vibrate as someone was calling me, but the number wasn’t one that I recognized. The area code was definitely from Forks, but who would be calling me that I didn’t know? Fearing something had happened to my dad, I slid my finger across the screen to answer.
“Hello?” I whispered in the tiny stall, hoping my voice wouldn’t carry.
“Bella! It’s Jacob, don’t hang up okay?” he said on the other end. His voice was so loud in comparison to mine I thought the whole shop could hear him talking.
“Listen Jacob, I really only have a few minutes to call my parents and I have to go. What do you need? More importantly, where are you calling from?”
“Is someone holding you hostage?” he laughed a booming laugh, “I got one of those cell phones you put minutes on so I can call you without having to use your house phone.”
The click of heels coming into the fitting room area made me panic, I’d waited too long.
“Jacob I’ve got to go. Bye!” I whispered hurriedly and ended the call.
“Bella, are you okay in there? I never heard you call for me so I came to check on you,” Alice called from the other side of the door, “Do you need another size?”
“No, I’m okay,” I winced as I realized I sounded like a broken record with all of my ‘I’m okay’s.’
“Well are you dressed? At least let me see it!”
I cringed at the thought of someone seeing me in this horrible top, but I knew she wasn’t going to let it go. I twisted the door knob and held the door open meekly, praying she wouldn’t gasp in fear of my albino skin. She did the exact opposite of course, squealing in excitement and pushing her way into the tiny fitting stall telling me how great it looked on me. I realized I still had my phone in my hand and quickly tucked my arm behind me as I backed up towards the mirror on the wall.
“What’s that?” she asked. Alice obviously didn’t miss a thing.
“Nothing, um I mean, what are you talking about?”
“What’s behind your back?”
I pretended to look over my shoulder then returned my gaze to her, “Nothing, why?”
She crossed her arms and tapped her toes on the flooring.
“I’m not stupid Bella, I know you’re hiding something,” her look of impatience made me nervous.
“Fine,” I huffed and pulled my arm from behind me, “It’s my cell phone. Happy now?”
“Why would you be hiding your cell phone from me?” her eyebrows raised in confusion.
“I don’t know,” now I was blushing.
“Is there something going on you don’t want me to know about Bella? I think I’ve been pretty nice about caring for your feelings this whole time. I’ve tried to stay out of your business, but I’m not sure I can take someone blatantly lying to my face.”
“It’s just something I don’t want to talk about,” my eyes fell to the floor.
“Well you obviously want to talk about it with someone, it’s a shame it’s not someone that’s here and is ready and willing to listen,” Alice’s voice tapered off before she exited the fitting room.
I felt like a wet blanket in that moment standing in the stall alone, still wearing the bright shirt. Here Alice was trying to treat me to a good time and get my mind off of things and I was ruining her favorite thing to do by hiding my conversations from her. No doubt it was affecting her mood, and after the incident a few short moments ago, it was a wonder she didn’t react more harshly than she did. I had been so quiet and withdrawn all day, giving minimal answers when I absolutely had to and yet all she wanted was to help. I felt like I was such a horrible person in that moment alone, pushing away people that actually wanted to help me.
I shoved my phone back into my purse and pulled the halter over my head before hanging it back on the hanger. After tugging my t-shirt back on, I grabbed everything from the fitting room and headed for the register. Alice was grabbing her bags from the counter when I approached and put the creamsicle top on the counter. She eye balled me suspiciously as I paid for the horrible top and the cashier bagged it up for me. I offered Alice a smile as I snatched my bag from the counter and we walked towards the door. I was determined to make the rest of her day bearable with me, if that was even possible at this point.
****
The sea of bags on our suite’s floor was double the amount of the bags that I’d had after my pre-graduation shopping trip with Angela and Jessica. I was stretched out on the massive bed resting my head in my hands as Alice unpacked them all one bag at a time. My two little tops had fit into my bag nice and quickly while Alice on the other hand had to stop at a store called Segue down the street to buy two new suitcases to carry her new clothes home in. She also had picked up a purple snakeskin purse along with a hot pink clutch that could burn your retinas out from across the street. I was glad it was already packed away, far from my tired eyes now.
She had cleared most of the bags from the floor when she reached the lingerie store bag. I removed a hand from under my chin, ready to slap it across my eyes when she pulled out some of her more risqué garments. After a few bra and panty sets that were decent, she had reached into the bag, pulling out a skimpy black and completely see-through corset and thong set. I covered my eyes quickly, listening to her chuckling at my prude behavior.
“Oh please Bella!” she laughed, “It’s not like you’ve never considered buying one.”
“I haven’t,” I said to the artificial darkness my hand was creating.
“Seriously?” she asked as she pried the fingers from my eyes, forcing me to look at the garment, “You’ve never worn one?”
“No, and I don’t intend on starting tonight!”
“So what do you wear when you have sex?” Way to be blunt about it Alice….
“Ummm,” my voice trembled at I started to pick at the comforter stitching.
“Bra and panties? An old raggedy sweat shirt? Come on Bella, I promise I won’t laugh… hard.”
“No, none of those things.”
“Well come on! What is it then?” she bounced as she sat on the end of the bed.
“I haven’t had sex,” I mumbled, hoping she didn’t hear me.
Her face went into complete shock as she stared at me. I buried my face into the comforter, letting my hair cover me to hide my embarrassment. I expected laughing, I had expected her to poke fun at me, but the silence that was filling the room didn’t have any sense of amusement or pity. A few moments passed before I felt a hand on my shoulder attempting to roll me over so she could see my face.
“Bella I’m so sorry. I had just assumed that you had! The way Edward was going about the whole ordeal between you two I thought… Oh no! That’s why you were so upset!” her voice got two decibels higher than normal in her epiphany.
I raised my head slightly as she flew off of the bed and grabbed the suite’s phone across the room. She started speaking in what I could only imagine was Italian, telling someone on the other line to do something. The phone rocked back on the receiver as she put it down and came back to her seat on the bed.
“You and I are talking, whether you like it or not.”
****
Interrogation by Alice was not as dreadful as I originally thought it was going to be. After her demands that we were going to talk, I asked if I could at least shower and get into something more comfortable and she happily obliged. The entire time I was in the shower I tried to come up with ways to skirt around the major issues. Figuring out ways to gloss over facts, hide some things but not others. It was confusing and giving me a migraine in the process.
Now that we were actually sitting here, Alice on the chase lounge and I curled up in the oversized chair, it wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought it was going to be. In police interrogation, you were in whatever smelly clothes you’d been detained in for days, bound to a hard metal chair with a light in your face and the officer pacing around you for answers. Here, I was in my favorite plaid pajama pants and t shirt with my wet hair tied up in a sloppy bun. Alice had ordered room service to bring up a tray full of assorted berries with frozen yogurt and other small desserts. She had put in some various girly movies; right now Failure to Launch was playing in the background as we dove into our bowls and continued talking.
“So let me get this straight,” she said as she dug her spoon into the pink mess in her bowl, “You’ve never had sex, you like my brother, there’s a guy at home that’s infatuated with you and he’s also your first real kiss?”
I nodded my head as I pulled the spoon from my lips.
“Wow, that’s rough,” she observed and her eyes grew big, “So what did you do after he kissed you? You didn’t want to go further?”
“Why are we focusing on Jacob? You’re supposed to be helping me decode your brother,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but this Jacob guy sounds interesting. I see Edward all the time…”
“No, I didn’t want to go further. I told him I’m going to NYU, well was going to NYU, and it just wouldn’t work out.”
“What happened that you’re not going to NYU anymore?”
“Long story,” I said trying to skirt around at least one topic.
“I have all night,” she said and waved her spoon around in the air, signaling she had no where else to be.
I sighed in resignation, there was no easy way to tell her the entire story and not get emotional, so I let it all out at once in a blur. Everything from the phone call from my parents to Jacob telling me I should still go to NYU anyway down to the phone call that I had planned in the fitting room this afternoon. Alice was silent for a long moment, grabbing a berry or two from the cart and popping them into her mouth as she contemplated my story. After I had finally finished and started eating more frozen yogurt, she decided to speak.
“You should definitely listen to that kid; he’s not as dumb as you think.”
I could only look at her in confusion as she continued.
“He sees that you want to go to NYU, and when you told him that’s where you were going, he accepted that. So now that your parents are trying to take away your dream, he’s fighting for you while you’re gone to keep your dream alive. While it looks like he’s trying to push you to do something rash against your parents, he’s fighting to keep you happy and maybe even to prove to you that he loves you.”
My mouth gapped open in shock. I hadn’t seen this before, and now from an outsider’s perspective, it seemed a lot clearer.
“But,” she interjected, “If you really don’t want to pursue a relationship with him, the least you can do is thank him for sticking up for you as a friend. He needs to know that you still care about him and his feelings, even if it’s just in a friendship way. Otherwise it really makes it look like he professed his love for you and you just left him there in the rain, in a round about movie scene kind of way,” she added as she waved her spoon around again.
“I think I can do that,” I mumbled.
“You should,” she said freely, “I think you should also still go to NYU, but that’s really up to you and your parents. It’s your dream; I’m just really confused as to why they’d want to take that away from you.”
I was hoping my silence was signaling that she would talk about something else. My greedy ears wanted to hear about someone else.
“And as for my brother…”
Yes! Now we were getting to the good part!
“I think it’s best if you two try to be friends first before diving into anything more serious,” she stated as she pushed the spoon of yogurt into her mouth, closing the advice she had for me.
I felt my heart sink a little in my chest. After the one night I’d had with Edward, how could I ever look at him as just a friend? As if she read my mind, Alice chimed in.
“It starts by talking to him. He’s in room 66B right around the corner when you’re feeling brave,” she smiled and passed me a fresh bowl of frozen yogurt with berries on top.
I knew the bowl wasn’t for me, mine had plenty still in it. This was my conversation piece, a shoe in from his sister and a way for us to get talking. I stood on shaking legs as I held the little glass bowl gingerly. The gold lip on the bowl was shining up at me, so I focused on its color as I made my way to the suite’s doors and opened one to reveal the quiet hallway. The sign on the opposing wall pointed left for his room number, so I padded down the hallway in that direction.
My legs got shakier as I approached the massive double doors. How we hadn’t crossed paths yet being as we were on the same floor was rather odd, but it wasn’t what I was focusing on. I tore my eyes from the gold lip of the bowl to the wood of the door, taking in its elaborate structure, still too chicken to knock. After minutes seemed to pass, I decided to suck it up and just do it. That’s what this bowl was given to me for.
I raised my hand and gently tapped my knuckles on the door, feeling that strange sense of déjà vu again. ‘Did we always meet in doorways?’ I began to ponder. The light sound of foot steps approached the door and I began to panic internally. I clutched the cold bowl with my fingers as the locks made noise behind the wooden door and the knob began to turn.
The warm light spilled out of the room into the hallway, framing my body in its yellow color. Edward’s body moved to block out some of that light standing in the doorway staring at me in shock. His hair was in complete disarray and his eyes were bloodshot, like he hadn’t slept for days. I could see the facial scruff clinging to his jaw where he hadn’t shaved in awhile. His dark blue shirt was sort of wrinkled and his pajama pants hung from his hips loosely.
I was frozen as I stood in the yellow square of light in the hallway, almost as much as the bowl in my hands. I remembered it now and pushed it in his direction, my arms crossing the doorway into his room to present the peace offering. He smiled as we looked down to the pink melting goo in the bowl, topped with strawberries and blueberries and took it from my cold hands.
“Hi,” I said timidly. It was all I managed to squeak out before he took my hand and pulled me into the room before shutting the door behind us.
A/N: Happy days are here again! *dancing* I'm so glad to be semi done with crazy depressed Bella. I don't like thinking like that but it was necessary.
Alice = BFF. Love it.
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