**On the Walk**

Well I knew that I would have to tell her about James and Victoria sometime…should I just do it now?

Just then I swore I heard Alice say 'tell her Edward', but that couldn't be possible. I know that she is in the cafeteria, not right next to me, and besides, she doesn't know about my parents.

"So um Bella…" I chocked out, "I have something that I need to tell you about…" Silence filled the air and I looked down only to see Bella's curious gaze.

"Edward, you can tell me anything. Don't be afraid…" she sighed thinking about something.

I led her towards my car and opened the door for her. "You don't mind missing the last few classes do you?" I asked, and if she did mind then I would just tell her later although she would believe that that was rude. She shook her head no and slid into the car.

"Just tell me whenever you're ready Edward." I could tell she was being patient because she held my hand to encourage me a little.

"Just don't run okay?" I pleaded her after a comfortable silence.

"I promise, although nothing could make me run from you…" She paused and gazed out the window at the speeding trees that were just blurs. "Where are we going anyways?" I appreciated her trying to change the subject although it was just a little.

"Just a place that I like to go to be by myself. That's all." I sighed and the silence came back into the car.

**Meadow**

"Close your eyes Bella, this is a surprise." I smiled at her grimace, but she closed them anyways. I led her to the center of the meadow while holding your hand.

The meadow that I stumbled upon a year ago is very beautiful. The wildflowers are luckily in bloom so the meadow is bursting with colors from red all the way to a very deep purple that could be pasted off as black. Also the trees made a perfect circle around this meadow, and it looks like this meadow was man-made, but I would have to thank whoever made this meadow just so then I could live in its beauty. If you listened closely then you could hear the light tremolo of a bubbly stream just north of this meadow.

I was standing behind Bella when I encircled my arms around her waist. I leaned into her ear and whispered softly, "Open your eyes love." LOVE? Oh no, I didn't mean for that to come out. I mean I had come to a conclusion that I was in love with Isabella Swan.

I heard her intake of breath as she looked around at her surroundings. That's how I reacted the first time I saw this meadow. Well I stumbling upon this meadow was probably the best thing that I have managed to ever do in my life.

"Wow Edward, this is just beautiful." She still had amazement in her voice.

"Yes you are." Was my cheesy reply which caused her to turn around.

"Thank you…" My crooked smile played upon my lips after she said this. "Well Edward, you wanted to talk about something?" Of course she wouldn't forget about me trying to tell her something.

"You have to promise that you will be easy on me. I haven't told ANYONE this." She nodded her head and looked into my eyes.

I dragged her down onto the soft green grass and we sat knees touching. "Well let's just get it out of my head shall we?" She giggled a little, and I knew that this would be her last one for a while. "Well just to put it in simple terms my parents are not the best in the parent department…"

"What do you mean?" She whispered as though if she spoke any louder then it would ruin the moment.

"Well they …how do I phrase this…" I sat there pondering on all the facts that my parents have put into my head.

"You can tell me anything Edward, I won't judge you." I heard a very quiet Bella whisper.

I pulled her closer to me as I began to think more. "Do you want me to just tell you straight out?" She nodded in response probably because she was too excited to hear about my home life. "My parents, they aren't the normal type of parents. They kind of do…drugs and their dealer Laurent stays at my house like it's his home although I live there." I closed my eyes as I finally felt this weight come off of me.

"I…I would have never…ever…thought that you came from…" I let her think just as she had let me. "Those…BASTARDS! Do they not understand that they are putting a bad impression on you? Do they fucking realize that they are horrible people? I can't believe that you put up with that shit! What the hell is wrong with the world?!"

I just sat there shocked. She must have felt very strongly about this subject. I put my shocked expression away as I began to tell her the rest of the story. "Well that's not the end of it either." I sighed as I saw her cheeks go into that crimson red color for her outburst. "It's alright sweetheart, it tells me how you feel about a topic." Her color lessened and she grabbed my right hand into her two small hands.

"Just keep going Edward." She just wanted this topic to be over with.

"Well sometimes they…" I swallowed rather hard, "umm…abuse me. I mean I'm used to it, but I don't want to get hurt…" I was holding back my emotions, or trying to as I continued. "It's just so difficult to know that I could have a better life, but I don't. Everyone thinks I'm this awesome kid with this amazing home life. Well let's see how many friends I would have if they had to live in my shoes for one day…"

Bella wiped my face which held tears that I did not know shed. "I…I just wished my parents really cared about me. Is it too much to ask to have a loving family?" With that I started sobbing although I would get hit for that at home.

Bella came so close to me that I was startled, but then she pulled me into a hug. I leaned my head on her shoulder just letting the tears that should have been shed a while ago, out of their dungeon.

I don't know how long we sat there, but it felt like I had been sitting with Bella holding me and telling me everything was going to be alright for hours upon hours. I looked at Bella and realized that she too was crying, but it wasn't as loud as I was.

"Bella?" The voice that didn't sound like my own said, "Thanks for you know listening…" I was sheepish to the idea of having someone that I could talk to like this, but I was starting to get a little bit more comfortable with it.

She looked up at me with pain in her eyes. "Do you need to tell me something Isabella?" I was being serious so I wasn't going to use her nickname, but she didn't seem to be upset about that. She nodded her head slowly. "Well don't be afraid, you can tell me anything." I smiled brightely to her letting her know that she was safe while I was here.

"Do you want to know why I moved here to Forks?" She asked softly, this must be hard for her to tell. I nodded my head so she continued. "Well, my mother, Renée, just…she drank a lot after the divorce with my father. They still loved each other very much, but she couldn't live in Forks anymore, and he wanted to stay.

She filed for a divorce a few weeks after I was born. On her own, she took care of me in Spring Valley, California. The cops were starting to come into the neighborhood, so we moved to a different state, and she changed her name to Tanya." Tears were starting to stream down her face, so I gently rubbed her cheeks, and earned a small smile.

"Anyways, she always told me that I was useless and that I shouldn't have ever been born. She blamed ME about HER divorce to my father. I was like 3 months old, how was I supposed to make a decision?

The last day of my sophomore year, I returned home and saw a strange car in the drive-way. But I was used to this by then, seeing as Renée would bring home a guy to try to raise her from her depression from my father, so I thought nothing of it. I just did what I normally do, and that was to walk in the kitchen and start a dinner for the t- I mean three of us.

I heard a scream come from near my mother's room, and once again thought nothing of it. The only scary part about this whole situation was the silence after the scream. My own breathing stopped once I realized that there was no noise coming from anywhere in the house." Her eyes had a far away and sad look to them. This must not be good.

"So I ran as quickly as I could with my clumsiness to her room. I knocked on the door before entering her room. There was no response, so I was getting really worried. I opened the squeaky door to find…find…red…everywhere…" I brought her into my arms and rubbed her back softly.

Noticing that she was so upset I had to say something… "Bella, you don't have to tell me the rest of the story if you don't want to."

She shook her head in my chest and pushed me back. "I just have to." She mumbled more to herself than to me, but I still heard it. "I looked up from the floor to find my mother on the ground, pale. There was no breathing coming from her, and I just snapped. The man that was with her was Phil. I recognized him from being here before. He held a knife in his hand and turned towards me. I-I snapped.

He had this look of terror on his face once I ran at him, full speed, grabbed the knife, and threw it out the window. I got right up in his face, and him being the pervert that he was, thought I was going to kiss him. So his lips were about two inches away from mine…and I screamed at him. 'WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU KILL MY MOTHER YOU BASTARD! DID YOU EVER REALIZE THAT SHE HAS BEEN THROUGH A LOT EVER SINCE I WAS BORN?! DID YOU EVEN CARE?!' I snapped my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed 9-1-1.

I thought him mumble something like, 'be lucky your alive you little slut' but I can't be sure. I told 9-1-1 about my mother and Phil Backus, and it turns out that they were chasing after him for a while for things just like this. They warned me that he would try to rape me, so I pretended like I was on the phone for a long while. He wouldn't try anything while I was on the phone.

I heard the sirens, so I pretended to hang up my phone. Just as my phone snapped, he came at me. The paramedics came rushing through the door downstairs just as I started to scream at the top of my lungs."

She took a deep breath.

"Luckily the police barged in and put him in handcuffs before he tried anything with me. They sent him to Texas, and the guys in the prison killed him within the first week. And that's why I'm here now, living with Charlie, because I have no one else…no one."

She sighed softly and I just stared at her. How could that happen to such an angel? Phil Backus was just lucky that he was already dead, because I most deffinately would have killed him for her. "Well…that's…" I struggled and she looked up at me with pleading eyes. "That bastard better be lucky that he's dead, or else I would have killed him myself." I hugged her and she leaned her head against my shoulder.