Hey guys! Hope you enjoy

Ness

Chapter 9

Around six o'clock there was a knock on the door. Carlisle took a siesta before they arrived and was now energized and ready to host. Esme was removing the chicken from the oven, slamming the door shut.

"Edward, honey, could you get that?"

"Sure." I made my way over there and opened the door, revealing Emmett's towering six foot-three form. He had a grin on his face and he immediately pounded hands with me.

"Edward, good to see you." He gave me a hug and I stepped to the side to let him in.

"We saw each other three days ago." He paid me no mind and helped in his wife who was wrapped in a coat as she hurried in to escape the gust of cold air that blew. She shivered and Emmett rubbed her arms up and down with his hands to create some sort of friction.

"Hi Edward." Rosalie pecked my cheek with a smile and then moved to the kitchen to everyone else. "Mm, it smells delicious in here!" A car pulling up called my attention and I saw it was Bella's car. Out walked Bella and her cousin Alice who ran quickly through the open door to escape the cold wind.

"Hi Edward," Alice greeted, removing her large black sunglasses from her face. Her hair was mussed due to the wind and I noticed slight bags under her eyes.

"Hi Alice." I grabbed her coat and she moved on. "Bella." I nodded but she barely looked at me. Her eyes were somewhere else, spaced out, which made me frown. She seemed to have sensed my presence because she snapped out of it and handed me her coat.

"Edward." She quickly went into the kitchen where she was received with warm welcomes and squeals. The jackets went into my room and by the time I walked back down, dinner was served on the table and everyone was waiting behind their seats for me to join them.

Carlisle had the glass of wine in his hand as I took my spot behind my seat, in front of Bella, waiting for the announcement.

"Rosalie and Emmett have told us they have exciting news to share, so before we commence in Esme's feast, I'll let them take the stage." He smiled and gestured for Rosalie to continue. Her face lit up and she suddenly started twiddling her fingers nervously. Bella stood beside her with a look of exhaustion on her face. Her bags were terrible and her skin was sallow today.

"Thank you for having me here." She glanced at both Carlisle and Esme. "Emmett and I have something very…beautiful to share." She reached for Emmett's large hand and entwined their fingers, their faces holding matching smiles. "We're pregnant!" She burst with excitement and everyone's mouths dropped. "We're going to have a baby!"

Bella was the first to recover, erasing the grimace off of her face with a full on smile. She threw her arms around her best friend and gently crushed herself to her, whispering soft things into her ear. I made my way and hugged Emmett, patting his back and grinning.

"A dad, huh?"

"I can't believe it." He breathed in awe. The mental image of a little toddler running ramped through their home with loud giggles while Emmett's tall and uncoordinated, burly, frame chased after him.

"That's something we should all be scared about." Everyone laughed and gave their congratulations to the parents to be.

"I also wanted to ask something." Rose interrupted the buzzing of happy whispers. "If Bella would agree to be the godmother of my child?" Bella's mouth dropped to the floor making Rosalie giggle like a madwoman.

"I—Oh my god, yes!" She exclaimed and once again hugged her tightly. "I would be honored."

"And Edward I don't even have to ask you." Emmett shrugged off with a playful grin.

"This calls for champagne!" Esme clapped happily with a dimple in her right cheek. "And sparkling cider for the mommy-to-be." If it were possible, Rose was already glowing like the sun itself. She seemed positively ecstatic with the news and her hand seemed to constantly find its way to her tummy.

I turned my eyes and saw Bella had turned back to her original state. Rose's news brightened her attitude for a while but it seemed she reverted back to a state of depression. Worry was starting to consume me. Her eyes were glued to the plate of food in front of her without blinking. She rubbed her fingers together, mindlessly, before she grabbed the fork roughly and started scarfing the food down her throat with a quickness that had me and Carlisle looking at her in concern. The food was disappearing right before our eyes in seconds. It didn't even look like she was breathing but the process looked painful and her eyes looked like she would tear any second.

"Bella," Alice whispered harshly to her cousin, a frown marring her face. She was ignored and in an incredible five minutes, Bella's plate was completely spotless. She crossed her fork and knife over the plate and avoided any direct eye contact with anyone.

"Bella?" I questioned softly and saw her chest started heaving heavily. Her hand flew to her mouth sharply and she quickly slid the chair back, with a loud screeching sound that made Rose and Esme jump, running towards the bathroom up the stairs.

I threw my napkin on top of the table, screeching my own chair back and rushed after her, but somehow Alice beat me to it. She cut in front of me and slammed the door in my face, the lock the only sound heard before the running water. Carlisle was behind me with worry written all over his face and as the minutes passed, I was starting to get impatient.

I knocked on the door twice but was bluntly ignored. I slammed my fist once more and heard the water shut off. I growled in irritation at their lack of response but felt Carlisle's calming hand on my shoulder.

"A moment, Edward." The door unlocked, revealing Alice who wore a somber face. She stepped to the side to let Carlisle inside, but blocked my entrance with her petite frame.

"You can't block me from my own bathroom." I barked angrily at all the fucking obstacles that appeared whenever I tried to fucking do something. She snorted in response, crossing her arms.

"'Mine, mine, mine.' Is that all you care about?" Her question caught me off guard and made me hesitate. She raised an eyebrow at me but had a no-bullshit facial expression.

"What's wrong with Bella?" I tried another technique since brute force was not getting me anywhere and neither was yelling. Alice was keeping her cool fine while I was losing mine. She grabbed my wrist tightly and pulled me away from the bathroom without a struggle. "What the hell?" She put a finger to her lip to quiet me down.

"She's throwing up." I frowned but didn't expect anything else. She was eating too much way too fast, it would be a surprise if she didn't. She was scarfing everything down as if she would never eat again.

"Why?" Alice studied me for a second, trying to find something, but unfortunately for her I didn't plan on being an observational experiment today. I ground my jaw.

"Bella's bulimic." I felt a wave of cold water splash on my face and my jaw unlocked itself.

"Excuse me?" My voice was incredulous even to my own ears. "She fucking throws up her food?" Alice put up two hands and glanced behind me to check if anyone was coming.

"Let me reiterate." She backtracked. "Bella hasn't done it in a long time. It's triggered when she is overwhelmed."

"That's not any fucking better." I snapped harshly and she cracked her neck.

"I don't have better news for you." The door of the bathroom opened and out walked Carlisle with his lips in a straight line, staring at the floor. He caught eyes with Alice and a silent message passed through them. "I'm going to reassure everyone she's okay." She descended downstairs to the hushed whispers to explain everything.

"She'll be fine. It was just the food." He lied, wiping the back of his hand against his forehead. I narrowed my eyes. "She'll join us shortly. Why don't we go downstairs?" I glanced behind him through the small crack opening of the door and saw Bella on the floor with her knees pulled up into her chest and her head laid gently on top of her knees. Relenting, I nodded and turned away from the door that separated Bella from us to head back downstairs.

Rosalie was biting the tip of her finger while holding onto a flute of sparkling cider in her other hand. She saw me and excused herself from Alice to make her way over to me, her brows furrowed closely together.

"How is she?" She glanced at Carlisle and he nodded.

"She's going to be fine." She relaxed only slightly. I'm sure Alice told her that she was okay but Rosalie was never one to believe simple hear-say unless it was by a professional. She trusted Carlisle's verdict since he's a doctor. Bella's presence was felt and we all turned towards the stairs where she came down with one hand through her hair and the other on the railing.

"Are you okay, Bella?" Emmett asked, stepping forward and offering her his large hand. She gave him a small smile and took his hand to walk down the rest of the steps.

"Yes. I'm sorry for ruining dinner." She looked at everyone with guilt and Esme shook her head.

"Don't apologize, darling. We can finish now." Bella rubbed her lips and my jaw ticked as I watched her carefully. We sat down like before and resumed dinner, the aura a little tighter than before. Bella remained quiet and still with her empty plate in front of her.

After dinner everyone sat around the large table and exchanged conversations. The mood lifted for everyone except Bella, me and Alice. Alice was ignoring her cousin but her expression was still weary and I kept my eyes glued to her even while I spoke. Bella glanced at her phone to look at the time and bit her lip.

"Let me help you, Esme." Rosalie offered, standing up and heading with Esme and Alice to the kitchen. Carlisle's phone rang and he excused himself while Emmett made his way to the bathroom after patting his stomach.

I reached to the table behind me where Esme placed the fruit arrangement she ordered. Picking a brilliant green apple, I presented it to Bella who stared at it bewildered.

"No thank you." She excused herself, standing from her seat as I followed.

"If you eat it do you think you'll purge it?" She froze mid step and whipped around to face me with her golden eyes wide.

"What?" Her voice wasn't vicious as it usually was but filled with shock. I took notice that since she came out of the bathroom she looked deathly pale with glassy eyes and had unusual pale lips.

"Bulimic? That's what you are?" Her lips parted in surprise.

"What? No. I'm not—"

"Your cousin sold you out so save it." I snapped, twirling the green apple in my hand, appreciating it from each angle. Bella seemed speechless at the moment, giving way to an awkward silence. She took a deep, unsteady, breath and placed a hand over her flat stomach.

"I'm not bulimic." She murmured.

"I'm positive I caught whiff of vomit in the bathroom." The smell was faint, since the door was mostly closed, but the little bit I got was distinct and putrid. "So what are you?" Our voices were whispers the entire time so no one would over hear our conversation. Silverware clanked together from the kitchen, along with the sound of kitchen drawers opening and closing. Bella's eyes were scanning the area frantically to make sure no one was coming in. I grabbed her hand with my empty one and took her upstairs with me into the bedroom that she slept in last night.

"This has nothing to do with you." She clipped, snatching her wrist back.

"So you mean to tell me that you eating so harshly and rushing to the bathroom shouldn't worry me?" Her lips released their grimace. "You worried everyone downstairs with your little stint and I'm tired of playing the patient ever begging man when it comes to knowing a little bit about you." My movements were very calculated so that she still had personal space. "I was always there for you when you needed it and that hasn't changed now. I can understand that you hate me and I can respect that you want to kill me, but I can't comprehend your problem."

"I'm not some sort of diseased woman so stop treating me like that."

"Maybe if you opened your mouth and actually said something rather than curse me out I wouldn't assume the worst."

"I'm not bulimic that's all you need to know." I brought the apple upstairs with me and now raised it up in the space between us.

"Sure looks like what Alice said might add up. You ate and ran to the bathroom to throw up." I cocked my head to the side and saw her hands fist into tight balls.

"Alice over exaggerates everything. It's the very core of her nature." She rubbed her arms up and down.

"For her to over exaggerate there has to be some substance of truth. So." I sat on the edge of the bed, carefully tossing the apple in the air and catching it. "How'd it start?" There was a long silence, the only sound heard was the padding of my hand against the apple.

"I moved to New York after my dad's Arizona plan failed." I stopped the tossing it when she started and held the apple in my hands. "When I got to school that world was different. New York was different." She turned and sighed. "Forks is a small town where everyone knows everyone and nothing is a secret. In New York you're a small fish in a big pond and it's hard to keep up. I used that to my advantage to sneak out and since Charlie wasn't the Chief I had nothing to fear.

"Anyways, school was hard since I was new and it made it hard to make friends, not that that was any different than being here." She shook her head. "You hear girls obsess over themselves a lot more over there and then so did I. I started cutting back on my food and lost substantial weight." She threw her head back. "When…my mother…died—" She took a shaky breath before continuing. "Feelings overtook my body and it…happened."

"For how long?" My voice was rough and she heard it.

"I don't know. I don't have exact dates. A few months until Alice caught me doing it."

"Alice said overwhelming emotions triggered it. What's wrong?" Her spine straightened.

"Stress. It's personal."

"That doesn't mean hash it out on your body." I stood up and walked towards the window, cracking it open and letting some air freshen up the room.

"When I did it, I was in a really unstable place." She tucked a stray tress behind her ear. "I partied every night, Edward. I drank myself away into oblivion and made my parents life a living hell in a form of revenge because they barred me from every single experience here. I didn't just decide to one day stick my finger down my throat for shits and giggles." Imagining a wild Bella was nearly impossible. She was conservative and pure in all of its forms. She was the balance to my form. "I didn't get to say goodbye to my mother. Can you imagine one day not being able to say goodbye to someone you cared about?"

"Yes." I nodded. "Although, not on the same level and I can't compare myself to what you probably went through with your mom. I felt it in the pit of my stomach when you left and never said anything to me." She swallowed and looked away. "The feeling of emptiness in my stomach was a feeling I felt for years and no one understood me. I was being melodramatic." I rolled my eyes at the stupid word people used for me.

"Things happen for a reason, Edward." Her phone vibrated and she jolted, swiping it out of her pocket and glancing at the notification. She frowned and stuffed it in her pocket, stopping in front of me. "Thank you for listening to me."

"That's the one thing you won't ever have to thank me for." She studied me for a second and swiped the apple from my hand to take a bite from it.

"Bye." She chewed and hurriedly exited the room.