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CHAPTER TWO ᴇxᴘᴏsᴜʀᴇ
The neon lights of Jack's diner flickered as we sat down at a table by the windows, hidden in the corner of the room which was otherwise empty. The waitress hovered by the counter, a flip phone in her hands and a cold cup of coffee by her elbows. She yawned once, glanced to our table, and then disappeared to the back of the diner, letting the small door swing shut behind her.
Alice leaned over the single coffee cup that sat between us and cringed before she spoke into the silence. "I hate the smell of this stuff, it's so bitter. Rosalie probably loved it."
"You've fallen out with Rose? Why?"
I would be lying if I hadn't noticed the distinct staleness between the sisters. It was even more one-sided than usual, and it was made even odder that it was Alice who held the position of the instigator. Each time Rose even entered the room during any talk of the wedding, Alice would purposefully move the meeting.
"She's going to end up ruining the wedding!" Alice said as she slumped back from the table, leaning back against the tall booth seats with her arms crossed.
"You've seen it in a vision?" I asked, watching as Alice's face turned into a scowl.
"No, but if she keeps thinking the way she is, then it'll happen. And then what? All of my hard work thrown away."
"You do know this is Bella's day, don't you?"
Alice sighed, falling to lean a hand against her head. "I know," she said. "I just want to make it perfect. It's not often that there are weddings in the family."
Her eyes flickered up, resting warmly on the side of my face. I smiled, turning from the dark window. Alice perked up, her smile twinging with a smirk.
"So does this count as a date?"
"I should hope so, or all the other times we've been here wouldn't count," I said, watching as her hand found my arm and began tracing patterns on it.
"I do love this place. Though I do miss our space in the woods."
"That feels like a long time ago, even for me," I said. Time in Forks had felt longer than my one hundred years. "But remember Mrs Rochester? She may as well have been a witch."
Alice's laugh drifted into the buzz of the air as the waitress pushed through the door again, taking up her space by the stained, old coffee cup.
By the time we left Jack's diner, the first light of day was threatening to spill over the treetops in one fiery stream. We climbed into my car and I drove towards Charlie's house where Bella undoubtedly waited with her nails bitter and arms rubbed red-raw.
With the watery light and the unusually pleasant weather, I thought of the first time Alice took me out in her car. The windows were rolled down- all except Alice's- letting the wind whip through, tangling my hair. My head leaned against the door, hand reaching out to touch the air and the branches that sped past as we reached the centre of Forks town.
