So I'm kind of scared to post this, but know I have to. And I know that it's not yet the weekend, but I couldn't sit on this any longer or keep you waiting more than you had to. So, um, yeah, have at it! See you at the bottom!

Preciousfairymom80, the world's best beta ever...SAVE ME!

Not SM but I do OWN this story!

Cougar Town Chapter 24

BPOV

I froze, literally froze. My hand was still cupping Edward's dick, his hand was on my breast, and I looked over his shoulder to the now lit room and took in a very purple faced Emmett.

"Get your fucking hands off of her!" Emmett screamed as he lunged forward, chest heaving, and collided with Edward, who released me and stepped back just in time.

"Emmett! Edward! Stop!" I screamed as Emmett let fist after fist collide with Edward's face.

"I," punch, "fucking," punch, "trusted," punch, "you!" Emmett delivered each word with the swing of his massive arm and I tried to pull him off of Edward, tried to help out, but I was no match for him.

Edward wasn't hitting Emmett back, just trying to block the punches that came his way while trying to get free.

I kept screaming at them, trying to pull Emmett off, and then there was a blonde haired woman next to me, eyes wide as she took in the scene for a moment, before jumping in to help me remove Emmett from Edward.

"Stop, Emmett! You're going to kill him!" I screamed and he just kept swinging. "Emmett! I love him! Stop!" I cried out, tears starting to stream down my face at what was happening, and it was enough to get Emmett to pause mid swing, giving Edward the chance to shimmy out of the way.

The blonde woman was helping Emmett off of the floor and I looked over at Edward, who had blood dripping down his face from a cut on his cheek, a busted lip, and a probably broken nose. I didn't think and grabbed a few tissues from the box on the entry way table, and went to tend to his injuries.

"Emmett Jacob McCarty! You had no right!" I screamed at him, and he shocked the hell out of me by actually laughing. He was fucking laughing!

"No, Mom, you had no right to even think about touching him!" he said in a deep, menacing tone. "I fucking warned you, Edward, I asked you if something was going on, and you fucking lied to me!" Emmett screamed and tried to lunge for Edward again, but I braced myself in front of him, making Emmett stop short.

"Wait, she's your mom? You said this was your house," the blonde woman, who looked oddly familiar, spoke up, looking between the rest of us as if she was trying to figure out what was going on.

"Excuse me, who the hell are you? And your house, Emmett?" I questioned, the mom tone filling my voice.

"I'm Rose, his girlfriend, and yes, he said he bought this house last month," the blonde woman, Rose, said.

"His g...girlfriend?" I asked, taking in the obviously older woman. "How fucking old are you?" I asked, knowing she was definitely over twenty-one.

"Twenty-seven, what's it to you? He's legal so it doesn't matter," she replied, her voice a bit of a sneer.

"Legal? Legal! He's fucking seventeen!" I screamed, "And it matters to me because I'm his mother!"

"You're lying, right, Emmett? You're twenty-one, right?" Rose turned to look at Emmett and asked him. But Emmett didn't reply, instead looking down at his hands, which were clenched into fists. "She's lying, right Emmett?" Rose asked again, and Emmett finally looked up at her.

"No, she's not," Emmett replied, his voice finally soft.

"You mean to tell me I fucked a seventeen-year-old?" she screeched, and then slapped Emmett and took off upstairs, no doubt to retrieve her belongings.

"Emmett! How could you deceive her like that? And what in the fuck did you think you were doing lying about your age and fucking around with a woman ten years older than you?" I seethed, and Emmett actually scoffed at me, fucking scoffed.

"You've got to be kidding me, right, Mom? You're fucking kidding me, right?" Emmett asked in a condescending manner and I wanted to slap him.

"Don't you dare take that tone with me, young man. Everything and everyone I do is legal!" I growled at him, and Emmett began to howl with laughter, so much so that I thought he had truly lost his mind.

"Take a look behind you, Mother, and look again!" Emmett said in an ominous tone, and I quirked an eyebrow at him after I glanced behind me and only saw Edward, who was looking back at me with something unknown in his expression.

But before I could say anything further, Rose stormed down the stairs, bag slung over her shoulder, and walked through the kitchen, punching the garage door switch, and I heard it begin to rise. She didn't speak to Emmett and he started to follow her before I interceded.

"Don't you dare move from that spot, young man! I'm not through with you yet," I warned and he froze, turning to look at me with an almost murderous glare.

"You lost all rights to speak to me like a mother when you started fucking my best friend behind my back and turned into a fucking hypocrite," Emmett growled at me.

"I can talk to you however I want, and speaking of, I demand you give Edward an apology. You had no right to attack him, whether or not he is your friend! He's an adult and can make his own decisions on whom he wants to be with, and so can I!" I retorted and went to stand beside Edward, taking his free hand in mine and looking up at him.

I wanted Emmett to know that I was going to stay with Edward whether he liked it or not. Edward looked down at our intertwined hands, and back up to my face with sad eyes. I reached up to cup his face with my hand and Emmett lost it.

"Oh fuck my life! You really think you love him? Are you fucking him, too?" Emmett asked in a maniacal tone.

"That is none of your damn business, but yes I do love him and he loves me. I'm sorry if you aren't mature enough to understand or accept that, Emmett, but it is how it is," I replied, and Emmett actually smiled at me, fucking smiled in light of everything! This kid was digging his own grave quickly.

"So I take it you don't know, huh? You think he's so perfect and mature and old enough to do whatever he wants, right? Well, guess what, Mom? HE'S FUCKING SEVENTEEN TOO!" Emmett screamed the last part and everything was suddenly still and quiet in my world.

I looked up at Edward, asking with my eyes if what Emmett was saying was true, and he kept my gaze, nodded once, and that was all it took.

I slipped my hand from his and began backing away.

"He's wrong, right? He's lying and you're really eighteen, right?" I started to ask in a rapid pace. "You aren't seventeen, are you? I didn't sleep with a seventeen-year-old child, did I?" Edward winced at my words.

My world was spinning out of control around me, things moving faster and blurring into one giant clusterfuck of shit, and the only thing clear to me at that moment was Edward moving towards me.

"Bella," he said my name in a strained voice, his hand reaching for me. "Please let me explain. Please, Bella, baby, I love you."

But I couldn't hear any of it; I couldn't believe what was going on, what was unfolding in front of me.

"Get…get out of my house," I said softly, not even sure if I had actually vocalized it loud enough for him to hear, but apparently I did because his face fell, broke into pieces of anguish as I dismissed him from my life.

"I love you, Bella. Remember that, please. I love you," Edward said, keeping his now tear clouded eyes trained on mine, which were already leaking, and then he walked out of my house.

I fucked a seventeen-year-old kid. I fucked a seventeen-year-old kid. Not only was he underage, but he was my student…a double whammy. I knew it was wrong to mess with my student, but he was eighteen. Emmett had told me so when they first started hanging out, right? Emmett…Emmett…Emmett!

I looked around the living room, coming out of my self-loathing haze, and he wasn't there.

I heard thumping coming from upstairs and rushed up there to find Emmett throwing clothes and other items into a few duffle bags.

"Emmett, what do you think you're doing?" I asked him, and he didn't turn to look at me, choosing to move around the room gathering more items instead.

"I'm going to Dad's house," was all he said, and more tears began to fall.

In a matter of moments my perfect world disintegrated and I lost not only my boyfriend, but my son too, who was infinitely more important.

"Please don't go, Emmett. I'm sorry," I cried to him, but not going to him thankfully, because he chose that moment to whirl around angrily.

"What exactly are you sorry for, huh, Mom? Are you sorry that you lied to me? Or that you fucked my best friend behind my back? Or that you are a fucking hypocrite who thinks it's ok to fuck someone who's seventeen, but not allow their own seventeen-year-old the option to date someone older? Which is it, Mom?"

I didn't answer right away and he went back to clearing out dresser drawers. I swallowed thickly and found my voice to reply.

"All of it," I said quietly, and he stopped moving, his shoulders lurching with the deep, heaving breaths he was taking in.

"You know, if you two had come to me and told me, I might not have been so pissed about it," Emmett said quietly, like that was the thing that hurt him the most, not being confided in by his mother or his best friend.

"I'm sorry, Em. Really I am. Please don't go," I begged again, but he zipped up his bags and threw them over his shoulders.

"I can't stay here right now and look at you knowing what you did." Emmett said in an eerily calm tone, and I knew not to fight him on it.

I stepped back to let him out of his room and followed him downstairs, not wanting to see him go, but I knew it was the best thing at the time.

"Please call me when you get there? I love you, Emmett," I told him and wrapped my arms around his torso, hugging him deeply. He didn't return it.

"I'll make sure you know I got there," were the final words he said to me as he slung his bags into his jeep, climbed up, started it, and roared down the driveway leaving me alone in the catastrophe that was my life.

I watched until I couldn't see his lights anymore. I went to my car to get my bags, and noticed that Edward's were missing from the back. I tried not to think about it, or him, but he kept invading my thoughts as I emptied the car, locked it and the house up, and retreated to my bedroom to unpack.

An hour and many tears and screams later, I heard my phone beeping. I checked it and saw that I had a missed call and a voicemail.

Not looking to see who the call was, I dialed my voicemail and almost crumpled on the floor when Edward's broken velvet voice filtered through the speaker.

Bella, please answer the phone. I need to explain. I love you, baby, I truly do. I thought you knew, understood, and didn't care that I was seventeen. Please don't do this, Bella. Please! God, his voice broke as if he was fighting back cries of anguish, don't leave me, Bella, baby. I need you, I love you. Come back to me baby. Baby please, please, come back to me. Please! Call me back.

I don't know why, but I saved the message and then sat back on my bed, wiping at something on my cheek only to discover that it was my own tears falling again.

I tried to remember what had me believing that Edward was eighteen. I recalled Emmett telling me that he thought he was eighteen and about a big birthday party that had been thrown for him. And he didn't act seventeen, or even eighteen, for that matter. He was more mature, wiser, and had deeper emotions than any other kid I had ever met. He was wise beyond his years, almost as if he was trapped in a younger body or had been forced to grow up way too fast.

How on earth had I fallen for him? A seventeen-year-old? I should have check on it, made sure, and not acted on anything until I could confirm, without a doubt, that he was legal. How could I actually love someone so young? And how could they be emotionally stable enough to return that type of love like Edward had?

So many things I was unsure of, but there was one thing I was sure of. Never underestimate the appeal of a seventeen-year-old boy.

With that thought, I fell into an uneasy sleep full of nightmares about jail, minors, my students, and Emmett and Edward trying to kill each other.

Ok, epic author note time. Now, I know most of you were believing that he was 18, and that I didn't say otherwise. But, I want to say that in the story summary I did put in that he was 17. And, in Stephenie Meyer's world, Edward was essentially only 17 when he and Bella married. Yes, she was only 18, and not old enough to be his mother, but still, he was 17, and we ALL lusted after him, craved those missing sex scenes, and flocked here to get them. I kept dropping hints throughout the story as to him not being 18 and some of you picked up on it, while others didn't, and there were still those that thought he was even older than 18 and those that thought he was only 16. But, he is 17. Now, I do want to add in that I promise a HEA so please keep reading. Shit is still going to happen that will have you reeling with disbelief. And please, put the guns, knives, pitchforks, and torches away. But, just in case, I'm going to go tuck myself away in my hidden bomb shelter and begin typing furiously away on the next chapter of this and work on my other story (which has a VERY legal Edward in it), The Presidential Treatment.

My beta is anxiously awaiting all your reviews and will be forwarding them to me in my hiding spot, lol!

See you in a week or so!