Twilight OC Rewrite

Chapter Eight: Port Angeles

Jess drove faster than the Chief, so we made it to Port Angeles by four. It had been a while since I'd had a girls' night out, and the estrogen rush was invigorating. We listened to whiny rock songs while Jessica jabbered on about the boys we hung out with. Jessica's dinner with Mike had gone very well, and she was hoping that by Saturday night they would have progressed to the first-kiss stage. I smiled to myself, pleased. Angela was passively happy to be going to the dance, but not really interested in Eric. Jess tried to get her to confess who her type was, but I interrupted with a question about dresses after a bit, to spare her. Angela threw a grateful glance my way.

Port Angeles was a beautiful little tourist trap, much more polished and quaint than Forks. But Jessica and Angela knew it well, so they didn't plan to waste time on the picturesque boardwalk by the bay. Jess drove straight to the one big department store in town, which was a few streets in from the bay area's visitor-friendly face.

The dance was billed as semiformal, and we weren't exactly sure what that meant. Both Jessica and Angela seemed surprised and almost disbelieving when I told them we'd never been to a dance in Phoenix.

"Didn't you guys ever go with a boyfriend or something?" Jess asked dubiously as we walked through the front doors of the store.

"Really," I tried to convince her, not wanting to confess her dancing problem. "We've never had boyfriends or anything close. We didn't go out much."

"Why not?" Jessica demanded.

"No one asked us," Bella answered honestly.

She looked skeptical. "People ask you out here," she reminded us, "and you both tell them no." We were in the juniors' section now, scanning the racks for dress-up clothes.

"Well, except for Tyler," Angela amended quietly.

"Excuse me?" Bella gasped. "What did you say?"

"Tyler told everyone he's taking you to prom," Jessica informed her with suspicious eyes.

"He said what?" I choked out.

"I told you it wasn't true," Angela murmured to Jessica.

We were both silent, lost in shock. Bella seemed to be growing quickly irritated. But we had found the dress racks, and now we had work to do.

"That's why Lauren doesn't like you," Jessica giggled while we pawed through the clothes.

She seemed slightly surprised and then ground her teeth. "Do you think that if I ran him over with my truck he would stop feeling guilty about the accident? That he might give up on making amends and call it even?"

"Maybe," Jess snickered. "If that's why he's doing this."

The dress selection wasn't large, but both of them found a few things to try on. I sat on a low chair just inside the dressing room, by the three-way mirror. Bella, trying to control her fuming, stood beside me.

Jess was torn between two — one a long, strapless, basic black number, the other a knee-length electric blue with spaghetti straps. I encouraged her to go with the blue; why not play up the eyes?

Angela chose a pale pink dress that draped around her tall frame nicely and brought out honey tints in her light brown hair. Bella complimented them both generously and helped by returning the rejects to their racks. The whole process was much shorter and easier than similar trips we'd taken with Mom at home. I guess there was something to be said for limited choices.

We headed over to shoes and accessories. While they tried things on I merely watched and critiqued, not in the mood to shop for myself, though I did need new shoes. The girls'-night high was wearing off in the wake of Bella's annoyance at Tyler, leaving room for the gloom to move back in and her mood affected mine.