DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT. IF I DID, I WOULD BE TOO OCCUPIED WITH EDWARD TO WRITE THIS LOVELY STORY.

This chapter is dedicated to Saklutzy.

Thank you for the wonderful reviews.

..now if only some of my other readers could follow suite. ;)

The girl's room was empty. One of the three stalls had no door, and the mirror was cracked. It was a moot point though, so I turned on the nearest sink and grabbed a few paper towels. Most of my blouse was stained a dark brown and I knew that no amount of washing was going to get it out. I rung out my hair and dabbed at the worst parts of my skirt. Then I caught site of my face in the mirror. Though it was distorted because of the crack, I could plainly see how badly my mascara and eyeliner had smeared. I cursed myself for not thinking to use waterproof.

So, just to take inventory, my shirt was stained to oblivion, my hair was less sticky, but it was also wet, and now I looked like Chuckey's Bride because of all my smeared eye make up. Great. Just great. Jacob would probably never want to go out with me again because I seemed to be a magnet for disaster. Who else could have managed to dump two glasses of soda on themselves with in five minutes?

I washed my face off, cleaned my shirt as best I could, then took a step back to see myself in the mirror more clearly. Sure enough, I still looked like a wreck, and I smelled like cherry soda as a bonus. Atleast I had gotten all the make-up out from under my eyes. I took a deep breath and readied myself to go face Jake. I was beyond embarrassed, but I could get past it. Maybe we could get the pizza to go, go shopping to find me a different shirt, and then eat the pizza in the car. But that would probably make Jake unhappy. I shook my head to clear away all absurd thoughts and headed towards the door of the dingy bathroom.

I was reaching for the door handle when my foot slipped on an unseen puddle and I crashed to the floor ungracefully, landing on my knees and smacking my head against the door in front of me. My knees and my forehead hurt a lot. On top of that, my skirt was wet because I was now sitting in the puddle I had just slipped on. What the hell had I done to deserve this? Was someone trying to tell me something? I muttered a few unintelligible swear words as I stood up slowly, opened the door, and cautiously made my way back to the table. Jake smiled at me warmly and I smiled back.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently as I scooted my chair up to the table.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Do you want to leave? I understand…" I waved my hand around dismissively.

"No, I'm fine. What's a little bit of soda when it's all said and done?" I said nonchalantly. Inside I was ready to breakdown and cry, on the outside I was smiling at him like I hadn't a care in the world. I was good at deceiving people when I wanted to.

"If you're sure. The waitress should be here with our salads any minute." I nodded my head. I liked the green olives and croutons that always topped the salads, and I tolerated the tomatoes, but I hated lettuce.

"So, um, I heard it's supposed to be sunny next week," I began. I knew it was a feeble conversation starter, but it was better than nothing.

"Hm. Maybe we can go cliff diving next week then. Or on a picnic."

"That would be fun. I saw this really pretty tree the other day when I was hunting. It was all gnarled and twisted and magical looking. Maybe we could try to find it again." I suggested as I took stared at the abstract art on the walls.

"Oh yeah, and we can have a tea party with the gnomes when we find your magical tree." He smirked playfully. I rolled my eyes, but otherwise let it go. If he didn't want to help me look for the magical tree, I would find it on my own.

The waitress came back with our salads and two more drinks. I carefully kept my arms by my sides. As she set it down I noticed she was leaning all over the table, her boobs falling out of her shirt every which way as she did so. I ground my teeth together to keep from calling her a skank. After she had sashayed about the table to her little heart's content she smiled at Jake and walked off. What a bitch. I began picking at my salad, eating the crunchy squares of toast.

Jacob's eyes never left mine as he ate and it made me feel a lot better. Even though I was drenched in soda and the skank, er, waitress was all over him, he would still rather pay attention to me than his food. And most guys would take food over their significant other any day. That's what was different about Jake; He really cared about me.

I watched as he ate his salad somewhat savagely. Most of the time when you think about salad the word dainty, or prim comes to mind. With Jake, neither was the case. He reminded me of a steam-shovel. When he was done the waitress showed back up, as if on cue, [she was probably keeping tabs on us from the kitchen. Stalker.] with our pizza. She set it on the table and appeared to almost stumble into Jake, her upper body rubbing all over him. He leaned away from her and she straightened up, looking slightly offended.

"Isn't there anything else I can do for you?" she drawled slowly, still speaking only to him. I narrowed my eyes at her. It would be too much fun to yank every single strand of hair out of her desperate little head. I smiled at the idea.

"No. That'll be all." He replied, looking at me, willing me to understand this was not his fault. He wasn't stupid; surely he knew she was hitting on him. Why couldn't he just tell her to go away? She stalked off and I watched her go. As soon as she disappeared into the kitchen I stood up.

"I'll be right back, I promise. You go ahead and start eating." I said cheerfully as I walked back to the kitchen. Pushing the heavy door aside, I saw her complaining to another waitress. My shoulders back, I pulled all my nerves together and approached her.

"Excuse me ma'am. Can I have a word with you?" I asked politely. She looked me over haughtily.

"'Bout what, kid?"

"I'd like to speak to you in private. I think it would be better for both of us,"

"I don't get off for another hour so just spit it out and go away,"

"Fine. I want you to stay the hell away from my b-, my boyfriend." I faltered slightly on the word boyfriend. Was he my boyfriend? I wasn't sure if boyfriend really covered it, but lover was surely the wrong word. I would just have to go with it.

"Oh, your boyfriend?" she laughed cruelly. "Listen honey, I don't give a damn about you or your boyfriend. Now run along." Her friend laughed with her and it took all I had not to slap her across the face.

"I pity you." I said after a moment. She whirled around to glare at me.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I pity you. You're lonely and desperate, and you don't have any self respect. If you did, you would have the courtesy to keep your hands off someone who is already in a relationship. I pity you for that." I smiled at her calmly, turned myself around, and walked out of the kitchen. If there was one thing my parents had done, it was teach me how to be courteous and diplomatic,

I resumed my seat across from Jake, he was already well into his second slice of pizza.

"Did something happen?" his tone was wary.

"No, nothing at all." I tried to make my voice sound light even though I was shaken up on the inside.

"If you say so." He went back to his pizza. I grabbed a slice and put it on my plate. My only issue with pizza was that it never had enough salt. As I set the salt shaker back down on the table, it turned over, scattering tiny crystal-like beads every where. Jake shook his head teasingly, a playful smile on his wonderful face. I snatched the upturned shaker and dumped a small pile of salt into my hand, which I then tossed over my shoulder. I was a little superstitious and whenever I spilled salt, I believed it was good luck to throw a hand full behind me. What I forgot was that we were sitting in a now-crowded restaurant. My salt hit the person at the table behind me in the back of the head.

The woman was tiny and wrinkled with thin gray hair. The salt clung to her scalp and I raised my eyes to the ceiling, thinking there would be an answer to my problems there. Needless to say, there was not. Jacob was working very hard to keep a straight face; his sharp teeth wrapped around his huge fist so as not to laugh. The woman turned around after a moment and I saw her staring at us out of the corner of my eye. I was ready to die. What had a nice old lady like herself ever done to me? Absolutely nothing, yet here I was throwing salt on her.

"Jake, stop it," I cried exasperated. With some trouble, he removed his fist from his mouth and lowered his eyes.

"I'm sorry, it's just funny."

"No it's not." I hissed. As I did so I brought my hand down on the table somewhat forcefully. It happened to connect with my fork (who actually uses their fork when eating pizza?). The fork, in turn, flew up through the air and landed on the floor beside me with a clang. A few people, mostly children, turned to stare. I thought for sure my face would melt, I was blushing so deeply. I bet Rosalie didn't have any issues like this on her first date. Jake couldn't keep himself from laughing this time, and soon enough I was laughing with him. The sheer stupidity was enough to set anyone off, or so I thought.

We got several annoyed glances from the other customers and one little kid even threw a mushroom at Jacob, which made him laugh harder. We finally shut up when the manager started glaring at us from the hostess's podium near the door. I kicked Jake under the table and gingerly bent over in my chair to pick up the fork. I laid it next to the salt shaker that had started all the nonsense to begin with and we commenced with our meal.

After we had finished eating Stacie, or Lacy, or whatever the hell her name was brought us the check with out so much as a word. She did not stick around, but left in detached anger, for which I was very thankful. Jake placed a few crumpled bills inside the black bill-holder-thing and stood up. I went to stand also, but he motioned for me to stay seated. He pulled my chair out for me and offered me his hand, which I took gratefully. If I was holding on to him, perhaps I wouldn't fall again. The hostess looked a little regretful as we walked out the door.

As we stepped outside into the cool night air I smiled. It was so wonderful to be with Jake, even if out date had gone awry. We were headed towards the car when I heard a loud, drunken voice behind me.

"Hey there sweet thing! Your boyfriend thinks he's so big and tough? How about you hang with us awhile? I'm sure he wouldn't mind!" My throat tightened, but I willed myself to stay calm.

"Just ignore them," I said softly, so only Jake would hear. We kept walking. It wasn't much farther to the Rabbit.

"Hey sweetheart? Don't you hear me talkin' to you? I said ditch the loser and come hang with us!" With out turning around, I knew they were moving toward us; I could hear their footsteps. Jake's arms tensed up and I knew he was about to do something stupid.

"Leave it alone, it's not worth it." I said. Instead he whirled around to glower at the small posse of underage drinkers.

"Hey, dumb ass, shut the hell up, or I'll beat your tail." Jake threatened. I wanted to smack him in the forehead. That was an invitation for trouble. What if they got into a fight and Charlie showed up? We would be so screwed and he knew it.

"Don't tell me what to do! I'll take you any day. And when I get done beatin' you down, I'll take your girl out and show her what it's like to be with a real man. Ain't that right, sweetie?" I looked away in disgust. We needed to get outta there. Immediately.

"Come on. I don't want to do this right now." I said, tugging on his hand. He ignored me.

"Bring it." Jake's voice was quiet and though his hands were shaking violently, his expression was calm, aside from his eyes. The boy rushed forward, hoping to knock Jake off his feet I suppose. His arms were flailing every which way as he ran toward us blindly. Jacob reached on hand out and pushed him to the side.
He fell over sideways and hit the gravel lot with a soft thud.

"Ouch! That hurt man!" he called hoarsely at Jake. Instead of answering Jacob led me to the car, opened my door for me and waited for me to climb in. I did so hurriedly and clicked my seatbelt. He got in, turned on the car, and backed up slowly, careful not to hit the idiot still lying on the ground. I felt something cold and metallic run up against my ankle on the floor of the car. I picked it up and studied it carefully as we pulled out onto the black asphalt.

It was a tiny can of pepper spray. It must have been what Dad had handed me earlier. It probably fell from the seat when I had gotten out of the car after our arrival at Pacific Pizza. I had forgotten all about it. I giggled softly, causing Jacob to look up from the road.

"Pepper spray?" he asked. I nodded.

"Edward's idea." He snorted and smiled at him. "Daddy doesn't realize how protective you are of me." I threw the can into the back seat and stared out the window. The road sped by us almost too quickly. After a moment I looked over at him and pursed my lips, trying to word my request correctly so he wouldn't misunderstand me.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing, it's just that, well… I'm not sure how to put this without giving you the wrong idea. I don't really want to go home yet, and I don't really want to go back to town. Maybe we could go by the rez and see the beach for a minute if it's okay with you?" He nodded, seeming to understand what I was trying to convey. I wanted some time with him to just think; with out people to encroach on our still-new relationship. He turned the car around seconds later and we headed off towards La Push.

Another chappie, as promised. I hope you enjoyed it. Please, please review my story. It means alot to me and constructive criticism is

always welcome.

Thanks.

oo

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