Here's the next chapter… hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters.
______________________________________________________________________________
The sun was setting as the plane came down to land in Jacksonville, we had to make sure to book a flight that wouldn't get here until late because of the sun. As Edward and I were getting off the plane, I was bouncing with excitement. I couldn't wait to see my mom- we had been growing apart over the last year and I really missed her.
When we got into the lobby we spotted her standing in the crowd. When she spotted us making our way toward her, she started jumping up and down in excitement and nearly toppled me over with a hug.
"OH MY GOSH BELLA! I so happy to see you! Look how different you look! I can't believe how grown up you are!" my mom was going a mile a minute.
I laughed "mom it hasn't been that long since you've seen me…" I pointed out.
"I know, but it feels like it's been forever." she said with a pout.
"Anyways, mom, you remember Edward?" I motioned towards Edward. Slowly my mom turned towards Edward, he had a very serene look on his face, but I knew him enough to catch the slight grimace at whatever my mom was thinking. I could tell that this wasn't going to go as smoothly as I had hoped.
"Hello, Edward" she said a bit stiffly. "How are you? Did you enjoy your flight?" she said with rather curt politeness.
"Yes ma'am, I did. Thank you for asking" Edward said with manners of a gentleman, that, I was sure at this point, my mother didn't deserve.
"Well that's good." she said, turning back to me. "Shall we go then?"
I nodded and we headed out to my mom's car, an old station wagon with faux wood paneling and a slight old person smell. Renee had turned on the A/C for me, because even at night Jacksonville was easily 40 degrees hotter then Forks and I was sweltering. As we drove home- me in the front with my mom and Edward stuffed into the backseat with our luggage- I made it a point to look out the window- only semi paying attention to my mothers non-stop talking- and observe my surroundings. It was so different then Washington, practically alien after living in forks for so long. Jacksonville was beautiful; it was very flat with little to no trees and big skyscraper buildings everywhere. Since it was night time, the whole city was lit up and it was breath taking. I was so caught up in the beauty of it all, that I didn't even notice when we pulled up to my mom's house.
"Here we are!" she announced as we pulled into the driveway. "What do you think?" she asked, gesturing towards the house.
It was a relatively small house, a bit smaller then Charlie's, but it had a certain charm to it. There was a one car garage attached to the little square, two story house. It was painted a light blue and had a small little grass yard and a garden- my guess was that Phil must take care of it, because my mom didn't have the attention span to care non-stop for a garden. "It's adorable mom, I love it." I said with a smile.
"Really?!" she asked getting all excited and babbling away again, it sort of reminded me of Jessica. It was then that I noticed that Edward had been very quite for quite a while now, and I turned to look at him. He had a very serene look on his face, but he wasn't fooling me. "Are you ok, Edward?"
He looked down at me and smiled, "I'm great Bella, I'm just trying to give you and your mom space to catch up."
He didn't have me completely convinced, but I dropped it for now and turned back to my mom before she realized that I wasn't paying attention.
My mom led us into the house and showed us around; there were two bedrooms that were both rather small, one bathroom, a cute little living room, and a clearly very un-used kitchen. I put my stuff up in the room that I'd be staying in- or rather Edward did, because he refused to let me carry my luggage- and Edward was to 'sleep' on the couch.
After I got my stuff all put away, I noticed that Phil wasn't around. "Hey mom? Where's Phil at?"
Renee shifted in her chair slightly before answering, "Oh, he had some training thing to do this weekend, but I stayed here so that I could see you." she replied with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, making me instantly suspicious. As if to confirm my suspicions, I noticed Edward's eyebrow furrow slightly as she said this. I'd have to remember to ask him about it later, but for now I just let it drop. I fixed dinner that night, not wanting to get sick off of my mothers cooking and went to bed early. It had been such a long day on the plane, I couldn't handle anymore visiting.
A couple hours later I heard a soft knock on the door as I looked up to see who it was, Edward walked in.
"Your mom's asleep." he whispered
I grinned and stretched my arms out towards him, indicating for him to come lay down with me. He complied and came and sat on the bed, pulling me into his arms- which was rather soothing in this stuffy room. I suddenly remembered my mother's odd behavior today. "Edward?"
"Yes, love?" he asked, while absentmindedly playing with a strand of my hair.
"What was going on with my mother today? Why was she being so off today? Why was she being so rude to you."
"Bella, your mother just worries about you is all." he said, a little to smoothly. I knew he was still holding something back, but decided to attack him about it later, there was another question I wanted to ask.
"And what's going on between my mom and Phil? Don't try to tell me nothing either, because I know something's up!" I said, while giving him a stern look.
He chuckled a little at the look on my face before looking at me seriously. "Bella, your mom and Phil… are going through a rough patch. They are currently separated and taking a break."
I stared back at him, shocked, but not completely surprised. "Why wouldn't she tell me?" I couldn't help feeling a little hurt that my mom would keep something so big from me when we were supposed to be so close.
"She didn't tell you because she feels ashamed. She's in her forties and her second marriage and she still can't seem to get it right." He said, trying to explain to me how my mother's crazy mind worked. "Don't bring it up though Bella, she's really rather embarrassed about it."
I nodded. "Of course Edward." I felt bad for my mother and felt even worse that she was too embarrassed to come to me.
"Now it's time for you to get some sleep." Edward said, interrupting my thoughts.
I really was rather tired, so I complied without argument and drifted off to sleep.
When I woke in the morning I was alone, as a result I was all sweaty with my hair plastered to my face and all my blankets knocked to the ground. I groaned and turned over to look at the clock; it was 11:00 so I decided to get up and take a shower before heading downstairs.
I went into the bathroom and turned the shower on so that it was more cold than hot, it was way too hot and humid to take a hot shower. After I got out of the shower and brushed my hair and teeth, I got dressed and headed down stairs.
As I walked into the kitchen, I found my mom sitting at the dining room table reading a newspaper with a Starbucks coffee cup in her hand. (lol, I couldn't help but add a little Washington in there J for those who don't know, Starbucks was founded in Washington.)
"Good morning mom." I said smiling at her.
She looked up at me and smiled, "good morning sweetheart, how did you sleep?"
"ok, I guess. It's just so hot over here!" I exclaimed. Dramatically waving my hand in my face like a fan.
She laughed. "Bella you've turned into such a softy! What happened to my heat loving, forks detesting daughter?"
I laughed with her. "what can I say mom? Washington grew on me." We laughed together a little while longer before I asked "where's Edward?". She didn't reply but pointed towards the living room. I walked in there to see him 'sleeping'. I laughed before walking over to him and whispering in his ear "Time to wake up sleepy head."
Before I had a chance to even realize what was happening, Edward pulled my onto the couch with him. Successfully scaring the crap out of me, but covering my mouth before I screamed. He chuckled gave me a light kiss and released me. I sat there scowling, but it was a hard face to hold when he was looking so sweetly at me. I felt myself fighting to keep a smile off my face and Edward must have sensed it too, because he leaned in closer breathing in my face and successfully dazzling me. Causing me to break out into a full blown grin, I laughed and hugged him for a moment. "Why were you still pretending to sleep?" I whispered so that my mom wouldn't hear.
"Because I didn't want to be up before you." he shrugged.
I couldn't help but laugh at him before pulling him into a kiss. He let me kiss him for a minute, before pulling away with on of his Bella that's enough of risking your life for today looks. I sighed and he chuckled.
Suddenly my mother walked in, trying to be conspicuous but clearly just being nosey.
"Hey guys, what are you up to?" she asked, eyeing the close contact between me and Edward.
"Nothing, I was just waking Edward up." I replied trying to suppress a giggle.
"Oh, well… what would you two like to do today?"
"Umm, actually mom, can we just hang out here for today? Edward and I are exaughsted from the flight." Edward looked as if he was about to object, so I shot him a look to silence him.
"yeah, I guess… if that's what you want.." my mom said, looking slightly disappointed.
Guilt washed over me, so I added "but I'd love to do something tomorrow mom." That seemed to appease both my mother and Edward.
"Well then," she added. "How has life been up north?"
I couldn't help but laugh at my mom's attempt at light conversation.
The rest of the day went on pretty much the same, with my mom asking questions and Edward and I asking them. Until it started to get dark and I announced that it was time for dinner. Both my mother and Edward followed me in there as I whipped up some pasta for dinner. My mother and I ate a plate full each, while Edward strategically scraped his food around his plate. Even though today had passed without incident and my mom clearly enjoyed dinner, I couldn't ignore some kind of tension that was building. When all the sudden my mother looked up at me.
"Bella, can I speak with you in the other room please?" Renee dragged me out of the room before I got a chance to look at Edward to see what was going on.
"What's up mom?" I asked while she was pacing around the room, this must be it I thought, she's going to tell me about Phil. She stopped in front of me and stared for a minute.
"Bella honey… this is really hard for me to say but, youneedtobreakupwithEdward." She rushed through the last part so fast that I just stood there in confusion for a moment.
"W-w-what?" I asked slowly gaining on what she said. "WHAT?!" I screeched.
Renee looked shocked for a moment, but quickly refocused. "Bella, you are a young beautiful girl. Your not ready to be so serious with a boy!" she looked at me pleading.
"Mom-" I started, but she cut me off.
"Bella, I know what's best for you and I'm telling you that you need to break up with that boy. I've been very patient through all of this, waiting for you to see reason. But I have to put my foot down! You told me in the hospital that this was just a crush, and now your bringing this boy across the country to meet me and I-"
"STOP!" I screamed, I was so furious that I was shaking. "I don't have a crush on Edward, I LOVE him!!! And I will NOT break up with him!"
Renee looked as if I had just smacked her in the face. "L-love… Bella you don't know what love is. You are too young to be in love, I know how easy it is to confuse infatuation with love, but-"
"MOM! That. Is. Enough." I seethed. "Just because you can't get your relationships to work, doesn't mean that I can't! don't try and ruin my relationship with Edward just because your's and Phil's marriage is failing!" I screeched before I could stop myself, but I was to furious to feel guilty. At this point tears of furry were running down me face.
Shock washed over my her face. "H-how did you know?" she forced out.
"It's obvious! The way you were avoiding my questions about Phil just screamed 'Phil and I are having problems'!" "Now I'm not going to take one more second of this! Edward and I are leaving!" At that point Edward, who could've easily heard the whole conversation without vampire hearing, walked in and pulled me into a hug while giving my mother a sad look. She was still in shock from my reaction to speak, so she just stood there while Edward and I packed our stuff and left. Edward had called a rental car while I was gathering my things, it took us to the airport where we waited for our flight home. I just sat there sobbing into Edwards arms. I couldn't believe how awful this weekend had turned out. Edward just sat there soothing me. I must of fallen asleep in his arms, because the next thing I knew Edward was whispering into my ear.
"Bella, love. It's time to board the plane."
