I loved hearing what some of you thought was going to happen down the road in this little fic... very interesting theories ;)

All errors are mine. It won't be as pretty as when Sophie edits for me, but she's enjoying her break from school so I can't wait until she's back!

And just an extra note: this is probably my favorite chapter of all so far :)

Chapter 6 – Cootie Queens & Dust Bunnies
Bella Swan

"Burn one loaded wimpy, drag it through the garden, eighty-six the breath, and melt some snow on it! A side of frog sticks, and I'll need a lighthouse to go with that! An Atlanta Special – paint it red – then give me one shake in the hay! I also need two bun pups, Mickey Rooney and stretch 'em! This one's a PITA, so make it snappy!"

I slid the ticket onto the holder in the window so Riley could read over the order again if he needed to. Tonight was beyond busy at the diner, which was to be expected for a Friday and I was already getting exhausted after just having been here an hour so far.

The customers I had just taken an order from were a couple of college guys who were a little too picky for their own good. It took me five trips back and forth to their table for them to finally make a decision on what they wanted to eat.

In 'regular talk', they had ordered one hamburger with veggies on it, minus the onions and added some melted Swiss cheese on the bun. A side of fries with a new bottle of ketchup since theirs apparently wasn't full enough, a cherry coke, a strawberry milkshake, and two large hot dogs with mustard and relish.

Vicki had required all her employees to learn how to speak 'diner lingo' so that way everything went along with the theme. It actually came in handy quite often, because I could call my customers a pain in the ass (PITA) right in front of them and they wouldn't even know it.

I hid back behind the counter while I waited for the two boys' cokes and the milkshake to get finished. Once Riley rang the bell pushed them through the window I went over in the corner where we kept napkins and straws and hocked two huge wads of spit into their drinks.

I heard footsteps behind me, so I quickly stirred my saliva into the beverages so it was now invisible before anyone caught me defiling their drinks.

"You're serving another set of cootie-queens?" A cootie-queen was diner talk for when you spit in a customer's drink. I had actually come up with that name. "What is this, like your third one this week?" …for obvious reasons, I guess.

Alice was waiting for me to answer her question when a male voice rang out. "Hello! How long does it take for a soda and a milkshake?"

I gave Alice a pointed look and she rolled her eyes, "Okay, yeah, they deserve it."

She had been a little sassy today, and I kept forgetting to ask her why. Usually Alice goads me about how unprofessional defiling a customer's food was.

I plastered a fake smile on my face and delivered the drinks, lingering there for a few moments so I could watch the rude customers from hell sip down my germs.

It felt good.

All my other tables were in the middle of their meals and I wouldn't have to check on them for a little bit, so while I waited for my other order to get filled I went over to the jukebox and selected a few songs to play.

I heard Riley ring the bell again, "Order up, Bells!" I headed back over to the window and grabbed the tray.

After being told I had gotten like three things wrong on their order, which I did not, and taken them back I ended up sneezing on their fries, licking the burger bun, and coughing on their hot dogs. When I brought the exact same food back – without any changes besides germifying them – they said I had finally gotten everything right.

Asshole customers.

Thankfully, they didn't stay for dessert.

I was coming out of the kitchen from helping the bus boys bring back dirty dishes when one of my songs finally came on.

You broke my heart
'Cause I couldn't dance.
You didn't even want me around.
And now I'm back!
To let you know,
I can really shake 'em down.

The drumbeats echoed through the diner and Alice hopped up on the counter with the other girls working the back tonight, dancing to the music.

Rosalie came up to me and set her tray down on the nearest table, grabbing my hips to try and get me to dance with her. "Come on, Bella! You love this song!"

I started shaking to the beat and did a few shimmy moves before falling into the choreographed dance with the girls on the counter.

I can mash potato. (I can mash potato)
I can do the twist. (I can do the twist)
Now tell me baby, (Tell me baby)
Do you like it like this? (Do you like it like this?)

Right as I started swinging my arms up to do the mash potato move, I felt my left fist collide with something behind me. I spun around to see if what my fist hit was a person, but that only made matters worse.

Turns out, I had punched a guy in the cheek. When I turned around, I ended up getting my legs tangled with his and we tumbled to the ground, me falling on top of the poor man.

No one seemed to have noticed yet, but I could hear the moans and groans of pain coming from the guy I had just attacked.

"Shit! Are you okay? I'm so, so, sooo sorry!" I winced, watching as he massaged the side of his jaw.

And what a jaw it was… Man, oh man. Of all the people I could have picked to fall on top of…

Think of the most attractive guy you've ever seen. Now, times that by one billion and twenty three, add in a dash of fuckhot hair, barely there stubble, and hearing him moan.

Yeah.

I was faintly aware that I was still pinning him to the ground, but quickly forgot when he opened his eyes.

They weren't looking at me, but I could still see how inhumanly green they were. I briefly wondered if he wore colored contacts because these things were so green! I tried to think of a better word to describe them as in my head, but those eyes make me stupid, so all I could think of were the words green and eyes.

He finally focused in on me and whatever brain activity I had left was thrown out the window. I may have even started to drool.

"You okay?" I tried again since he didn't answer me the first time. Only this time I used fewer words because it was easier on my brain that way.

He cleared his throat and squeezed his eyes shut again, shaking his head. "Yeah."

I was a little miffed that he only said one word to me, because number one, I actually cared about if I had hurt him badly or not and would like to know, and number two, his voice was just as attractive as he was... getting to just hear that one word was so unfair.

"I am so sorry…" I repeated.

"You said that already." He chuckled and opened his eyes.

"Well I punched you… and then tackled you. You deserve more than one measly apology." That was when I realized I was still in fact, sprawled out on top of this stranger.

"Oh! Sorry!" I said yet again and jumped up.

He smiled when I apologized for the third time and then accepted my outstretched hand to help him up. "Are you two okay?" Rosalie asked once we were both standing again.

"Yeah, I just about sent him to the hospital is all…" I said in a fake, cheery voice. I could feel my face heating up from the recognition that I just mauled a customer… and liked it.

I had to remove my cat-eye glasses because they were starting to fog up.

"Sorry about that, she's not our most graceful waitress." Vicki chimed in from the other side of the bar, smirking. "You sure she didn't bang you up too bad?"

"I'm fine. Just don't tell anybody I got beat up by a girl." He winked and then walked away to rejoin the group he arrived with.

"Well, Bella, I think that makes your top three greatest klutz moments of all time." Vicki laughed. "Or maybe just one of the greatest moment of all time…" She whispered in my ear from behind me with an annoying know-it-all tone to her voice.

I shook my head and took a deep breath, trying to forget about what had just transpired a few seconds ago. I noticed some new customers in my section, so I grabbed my ticket book and made my way over there.

"Hello, and welcome to Vicki's. Can I start you all off with some drinks?" I was passing out the menus, so when I looked up and saw Mr. Green Eyes himself sitting at the table my face got even redder.

Especially when I noticed who he was with.

"Hey! What are you guys doing here? You guys never show up on a Friday night…" I tried to ignore the fact that he was staring at me.

"Well, we thought we'd introduce our new colleague to the best burger joint around." Sam Uley smiled and handed me back his menu since I already knew his usual order.

"So, Eric's already gone and everything?" I asked with only a little disappointment. He was always nice, but heck if I didn't mind this new guy taking his place.

"Yup, his last day was yesterday and he hit the road around noon today, moving truck and all." Angela said with more emotion than I had and handed me back her menu as well.

"That's too bad…" I told them, not really knowing what to say.

"It's all good, we've gained this guy from it." Sam nudged a thumb over in Green Eyes' direction.

"What can I get for you, since these two hang around here so often that they 'don't need' to order." I rolled my eyes and smiled at him.

"Give him the Vicki Burger Combo. You can't try anything else until you've had the Vicki Burger." Angela said before he had a chance to answer.

"The Vicki Burger?" I asked to make sure he really wanted that.

"What would you suggest?" He asked in a low, soft voice.

Oh man.

I was momentarily made stupid again by the sound of his voice as the words seemed to drip from his lips, but once I swallowed down the drool my glands were over-working to secrete I was able to form a sentence, "It is the best. That's why the owner named it after herself, ya know." I smiled, but really wanted to crawl away at my lame attempt to flirt with him.

"Then the Vicki Burger it is. With everything on it." He smiled, only lifting up the left side of his mouth and passed me his menu.

"Give him a chocolate milkshake too." Sam said before I rushed away.

"I need a crowd of loaded Vicks in the pasture, eighty-six a lone tomato, a crowd of double black cows, two shakes in the dirt, one in the hay and a short stretch of cow paste!" I hollered through the window to Riles.

When the milkshakes were finished I quickly took them over to the table. When I got back Rose was looking at me funny. "What?"

"No reason to turn those into cootie-queens?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"None I can think of… why?" The only answer I received was a shrug of her shoulders and a glimpse of her smile before she turned around and went back to work.

The rest of the night went down hill from there. After delivering the Vicki Burgers, a whole group of noisy high school kids stopped by. One of the girls working behind the counter got sick and had to leave early, so we were short a hand which meant whenever I got a free moment I was catering to the needs of teenagers.

Then, I spilled a plate of chili-cheese fries when James hit me from behind with the swinging door. I was too busy cleaning up the gooey, sticky mess, so Vicki had to go and take care of the bill for Green Eyes' table for me.

I was more than a little bummed when I didn't get a chance to stare at him from behind the counter once more before they left.

Then, after being in a bad mood from all of that, the high school kids kept getting more and more demanding. I was passing out cootie-queens left and right. It didn't help that they were slobs either. It took both busboys, Rose, Bree (the other waitress working that night), and myself to pick up after just the group of six!

We shooed the last of the customers out around one o'clock that morning and I was so thankful it was finally the weekend. I had no plans but to bum around the apartment and be lazy for two whole days.

I don't even remember how I got to my bedroom, the only thing on my mind was sleep.

That was short lived though.

I peeled off my work uniform and slipped into some comfy sweats before diving under the covers. I waited for the bed to get warm and then lets my eyes droop closed, ready for sleep to take me under.

I was bombarded with mental images of The Contours singing and dancing the mash potato, except they all had a head full of messy, golden-brown hair and piercing green eyes. "Do You Love Me?" was playing in the background. It sounded like the music was coming from right beside me, it had to be real.

What. The. Fuck?

My eyes shot back open and the music stopped. I looked around my darkened room, because now I was paranoid that someone was hiding in the corner with a stereo trying to mess with my head.

I carefully crawled over to my nightstand and turned on the light, surveying all four corners for any psycho wielding a CD player. No one was there, but just to make sure, I tiptoed over to my closet and whipped the doors open, "HAH!"

I don't know why I yelled, maybe to try and scare whoever I thought was hiding in there or maybe because it felt a little too quiet. Like in a horror movie right before the brunette gets murdered.

Me being the brunette of course.

I sifted through all my hanging clothes and then tossed all my shoes over my shoulder, but no one was there. No monsters waiting patiently to jump out and gobble me up.

At the thought of monsters I decided it couldn't hurt to check under the bed either. Keeping a safe distance away from it, so that if anything tried to reach out and grab me I'd be too far away to get a hold on, I turned on my cell phone to use as an extra source of light. I pinched the bottom him of the skirt and flung it upwards. I suddenly felt something fuzzy attack my face and started screaming.

"AHHHH! GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!" I screeched and started slapping and clawing at my head.

In the midst of my flailing, my toe got caught on one of the shoes I had thrown off earlier and I came crashing to the ground.

Two pairs of feet came pattering into my room at a fast pace, "What the hell are you doing in here, Bella?" Alice's voice sounded over my cries for help.

"There is a monster! On. My. Face!" I shrieked. Could they not see it?

Then a warm hand brushed across my nose and I couldn't feel the fuzzy thing latched onto me anymore. I stayed in a tense position; my eyes squeezed shut, waiting for it to come at me again.

"Bella, open your eyes." Alice giggled.

I slowly peeked one eye open and found Rosalie kneeling in front of me with a dust bunny in the palm of her hand. "Monster, huh?"

I narrowed my eyes at them as they didn't even try to hold in their laughter, "Shutup. I was scared."

"Aww, poor wittle Bewwa. Do woo need me to check your cwoset for monsters twoo?" Rosalie mocked me one of those cutesy voices people use with babies.

"No… I already did." With that, they laughed at me some more before I kicked them out.

I shut the door on their asses and could still hear their cackles ringing out as they went back to their own rooms.

Snuggling back under the covers, I told myself it was all in my head. There was no way that music was actually playing.

I shut the light off and closed my eyes again, wanting so badly to just fall asleep and forget about this whole day. Right as my eyes fell shut the music started up again. Visions of Green Eyes, his smile, and the way he winked at me played behind my eyelids.

I opened my eyes once again and there was no music. All that was there were the dust bunnies and me.

I tried again, falling asleep, but this time when the music blared in my mind I was watching a slow-mo replay of when I punched Green Eyes in the face and fell on top of him. It was like one of those out-of-body experiences.

Things were starting to get slightly weird. And irritating.

Every time my eyes shut, that damn music would start playing and a new image of him would pass through my mind. It was everything from a close-up of his mouth down to the way his foot tapped along with the beat of the song.

And it was driving me insane!

Yes, the man was like my own version of a Greek god or the Romeo to my Juliet, but that doesn't mean I want to be kept up the whole night thinking about him! I just want to go to sleep.

…I'm sooo tired!

Eventually I was able to ignore the vocals, but that didn't stop the complete stranger, who I just met tonight, from infiltrating my thoughts.

It would have been nice if I could have just ignored the images as well, but considering how gorgeous this guy is, that's a challenge in and of itself. Not to mention that with every glance I got at the way his lips moved when he talked, the way he laughed, or the crease in his brow when he didn't understand something always led to me wondering about him.

What is he like? Does he have a girlfriend? (Well, probably Bella. You know girls are all over him all the time if he looks like that.) Well, maybe it's not too serious then...

I went through the routine of closing my eyes, seeing a part of him, then opening my eyes about a hundred and two times and I was starting to get really cranky. "Okay, this is the last time I'm closing my eyes before the sun comes up. One hundred and third time's a charm…"

I smashed my eyelids together and tried with all my mite to erase the image in my head so I could get some rest, but then something I wasn't expecting happened.

"What would you suggest?" His crisp, smooth voice radiated through my senses.

"Oohkaayy!" I hopped out of bed and high-tailed it to the living room. That was just too freaky; it sounded like he was in the bed with me.

Which wouldn't be too unfortunate…

No! Stop that! You don't even know this guy and yet you're already fantasizing about him?

I started pacing in front of the T.V. as I had this mental war going on in my head. This has never happened to me before. Yes, I've seen the goods the male population has to offer, but never in my life have I come across somebody who has me obsessing over them in the middle of the night.

I continued my pacing and talking to myself and eventually worked up and appetite. I must have paced a whole mile; I was even starting to sweat a little. Of course, we had nothing edible in the fridge, I don't know why though. I thought one of us had gone to the grocery store earlier this week…

I grabbed the phone book and started flipping through it in search of any twenty-four hour restaurant that delivered. There had to be something, this was Seattle for goodness sakes.

The first place I found was named The Wok, which was an all-night Chinese restaurant. It seemed a little iffy at first, but some kung pao chicken sounded good so I called them.

"Hehroh, this iees The Wok!" A chipper sounding, oriental man answered.

"Uhm, hi. I was wondering if you delivered this late?"

"Deh river?"

"Yeah, I know its pretty late, but-"

"Which river?"

"No, de-liv-er."

"Yes! Yes, yes! We have much food! We bring it ova!"

"So you can bring the food to my apartment?"

"On deh river?"

"No!" Clearly, I was not cut out to communicate with foreigners. I was already cranky and now starving, so instead of trying to come to an understanding with this man, I just hung up.

I scanned the yellow and white pages again and came across a pizza joint that seemed promising. "This is Pizza Pal, open all night every night. What'll it be tonight?"

At least this guy didn't have an accent… "Hi. You guys deliver, right?"

"Sure do."

"Okay, I'll have one small pizza with everything you got on it, except for anchovies and olives."

"Alright, and where am I sending this pizza?"

"3800 First Avenue, apartment 3G."

"We'll have it there in about twenty to twenty-five minutes and your total will be twelve dollars and thirty nine cents."

I hung up the phone and went back to pacing while I waited. The delivery guy arrived at around 3:21 A.M. and I gave him a generous tip for having such a sucky job. I didn't tell him that was why though.

After devouring the entire thing, I disposed of the evidence in the trash chute so Alice and Rose wouldn't get on me about not saving them any. When I reentered the apartment, I decided to test a theory I had been working out in my head while I was eating.

I figured it might work if I changed my surroundings and tried to sleep on the couch. Maybe the reason I was having all those flashes of Green Eyes was because my uniform from tonight was laying on the chair by my bed. And since that's what I wore when I was near him, it caused me to think about him… subconsciously... maybe...

Well it made since in my head and that's really all that matters.

I grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and settled in. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as my bed, but if it gave me some peace and quiet, I was all for camping out in the living room.

"Please let me get some sleep." I silently prayed to the beautiful man that was torturing me somewhere out there tonight.

I took one long breath and let my eyelids fall.

…And nothing.

Nothing!

I did a little happy jiggle from my position on the couch and burrowed in closer to the cushions for comfort.

Do you loooveee me? (I can really move!)
Do you loooveee me? (I'm in the groove!)
Do you loooveee me? (Do you love me?)
Nooowwwww that IIII can daaaannnceee…
Daaaannnceee…
Daaaannnceee…

Watch me now!

"Are you kidding me?" I groaned and rolled over, smothering my face in the fabric underneath me.

...zzZzZZ...

The next morning after not getting so much as a wink of sleep, I decided to start up the coffee pot around five. Lord knows, I'll needed the caffeine. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty didn't roll out of bed until ten o'clock.

Lucky bitches.

"Good morning!" a perky Alice skipped into the kitchen and placed a kiss on my cheek.

"Ungh." I grunted in response.

"Oh, geez. You look like hell."

"Oh, why thank you. I fucking love you too." I smiled tightly at her.

"Me-OW! Someone's cranky…"

"Who is?" Rosalie sauntered in with a pleasant smile on her face. I wanted to smack it off.

"Bella."

Rose looked over at me and her eyes got a little wider at the sight, but that stupid grin was still there. "Holy hell, Bells. Did you sleep at all last night? I can see circles under your eyes."

"If ten second intervals throughout the night count, then yes. I slept great." I grumbled and gulped down the last bit of my fourth cup of coffee.

"And if either of you even so much as think about being all happy and well-rested near, beside, or anywhere close to me, I will not hesitate to shank you." I warned them, but was only met by laughter directed at me.

I flipped them the bird before retreating back to my room. You see, I had come up with a new theory while sipping my coffee. Maybe since it was nighttime when I met Green Eyes, I wouldn't think about him during the day…

Let's hope.

Reviews are better than diner lingo.
(especially when reviewers get a tease)

I hope you guys know how much you make me smile with each of your reviews... just sayin' :)

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Favorite: This was a hard one because I liked so much of this chapter... but I think the phone call with the chinese restaurant was my fave.

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Love,
Emeleigh

P.S. Be sure to check my profile for character pics I've made with their most memorable quote from when they couldn't sleep :)
(that sentence made sense, right?)