Since the last time I was in Port Angeles, Carlisle and I had been taking care of a serial rapist and murderer I was more on guard than I usually am.
True the dirt bag was locked up and awaiting his trial, but I kept in mind that his low life friends were still around and I didn't want Marie or her grandmother out of my sight and I wanted nothing to take me by surprise.
Mrs. Burke pulled into the parking-lot of a restaurant called Bushwacker, yeah, it sounds like it would be a cheesy themed restaurant, but it was actually kind of cool inside. At least for someone who hasn't stepped foot in a restaurant in decades.
The hostess walked us to a table set for four, but removed the fourth setting. I darted ahead (careful not to move to quickly) and pulled out the chair for Mrs. Burke, before doing the same for Marie. Both smiled grateful at me, as I sat down in a seat next to Marie.
The hostess raised an eyebrow at me, as she handed the menus out, I had hunted earlier that morning so I think it was my eyes that had caught her attention, the very foggy blue that Marie seemed to like had taken over the darkish blue.
Since Marie had begun paying close attention to my eye colour I've taken care to actually overhunt, so my eyes stay a constant pale blue. It was a pain, but unfortunately a necessity, if Marie was going to be THAT observant, then I had to find a way to make sure my eyes didn't get too dark.
Marie and Mrs. Burke dove right into the menu, comparing meals, appetizers, whether Marie should get a salad or soup with her dinner, this luckily occupied them as they momentarily left me to my own devices.
I allowed my eyes to scan the menu, remembering what Carlisle said about finding some kind of soup.
The actual dish didn't matter, I wouldn't be able to taste it let alone enjoy it. All human food tasted the same to us, Nasty. I discovered that one the hard way.
When I was a kid strawberries were one of my favorite foods, I especially loved chocolate covered strawberries or dipped in honey, I could eat hundreds of them in one sitting and still be hunting for more.
So of course as soon as I was allowed out of the house solo, I went to the first movie I had seen in literally a year and then to a fruit/vegetable stand not far from the cinema. When I saw how fresh the strawberries looked I bought about two pounds of them and happily rushed them home.
I had happily showed my brothers my purchase and offered them some, Edward looked at me, sympathy written all over his face and Emmett just chuckled.
That should have been the clue right there, but I just ignored them both. I remember I sat on the front porch content with a book and my strawberries, I took the first one and popped it in my mouth and immediately spit it out. At first I hadn't tasted anything, then a nasty slimy taste had filled my mouth.
At first, I thought maybe I had grabbed a bad one. But it smelt like a strawberry as did all the others none of them smelled bad, but after two or three they all had the same nasty after taste. I don't think I even swallowed one, let alone the entire two pounds. I had to toss them it was a waste of 50 cents, and some happy critter in the woods got my strawberries.
But since that experience I make it a habit to not eat any human food, even at school with the façade we're keeping up I don't eat, no one notices me so no one notices that I throw away a tray of food here or a brown paper-bag there. I think in the 64 years it's been since the strawberry incident I've eaten maybe a comparative pound of human food, I learned my lesson back then, quickly.
But looking over the menu I knew I needed to pick something, anything and break my impressive no food streak.
I glanced at the soups and knew none of them, minestrone, Italian Wedding, what the bloody hell were these things? Also listed was soup of the day, I just hoped that was not only something I recognized, but something well…normal.
"Hi folks, my name is Gwen, I'll be your server tonight, can I start y'all with something to drink?"
Marie looked over at me and grinned, she had heard the southern drawl too, apparently it amused her as much as it amused me.
"Well Gwen, I'll have a glass of white wine, kids?"
Gwen looked at Marie expectantly, her pen poised to take down our orders,
"Coke please." Marie answered, turning her attention back to the menu,
"And for you?"
"Water's fine for me." I replied. Mrs. Burke looked up in surprise
"Chris, you can get a soda if you want."
"It's all right Mrs. Burke, I actually don't drink soda, never really liked the taste." Again she looked surprised, but decided for arguments sake, not to push it.
"Can I get you some appetizers or bread to start with?" Gwen asked, I could feel her eyes staring at me and I resisted the urge to look up and stare back, something like that might chase her off permanently or have the opposite effect and she'd hover more frequently.
"Bread will be fine and I think we're ready to order." Mrs. Burke paused, looking over at me "are you ready Chris?" I nodded and waited patiently while Mrs. Burke and Marie ordered their meals, before Gwen turned to me
"Uh…what's the soup of the day?" I asked cautiously
"I believe it's cream of spinach," Gwen replied, she glanced at her notepad and nodded "Yup, cream of spinach."
"I'll have that please."
Now her face went from curious to concerned.
"Is that all your going to have?"
I smiled sweetly and nodded as I handed my menu to her.
Gwen looked unconvinced, but decided not to push it. Her body language told me she thought I was sickly and anemic, which kind of made me laugh silently to myself, I could also see that though she wasn't going to push it right this moment, she would continue to try and get me to order something extra the rest of the evening of only to make sure I didnt drop dead from starvation in front of her.
Of course…she didn't disappoint. When Gwen brought us our drinks she asked if I wanted anything else, she brought more than enough bread for three people, especially if one of those three only pretended to nibble on the bread. And when our dinners finally came, she kind of hovered near by…to actually make sure I was going to eat the soup.
To appease her, I took a spoonful and holding my breath ate some soup. The taste didn't disappoint and it was all I could do not to make a face as the liquid poured down my throat.
I nearly gagged, I think the only thing that stopped me from doing so, was imagining the soup was actually blood, more specifically the biggest nastiest moose that Denali national park has ever seen. Seeing that moose and picturing that it's blood was in the bowl in front of me really helped. It sounds disgusting I know, but to me it helped.
After I had taken a couple good size spoonfuls, the waitress seemed satisfied and moved on, letting us know she's be back to check on us.
I could see her keeping an eye on me and I made a promise to myself to finish the huge bowl, just to keep her at bay. I knew the minute I stopped eating, she'd be over here.
It was given a fact that Gwen had other patrons…I mean the restaurant was pretty well packed to capacity, but like clockwork, our waitress returned to our table every few minutes to ask the same questions: how the meal was, if we needed refills, stuff like that.
It was actually on the mention of refills I remembered my water and to keep up appearances took a sip of it.
Unlike the soup, the water had no taste, it didn't taste bad nor did it refresh my pallet, it was just water and it was a nice reprise from the aftertaste that accompanied what had once been my mother's specialty and my most favorite of her cooking.
The rest of the meal was pretty much full of Gwen checking up on us every few minutes and bits of small talk between Mrs. Burke, Marie, and I.
After Gwen cleared away our plates and once again tried to tempt us with dessert, which I was grateful Mrs. Burke and Marie both turned down, she brought us the check and we headed back to the car. There are two main cinemas in Port Angeles, the Lincoln Theater is a five minute drive from restaurant and therefore was the winner of the night.
Mrs. Burke tried to pay for my ticket and wouldn't take no for an answer. Not for lack of trying on my part, I mentioned that she had bought me dinner the least I could do was treat her and Marie to the movies, when I mentioned Marie Mrs. Burke stopped arguing and ushered me to the ticket window.
Once inside the theater, Marie made a beeline for the concessions. I followed her close, not forgetting for a moment that I was also here to keep an eye on her and her grandmother. Mrs. Burke was waiting for us near the entrance to the screen, with her there I could easily keep an eye on her, while staying close to Marie.
I hoped I wasn't turning into Edward and trying to protect Marie from life. Quickly I shook my head… no I wasn't protecting her from life I was being a good friend and I wasn't in Marie's shadow 24/7 protecting her from everything that poses a threat.
I was keeping an eye on a friend in a town that had recently been the stalking grounds of a very dangerous human. I was not Marie's guardian.
"What do you want?" I asked. Marie was digging in her pocket for her money and taking a calculated chance that my touch would give her the chills again, I put a hand on her's. She shivered a bit, but knowing it was getting kind of chilly outside to begin with, Marie didn't even mention it. "What do you want?" I repeated.
"Chris you bought the tickets I-"
"And your grandmother bought me dinner and you invited me out tonight. Let me do this. What do you want?"
"Popcorn and a coke," she said smiling. "And a box of sour patch kids."
"What size?" the teen behind the counter asked
"large coke please medium popcorn." Marie answered looking at me for permission. "you'll have some right Chris?"
I tried not to make a face as I nodded
"I may steal a couple kernels." I replied, "if you don't mind."
"Your buying it, of course I don't mind!"
I handed the teen the money and once I had my change. I gathered everything up and carried it towards the theater, Marie protesting the entire walk as she tried to take something from my arms to lighten my load, but I refused to give in and answered her protests with a sly grin.
Turns out, robots and aliens are not what are trying to kill Will Smith in Hitch…in fact, the only thing he has to worry about is being exposed as some kind of date doctor.
Yeah, Hitch is a romantic comedy, but it wasn't actually a bad movie, I think I may suggest it to Emmett and Jasper as something to take Rosalie and Alice to see some time, or suggest they rent it when it comes out on video.
If I know my sisters, they would like it, it's right up their ally and there's enough comedy in it that my brothers wouldn't be completely bored, cause I'll be the first to admit I wasn't, at least not the entire movie.
I don't think I looked at my watch once during the entire movie. I also found out that Marie may be a pretty petit kid, not quite Alice like, but pretty damn close, but she can pack popcorn away.
By the time Will Smith's character Hitch literally takes out the girl he's trying to impress, by kicking her in the head right off the jet-ski into New York Harbour, Marie had polished off most of the popcorn and half the box of sour patch kids.
I kept putting my hand in the popcorn bag, just so she would think I was eating some of it. Though, I really had no desire to eat the popcorn or get the chewy substance that made up the sour patch kids stuck in my teeth. I made a face at the thought.
"Are you having fun?" Marie whispered to me.
"Of course, you?"
She nodded
"I'm glad you could come,"
"So am I."
"Oh sure, now you two decide to become chatter bugs," Mrs. Burke leaned over the seat behind Marie. She had decided to sit behind us to give us, I really hope it was just our space.
"Sorry grandma." Marie replied sheepishly, she leaned back in her chair and stared at the movie screen.
This lasted a few seconds as Marie glanced back over at me and gave me a shy smile, the conversation with my parents flashed through my mind, about leading Marie on, her wanting to be more than friends. I sighed as a profile filled my mind, Marie was daydreaming and I could imagine what she was daydreaming about: she was picturing us going to the eighth grade graduation dance, walking through the halls of high school together…worse still, she was picturing prom…graduation…OK that was enough of that.
Just like Carlisle said, take it one step at a time, get through this date, that's what it truly is, then I could focus on my profile.
I felt Marie's hand slip into my own, she flinched as I had expected her too, but she never said anything, nor did she pull her hand back.
I wasn't sure how long I should let this go, my profiling ability was failing me…I couldn't figure out what my best course of action.
Its rare for me not to get at least a minuscule profile of a given situation, but that's exactly what was happening. I can't remember how it feels to not be able to profile, it's been with me since I became a vampire and that's sixty-five years of having this ability and counting on it, and now I was beginning to remember how it feels to not have it and it was not something I like.
I would let Marie make the decision when to pull away, I found myself wondering for a moment, just how cold my hand was to her.
My memories of how cold Carlisle's body felt is pretty jumbled. I remember he cradled me close…protecting me…carrying me away from the hospital to change me…Change my life forever.
But I was dying, my body was shutting down, so it's hard to remember exactly what was real and what was fill ins from my mind.
I do remember how cold I was, yet how safe I felt. My ability was starting to form, I know it's not what happened, but that's what it felt like because I could sense and know to trust Dr. Cullen.
But the sense of cold, I've held onto that memory because it reminds me that I once did feel warmth as well as cold.
I was so wrapped up in trying to profile everything, I didn't even realize the movie was over and the credits were rolling.
"I can't wait till that goes to DVD!" Marie exclaimed, bringing me back to reality "did you like it Chris? I know it was kind of a girly movie."
I shook my head
"No it wasn't, it was fine Marie. I told you that." I replied, giving her a grin "it was better than I had expected. I'm going to have to suggest it to my sisters, they will definitely like something like that."
Mrs. Burke didn't say anything, but had the biggest smile on her face as we walked out of the theater and towards the car. I held open the door for Marie so she slid in before I darted to the driver side, sliding in behind Mrs. Burke's seat.
