Okay, here's the first official chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed the prologue, and there's a teeny bit of suspense at the end of tis chapter, but have no fear the next chapter will most likely be up tomorrow.
*I don't own Twilight, all rights belong to Stephenie Meyer*
BPOV
One forty-five. Time to head to work, I thought wryly to myself as I got off of my bed. Summer had just started, and I would be heading to graduate school in the fall, and all that I had to look forward to this summer was a weekly paycheck from Gourmet Pizza, the local pizza place in Forks. The only pizza place in Forks. Fantastic. I had just finished my fourth year at the University of Washington, and I was living back home with my parents for the summer while I looked at apartments.
My mother, Renee was a stay at home mom, and I enjoyed every second of it during my childhood. She and I were very close my entire life, and even though I went away to school, we were as close as ever. My father, Charlie was the police chief of the Forks Police Department, which most of the time, considering the small size of Forks, consisted of five men playing cards all day long. My father was a big goofball, but always seemed to pull off the "of you hurt my daughter I will shoot you" act rather well when it came to my past boyfriends. It was somewhat of a relief to be back home, but I also felt a little bit down graded from the freedom I had while I was at school. No news there. I love my parents, don't get me wrong, but I am twenty-two, and I want to be out on my own already.
I had been working on getting a degree in English Education at UW and was going there for graduate school as well for my master's. I was relieved that Jacob, my ex, was not attending UW for graduate school. He was lucky he even graduated from UW. Bumping into him on a regular basis after our messy break up two months ago was definitely not what I needed for next year. It would be hard enough avoiding him in Forks while we were both home for the summer.
Jake and I had a great relationship. We were in love – well at least I thought he loved me. Walking into his off-campus apartment and finding him having sex with his tutor definitely disproved that fact in my opinion. Although he tried to get me back, and he said that he still loved me, I didn't care. Cheating was not okay in my book. How can you cheat on someone you really love? The thought is impossible in my mind, and so I told him to stay the hell out of my life. I was twenty-two and about to graduate college, why did I need a boyfriend anyway? Jake broke my heart, and I swore to never let anyone treat me the way he did, ever again.
My best friend, Alice Brandon also worked at Gourmet Pizza. She had applied there when we got home from school because she figured it would allow for maximum best friend time since we were going to different graduate schools. She was going to NYU, three thousand miles away from UW. Her shift didn't start until about four today, so I would have to drive myself. She usually picked me up on days when our shifts started at the same time, which was pretty often.
Thanks to traffic, and partly because of my rusty old truck, which I actually loved despite the face that it was ancient, I arrived at Gourmet about ten minutes late. Of course Mike, my manager didn't say a word to me. He reminded me of a golden retriever who was so anxious for a treat that he couldn't stop wagging his tail. He was one of my good friends, except I definitely did not return the feelings that I suspected he had for me, and that sometimes made the work situation difficult.
"Hey Bella!" he shouted as I walked in. I nodded at him and went to the hangers to put on my apron.
"Sorry I'm late Mike. There was so much traffic today. Damn people and their beach trips." Oh, how I wished I could have taken a trip down to La Push without having to worry about running into Jake. It was early June and sunny, which was extremely rare for Forks.
"Don't worry about it Bella. You can handle the register and the oven until Alice gets here? It shouldn't start to pick up until later, so she'll be able to help you with all of the orders."
"Yeah that's fine Mike," I said with a smile as I shook my head. I had been working there every summer for three years; I could do this stuff with one hand tied behind my back. Of course that probably wasn't the best idea since I couldn't even walk on my own two feet most of the time without tripping. The first couple of hours of work were no picnic, to say the least.
I let out my hundredth sigh of frustration of the afternoon as the button of the cash register jammed, yet again. The owners of Gourmet really needed to update their system. In the past two hours I had spilled two drinks on myself and dropped a slice of pizza on my feet. Curse my decision to wear flip-flops today. Of course having a bitchy customer standing behind me didn't help my situation at all. I mean, seriously, since when was it okay to pay for anything while you're standing behind the cash register? I should really talk to Mike about getting a counter that goes from one wall to the next.
"Okay, the five dollars is right there," said the blonde woman who was wearing a spaghetti-strap dress that was way too short, as she pointed down towards the counter and looked at the bill expectantly while she sipped on her water bottle. What, do you want to see me do a magic trick with it or something? She had just finished her rant about how none of our pizza selections were satisfying any of her cravings, and yet she decided to pick out a slice of pizza that had pretty much every topping known to man on it.
I held in another exasperated sigh as I took the bill off of the counter, and rolled my eyes as I turned around to put the five-dollar bill in the register. The bitchy customer's slice of pizza was probably warm by now, but hey, a few more minutes and it might just burn her tongue enough so she can't insult anything else today. I made my way over to the oven and took out her slice of pizza, not wanting an unnecessary legal matter on my hands. I would definitely not put that past this woman. She seemed like the type that would sue because she put a slice of pizza in her mouth that was too hot.
As if her rant about the pizza and the fact that she was still standing behind me weren't enough, she decided to be a little bit melodramatic and making it creative by adding her choice of colorful expletives, dropping an f-bomb about how much she hated the song that was playing in the restaurant. I loved this song. It was 'Hello Goodbye' by the Beatles. Seriously, if you don't like the Beatles, there is something the matter with your soul.
"Have a nice day," I said through clenched teeth, and immediately regretted saying it. I really need to work on being too polite. Three thirty. Come on, Alice.
About twenty minutes after Bitchy McBitch left, everything that happened earlier in my afternoon was about to look really good. That's when he walked in.
Out of the corner of my eye all I could see was a head of messy bronze hair walk in. I turned, and that's when I saw him. He looked about my age, maybe a few years older, he wasn't slight or muscular, but somewhere perfectly in between. He looked significantly taller than me, about six feet. He was also the most beautiful man that I had ever seen in my entire life. Realizing that I was gaping, I quickly straightened my posture, and realized that there were two other men with him. One had curly brown hair, and my bronze-haired mystery man definitely looked slight next to him, because man did this guy have some muscles on him. The other was shorter than bronzy and curly, and had a nice head of blonde hair. He looked like someone Alice might be interested in, I thought to myself.
"Oh, man am I hungry!" yelled Curly as soon as they approached the counter. I actually found it quite funny instead of annoying.
"Chill, Emmett. I don't think Gourmet is going to run out of pizza until you start eating anyway. Didn't you want to wait for Rosaile?" laughed the bronze-haired mystery man, while the blonde-haired man stood behind him. His laugh reminded me of sweet music.
"Oh come on. She's always late anyway, I'm sure I can get away with two or three slices before she gets here." As if to emphasize his point, his stomach made a rumbling noise, causing me to giggle along with his friends.
"What can I get you this afternoon?" I asked once my giggle had subsided, mostly. I looked over at my mystery man, and noticed that he was looking at me as well. I immediately thought that I must have some pizza sauce on my face or something equally embarrassing. Great.
"How much for all the pizza in there?" laughed Blondie as he pointed to the glass where all the pizza that was already made was sitting.
"Shut up, Jasper!" Emmett said as he mock punched Jasper in the shoulder. "I guess we'll wait for Rose. Thanks anyway. We'll be back, trust me." He said to me with a huff as they walked away from the counter and took a seat in a booth towards the back of the restaurant. I nodded at him as the left and thankfully I could still see the mop of bronze hair from where I was once they sat down. I was trying my best not to ogle, but I'm fairly positive that I failed.
About ten minutes later, I noticed a beautiful blonde woman walk in, and Emmett immediately looked up from his seat. "ROSIE!" he shouted at her, and she smiled as soon as she saw him, then walked over to their table and sat down. As soon as she gave him a big kiss, they walked over to the counter hand-in-hand, leaving Jasper, and my mystery man, whose name I still didn't know, behind them. I noticed him tapping his hands on the table as 'Glass Onion' by the Beatles filled the room. Apparently it was a day for the Beatles, which of course I was not complaining about. Thank god someone has good taste in music. I laughed as soon as the song came on, because I felt like I was watching him through a glass onion. Whatever the hell that means.
I noticed that he was very quiet, but seemed to flow very well with the rest of his friends. They all must have known each other for a long time. He laughed with them, and I wished I had been closer so that I could hear his laugh. Every time I saw his smile, I marveled over how beautiful it was. He only looked over at me once, probably because he could sense my shameful stare, but never looked over at me again after that. In the one moment where our gazes locked, it seemed like we were the only two people in the entire restaurant, until I began to worry about my mental health and broke his gaze. After a few moments, I began to wonder if he was just a figure of my imagination, because I couldn't see how anyone could appear to be so perfect. Shrugging that thought off, I made myself feel better by telling myself that he was probably another dirt bag like Jake. However I was definitely not fooling myself, because every time I looked in his direction, he was smiling, and my knees started to shake.
"See, I told you I'd be back," he said once they approached the counter. "Two pies, one with pepperoni, and once with nothing, please," he continued in a friendly tone as Rosaile just rolled her eyes at him, but still smiling. I have to admit, I was a bit jealous of their relationship, even though I didn't know them. But I could tell that they just…got each other.
"Sure, it will be about twenty minutes," I answered him as I took the twenty-dollar bill he handed to me. They waited at the counter while I started to prepare their pizzas, as Alice walked in the door.
"Hey, Al," I said as she got behind the counter.
"Hey Bella! Sorry I'm a few minutes late, Mike!" I looked down at my watch and saw that it was already four-twenty.
"That's the third time this week, Brandon, I'm docking your pay!" said Mike from the back room.
Alice and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes as we both giggled. "He is so in love with you, Bella. He never docks your pay when you're late."
"Hey, I can't help it if you spend all of your time in front of the mirror, making you late all the time," I said with a laugh as I continued spreading the sauce over the pizza dough. I spilled some of it on the floor as I was working with it.
"Shoot," I said to myself as I decided to leave it until I was done, because I was sure to make more of a mess before I was finished. I finished both pizzas, and decided to take them both to the oven at the same time, that was my second mistake. My first mistake was not cleaning up that damn pizza sauce from the floor.
As soon as I turned around with both pizzas in my hand, I took one step and slipped on the sauce that I had forgotten about. My feet flew out from under me, and both pizzas went flying into the air as I landed on my ass. The pizzas were not far behind me, one landing next to me, and the other landing with a 'plop' right onto my lap. I groaned and looked up, only to find Alice looking down at me with a remorseful expression on her face, and then I looked over at the counter, to see Emmett and Rosalie simply staring at me blankly. I became even more mortified as I looked a little bit past them, and noticed that they were no longer standing alone. My bronze-haired mystery man was standing right next to them, looking at me with the same remorseful, helpless expression that Alice had on her face.
I was completely mortified. Why didn't I just clean up that damn pizza sauce? I stood up, wiping all of the sauce off of my lap that I could. I got back down onto the floor and started to clean up when Alice said, "Don't worry about it Bella, I'll finish out here, go get cleaned up."
"Thanks, Alice."
I practically ran into the bathroom, too afraid to look at the three people who I had to run past in order to get there. Whoever my mystery man was probably thought I was a complete idiot. I closed the bathroom door, grabbed some paper towels, and was actually grateful that I decided to wear black capris today. However, my white shirt wasn't thanking me so much.
A few minutes later, Alice knocked on the door. "Bella? Are you okay?"
I got up and went to the door and opened it for her. "Yeah, Al I'm fine. It just takes forever to get this sauce off," I said with a laugh. "Klutz Swan strikes again. You would think I would have grown out of this by now."
"Bella, you just simply wouldn't be you if you weren't a klutz," she said as I narrowed my eyes at her. Damn pixie.
"Yeah, yeah." I said as we walked back out to the restaurant where Mike was currently helping someone. "Mike I'm so sorry, it won't happen again."
"It's fine Bella. It happens."
"Thanks."
I took over for him at the register after he put his customer's pizza in the oven. I looked towards the back of the restaurant, relieved that my mystery man had left, along with everyone else he was with. The rest of the night, thankfully, went by without any further accidents.
As we were helping Mike close, Alice mentioned something that I had been trying to forget all afternoon. "So, that blonde guy that was with the couple whose pizzas you oh so gracefully decided to wear, wasn't he gorgeous?"
I let out a laugh, because I knew Alice all too well. I knew Jasper was her type. "Yeah, actually before that whole mortifying incident, I was thinking that he looked like someone you would go for," I said with a laugh.
"I hope he comes in again, he was so dreamy!" I rolled my eyes at her, and gave her a hug before she left. I stayed behind for a few extra minutes to make sure Mike had everything under control to close by himself. Thankfully, he did because I was so ready to go home and change into pizza sauce-free clothing.
I walked out of the restaurant, and cursed my decision-making abilities once again, because as soon as I began walking to my car, I bumped into someone.
I looked up, and to my complete horror, I was standing into a pair of bright green eyes that belonged to none other than my mystery man.
Thanks for reading! I love me some reviews! We'll get Edward's POV in the next chapter mwahahaha!
