Iridescence | Edward x OC

18

Love is a beautiful kind of fear.

                                          - Kiera Cass
-

Aris exited the school building at the end of the day, immediately spotting Alice waiting next to an expensive looking, silver Porsche.

Alice waived her over with a smile lighting up her entire face, which Aris could only help but reciprocate.

"I'm so excited!" Alice squealed, motioning for Aris to take the passengers side, her then heading over to the drivers side.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" Aris inquired curiously as Alice put the keys into the ignition, speeding out of the parking lot quickly and effortlessly.

"As much as I love your style, and trust your sense of judgement, I just need to make sure that what you wear is perfect. If I had left you to your own closet, I wouldn't have been able to see your outfit beforehand," she explained, "besides, I'm not one to pass up an opportunity to shop."

Aris chuckled, watching the trees out of the window pass by quickly, making it just look like a blur of green.

They eventually arrived at Alice's destination after about an hour's car ride, just filled with casual conversation. Well, casual conversation aside from Aris practically begging Alice several times to give up what Edward had planned for that night.

She was unsuccessful however, as the most information she was able to obtain being that it was very well thought out by Edward.

Since it wasn't exactly in town, Aris didn't recognize the shop they had arrived at.

The place was connected to other buildings on either side of it, so she assumed that they were in a shopping center of some sort. The rustic looking building had a janky sign nailed beside the door labeled Malamute Boutique. The place itself didn't look janky however, but rather, old fashioned and cozy, like an antique store.

They both exited the car, making their way over to the shop. The bell jingled from the inside as they stepped through the doorway, immediately being met with a warm temperature and the smell of cinnamon.

The small shop looked the complete opposite of its exterior. The outside gave off an old fashioned, rustic vibe, while the inside was completely modern and chic. It looked high end and extremely expensive, causing Aris to wonder if they purposefully made the outside look like that, so that way only exclusive people who knew about this store and could for sure afford it would be the ones to enter.

"Ah Alice, bonjour!" A lady beamed, kissing Alice's cheek as soon as she was in front of them.

"Hi Carrie, it's so nice to see you again." Alice smiled back.

"So, what can I do for you today?" The lady, Carrie, asked.

"Well, my friend Aris here has a date tonight," she motioned towards Aris who was biting her tongue to prevent herself from correcting Alice on the word date, "and she needs an outfit."

Carrie hummed.

"So, what type of date is this? Just dinner?"

Alice looked at Aris apologetically, leaning into the ladies ear to whisper the answer.

Alice's voice was so low that Aris couldn't hear it over the music playing overhead, even with her vampire-like hearing.

The ladies eyes lit up excitedly once Alice finally finished, her immediately then taking one of Aris's and one of Alice's hands, and leading them towards the back of the store.

"Lemme guess, Edward told you not to tell me?" Aris questioned suspiciously.

Alice nodded in response, causing Aris to groan in annoyance.

After what felt like an eternity of trying on countless clothes, Alice denying every single one except for finally the very last outfit, Aris was beyond exhausted.

"Alice, it's not even a real date, I don't understand why the outfit has to be perfect." She whined.

"Oh hush, it's close enough to a real date." She tsked, placing the dress neatly on the counter for Carrie to ring it up.

"For it to be a real date, don't the two people going on it have to actually like each other?" Aris reminded her.

"You guys pretend to hate each other so much, but it's so painfully obvious there's more than just hatred that you feel for one another." She stated plainly.

"You're wrong," Aris stated, deadpan, "even if there was any sort of feelings between him and I, it would purely just be lust, not real feelings."

"While that may be true," Alice conceded, "lust and attraction is how all real feelings start, so it's only a matter of time before you both develop real feelings for each other."

"Or," Aris rebutted, "we'll get bored of having the lust and attraction towards the same person for so long, and it'll simply fade."

Alice sighed at this, both of them back in the car by this point.

"Aris, I think you're forgetting that vampires can't lose feelings once we've obtained them. It's impossible. We can distract ourselves and add on new feelings, but the original ones we have only grow, never lessen," she noticed as a worried frown started to grow on Aris's face, "as for you however, you're not technically 'full vampire' yet, so you can still gain and lose feelings how you usually do. Though, if you keep continuing to spend time around all of us as much as you have, I wouldn't be surprised if that changes like how your strength and speed have."

Aris somewhat knew about this, but then again, the only true vampires she knew were the Denali's, and none of them were really her age, so they weren't the people she went to when she wanted to talk about her feelings, especially towards boys and whatnot. Because of this, she wasn't necessarily fully aware that vampires feelings were that permanent.

"So, you're saying that, hypothetically, if Edward felt some sort of way for me, those feelings would be impossible to get over? They'd only grow?" She inquired curiously.

"Precisely," Alice nodded, starting the car and backing out onto the road, "although, that doesn't mean he couldn't develop even stronger feelings for someone else, which could then outweigh the ones he has for you. That's also not to say that he couldn't easily distract himself from the feelings he has, especially if his feelings aren't that deep in the first place. It all depends on how great his feelings are for you."

"Hypothetically speaking." Aris reminded Alice, causing her to roll her eyes.

"Sure, hypothetically speaking."

"So, what're we doing now? Is there a specific time that I'm supposed to be there?" Aris questioned.

"Yes actually. Edward was very specific about the timing, and if I make you late, then he'll probably rip my head off, so we're headed there now." She chuckled.

After about another hour of driving through towns that Aris didn't recognize, they arrived at a place that Aris could only imagine in her wildest dreams.