Shine

Giving In

On Friday Edward invited me back to his home after school, and since I liked his family I gladly accepted.

Will his parents be there? Aunt Clara wanted to know.

His mom will. I'd asked Edward, and he'd chuckled.

"Can we drop by my house though? I've gotta get something."

"What are you getting?"

"Actually it's a lot of work for me to get in and out of the chair to go get it. Do me a favor and go to my room, grab the gold shirt on top of the dresser and bring it back? I need to show it to Alice."

He grinned. "What for?"

"Because my fashion sense is lacking and it knows it, but it wants to better itself."

He shook his head, amused. "That's not a problem."

"Of course it's a problem if Alice is involved. I don't know much about her but from our short conversation I can guarantee she will have something to say about it. Plus look at how she and Rosalie dress—I'll bet you anything Rosalie at least could find something in my attire last weekend that she would have changed."

"There is always something Rosalie would change if she had the power to."

"Doesn't mean she'd be wrong."

He sighed at me. "All right, fine." He pulled up outside our house and I tossed him the keys. "I'll only be a moment." He disappeared with the sound of the car door closing and I rolled my eyes. Showoff.

He returned and tossed my shirt into my lap. "You still like me."

"I don't hang out with people I don't like," I assured him. "Never fear."

Edward held the door for me as I rolled into their front room, and I wasted no time in asking if Alice was around.

She appeared a smattering of seconds later, bright-eyed and tailless. Edward snickered, she lifted an eyebrow at him, then decided to primly ignore him. "Of course I'm here, Seth. What do you need?"

I lifted the folded shirt. "I'm not quite sure what to match with this. Aunt Clara's the one who's good with colors but I got the impression that fashion is a highlight of your life and thought I'd ask for help."

She whisked the dark gold-ish shirt from my hands and held it up before the light drifting in from the window. "Hm. It drapes to about two inches below your waistline in the front and drops lower in the back, loosely, right?"

I considered, holding out three fingers to remind myself what two inches looked like then nodded. "Yeah. And I like clothes I just don't mix and match like I used to, and I don't know these things instinctively like I'm beginning to wholeheartedly believe that you do."

She nodded sagely. "Come sit down with me and we'll talk."

Alice led me to the dining room table while I wondered what they most frequently used it for, and produced a sheet of blank paper and a pencil. Edward moved a chair aside so I could pull up, and she looked at him with surprise. "You don't need to stay," she floatily informed him, as if she knew it grieved him to discuss such feminine things. "We don't need you."

I snorted into my collar. I couldn't help it. "Sorry, Edward. I suppose I sort of hijacked our afternoon together."

He rolled his eyes with ostentatious flair and headed up the stairs.