What's up, what's up? Here's chapter two!
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Chapter 2 – Regulars & Burns
Bella Swan
I twirled my fork around in the spaghetti until I had a big enough bite and shoved it into my mouth. Noodles hung from my lips and I noisily slurped them up and swallowed.
Esme appeared in my doorway and gave me a slightly disgusted look, "Please tell me you did not use those table manners at your meeting." She motioned with her finger circling around her own mouth to let me know I needed a napkin.
I quickly wiped the sauce off my mouth and smiled, "First off, no, I was a perfect lady and very polite. They really liked me and said it was a pleasure to meet me, so hah! Second, we got to talking and totally forgot about the 'lunch' part of the lunch meeting so they wrapped up some of the yummy spaghetti for me to go." I quickly told my boss so I could shovel in more food.
"So it went well?" Esme asked excitedly.
"I'd say it went better than well!" I squealed. "I already have a rough first draft close to finished. They were so easy to talk to and it helped that there was like twenty of them to answer all my questions, so by the time I left I had more than enough information."
"That's wonderful Bella!" Esme gushed and gave me a warm hug before dashing off to attend to her boss-woman duties.
A few minutes later, Alice and Rosalie came down the hallway gabbing on and on like a couple of teenage girls.
I chucked my to-go box from Santoreggia in the trash and waited for them to make it over towards me.
"Bella! How did it go? Were you nervous? Were they nice? How's the restaurant? You didn't trip or anything, did you?" Alice started firing off questions like a flippin' cannon.
"Shh! Alice, let her talk!" Rosalie hissed, "So did they have any hot sons?"
I rolled my eyes at these ridiculous ladies I called my best friends.
"The meeting went really well. I was nervous at first and I did trip when I stepped over to shake their very good-looking son's hand…" I smirked at Rosalie, "but he ended up catching me before I made contact with the floor and asked if I really did just trip over nothing."
"What did you say?" Alice asked with wide eyes.
"…Well first my face decided to turn beet red and then I said, 'Yes. It happens quite often so watch out - I've been known to be a danger to everyone and anyone in a ten foot radius,' and tried to laugh it off. It seemed to work, they all thought it was funny and forgot about it quickly."
"Oh Bella…" Rosalie laughed silently and shook her head in shame.
"Hey! It could have been way worse!" I defended.
"You're right Bells - he could have easily just let you tumble to the floor, making you even more embarrassed." Alice pointed out.
"Exactly." I nodded, "But anyway, the meeting went well, their food is to die for, and they invited me to their opening night…and I may have been able to persuade them into allowing me to invite two guests of my choosing…" I trailed off and looked around absentmindedly.
Alice was bouncing up and down excitedly in her towering four-inch heels. I took a moment to wonder what it would feel like to wear them and not have to worry about landing myself in the ER at the end of the day.
Rose looked thoughtful for a moment before she spoke up, "Come on, Bella. We all know you're taking Alice and me with you! I mean who else would you invite?"
"Oh, I dunno…Tanya?" I offered half-heartedly.
Alice stopped bouncing and snorted at the same time Rosalie did.
Okay…so I would probably invite the homeless man in the alley out back before Tanya. She was a… dull person, let's put it that way.
"When is it? When is it?" Alice quickly recovered and resumed her bouncing.
"In about three weeks."
Alice started mumbling to herself about shoes, accessories, and blouses as she disappeared behind the walls of her neighboring cubical.
"You've awakened the beast." Rose snickered and walked past me into her own workspace.
The rest of the day past by relatively quick; I had been informed of my new projects and immediately set to work on my computer, typing furiously and researching my topics.
Before I knew it, five o'clock arrived and I gathered up my things. I swung over and let Alice and Rose know we had to roll, waving goodbye to Esme as we strolled past her open office door.
We piled into Rose's refurbished '63 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, a gift from her father for getting hired at Volterra.
We called her 'Stella' because that's what Rosalie and her dad had named it, after the lady at the junkyard who had sold them all the car parts and looked exactly like the car. You've heard the saying 'you are what you eat'? Well if it was 'you are what you drive,' then Stella would be this Volkswagon Ghia. I know it sounds weird, but this lady honestly has the same facial structure of the front of this car. I've seen pictures.
Ever since Rose was old enough to aim a flashlight at the right spot, her and her dad had been working on Stella. Around the time Rose had moved to Seattle for college Stella was so close to being finished, but was cast aside because Mr. Hale never found it any joy restoring the classic car without his daughter.
Apparently, once Rose had told her parents about the internship, Mr. Hale had a newfound determination to fix the car and surprise his little girl when she called with the good news.
Stella, the actual person, ended up helping Mr. Hale being the extra set of hands he needed to put the finishing touches on.
Last weekend, the Hales, Stella the person, and Stella the car, all drove up to congratulate Rose for getting hired, and you should have heard the scream that poured from her lungs when she saw that heap of metal. I swear my eardrum ruptured.
And it is a really sweet car, but I'm not allowed to call it a car. Stella is part of the family.
Alice and I had our own cars, but we decided carpooling was the best option since all three of us left from the same apartment, worked in the same building, and came back to said apartment after work. And of course, Rosalie had to drive Stella anytime she could. I didn't mind though, we all looked hot riding in that convertible with the top down and our hair blowing in the wind, if I do say so myself.
The only thing that bugged me was that Alice was always faster at calling shotgun than me. So unfair.
We pulled into the parking garage and hopped out, Rose blowing Stella a quick kiss before catching the elevator up to our floor.
Our heels clacked in harmony as we traipsed down the hall and into our apartment.
"Our shift at Vicki's starts in an hour, girls!" Alice reminded us as we went to out respective rooms.
Being an intern meant working for free. The whole point of interning was learning the business you were headed into and gaining experience, which was great, but it lacked in the income department. Our parents helped chip in for our living arrangements, but we had to get jobs elsewhere for money to buy groceries and anything else we needed/wanted.
There was this diner right across the street, Vicky's, which was 50's themed and had the most amazing burgers and milkshakes. None of us knowing how to cook, the girls and I spent most of our nights grabbing dinner there and became very good friends with the owner herself, Vicky Laine.
One night over double-chocolate milkshakes, we poured our complaints, stress, frustrations, joy, and happiness out about interning at Volterra. By the end of our little heart-to-heart moment we had with Vicky, she understood the gist of the financial problems we were facing and offered us jobs as waitresses.
We couldn't say no to the flexible hours, generous salary, and even better tips. Alice, Rosalie and I had been faithfully moonlighting as waitresses with our polyester scarves around our necks, wearing black capri pants, white polka-dot halter-tops, cat eye glasses, and bubble-gum pink jackets faithfully the entire year of our internship. When we had gotten full-time, paying jobs at the magazine, we decided it was time to turn in our two-weeks notice.
To say it was devastating was an understatement. We loved the diner, despite the Halloween costume uniforms, and it was hard to face the fact that I would soon never tie that itchy piece of cloth around my neck again.
I sighed as I slipped on the fake black glasses with rhinestones adorning the edges and waited for Alice and Rose on the couch. I needed to quit being so glum and drum about this, we still had a week and a half left until it was official at least.
Alice scampered out of her room, followed by Rosalie and we linked arms as we made our way out of the apartment, across the street, and into the diner.
"There they are!" Vicki squealed as we walked around the counter and slipped on our aprons.
"And right on time too, that's a first." I snorted. Rosalie had the tendency to lock herself in the bathroom for hours on end while she got ready. Alice and I wouldn't have had a problem with it if that weren't the only bathroom in our apartment.
Alice checked the clock on the wall to see if I was right and smiled when she realized we had walked in the door right when our shift started. Rosalie scowled at me.
I breezed past her, grabbed a handful of straws, a pen, and my ticket notebook before stuffing them into the pockets of my apron.
I stole a glance at my section of tables and noticed no one had arrived for me to wait on yet, so I wandered back into the kitchen.
"How's it cookin', good lookin'?" I called as I swept through the swinging door. Riley grinned and waved at me with his spatula in hand while James and Laurent grunted a hello and returned to their intense thumb war.
"Man Riles, if I had to work with those two I don't know if I would last." I said sympathetically.
"Eh, nothing I can't handle."
Riley was head cook here at Vicki's, the man you went to when you had a craving for something good and fattening. James and Laurent were his useless 'hired help', I guess you could call them, and were absolute twerps.
"Bella! You've got some customers at table six." Vicki hollered through the horizontal window.
I told Riley I'd catch up with him later and plastered a professional smile across my face as I approached the party of three.
It was a group of regulars that came by every week. They were a fun bunch to talk to while I put off my responsibilities for a few minutes and listened to some crazy stories from their work place.
And I have to admit that I might have laughed at a few of them I didn't find funny at all just because they were great tippers… but they didn't need to know that. It was mostly because I didn't understand half the vocabulary they used. Their jobs required equipment with really high-tech names.
Tonight they didn't seem as bubbly as usual though. Apparently, one of them had been offered a new job in The Big Apple and this was the last night they would be able to grab dinner together.
I offered my congratulations on the big move and was promised I would meet the replacement for him soon when they introduced the newbie to their weekly tradition.
It was a pretty busy night and by the time we closed up my feet ached and an annoying little pang inside my head was threatening to burst into a full-blown migraine.
Vicky, Rose, Alice, and I were all seated at the counter rubbing our temples.
Riley appeared out of the back with a tray, "You girls look like you need some sugar." He chuckled and slid us each a root beer float.
I took a big swig and sighed; Riley's floats were heaven in a cup, I couldn't get enough.
"So girls, tell me about your first full day as journalists at the magazine." Vicki gushed with a twinkle in her eye.
"Amazing. Nerve-wracking, but amazing." Rose sighed.
"Yeah, it was great but I'm exhausted!" Alice huffed as the three of us gaped at her. Mary Alice Brandon was never exhausted.
She didn't notice our expressions and turned to Riles, "Do you make Mountain Dew floats? I could really use an energy boost." At which Riley proceeded to give her a disgusted look, but turned to go make her one anyway.
"NO!" Rosalie and I roared at the same time. When Alice drank Mountain Dew she went haywire. I only allowed her one 8 oz. bottle in the morning otherwise she'd get all jittery and twitchy. MD was to Alice as like, 200 of those little pixie sticks were to children.
"But guysss!" she whined, "I'm sooo tireeeddd!"
"No, no, no, no! You know if you drink some now you won't be able to go to sleep and then Rose and I will have to listen to you stumble around the apartment all night."
"You suck." She pouted and slumped back in her seat.
We left shortly after that little incident and trudged back into our apartment, all three of us collapsing on the couch in the living room.
Rose had cocooned herself in the left corner while I sprawled over the remaining space and Alice hung across our laps.
Our apartment consisted of your standard kitchen, living room, three bedrooms, and one bathroom. It had this fluffy gray carpet throughout the entire place and boring white walls. Our furniture was loud and vibrant though. When the three of us moved all our stuff in, we realized nothing matched. Alice had a pink hammock (yes, a real hammock that was actually hanging from our ceiling at this very moment), pink curtains, basically pink everything. Rose had a mixture of green and purple pieces, like her funky, lime green box table that our TV rested on and a deep purple lamp shaped like a mascara wand. I was the one with the couch that we were now lying on. It was a navy blue along with a matching lounge chair.
So when you threw them all together, it looked like a rainbow monster crashed into our room and threw up. But I loved it.
"Hey guys…" Rosalie said just above a whisper, "Where do you think we'll be this time next year? I know around this time last year I would have never guessed I'd have found you two or gotten hired at a magazine…" she trailed off.
"This time last year I was begging my parents to let me move out here." Alice said softly, "I didn't know what would happen once I moved to Seattle, but it was the closest, biggest city my mom and dad would even consider…"
"I remember exactly what I was doing the very day a year ago. My father sat me down and said, 'Now Bells, as much as your mother and I love having you around, you gotta get out of this place and make something of yourself. You need to put that college education of yours to good use.'" I told them in my best Charlie imitation, "Then he slapped down a brochure about post-grad life and made me read it." I laughed.
"What about you Rosie?" Alice nudged her with a small foot.
"I tried out cosmetology school. It wasn't my thing. You should have seen how many different colors my hair was that month." She snorted.
For a little bit we all just laid there, sorting through our own thoughts.
A year was a long time once you realized how much can happen in those 365 days. I could get promoted, have a boyfriend, fiancé, husband…psh, yeah right…I could move into an apartment by myself, I could move to a different city, different country, move back home…no, forget that…
"I propose we make a pact with each other." Alice broke the silence, "This time next year, no matter where we are or what we're doing, we get together to catch up at Vicki's and look back at everything that brought us there. All the ups, downs and in-betweens."
"You think we won't still be together all the time in a year?" Rosalie asked, a little worried.
"I have no clue. I hope so, but part of the thrill of the future is never knowing."
...ZzZZzz…
The next morning I woke up to a blinding light shining right in my eyes.
I'll miss having corneas…I thought as I threw an arm over my face.
I made a move to get up and groaned at the soreness of my muscles and joints. Sleeping on a couch with two other full-grown women seemed like a good idea at the time, when I was too tired to crawl into my own bed.
I lifted Alice's head off my stomach and stood up, stretching my back. That's when I realized it was Thursday. And we had actual jobs now, which required us to be there on time.
…What time is it?
I reached in the cushions and retrieved my cell phone from a cushion under Rosalie's butt. It was 7:38.
"Shit! Alice, Rose, get up!" I shook each of their shoulders and started running around like a mad woman.
I sprinted to the kitchen, started up the coffee maker and snatched a bottle of Mountain Dew out of the fridge for Alice and chucked it at her.
"Ahh! That was my head you freak!" She growled.
"I don't care! We have about," I glanced at the clock on the oven this time, "twenty minutes to get to work on time!"
Rosalie sprung straight up and bolted to the bathroom, "How am I supposed to get pretty in a fourth of the time it usually takes me!" she wailed from behind the closed door.
"I don't know, but you better figure it out quick because Alice and I need to get in there too!" I kicked the door for extra effect to let her know I wasn't kidding.
Alice was still sprawled across the couch rubbing her forehead with one hand, clutching the bottle of caffeine in the other, and her legs thrown over the back.
"Alice did you not hear me? I said twenty minutes until we have our butts at the office!" I practically screeched.
She waved me off and unscrewed the cap to her drink. Then the girl who called me a freak chugged the entire thing in ten seconds flat! I watched as her eyes widened and she started to gain energy.
"Okay, I'm going to go pick out yours, mine, and Rose's clothes - you make sure she's out of that bathroom in five minutes!" she ordered and dashed off.
I planted my feet firmly in front of the bathroom and started persistently banging on the door. Rosalie never made a move to open it, so I sat there knocking for what felt like forever. I had just started to drum out the beat to a Spice Girls song when the door flung open and I face planted on the tile floor.
"Get up Bella! You only have like thirteen minutes!" Rose pulled up on my arms and helped me get to my feet again.
"I am aware of that." I said flatly as I brushed myself off.
Alice came barreling through us and dropped the handful of beauty products she had pile din her arms on the vanity.
"Get over here Bells, I only have three minutes to put apply your five minute face!" she said hurriedly.
I plopped down on the stool and let Alice poke and pull at my eyes, cheeks, and lips, "There, all done, now go put on the clothes I laid out on your bed."
"Yes, mother."
I threw on the outfit Alice picked out and hobbled around the kitchen while I tried to put on my shoes and fill my thermos with coffee at the same time.
Bad idea.
Just as I slipped my foot through the last heel I started wobbling. Naturally, I grabbed onto the edge of the counter to right myself. This would have worked if it weren't for the scalding cup of coffee that I bumped with my hand.
It tipped over and the brown liquid came cascading down onto the floor.
"AHH! Hot! Hot! Hot! Motherof- FURGHH!" I bounced up and down, clutching my burning fingers.
"What the hell is going on in here Bella?" Rosalie screamed when she rushed into the kitchen and saw me hopping all over the place.
"Coffee…shoes…fell…HOT!" gasped.
Then Alice came to see what all the ruckus was about, "Bella, if you got coffee all over those clothes I will physically hurt you."
My loving best friends everyone. Neither cares about the third degree burn on four of my fingers, no. The inanimate clothes are more important than that!
"Cool your jets Mary Alice, nothing got on your precious outfit." I said as I stepped over the puddle and ran my hand under the faucet.
I grabbed a paper towel and wrapped my reddened skin before unraveling the rest of the roll and laying it on top of the spilled coffee. "There. I'll clean it up after work, we have to go."
We all grabbed our bags and rushed out the door, coffee-less.
Rosalie whipped into the nearest parking pace and we jumped over the seats, not even bothering to open a door, and raced to catch the closing elevator doors.
"Hold the door, please!" Alice called desperately to the lone person in the elevator already.
A hand shot out and the doors stuttered before opening again.
"Thank you so much." I panted as we filed into the small space.
"Not a problem ladies." A smooth, deep voice said in amusement.
I would know that voice anywhere.
"Good morning Carlisle." The three of us greeted him together like a 5th grade class.
"Running late girls?"
"Yeah… and I had a bit of an accident on our way out the door." I blushed and lifted up my hand to show him the damage.
"Ooh. That's looks like it stung." He winced, "Have you put anything on it?"
"No, running late, remember?" I smiled sheepishly.
He gently grabbed my hand and ran his cool fingers over my searing ones. It felt sooo good. "I think Esme has a first aid kit up in her office, come with me and we'll get you all bandaged up."
I just nodded and followed him to her office when the doors dinged open. Glancing over my shoulder, I found Alice and Rosalie glaring enviously at me as Mr. Studly Cullen held my hand as we walked to Esme's office.
Esme was on the phone when we entered, but Carlisle walked over to her desk and pulled the first aid kit out of one of her drawers. She gave him a questioning look, but when he pointed at me she nodded in complete understanding.
I sat down in one of the chairs in front of Esme's desk and let Carlisle tend to my injured hand.
"How did you manage to burn four fingers Isabella?" he asked curiously.
"Well there's the fact that I'm clumsy already and it didn't help that I tried to put my shoes on at the same time I was trying to fix my coffee…" My cheeks turned pink again.
Carlisle just shook his head and rubbed the cortisone cream on my skin before covering them with gauze.
"Good as new. Now, if you need a cup of coffee please have someone else pour it for you. I might not be here to tend to your medical needs next time." He teased.
"I'll try to stay out of harms way, I promise. Thank you Carlisle." I giggled like a thirteen-year-old girl and left the room. I mean he just said he would tend to my needs… How was I supposed to react?
…ZzZZzz…
Another day past by with working on my article for the upcoming issue of the magazine, lunch with the girls, a meeting with Esme, and waiting tables at the diner.
When we got home that night we fell onto the couch again, much like the night before.
But this time I made sure to set an alarm.
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Emeleigh
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