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Thanks to the beta.

Twilight isn't ours, but we played with our beloved characters.

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Without further ado, enjoy!

BPOV

Before I knew what I was doing, I started walking in their direction, leaving a confused Alice behind me.

"Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Frosty said with a sneer, making Hooters look at me with a raised brow.

"What? You know this brat?" she asked Rose with disgust. Emmett was looking between all of us like he was watching a tennis match.

"Yeah, I know her all too well, she's…" She didn't have the chance to complete her sentence because I interrupted her. "I'm living in the same house with her brother, my dad's friend," I said in a rushed tone, not wanting Rosalie to tell her the truth.

"Yeah, I know her housemate, but I didn't know until recently that he was Rosie's brother. We are good friends." Emmett came to my rescue, winking, and taking the attention off me.

"Thank you," I mouthed as he proceeded to tell me to go to class using his 'principal' tone.

As I left them to carry on with their conversation, a little more lighthearted knowing that Emmett had my back. I went to my locker to take my books out of it, and headed for my first class. I didn't know why, but I had a weird feeling that the stress wasn't going to stop there.

And I was right. Right after I got settled at my desk, in English, Bimbo a.k.a. Lauren, thought it would be a good idea to "improve" my mood.

"Where do you shop, Bella, Wal-Mart? You look like a hobo, have some taste," she spat at me, with a vicious look on her face.

Normally, the old Bella would've been hurt by her comment, because she had low self esteem and no money to afford something else.

But the new, ballsy Bella, grew a backbone, and replied, "Lauren, if I wanted to hear from an ass, I'd just fart." With that I turned my back to her, not wanting to see her bulging eyes and gaping mouth. But luck wasn't on my side, because Hooters heard my reply and that earned me a detention and a victorious look from Bimbo.

At the end of the school day, I was ready to murder some bitch if they kept coming my way. The worst part was that I couldn't do anything about it because my "smart mouth" as Hooters put it, got me in trouble once, and if I kicked some ass, I would've been suspended.

Alice knew about my detention and like the good friend she turned out to be, she waited until I was let out to go home so she could give me a ride. I bid her a silent goodbye, and dragged my ass into the house.

Needless to say, Edward already heard about my detention from Emmett or someone else from school. As I saw his disappointed expression, all the bottled up emotions broke free, and I started sobbing uncontrollably.

After a few moments of watching me strangely, he took me in his arms, kissed my forehead and let me cry it out.

"I-I'm so so-sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, but that woman is out to get me, and she's friends with Rosalie, and she took Bimbo's side after I was the one insulted…" I babbled through my tears, not knowing if he understood anything I said.

"Shh, shh, baby girl, calm down and then you can tell why Emmett had to call me about you getting detention. Maybe if you tell me all about it, I'll understand better and be able to help you," Edward said, hugging me.

I told him everything, starting with my encounter with Rosalie, the talk with Tanya –yeah, I didn't use the nicknames around him–, about Lauren's insults and my come-back, which made him snicker, apparently he thought it was funny too, but when I told him that I didn't get a chance to defend myself in front of the teacher as she appeared to single me out, he started looking upset.

"Well from what you told me, Bella, it seems that I have to talk to Emmett about this situation," he said in a serious tone.

"I don't think so, Edward, that might not be such a good idea. I mean, what if talking to Emmett is going to cause more problems, rather than resolve them?" I asked franticly, thinking that it could make the rest of my high school years a living nightmare. "Can we please change the subject? I've had my cry, I let my frustrations go, now please, can we move on?" I pleaded with him.

"Alright, if you say so, but keep in mind that detentions on your school record are bad for your college applications. Just in case you decide to go there when the time comes," he said, closing the subject, like I asked him.

"Thank you, I'm grateful that you didn't bite my head off as soon as I got in, but gave me a shoulder to cry on. I don't know how I would've reacted if you started scolding me," I told him, wrapping my arms around his waist.

He lifted my chin and bent down to kiss me sweetly, but I wouldn't have it stop at that. I deepened the kiss and fell on the couch with him above me. When we both couldn't go without air anymore, we parted breathing heavily.

"Wow," I said, not being able to form any coherent thought.

"Yeah, wow indeed. I didn't know you would turn into such a vixen, baby girl," he said still trying to steady his breathing.

I left the couch, giving him space to calm down, and decided to broach the subject everybody seemed to tiptoe around.

"Hey, um, I've been meaning to ask you something," I started, gauging his reaction. "You can tell me off, but I think I have a right to know about it, and well, you can talk whenever you're ready, okay?" I rambled nervously, chewing on my lower lip.

"Um, sure, whatever you need me to tell you, baby girl, but what can it be, that has you so flustered? You don't want to talk about furthering our physical relationship, do you?" he asked with apprehension.

"No, nothing of that, we talked about it, and decided together that it was best if we waited. Besides I'm not entirely ready to go all the way with you, just yet, no offense," I said watching his face looking relieved, then morphing into confusion. "I'm talking about this morning, about Jasper and why did you tell him to shut up," I said, half expecting him to run away.

"Oh, that. Well, you're right about one thing. You do have a right to know about my past, but I'm not sure I can tell you everything right now. It hurts, and some parts are not mine to tell," he said with a sad voice.

"Okay, then, please tell me what you can. I want to know you, the man you are today. What Jazz said this morning can't be true, can it? You're not blaming them for having to leave Cornwell to move back to take care of them?" I asked, knowing it would upset him, but I needed to know. After all I was in the same situation. Did he blame me as well for having to marry me, for having to give up the possibility of dating other women? I shook that thought as I almost missed his answer.

"No, Bella, I could never blame them for needing their older brother to step up and become their guardian. But I'm not particularly happy about them disrespecting me. Even though they won't admit it, I was their father figure until they hit eighteen and went away to college," he explained to me. I guess that was the reason he treated me like a little girl instead of a woman, he felt the need to protect me like a father would, because it was in his instincts, not because he saw me as a child.

"I see, so that's why you started babying me right away, isn't it? Your big brother slash fatherly instincts kicked in," I said, the last sentence coming out more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah, you can say that, come to think of it, it's starting to make sense to me as well. Anyway, it's been twelve years since my parents' death. It was two days till my winter break, and I was excited about going home to visit my family for holidays. Little did I know that my happiness would be short lived, because that night, as I was packing my bags full of presents for everybody, I had an incoming call from my mother's cell phone. I didn't think much of it and answered, not knowing the news awaiting me at the other end." He took a shuddering breath and wiped his eyes, which started to water at some point.

EPOV

I knew this was going to come, but facing it, was another thing. It was so hard to open myself to her and tell her about my life.

And so I started to tell her everything I could. I still remembered that day vividly.

"Hello, mom…" I started, only to be interrupted by a voice that wasn't hers.

"Hello, is this Mr. Edward Masen Jr.?" the voice asked.

"Yes, this is him, who am I speaking with?" I asked, becoming more agitated. I had a bad feeling about this.

"I'm Deputy Alec Matthews, I'm sorry to have to tell you that there's been an accident. The front passengers couldn't be saved, and the backseat passengers, the teen and the other kid are currently taken to the hospital. They have extended injuries, but from what I gathered, their lives are not endangered," the man said as if he could care less that he destroyed my life with the news he gave me.

I hung up on him not knowing what to tell that asshole. I took all my necessities, and hailed a cab to the airport. I couldn't drive in the state I was, I didn't need to have an accident of my own and leave two helpless children in the hands of the system. I was the man of the house from then on.

A few hours later, I was landing in Seattle, dreading what was to come, but knowing that I had to stay strong for my siblings. They probably didn't even know what was going on and were scared as hell.

After that, everything went on fast forward. I went to the morgue to identify my parents, went to ICU to watch over my siblings, and tell them the dreadful news. That was the worst experience of my life, and from that moment on I promised myself and to my siblings that I would take care of everything so they wouldn't feel our parents absence too much.

Weeks after the tragedy, I kept waking up at night because of the nightmares. Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw a ten years old Jasper, all bruised and scratched, with his broken arm and the heartbreaking expression he had on his young face at receiving the news, or the hatred filled face and voice he directed at our sister, because he blamed her for everything. That was one of my worst nightmares. The other one was of Rose, trying to OD on painkillers because she blamed herself too. Luckily that never happened for real. It was just a bad dream, one that only served to make matters worse than they already were.

I couldn't finish the story, because by then I was crying my heart out. All the grief I felt, all the loss and heartbreak, I let them out.

And the best of this situation was Bella. Because she did for me what I had just done for her just minutes? Or was it hours? earlier. She held me in her arms and shushed me, comforted me, giving me what I needed: peace.

"Edward, I'm so sorry I made you tell me all about this. I didn't mean to make you feel bad, to open wounds," she said with tears in her eyes. I could see that she understood what I felt like without my parents, because she was in the same situation. Her mother was gone, and her poor excuse of a father didn't want her. I took her in my arms, again, and thanked her for being there for me.

"Baby girl, I needed this. God knows I needed to pour my heart out, and allow myself to grieve the loss. I'm only sorry I dumped everything on you like that," I said with a sorrowful tone.

"Hey now, none of that. I asked, you told me. Now I'm glad because you showed me a part of you I didn't know, and I'm proud of being the one you trusted enough to let yourself go like that. So don't apologize, because there's no reason. Now sit tight, I'm going to make us some comfort food, we both need it after the day we had," she said, skipping to the kitchen, as I felt my bad mood dissipate.

~B (m0t0b33)

A special thank you to starpower31 for allowing us to burrow this funny bit "if I wanted to hear from an ass, I'd just fart"

We update every Friday in case you were wondering.

To see the banner go to www. facebook groups/274198112656668/ ~facebook group~ and photos. Also, there's a doc with everyone's age and profession under the name of the story.

PS: Go check addicted-to-romione-bedward's new story. It's called The Man In the Trailer - www. fanfiction s/8216390/1/