Elastic Heart

-chapter twenty five-

"Why!?" Alice demands. She just wanted to make Jolene pretty. 

"I just don't." Jolene frowns, moving to the changing rooms. 

"Don't push her." Rosalie pulls Alice to the side to talk to her. "She probably has her reasons." 

Alice frowns, but makes no comment on the pile of clothes as they check out. 

She was going to get Jolene to wear something girly. 

"I think I've got enough." Jolene comments, hugging her two shopping bags close to her body. "Can we go now?" 

"No!" Alice frowns. "We still have plenty more stores to visit!" 

"But-" Rosalie interrupts Alice. "We can take a break and get something to eat." 

She swears, if she wasn't there, Alice would of let Jolene starve. 

The find a seat at the food court and Jolene gets a slice of pizza and a soda. Alice and Rosalie both get an order of fries. 

Finger foods were easier to pretend to eat. 

Jolene looked dead on her feet. On the combination of not being used to long shopping hours, she hadn't been getting enough sleep at night. 

She leans her head on Rosalie's shoulder and falls asleep for a few minutes before jerking awake. 

Alice buys her a coffee from a Starbucks. 

She watches as Jolene takes a sip of it, the bitter taste causing her to wrinkle her nose. 

"Is it not good?" Alice frets. 

"No. It tastes like shit." Jolene agrees before taking another sip. 

"Then why are you drinking it?" Alice questioned, confused. 

Jolene just shrugs and takes another slurp of the coffee. 

"Don't have to much caffeine, now." Rosalie links her pinky with Jolene's free hand that wasn't holding the coffee cup. 

"You guys don't drink coffee, do you?" Jolene inquired. 

"Nope." That was something that they could be honest about. 

"Mom doesn't like us to have caffeine. We don't drink soda either." Alice adds. 

Jolene takes a tentative sip of her coffee as they get moving again. 

"Here, in here!" Alice bounces into another store and Rosalie moves to follow her when Jolene stops right outside the entry, causing Rosalie to stumble from their linked hands. 

"Jolene?" Rosalie turns to look at her mate. 

"I don't want to go in here." Jolene whispers, eyes trained on the sign of the store. 

"What's wrong?" Rosalie gives her mate her full attention. 

"Please don't make me go in." Jolene mumbles, letting go of Rosalie's hand. 

Rosalie can see that Jolene is shaking now and looks back up at the sign. 

What problem did Jolene have with Victoria Secret? 

"Here. Let's go find a bench." Rosalie moves to grasp Jolene's upper arm to help guide her better. 

They find a bench a few stores away from the original store where Rosalie shoots Alice a text while trying to calm her mate. 

Jolene had lost some color in her face and her hands were shaking badly. 

"It's alright." Rosalie wraps her arms around Jolene. "It's okay."