"You told her that she can have a discount, right?" he asked, suddenly concerned. "She knows that was my idea, right?”
"Yeah, I told her," Bella said, her eyes stinging as she tried to hold back tears of humor. "I'm sure she'll be dropping by for some major shopping any day now," she muttered under her breath, watching as Mike continued to primp. "She's not going to be here for a while," Bella said, hating to see him waste his efforts．
"Then why were you looking out for her?" Mike asked suspiciously．
"I wasn't," Bella sighed. "I told you I wasn't doing anything. I was just … staring. You're the one that assumed I was waiting for someone," she continued, watching as he glumly dropped his hands to his side．
They stood around in silence for a few seconds and then Mike brightened up again．
"Maybe she'll be early," he said．
"Maybe," Bella allowed turning back to look outside the window, actually looking for Alice this time. She wouldn't have minded at all if Alice was a little early. Things were slow in the shop that afternoon, and because of Mike's crushes of them she was pretty sure he'd let her go a little early if it meant that both she and Alice would smile at him．
They stood looking out the window．
"Are you sure you told her about the discount?" Mike asked looking over at Bella．
"Yes," Bella sighed. "You know, you could just talk to her at school if you're that starved for contact. She's not an ogre, Mike. She's not going to ignore you in the middle of the hallway or try to pants you. In fact she seems to think you're hilarious," she went on rolling her eyes．
"Really?" Mike asked sounding pleased. "I thought maybe she was just being nice, but … really?" he asked, and Bella realized that it was bad idea to have given him hope like that．
"Yeah, sure," Bella replied non-committal, turning her attention back to the window．
"She's still around that guy all the time," Mike commented a minute later, frowning．
"That guy?" Bella asked smirking a little. She was aware that Mike knew what Jasper's name was. Ｈe was just being passive aggressive．
"Yeah, the blond one," Mike said, making a face．
"Ｈe has a name you know," Bella said smiling．
"Yeah, I know," Mike responded and Bella knew that he would never refer to Jasper as anything but 'that guy' or 'the blond one' from that moment on．
"Well, he is her boyfriend," Bella said once Mike had stopped scowling. "When I said you should talk to her, I meant talk to her, not hit on her," she continued giving him a pointed look. "If there's one thing Alice loves as much as shopping, it's talking, and for some reason everyone at school seems afraid of her.”
"It's not her really," Mike said leaning against the counter. "Alice is really tiny and cute, and seems friendly," he continued, and Bella could practically hear the dreamy sigh in his voice. "It's the others that are creepy," he went on, glancing over at Bella. "No offense," he added, not that it fooled Bella for a moment. As much as Mike loved Alice, he hated Edward, and he never missed an opportunity to take a shot at him. "The two of you should sit with us every once in a while, and leave Abercrombie and Fitch to brood on their own.”
"Mike," Bella said warningly, really not in the mood for one of his Edward rants．
"I'm just saying that they're not the most personable guys in the world," Mike said holding up his hands. "There's no reason you and Alice should be social outcasts because your boyfriends don't know how to make small talk.”
"You don't know what you're," Bella began irritably before cutting herself off．
She was a blade of grass blowing in the wind．
She was the gently rippling breeze over a body of water．
Woosah．
"You know what, never mind. Just never mind," Bella said lifting her hands up in the air in the universal sign of peace. "If there's nothing you need me to do, I'm just going to go back to my sudoku puzzle, okay?”
And with that Bella turned away from Mike, determined to remain serene．
She was the delicately fluttering wings of a butterfly．
Woosah．
She was the babbling brook running over moss covered stones．
Woosah．
She was calm．
She was serenity．
She was not going to get into a fight with Mike, twenty minutes before quitting time．
"I was just making an observation," Mike mumbled．
Bella ignored him．
"Fine. I don't care. Ignore me," he went on．
Bella followed his suggestion and continued to ignore him．
"Whatever. You're being a baby," Mike declared, and he turned his back on her．
Keeping his face carefully angled away from Bella, Mike then proceeded to stick his finger into the jar of safety clamps sitting by the register. Ｈe swirled it around for a few seconds and then pulled it out and stared at it for a moment, before sticking it back in, repeating the process all over again．
Bella looked at her watch and sighed. It was going to be a long twenty minutes．
"What's she doing?" Mike complained as he looked out the window. Ｈe was staring at Alice's unmoving figure just in front of the door. Ｈis voice was comically whiny and if Bella hadn't been wondering the same thing she probably would have smiled．
"I don't know," Bella said, tilting her head to the side as she watched Alice as well．
"Is she going to come in?" Mike asked. When Bella was ignoring him, he'd gone to the back room and combed his hair and everything．
"I don't think so," Bella said taking off her orange work vest, wondering what could possibly be captivating Alice so．
"That's bullshit," Mike muttered, and Bella did crack a smile at that．
"You could come outside with me, walk me to the door, you know," she said moving around the counter. "You could probably get a few minutes small talk in.”
Mike shook his head. "Whatever, I don't even care. I was just gonna say hello so it doesn't even matter. Besides, she seems distracted," he responded, and Bella knew that the real reason he didn't want to come to the door with her was because he was afraid that Alice would be too distracted to pay attention to him．
"Suit yourself," Bella said starting towards the door. "See ya," she said spinning around briefly to wave, and then she made a beeline for the door．
"So, either Mars finally attacked," Bella began as she stepped outside of Newton's, "or the machines finally took control of Skynet and judgment day is upon us," she continued, waiting for Alice to smirk. She didn't and Bella frowned. Truthfully, it wasn't her best material, but Alice could have at least turned to look at her．
