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not beta'd

prompt - click

December

"Hold still, Bella."

I held my breath, trying not to sneeze...or scratch the itch on my left eyebrow.

"Bella!"

"I am holding still," I said, speaking though clenched teeth. I was all for beautifying myself, especially when it came to school dances, but jeez. Alice had been at my eyebrows for awhile now, and every time she plucked I wanted to sneeze.

"Okay...that about does it." She stepped back, admiring her work. "You look good. Of course, if you'd just maintain them yourself we wouldn't have to go through this at all."

"I thought my eyebrows were fine," I mumbled, touching them gingerly.

"They were okay." She shrugged, turning to the mirror, to check out her own brows. "If you like the bushy look."

"My eyebrows were not bushy," I laughed, kicking her butt. I did it gently though; I didn't want to smudge or tear her dress. "Edward's are bushy."

"They are," she agreed. "If I could just have five minutes with them..."

"No way. I like that he doesn't man-scape."

She rolled her eyes. "Jasper..."

Sighing inwardly, I prepared to listen to another yet Jasper anecdote. It was amazing how you could know someone for most of your life and still know barely anything at all. Thanks to Alice and Jasper's relationship, which –as Edward and I'd suspected –had started in the beginning of senior year, I was now privy to all sorts of info, including things like hygiene and sexual habits.

Payback, I guess, for all the years Alice had to listen to me.

She capped her lip gloss and tossed it into her purse. "Well, we're ready. I hope they're on their way. I'm gonna call him. I repressed the urge to tell her not to harass the poor boy. God knew I'd done my share of nagging and calling.

Not about tonight, though.

Not even last week, when Edward pulled me aside and told me the school had asked Salient Corruption (the latest band name) to perform at the Winter Formal. I took it in stride, proverbially grinning and bearing it.

And now we were ready to rock. Literally.

To be fair, Edward had been pretty awesome since the Fall. Not gonna lie, there were nights –and sometimes days – when he was too caught up with school stuff and band practice, but overall he made the effort to be with me. And I appreciated it. I'd never been the type to sit at home, waiting, but I made it a point to throw myself into student government duties more than ever before. In fact, at one point, I ended up taking on so many extracurriculars that Edward started whining to me about not spending enough time.

It was kind of satisfying, just saying.

Alice's bedroom door opened with a soft click. Her mother peeked in, camera in hand. "The boys are here." She slipped inside, misty-eyed and smiling. "You both look so pretty."

"Thanks Mom," Alice said, rolling her eyes but pink-cheeked. She lived for this kind of stuff.

"Thanks, Sherry," I said, wrapping my arms around Mrs. Brandon. She'd always been like a second Mom, which was good, because I hardly saw my first. I glanced over at Alice. "Ready?"

Downstairs, Edward and Jasper were goofing around by the front door.

I'd gone to countless dances with this guy, from the Sadie Hawkins in seventh grade til now, and yet he still managed to make my heart skip a beat when I saw him dressed up.

"Hey, you," he said, his smile fading as he took me in. "I...wow. I like this." He ran a finger down the front of my dress until I caught him, not wanting to act too familiarly in front of Sherry Brandon, who was busily taking pictures.

"Thanks. You look really good yourself." I kissed him, my heels giving me enough height that I barely had to stretch.

In the minivan, I sat shotgun while Alice and Jasper climbed in to the back. Emmett normally would've been with us with his date du jour, but since he was taking Rosalie the Bitch Hale, that was a no-go. I was still annoyed with him for that, but whatever. Maybe he'd be good for her.

Thanks to the dance committee, the gym at Forks High was completely transformed into a Winter Wonderland, complete with mistletoe, holly and fake snow. There was even a photographer near the entrance, capturing us in pairs.

As a compromise, Edward and the boys had agreed to play for the second half of the dance only. That way they'd be able to relax and have fun first, and no one seemed to care that the current tunes came from a "DJ" (Ben Cheney's stoner brother, class of 2009) in the corner.

We chilled out for awhile, dancing to the good jams and sitting out the lame ones. Jacob had a flask or five of something spicy and strong, and after a few sips I was warm all over and more than ready to drag Edward to the minivan for some tradition-making.

"I can't, baby," he said, after tonguing me down in the beneath a patch of pretend mistletoe. I knew he was tipsy, because he never called me baby. "We're going on in like...a half hour. Gotta set up soon."

"Fine," I said, wrapping my arms around him and kissing him again.

"C'mon bro," Emmett's voice interrupted.

I peered over at him in the low light, trying my best not to straight up glare at Rosalie. She stared right back, Ice Queen persona perfected.

"You bring in the stuff yet?" Edward asked, running his hand through his hair. He always got nervous before performing, even if it was just for a school event.

"Yeah, James and Jake just brought in the rest."

"'Kay." Edward turned to me, giving me one more kiss. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need it, but good luck," I murmured, fixing his tie. "Love you."

"Love you too."

He and Em disappeared, leaving Rosalie and I by the punch table. Alice wandered up, texting. She looked up, eyes narrowed when she spied Rosalie, but before either of us could say anything Bitchy pants flounced away, blonde curls bouncing.

"Anyway," Alice said, making a face. "Lip gloss?" She handed me the little pot, and I dabbed some on.

"Thanks."

"No problem. I saw Edward eating it off so I figured you'd need more."

A sharp screech of feedback cut through the gym, getting everyone's attention. Alice and I worked our way up front so we could watch and be supportive, waving phones when appropriate, letting our virtual Zippos glow.

I collapsed back on to the blanket, breathing so hard. This was by far the best part of Edward's pass-me-down minivan: the collapsible back seat. We had a ton of room; almost as big as a bed. Well, not really –but it was better than a car.

Up front, Edward cleaned up and then crawled back to where I was lying down. Outside, it was pitch black and freezing, but in here we had the heat going and little glow sticks lying around, courtesy of the dance committee.

"Only thing I liked better than that dress was taking it off you," Edward said, tracing his finger in circles around my sweaty belly button.

"I liked that, too," I said, pulling him down so that he was on top of me. We kissed lazily for awhile, enjoying the time we had. For once, neither of us had anywhere to be, no curfews, and no extra friends hanging around.

"So, I got you something," Edward said. "For Christmas."

"Yeah?" I smiled, pushing damp hair from his face. "I got you something, too, but it's at home."

"No, that's cool. I wanted to give this to you right away," he said, grinning slyly.

I sat up slowly, watching as he wrangled a crumpled gift bag from the explosion of blankets in the corner. "Here. Merry Almost Christmas."

"Thanks," I said, accepting it, poking at the fancy tissue paper. "Did you do this? I'm impressed."

"Of course I did it," he huffed. "Hurry up and open it."

"Okay, okay."

I reached inside and pulled out...

...my very own pair of pajama jeans.

the end.

thanks for reading, loves.

i just downloaded a virtual zippo. i look forward to using it at the next concert i attend.

new storyline starts monday... i think i'm just going to give it its own story ID, as in, not continued on from here. make sense? so it'll pop up as a new story.

xoxoxo