Kiss Or Kill

Chapter 5

A/N: I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Monday went exactly as Bella had expected it to. There were stares and whispers; Jessica and Lauren gave her nasty looks and Mike…..well…Mike was Mike. And she had never been so relieved to hear the bell that signaled it was time to go home.

She grabbed her bag and hurried to her truck as fast as she could and was extremely pleased when she made it all the way to her truck without being bombarded by Mike. But of course her luck didn't last. Just as she had climbed into her truck and was about to shut the door, a hand grabbed onto it.

"Bella, glad I caught you."

"Mike. What do you want?" Bella sighed

"Umm, I was wondering if you were going to be free this weekend."

"Why?"

"Well a bunch of us are going to the movies and I was wondering if you'd like to go."

Bella just stared at Mike wishing that she could go one day without him asking her out.

"Is it really a group thing? Or are you saying it's a group thing because you think I'll say yes if it is, but then when I show up miraculously everyone else couldn't make it and it would just be us."

Mike turned red and opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"I see. Mike I'm going to say this one time and if I ever have to repeat it I won't be so nice about it. I don't like you. I'm never going to like you. So stop asking me out and focus your attention on someone who's actually interested in you. Now I'd like to go home so if you could let go of my door please."

Mike released the door still embarrassed that Bella had not only caught onto his plan but had once again shot him down.

When Bella got home she dropped her bag at the bottom of the stairs and headed straight to her room where she collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.

"Bella…Bella…Bella"

"No little sea monkeys don't eat the bunny."

"Bella?" He called snickering at her sleep talking

Charlie's snickering finally broke Bella out of her slumber and she opened her eyes to see him standing beside her bed.

"Dad?" She mumbled

"Dinner's here."

"Ok. Be right down."

"Alright." Charlie replied

When Bella managed to wake up completely she took a look at her clock and noticed that it was almost seven o'clock which meant that she had slept for almost four hours.

"I hope pizza's ok." Charlie said as Bella entered the kitchen

"It's fine. What time did you get home?"

"Few minutes ago; I picked the pizza up on the way home."

"Hmmm." Bella replied taking a bite of her pizza

"So Bella,"

"Yes Dad?"

"About this Paul guy,"

"What about him?" She asked trying not to frown at the mere mention of his name

"Well I actually met him today and he seems like a very nice young man."

The pizza Bella had been in the process of chewing was suddenly spewed from her mouth and onto the kitchen table as well as Charlie's plate. For a moment Charlie just looked back in forth between his daughter and the pizza on his plate.

"Bella?" He asked raising an eyebrow

"Umm….sorry Dad."

"Care to explain?"

"Uh, I was surprised." She shrugged

"Surprised?" He asked dumping his food into the garbage

"Yea."

"By what exactly?"

"You referred to Paul as nice."

Charlie looked at her skeptically.

"Yes I did. Honestly Bella I don't know what you have against the guy."

"Let's just say he didn't make a very good first impression." Bella said and then she registered what Charlie had said before the whole Paul's a nice guy bit

"Wait a minute. Where did you meet Paul?"

"Down at the station."

"What did he get arrested for?"

"He didn't. He's actually one of our new deputies."

And unfortunately for Charlie the water Bella had just poured into her mouth, came right back out and landed all over him.

"Bella!" He cried

"Oh gosh! I'm sorry Dad."

"Umm it's ok. But maybe you should not eat or drink anything else while we have this conversation." He suggested

Bella just nodded her head.

"As I was saying, Paul and his friend, Jared I think his name was, are our new deputies."

"This isn't a very big town, how many deputies do you guys need?"

"Well one of the guys is retiring and the other one, he and his wife just had a baby and his wife wants to move back east to be close to her family."

"Oh."

"Yes. Now for the reason I brought up Paul in the first place." Charlie said taking a deep breath

Bella had a very bad feeling she wasn't going to like this.

"Paul is going to be kind of shadowing me for a while till he learns the ropes and stuff."

"Ok….." Bella replied not understanding where this was going

"And so I invited him over for dinner," He started but was interrupted by Bella's cry of,

"YOU WHAT?"

"I invited him for dinner so we could get acquainted and so it wouldn't be weird when we have to spend hours driving around in the cruiser." Charlie replied rubbing the back of his neck

"Ok…so take the guy out for pizza or something!"

"Bells." Charlie pleaded

"Don't Bells me!"

"It's just one night….a couple of hours."

"Oh and let me guess I'm the one that supposed to be cooking dinner?"

"Well I could cook I guess, but we both know I'm not really good at." Charlie answered

"And when is the dinner supposed to happen?" Bella asked glaring at her father

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" She cried

To say Bella was outraged would be an understatement. She was furious that not only would she have to cook for someone she'd rather feed an entire bottle of poison to, but that her father hadn't thought to talk to her about it before inviting Paul for dinner.

"I don't like you right now."

"Oh come on, it won't be that bad I'm sure."

"Hmph." She grunted

"It's just one dinner Bella."

"I'll cook but don't expect me to be nice." She said

"Thank you." Charlie smiled

Bella just glared at him before stomping up the stairs and into her room where she let out a frustrated growl as she pulled at her hair.

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A/N: Next chapter...dinner with Paul.