I think this is the longest chapter yet. Thanks for being so patient for this chapter. It took me awhile to get it just right. Enjoy!

Leah's POV

Chapter 6

The whole "I'm dating for the first time in years" thing didn't become real until I saw Vinnie when I walked down the stairs. He was gorgeous, and there I was, probably looking like some version of Barney with boobs. I usually wasn't so down on myself. I am pretty, but nice clothes just weren't my style. I never felt comfortable in them. My mom practically threw her check book at me when she found out I was going out with him.

"Take whatever you need," she had said.

"I don't have the money to pay you back."

She smiled. "Think of it as an early birthday present."

I didn't bother pointing out that my birthday was in June to her.

I managed to find some boutique that I didn't realize existed outside of Port Angeles. The ensemble caught my eye for some reason. It probably had something to do with the top's color, which I had been found of ever since I was a child.

He walked with me out the door, and managed to open the passenger door for me.

I raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Didn't anyone tell you that chivalry was dead?" I said as I slid into his truck.

He smiled. "I guess I missed that memo." He shut the door and made his way to the driver's seat.

His fingers quickly glided the key into the ignition, starting the engine. He put the heat on full blast.

"It's freezing out there," he commented. I noticed for the first time that his breath was just a little visible in the car.

I shrugged. "I like the cold."

"That's only because you're so hot all the time."

I smirked a little at the sentence's double meaning, and he cleared his throat nervously. "I mean… Well… Never mind." He started backing out of the driveway.

I decided that this would be the appropriate time to ask a pretty good question. "Where are we headed?"

He chuckled. "Well, actually, there's a little problem."

Oh god. What could it be? "Problem?"

"Yes. I never managed to ask you something."

He sure knows how to drag something out. "What?"

"What you're favorite place to eat is."

Here I was thinking that it was something serious!

I sighed. "Anything's fine, I guess." Food was food, in my opinion. I didn't enjoy eating in public because of my diet. The guys in the pack could get away with it, the average person simply passing it off, thinking "Boys will be boys." The same policy didn't apply to the only she-wolf.

What a sexist would it is out there.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Yep."

"So, I could pick some stuffy French restaurant in Seattle, and you'd be completely cool with it?"

I glared at him. He already knew the answer to that.

He chuckled at my odd expression. "You have to have a favorite food joint."

I thought to myself, and could only think of one place. "Well, there's this diner not too far from here, a little to the south. It's decent."

He smiled. "There we go. Just point me in the right direction."

I told him which expressways to take, pointing from side street to side street. We finally pulled up to the place about ten minutes later.

"I've never heard of this place," he commented as he turned the car off.

I shrugged. Jay's Diner wasn't anything extravagant –or even in town –but it was my favorite. I got out the car and walked alongside him to the door, which he held for me. I rolled my eyes and he took notice of this.

"I'm just being polite," he chuckled.

"Whatever." Wow, great job, Leah. You make it sound as if he forced you to come here.

"You don't always have to be the gentleman," I said, trying to fix things.

He smiled slightly, looking down at me. "I'm not always. Keep that in mind," he winked.

I took a quick inhale of breath and averted my eyes from his. I swear, sometimes I think he just enjoys having that affect on me. But then again, I was trying pretty hard to have him not notice my reactions to him.

I was ninety-nine percent sure I was doing horrible at it.

"Table for two?" the scrawny host asked us.

"Yes," Vinnie and I answered at the same time. We glanced at each other for a brief moment before I looked away, a little embarrassed.

The host eyed us curiously as he got our menus. "This way please." He guided us to a small booth with one talking family and a few barely adolescent kids taking the tables surrounding us.

We sat on opposite sides of the table, and he opened up his menu.

"Why is this your favorite place?" he asked me, not looking up from the menu.

"It's my favorite place to get a meal. Me and-" I stopped.

"Yes?" he urged.

" I came here with my father a few times, before he went to the hospital." I chuckled dryly. "Maybe it was the food that gave him the heart attack." I knew that wasn't true. It was my fault my dad was dead now. Me and that stupid werewolf gene.

I felt something soft touch my hand across the table. I stared as his hand laid on mine.

"I'm so sorry about what happened to your dad," he said sadly. "I know how much you loved him."

"Thank you," I whispered. You'd think talking about my father's death would take away from the feeling of his hand on mine, but no such luck.

Slowly, he pulled his hand away.

"Let's talk about less serious things," he commented.

I nodded in agreement. I wanted to have a good time with him.

"Let's play twenty questions."

I stared at him and smirked. "A little childish, don't you think?"

He shook his head and smiled. "I don't think so at all. It's a get-to-know-you game, and I'd like to get to know the person who got me into this diner."

I smiled. "Alright."

At that time, a tall, young blonde guy came to the table. "Hi, my name is Andrew, and I'll be your server today." It might've been just me, but I could have sworn he was acting as if he was talking just to me. "Could I get you something to drink?"

"Pepsi, please," I responded.

"Sounds great." He wrote it down on his pad and turned to Vinnie. "And for you?" He seemed to say it with a little less enthusiasm.

"Orange soda, please."

The guy didn't bother writing it down, and headed to another table.

I looked at Vinnie, who seemed to be a little spent. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Let's get this game started."

I nodded. "I get to go first."

He looked confused. "Says who?"

"Ladies always go first. I thought you were the gentleman, Vinnie," I smiled.

He laughed. "Okay. Ask away, Leah." He gestured out to me.

"Why do you seem so ticked off with the waiter?"

He looked taken aback, and stared at his folded hands on the table. "I don't know, I guess I just don't like him."

"Why?"

"That's another question, and it's not your turn."

I glared a little but waited for his.

"What's your favorite color?"

How basic was that? "I thought we were playing this to get to know each other's likes."

He shrugged. "It's a question, nonetheless."

"I like the color violet a lot."

"Really?"

I nodded. "It's different. It stands out, but it's not like the flaming red or the cool blue. It's a mix of both."

He nodded. "That's pretty deep. I must say, it does look great on you."

Before I got bother thinking of a retort back –which I doubt I'd be able to; He had convinced me in just a few words that I didn't look like Barney –the waiter came back with the drinks, and put them down. "Are you ready to order?" he asked me.

"The steak sandwich, medium well."

"Great choice," he smiled. He turned to Vinnie and waited, not bothering to ask him.

"Same with me, medium rare."

The waiter looked back at me as he picked up the menus. "They'll be right out."

I mumbled a "Thanks" and watched Vinnie glare at him. I chuckled.

Vinnie looked down at me. "I swear, if that guy looks at you like that again…" he shook his head, taking a deep breath.

"Like what?"

"That counts as a question."

"No!" I said quickly. "I take it back."

He smiled.

"Why haven't you been here in so long? You didn't even visit for summer or breaks in between semesters."

He sighed. "I guess I just wanted to get away from La Push. It's so gloomy and rainy here all the time. But…" he trailed off.

"But what?"

He shrugged. "It's home. I missed it. I like it here, but I forgot about it. You can only take the LA sun and sand for so long before you're blinded by it."

"How profound," I said mostly to myself.

"It comes with being chivalrous. You get pretty good at monologue speeches."

I laughed. My cheeks were almost hurting by the amount of smiling I was doing tonight. I hadn't smiled like this in God knows how long.

"You're turn," I commented, taking a sip of my drink.

"Hmm… Oh, I have a great one," he said excitedly.

"Go on."

"Why is it that you always call me 'Vinnie'?"

I was confused. "Because it's your name?" I said it as a question. I was puzzled by the statement. "Same reason why people call me 'Leah'."

"It's not, though. My name's Vincent."

"What, they don't use nicknames in LA?"

That's not what I mean. Everyone calls me Vincent or Vince. You're the only one who calls me Vinnie on a regular basis. My mom says it once in a blue moon when she purposefully is trying to embarrass me. Embry does it to tick me off once in a while, but that's all. You're it."

I thought for a moment. He was right. No one called him Vinnie, at least not from what I heard.

"I guess… Well… I call you Vinnie because you look like a Vinnie to me."

He looked at me suspiciously.

I put my hands up in defense. "Look, I know it's a crap answer, but it's all I can come up with. I have no idea why I call you that."

He nodded in satisfaction. "That's acceptable, then."

The waiter came out with our food the next moment, placing the plates in front of us on the table. "Will you need anything else?" he asked me.

I was about to answer when Vinnie stepped in. "No, she's fine," he commented.

The young man's face went pink, and he quickly made an exit.

"My, you are a jealous one, aren't you?" I said as I bit into my sandwich.

I'm not jealous," he defended. "He's the one who's jealous. I'm the one with the beautiful date, not him."

There he was, being dorky and corny again. Nevertheless, I felt my ears prickling with heat, always the first signal that blood was rushing to my face.

"You're just doing that gentleman stuff again."

He smiled. "I'm only saying the truth, Leah."

I didn't bring up the topic of how attractive I was again as we both ate our sandwiches in a pleasant silence.

A few minutes later, he asked me, "Is it my turn yet?"

I chuckled. "I'm not even sure."

"Well, I'll ask before I forget. I believe that the whole point of this dinner was to debate on the greatness that is Leah Clearwater, which is what you so strongly disagree with me about."

I wiped the barbecue sauce of my face and stared down at my lap. I wasn't sure what to tell him.

"I'm sorry if it's another one of those personal questions," he said quietly.

"No, it's alright. I guess you have a right to know."

He waited patiently as I got my words together, trying to decipher what I should and shouldn't tell him. "Sam was my first love back in high school. I thought it'd always be like that, me and him. It seemed so simple. When Emily came into town to visit me…" This hurt the most, remembering that one single moment that I saw their eyes meet for the first time, and knowing that something was off, if only with Sam.

"When I introduced them, it was like love at first sight for them. They both loved me, but they loved each other even more. After that, I just sort of got angry with the world, which is where all my hair went," I said gesturing to my short tresses.

"People didn't want to be around me anymore. I just made them miserable all the time, in the subtlest of ways." Ergo, thinking harsh thoughts while I was in wolf form. "I was just turned into a bad person."

"You don't seem like that now," he commented.

I smiled. One of my bigger fears was that he wouldn't accept me after he found out I was just angry, not realizing that it was more in the past than ever. "That's because I'm not. I started to hang around your brother, Quil and Seth more than Sam's group of friends like I always had. Jake's in Embry's clique, too, of course." I almost laughed, replacing the "pack" for the more cliché word. "They took me in like another family. They helped me heal."

He nodded. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being so honest with me. That must've been difficult for you to explain to me."

"It's the first time I've had to explain it to someone, to be honest. Everyone else already knows."

He took a breath. "I really have missed a lot, huh?"

I chuckled. "Just a little."

The waiter came back with the bill and placed it on the table, not bothering to say anything as he picked up the dishes to take back.

I reached for the bill, but he got it before I could.

"Oh, c'mon," I sighed. Surely he'd let me pay at least half.

"I don't know how you didn't see it coming," he said in-between laughs as he got his wallet out. "I've been the gentleman all night. Of course I'll be paying the bill, too. It would negate everything I've done all night if I didn't."

I let him have his fun and put some dollar bills into the pocket as he got up. "You ready?"

I nodded, getting up out of the seat and walking with him outside to the truck.

It was a toned down ride back to my house, though I did constantly bug him about him and the waiter's near bout.

"I would've kicked his ass," Vinnie said confidently. "But you know how much of a good guy I am."

I laughed. "Oh, of course."

When we pulled up to my driveway, he undid his seatbelt.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

He glared at me, as if the answer was obvious.

I rolled my eyes. "Why, of course, the knight will be escorting me to the castle's front door."

"Of course."

We both got out the car and walked side by side slowly up to my front porch.

"I really had a great time tonight, Vinnie," I said quietly.

"I did, too. Thanks for showing me the great place that is Jay's Dinner. Well, aside from the terrible service."

I laughed.

For a moment, in the dull light coming in from the already opened door –Seth must've done it for me –Vinnie's eyes cut through me. It was like I couldn't escape them, even if I wanted to. The way he was looking at me, the way my heart was beating even faster than usual in my chest, I could hardly bare it.

In a smooth but prolonged moment, Vinnie leaned down and I felt his warm lips kiss the corner of my lip chastely. I felt frozen where I was.

He smiled down at me and held my hand for a second. "I'll call you tomorrow, Leah."

I nodded my head quickly as he backed off the porch, my hand slipping from his grasp. I turned and shut the door, leaning my back on it.

I touched the left corner of my lip gently with my fingertips, the warmth from him still seeming to be there.

Needless to say, I smiled like an idiot as I made my way upstairs to my room.

I hope you guys didn't think they'd be making out on the first date or anything.

Public service announcement: Recently, it was brought to my attention that some people are intentionally plagiarizing other people's stories, as what happened with astraldrop11and her beautiful story. Seriously people, if you're doing this, could you be a grown up and STOP!?

Oh, and I hope you guys loved this chapter as much as I did. I think it's my favorite!

Cocoa