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EPILOGUE 1
The deep, red lipstick felt waxy on my mouth, so much so that I couldn't help but smudge it around as I rolled my lips between my teeth. Alice sighed as she watched me, her eyes blazing over the swipe of crimson. Something about the way she trailed her eyes over my lips made me stop, suddenly sitting still, my eyes wide. She reached over a hand, nail swiping at the smudge below my lip. I shivered at her touch, my lip trembling in response.
Everything seemed to zoom out again as Alice leaned back, rubbing the lipstick from her finger onto a towel. My thoughts were back in the room again, to Bella who was sitting on the bathroom sink, to the music that played lightly in the other room and to the two dresses that hung on the door.
"Why are you two getting dressed up tonight?"
Alice and I shared a glance. "Elide doesn't know the area as well as we do, I thought I'd take her out to see it."
"In a formal dress?"
Alice nodded. "We don't do things half heartedly in this family, if you hadn't realised," she said. "Now sit still, or this mascara will poke your eye."
Bella huffed as she closed her eyes, letting Alice paint the black liquid onto her lashes. Either she was more oblivious than I thought, or Bella was trying to block the possibility that Edward was taking her to prom out from her mind. It was no secret that she loathed the idea of attending the dance, but with the french-tagged blue dress and elaborately curled hair, there were few other places that Edward could possibly be taking her.
My makeup was already done to perfection, according to Alice's words. I'd refused to look in the mirror again, instead staring holes into the red satin that Alice had chosen out for me sometime within the few weeks we'd been back. Her own dress was hidden, her face already stunning in the minimal makeup she'd applied before Bella and I arrived that afternoon.
"Almost done, just a pop of shimmer on your cheekbones," Alice murmured as she reached for another palette within her deep bag. Bella let out another groan. "Bella! Please, come on. I have no memories of doing this as a human, so let me please do this now as a vampire!"
"Elide, I have a question," Bella said, making Alice huff as she leaned forward to apply something else to her face.
"Go ahead."
"Why didn't the Cullens know that you were a vampire straight away?" She asked. It was a question that even we couldn't properly answer.
"It's my gift to not show what I truly am to others, strange I know. But it seems once Alice and Edward knew, my thoughts or future actions weren't hidden one hundred percent anymore. I don't know how it works exactly," I explained.
