Author's Note: Hello hello hello! Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed, I really do live for your feedback. So keep those reviews coming and I hope you enjoy Chapter 2!
Jacob sleepily meandered into the garage, yawning and stretching over dramatically. He hadn't gotten any sleep last night; how could he with thoughts of Piper swirling in his head?
"Nice of you to finally join us," Embry said moodily, having already started the opening process.
Jacob, Embry, and Quil had started a garage together a few years back. They had needed a source of income and fixing cars is what they did best, so it just made sense to open up a shop together.
"Sorry," he grumbled half-heartedly, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the office coffee pot. "Any responses to the ad yet?" he asked after the coffee had sufficiently woken him up.
A week ago, the three of them had decided to put out an ad in the paper for a secretary. They were great when it came to fixing the cars, but as far as keeping organized they were in need of some serious assistance.
"None that are worth mentioning," Quil said, exasperation evident in his tone of voice. He threw down the stack of faxed-over resumes angrily.
"Maybe our standards are too high?" Embry suggested carefully. Quil and Jake objected with glares in his direction.
"Our standards? Fine. Who should we hire? The convicted felon or the one where the references hung up on us?" Jake snapped. He hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but really? It was a ridiculous suggestion.
Embry put up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, I get it. Stupid thing to say,"
"No shit," Jake muttered angrily, taking another sip of his coffee.
The three of them set to work on the cars in the shop. Jake's current pet project was a 1994 Volvo 850. It's owner was a girl who had just gotten her license and she had done a serious number on the CV joints. Shaking his head at the girl's stupidity, he set to work.
Twenty minutes later, Jake heard someone walk through their front door. He groaned inwardly. They were overrun as it is, and wasn't sure if they could handle another project. He sighed, realizing how ridiculous it was to complain about business being too good, so he slid out from under the Volvo to meet the new customer, not bothering to wipe the grease off of him.
Once he looked up, he regretted the decision to not de-greasify himself. Standing at the front desk was none other than his supermarket sweetheart, Piper.
She saw him and grinned. "Well hey there, Tomato-man. It's a small world, afterall," she said light heartedly. Jacob couldn't help but grin back.
"More like a small town," he corrected, making his way over to the front desk where his imprint stood. She looked just as beautiful as she had the day before. He was unable to believe his luck that she had decided to wander into their garage. "What can I do for you?" he asked amiably.
"Well I saw an ad in the paper for a receptionist job and I thought I'd come over and hand in my resume personally," she said, pulling a neat packet of paper from his purse and handing them over.
"Well are you a felon or have you given us fake references?" he asked, thumbing through the pages she had just handed him. By now, Embry and Quil had made their way over, watching the interaction between this mystery girl and their best friend intensely.
"No…" she responded, caught a bit off guard by the question.
"Well then congrats, you're already loads better than the rest of the applicants," Piper giggled appreciatively, not bothering to ask if he was serious or not.
"Well I'm glad to hear it, Tomato-man," she said cheerily. Embry and Quil burst into fits of laughter. Jacob ignored them and continued.
"You remember my name's Jake, right?" he joked, filing her resume. She nodded. "Well ok then. Congrats Piper. Seeing as how you are the only applicant who seems competent, you've got the job,"
Piper graced them with a huge smile and thanked them profusely, and then left, promising to be there bright and early the next morning.
"Your imprint calls you Tomato-man?" Quil managed to bark out between fits of laughter.
As the weeks went by, Quil and Embry grew to be just as thrilled that Jake had hired her as Jake was. She quickly organized her workstation as well as theirs and had the place running like clockwork in no time. Not to mention that she got along so well with all of them.
Every night Piper would drive home from work feeling lighter than air. Everything was panning out much better than she had dared hoped. She loved her new job, her new house was fully moved into and was starting to feel like home, and Mark was happy. She had been sticking to her diet like he asked and she was finally starting to see the difference.
"Mark, I'm home!" she called, locking the door behind her. She walked into the living room and saw Mark in his usual spot, on the couch with a beer, watching the game. Piper flinched; how many beers had Mark already had?
"Hi Sweety," she said, kissing him on the cheek.
"Hey," Mark muttered, not really paying much attention to her. He was in a rotten mood.
A pit of dread was developing in Piper's stomach. If his moodiness was any indication, he had already been drinking quite a bit.
"I think you've had enough alcohol babe," she said cautiously, trying to take the beer from him gingerly. She could smell the beer on his breath. He'd definitely had enough for the night.
"What do you think you're doing?" he growled, jerking the can away from her grasp.
"I just thought you'd had enough…" Piper said nervously, backing up a little.
"What are you? My fucking mother?" he roared, throwing the beer down and grabbing her by the chin roughly.
Piper winced and tried to pull away. He was grabbing her way too hard; she could feel the bruises forming.
After a few moments he let go, tossing her away. "Clean that up," he said gesturing to the beer can he had thrown across the room. "I don't want the room to smell like fucking Bud Light,"
Piper sighed in relief after he walked upstairs to go to bed. At least she had gotten him to put the beer down.
When she woke up the next morning to get ready for work, she didn't look in the mirror at first. She hopped in the shower with her eyes still practically closed, but after she had gotten out and caught her reflection in the mirror, she cringed and panicked for a moment.
Where Mark had grabbed her chin last night, he had left a couple of really ugly bruises. Fortunately she was prepared. She had learned over the years that oil-based concealer hid bruises like these almost perfectly. No one would be able to tell.
That day during work though, the bruises were not the only thing bothering her. She went about her normal schedule, but she wasn't feeling well. Her head was swimming and was having a hard time keeping her balance. Around lunch time, she ended up passing out all together.
Jacob was the first to notice. He was by her side in a flash and barking out orders. "Quil, get her some water. Embry, get a clean rag wet,"
He was in full on panic mode. Should he call an ambulance? Was something seriously wrong? Did she have some kind of disease he didn't know about?
He took the rag from Embry and starting wiping her face with it. He wasn't sure how exactly a wet cloth to her forehead would help, but he had seen it done in movies and it seemed like it made sense. As he kept applying cold water to her face, some of her make-up began to come off.
As more and more make-up came off, Jacob began to notice some discoloration around her chin. He cleared away some more to get a clearer look and was shocked to see an incredibly painful looking bruise.
Piper's eyes soon fluttered open and put her hand over her face. "Well this is embarrassing," she muttered, allowing Jake to help her into a sitting position. She gratefully took the glass of water and took a sip. She had a feeling that she was taking the diet a bit too far. She had been eating only what was absolutely necessary and barely even that the past few days. Mark had really been getting frustrated with how slowly her weight loss was coming.
"Are you ok?" Jacob asked, his eyes burning with anxiety. He had always made fun of Quil for freaking out when Claire fell and scraped her knee; he regretted that now. He was probably worse than Quil had ever been.
"Fine, just a little woozy" she assured him, taking another sip of water. "I think I'm ok now,"
"Hey, how did you get that?" Embry asked, pointing to his own chin. Jacob had planned on asking about it too, although he had planning on using a bit more tact than that.
Piper wasn't sure what he was asking about at first, but then she realized that somehow, her bruise had come uncovered.
"Oh that?" she asked off-handedly, her mind reeling for an excuse. "I fell in the shower this morning. No big deal," Jacob's brow furrowed. She was lying.
Embry, however, laughed. "Fell in the shower? What are you, 80?"
"C'mon Piper, I'll drive you home," Jacob said, offering her his hand and helping her off the floor. He held onto her hand for a moment longer than necessary. Her hand was so small and soft.
"But what about my car?" she asked, clearly not happy with the idea of going home early.
"I'll drive it over to you later," he assured her, gently nudging her towards his own car. She reluctantly gave in and allowed him to help her into his car.
The ride was silent for a while. Piper stared out the window, watching the scenery pass her by and Jacob was thinking of a tactful way to say what he needed to say.
"I have a question…" he eventually said, glancing quickly over to her. She didn't look away from the passenger side window.
"Ask away," she offered.
"Well, it's about your bruises… They're a weird shape,"
He could feel Piper tense up next to him, but she still didn't look away from her window. "Oh really? How so?" Her voice did not betray a bit of the anxiety swirling in her stomach.
"Well… it doesn't look like you fell in the shower. They look like… well they look like finger prints," He had just pulled up in front of her house, so he was able to turn his attention completely to her.
Piper didn't say anything for a while, she just continued to stare out her window. After a few moments, she decided it would be best to say nothing. "Thanks for the ride," she muttered half-heartedly before grabbing her purse and exiting the car quickly.
Jacob felt the sudden urge to bang his head against the staring wheel. He should have handled it better.
Author's Note: So how are you liking everything so far? How do you like the characters? Well executed? Lacking Depth? I would love to hear from you! Hope you guys enjoyed and I'll be updating again soon.