Shopping {Bella}

[Esme Cullen]

Shopping for food was part of the Cullen's disguise. They couldn't blab that they were vampires to the whole world. Isabella Swan was the only lucky human that actually knew what they were. But that led to a different story. Alice let Esme borrow her yellow Porshe. Though Alice was far from greedy, she was protective over her car. She had gotten it from some deal her and Edward had made. Anyways, she let her borrow it to go shopping. Maybe she could go pick out a couple of new outfits. Though she didn't need any, clothes were always a necessities.

As she parked the Porshe in one of the parking spaces, she gracefully got out of the car and slammed the door. When she looked towards the sky, she was thankful it was cloudy. Esme put the keys in her purse where everything else was. Her cell phone In case one of the kids needed her and whatever else human women had in their purse. She took a buggy and acted like she was looking at things when she was just really throwing them in there. Maybe she would pick up something Bella liked and she could give it to the Swans'. It was sad to see the food go to waste.

[Bella Swan]

There was only one grocery store in all of Forks. That was to be expected though, what with the population totalling just under 300 people. Bella sighed slightly and pulled her beat up, 1953, red chevy pickup into the parking lot just infront of the large building. It was Saturday morning and Charlie had mentioned to her that the house was slowly running out of food.

Well, not mention, more like left a note. Charlie wasn't speaking to Bella at the moment due to the fact that she was to be married in mere weeks. He disagree'd strongly with her decision, stating that she was heading down the same path that he and Renee had followed, getting wed right out of highschool. Ouch.

The dark haired girl killed the engine and sat in silence for a moment, Charlie's words still ringing through her ears. There had been an uncomfortable tension around him since the day Bella and Edward first announced their plans. Bella's mother felt the same, but supported her non-the-less. Renee was to arrive soon with Phil. Another disaster waiting to happen, Charlie and Phil meeting for the first time.

The thought made Bella cringe in her seat. Shaking herself back to reality, she opened the driver-side door and hopped down, wobbling slightly as her feet came in contact with the ground.

It was as if the sun had shown itself from the clouds. A bright yellow porche, not 3 cars away, sat happily sending light through the gloom. Curiously, Bella glanced around in search for the owner of such an outrageous car.
'Not now,' she thought desperately, 'please, not now Alice...'

Walking cautiously to the front door of the store, Bella glanced over her shoulder numerous times. She had been avoiding Alice at all costs, for fear of having to discuss wedding plans. The human grabbed a cart and pushed onward, deciding to hide if there were any signs of her soon-to-be-sister.

Picking up the first few things and throwing them into the cart, Bella noticed another recognizable face. Not Alice, but Esme Cullen! Quickening her stride slightly, Bella pulled up along side the Vampire and smiled.
"Esme!," she greeted, "is Alice with you?"

[Esme Cullen]

Esme was so busy mindlessly putting things in the cart, she hadn't noticed Bella until she walked beside her. "Bella, how are you?" She asked with a warm smile. "No she's not. Her and Jasper went hunting this weekend." Her head tilted a little but she laughed when she thought for a moment. "Alice is bothering you about the wedding isn't she?" That was Alice for you. Since she had missed so much of her own lifetime, she was so excited about meeting Bella and being able to use her as her own Barbie doll. Esme pushed her car to the end of the isle, careful to avoid all the shoppers and give polite 'hello's. "I'll talk to her if you want." She offered. Alice could sometimes go a little over bored.

Esme moved some of her brown hair to behind her ear. "How about I take you shopping?" She wanted to keep things centered around Bella. Hoping it would take her mind of the wedding or at least relax her. "You can get anything you want." She glanced over at her, smiling from ear to ear. Of course Esme was getting better about being around humans. Since Edward started bringing Bella over more she had had more practice and she feeds every now and then to keep her hunger at bay.

[Bella Swan]

"Thank God," Bella breathed a sigh and smiled, "no, you don't have to talk to her, I understand that she's excited about everything..." The human's voice seemed to trail off at the end, but the smile remained on her face. Alice was quite honestly one of Bella's best friends, and she wasn't hesitant in admitting that. It was simply that, at times, Alice needed to learn when enough was enough. There was only so much planning that one person could do. Not to mention that Bella may be enjoying this a bit more if she wanted to get married in the first place.

Bella chewed on the corner of her lip in thought when Esme made her proposition. She let out a weak laugh and shook her head.
"Thanks Esme, but I don't want to take your money," Bella replied, "if you want to go shopping for yourself though, I'd love to go with you."
What was with all of the Cullen's and wanting to spend money on Bella? They were too kind, but she could never accept money like that. It was bad enough that Bella couldn't help pay for more of the wedding, let alone let Esme buy her clothes!

[Esme Cullen]

Esme gave a small nod. "If you need me to help you with anything just let me know." She didn't want to talk about the wedding the whole time she was with Bella and apparently Bella didn't really want to talk about it much either. Alice did get a bit out of hand though when it came to things like this. "Anything wrong dear?" She asked softly as she pretended to read the nutrients on the back of a box. The Cullen family stuck to a diet but it didn't have anything to do with what human people ate.

"Bella why don't you let us buy anything?" Esme asked with a light laugh. She never did get the reason why Bella didn't want them spending mony on her. "If you say so. I would love the company. We could drop your car off at your house and take Alice's car. I had to talk her into letting me borrow it. She is very protective of her car." She shook her head, an amused look dancing on her face.

[Bella Swan]

"No, nothings wrong," Bella replied to Esme almost instantly with the most convincing voice she could muster. She was sick of constantly talking about her problems to other people and people were probably starting to get sick of hearing about them. It felt so selfish of her.

Picking up something random from off the shelf, Bella dropped it roughly in the cart and shrugged. The reason she never let the Cullen's buy her anything was, well, she didn't like taking people's money.
"You've all worked really hard for that money," Bella replied, "I just don't feel right taking it from you."

She nodded with a smile at Esme's suggestion, but rolled her eye's about how protective Alice was about her Porche.
"She better be, she worked pretty hard to get that thing," Bella laughed rather bitterly at her memories. Alice holding her hostage wasn't a highlight point in her life.

[Esme Cullen]

Esme smiled warmly at the girl. "You know that's what I'm hear for, dear. I don't mind listening at all." Everyone in her family always came to her to talk about their problems. She was the calm and caring one. It didn't matter what you did or how you felt about anything, she would never judge you. Her goal was to be a good mother and she seemed to have fufilled that goal so far."We have no one else to spend it on and Carlisle only does his job because he loves doing what he does. It's just something he earns for being there. We don't mind at all but if you don't want us to, that's fine as well." The vampire gave a small nod as if to finish off her statement with it.

Esme threw a few more items into the cart and headed towards the check out. "Let's just enjoy this day. It's a nice day." A nice day for them was a cloudy day with a small chance of a thunderstorm. Maybe they could play a little baseball later. "And enjoy Alice's nice car." She laughed.