The Warm Side of Winter

Part 3

Part 3

We ended up at a dinky looking diner with a sign so old that it was impossible for me to read. Ethan smiled again (he sure was doing that a lot) before opening the door for me to step inside. Just as I thought, the diner was pretty dinky, but the smell eminating from the kitchen wasn’t half bad.

I scooted into a nearby booth and Ethan sat opposite me, smiling to himself as he tried to get a waiters attention. Finally, a short pudgy looking woman came.

“I’d like the usual please. Only this time doubled.”

“Shoa,”

The woman popped her gum and scribbled a few things down before walking away. Only with all of her pudge, her walk looked more like an akward waddle and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from laughing. Ethan, oblivious to my tongue biting, turned to face me,

“Awesome thing number two: the food. Only in winter is when you can get the best foods like hot chocolate, soups, pie, mac n cheese, christmas cookies, it’s all so delicious! And it’s all perfected in these long winter days,”

“Great. Well what did you order?”

“You’ll see.”

I nodded and lent back slightly, sinking down onto the red, lether upholstery of the couches. Eventually, a random conversation started up and soon we were engulphed in a game of question and answer.

“Team Edward or Team Jacob?”

“Team Jacob. Edward is a creepy old dude with a crush on a depressed, non emotional freak. At least Jacob had a six-pack to go with it. Or was it an eight-pack.”

Ethan crinkled his nose in response,

“What is it with girls and abs? Are they really that important?”

“Well, no. But they do give a more adonis look to the guy. You should know. Don’t you have a six pack?”

“Uh…yeah?”

I fell silent as I slowly processed how strange that could have sounded,

“Not that I’ve seen it or anything. It’s just, at the swimming trip I saw and…”

“So you were staring at my adonis like abs?”

“What? No! It’s just that some girl pointed it out and I happened to remember,”

Ethan smiled at me as I continued to writhe in uncomfort at the akward air I had just created. In a desperate attempt to get rid of it, I blurted out,

“My turn! American football or soccer?”

“Soccer. American footbal is fun, but it’s too rough.”

I let out a sigh as the silence was broken and Ethan smiled again.

He’s always smiling. Yet I never see those dimples of his. I longed to see them again. To witness his moment of such raw, unconcealed joy that the dimples popped up.

As I drifted off into ac daydream, the woman returned. Only empty handed,

“Just wanned ta tell yous dat I gotta go. So Marie will serve ya.”

We nodded and smiled slightly at her speech. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later ‘Marie’ appeared with our food and I frowned. Marie was obviously the same age as us and looked uncannily like Katie Price. She smirked at me before placing Ethan’s plate before him. As for mine, she slammed it onto the table before giving an apologetic ‘oops’,

“Oh my! I’m so clumsy. Here, let me take that. Now it’s all dirty so I’ll go make you another,” she said.

Before I could protest, she had swept up my plate and walked back to the kitchen. Flirtily swishing her lips the whole way. I glared at her and Ethan sent me a truly apologetic look.

“Sorry, this place has amazing food. But I cant say the same about the service… here, since this is for you anyway, you can share some of mine.”

He pushed his plate closer to the middle and on it I saw an assortment of goods. Ethan excitedly began to point them out,

“Okay so first there’s apple pie, then there are some santa shaped cookies, then there’s a little chocolate pudding thing, and last but not least the hot chocolate. Topped with whipped cream, and white chocolate and dark chocolate shavings.”

I stared at the plate. It looked appealing but…sweet.

Call me crazy but I don’t have much of an eye for sweet things. In the end, they always make my stomach hurt and my brain fuzzy from the sugar explosion. But Ethan did pay for it, so I slowly reached for one of the cookies. My hand brushed with his and I froze, tingles coming all the way through my fingertips.

“Oh! No no no. You ordered two. You shouldn’t have to share one. Here, I’ll get you two new ones.”

Just like that, the plate was gone and Marie had it in her clammy little hands, sauntering down to the kitchen. A confused frown appeared on Ethan’s face,

“Why did she take my plate?”

I sighed and swung my legs off the side of the couch, ready to lift myself up.

“Where are you going?”

“To the bathroom. There is one in here, right?”

“Oh! Yeah, of course. You just-”

As Ethan gave me instructions, I suddenly felt a hard knock on my leg and the world seemed to slow.

There was Marie, screetching like a banchee as she tripped over my legs and sent the food and drinks she was carrying flying in all directions. The diner broke into havoc as a waiter slipped on some spilled soda and went crashing into another. Another waiter rushed to help and ended up on top of a booth. The costomers screaming frantically. The chaos continued for what seemed like ages and all I could do was stare in horror at the mess I had unintentionally created.

Finally, the diner calmed down and it looked like a battlefield. Waiters, costomers sprawld out on the floor,m on tables, covered in food or drinks and altogether too shocked to speak. And in the middle of it all was Marie, sprawled out on the floor like a dead fish. I would have laughed had I not been so horror struck. Finally, she looked up and saw me.

“YOU!”

She screetched again, attempting to lift herself up, but her heels were no match for the wet floor and she went crashing back down again. Quickly, I grabbed Ethan and headed towards the door. Marie’s screams slowly fading as we ran further down the street. When her screams completely faded, we were plopped down on a bench, panting hard. Our fast breaths making a thich cloud of perspiration in the cold air. Finally Ethan looked up,

“W-whaa?”

“She-she tripped on my leg and,”

I said no more, but Ethan still got the message laughing heartaly at my mortification. Then he placed an arm around my shoulder. Sure it was in a friendly way, and I had seen him do it before with the guys at school loads of times. But it still made my heart flutter slightly. Well…the part that wasn’t paralyzed with fear that Marie would pop out of nowhere and brutally me with one of her stilettos, all the while screaming like a banchee and sending Ethan flirtatious glances.

***A/N heyaz! Well to the side is a christmas song that could really cheer Sophie up. You know...if she wasn't fictional... ._. yeahhh. ;p

Also i made a banner! Yeah! Actually i was debating between this one and the current cover for the actual cover. What do you guys think? Did i choose the right one? (Just to let you know, there is no way i coul dbe offended. I made both of them ;p)

Aissa***