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Chapter 26: Dinner in La Push

Edward's POV

I woke up with something tickling my nose; it was annoying. What was Bella doing?

"Unghhh." I swatted whatever it was. It was small and furry, probably her hair.

I heard a hiss in my ear and an itchy pain in my jaw.

"Ow!" I groaned, opening my eyes.

I came face to face with Ginger and when I touched my jaw, I felt something sticky. Shit.

I looked around, but didn't find Bella. Good, no need to make it worse.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked the cat. He mewed and rubbed his head to my chest. "Hungry?" I wondered, wiping my chin. It hurt like a bitch. "Why would you hurt me, huh?"

I picked him up and went downstairs to put some milk in his bowl. We had been consuming a lot of milk since he appeared in our lives. The granules didn't seem to satisfy him.

After I prepared his breakfast, I went to the bathroom. I had an angry scratch against my jaw - four claw lines from my cheekbone to my chin. Stupid cat. When I returned to the kitchen, washed and dressed for the day, I found my parents there.

"Oh!" I shouted, surprised. I hadn't heard the door. Was I going deaf?

"Morning, honey! What happened to you?" Mom asked, worried.

I put a hand over my jaw. "Nothing."

"If you're going to get hurt every time we leave, we'll rethink leaving you in the first place," Dad chuckled.

"Ha ha! It's Ginger's fault."

They rolled their eyes as if they didn't believe. Didn't they? Who could have done that?

That's when I remembered about Bella spending the night. Was she upstairs? Had she left?

"I'll start breakfast," Mom said, going to the fridge.

"I want a huge coffee," Dad told her, making his way out of the kitchen. He patted my shoulder on his way.

"What happened?" They looked tired.

"The hotel room was next to someone that was throwing a party of sorts. We didn't sleep much," Mom explained. "Why don't you go wake Bella up?"

I gulped and turned around on my heels, in one smooth motion. I took the stairs two at a time, looked around, and was glad I didn't see Dad. I then slipped in the guest bedroom. To my surprise, Bella was in the bed, her hair sticking in every direction.

"Hey," I whispered.

She cracked an eye open and flung an arm over her head, making me laugh. "Let me sleep."

"Funny, I thought you couldn't sleep," I taunted, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I'm sure you know that my parents are home."

"Yeah, I'm aware." She turned her head to look at me. "Do you always talk to yourself?"

"What? I was talking to Ginger!"

"Was he in the bathroom with you?" she teased, raising on her elbows and looking at me through her thick eyelashes.

"I did? I wasn't aware of that." I felt my blush creeping up on my cheeks.

"I think it's adorable."

"Shut up," I moaned. "Do something about your hair and come downstairs."

"I tried to muse it up to look like I'd been sleeping," she defended herself.

"It looks like a haystack!"

She gasped in mock shock. "How dare you! Yours looks like a nest in the morning so you're not one to talk."

"Ouch. How you wound me," I said dramatically, nudging her with my hip.

She cupped my cheeks and pressed her lips to mine. "Do you think they'd mind if I come downstairs like this?" she whispered, leaning back and flinging the blanket off her body.

My eyes widened when I saw her in just one of my old t-shirts and her panties. "You might give Dad a heart attack." My hand went to her leg and I forgot about my parents being around. Bella bit her lips and wrapped an arm around my waist, bringing me closer to her. Our mouths collided and my hands started roaming her bare legs. I'd missed her.

The door opened and I jumped, fumbling with the blanket to drape it over her legs. Dad was smirking in the doorway.

"Breakfast is ready." He grinned and winked at me.

I glanced at Bella, her head was down and she looked embarrassed. When Dad left the room, she turned to me, pressing her face to my shirt, giggling madly.

"Oh, my! I tried to stop you, but my willpower dissipates when you're around," she whispered.

"Mine too," I admitted.

Once she was decent, we made our way downstairs, hand in hand. Dad was drinking his coffee while Mom was still frying some bacon.

"Good morning, dear," Mom greeted Bella.

"Good morning," she answered, still moving her hand through her hair. She had managed to look like Medusa.

After breakfast, we went to my room, leaving the door wide open. I heard footsteps every now and then coming closer then disappearing. It was annoying. We decided to work on homework since I had lied to Mom about doing it yesterday.

When I reached my Spanish essay, I glanced toward Bella who was writing slowly on her Calculus. I looked toward the empty hallway then back at her.

"What's 'il tuo canante'?" I whispered.

Bella looked up and bit her lip. "It's something in Italian." She refocused on her homework.

"Bella!" I hissed. "No more dodging around. Just answer. Is it something bad?" I asked worried.

She giggled. "No, not bad. It means 'your singer'. Il is the article for masculine. Tuo is 'you', the possessive pronoun for masculine. Cantante means singer," she explained quietly, watching my reaction.

"What does that have to do with anything? I don't sing."

She laughed loudly, curling forward. She was having another hysterical moment. I waited until she was done laughing.

"It has a deeper meaning. It has to do with your blood."

I pursed my lips in an attempt to keep from bursting in laughter. "My blood sings?" I snorted.

"Exactly." She was serious. That made me start laughing. "They refer to the human whose blood calls to a specific vampire," she whispered, glancing toward the door. "That's why I am unable to be apart from you, that's why it was so difficult to drink from another."

"Oh. You knew?" I wondered.

"Yes. I didn't say anything, though. I was sure I'd scare you."

"When are you going to grasp that you can't get rid of me?" I groaned, exasperated.

"How would you have reacted if I told you that I felt like... I was anxious, terrified and panicked every second I was apart from you. Your blood kept and still keeps me so close to you. I happened to fall in love, too." She shrugged, smiling.

"What do you mean you 'happened to fall in love'?" I mock asked her. Maybe it was better when we weren't talking about this stuff.

"We can have a singer without being in love with him or her. Emmett had one and…as he bluntly put it, he sucked her dry."

I blinked, feeling my pulse racing. "I think I'm starting to grasp how difficult this is for you," I murmured.

"Dully noted." She smirked. "Do you need help with that?" She gestured to my Spanish essay.

"I'll try it on my own, thank you very much."

"Suit yourself." She poked her tongue out and returned to her Calculus.

We worked in silence for a few minutes. I kept searching in the dictionary for words, but when I had to put them on paper, they didn't look right. Spanish was an enigma for me. I wanted to do the homework alone, just this one time. But I was giving up.

"Ehhh…" I uttered, dumping the dictionary next to me. "It's useless."

"Edward, all you have to do is translate that text. How hard can it be?" Bella asked impatiently.

"The tenses are all messed up."

She rolled her eyes before fixating them on mine. "Say it."

"No way." I wasn't going to beg her to do it for me. I had some dignity left.

She shrugged noncommittally. "Admit it."

I clenched my jaw and glared at the thrown words on my paper.

"Say it. Loudly," she taunted me.

"I might need help," I mumbled.

Bella leaned closer, cupping her ear, smirking at me. "Louder. I can't hear you."

I groaned. "Fine!" I shouted. "I don't know how to do it!" I yelled. "Happy?"

"Yep." She nodded, grinning.

There was a knock on the doorframe. I turned to see Dad on the threshold, looking amused at us.

"Your mother said you should get dressed. We're leaving in half an hour."

"Okay," I answered, pushing the books farther away on the bed.

"She told me to ask if you'd like to join us, Bella?" he continued sounding hopeful.

"Oh, I can't! I made plans with Alice," she said seriously. That could be true or not. Anyway, Dad didn't have to know it.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Okay. Half an hour," he told me pointedly and left, closing the door.

I wasn't going to shout after him that the door should be open. He was giving us privacy. And if I wasn't mistaken, he liked my Bella a tiny bit.

"What a disappointment," I said mockingly.

"Don't tell me!" Bella groaned. "You're jealous."

"It doesn't make me feel better if I admit it. He's still my Dad, you know? It's disturbing," I muttered.

"Oh, come on! I find it funny!" Bella giggled and came in front of me. "I'll see you tonight. Have fun in La Push."

"Don't I get to drive you home?" I pouted.

"Alice will be here to collect me soon enough. She texted me around four in the morning, having some ingenious idea." She cringed. "Shopping."

"And you girls don't like shopping!" I said amused.

"I hate it. I'm not most girls."

I was pushing her buttons. Therefore, I decided to back up or she wouldn't be joining me later.

Bella went downstairs to allow me to get dressed alone, not like it mattered to me. When I got to the living room, she was on the couch, playing with Ginger, pulling at the end of a toy. The kitten hissed, trying to get the upper hand – or paw. He was so funny when he was playing. He'd turn on his back and cup the ball or whatever other toy I was using between his paws or with his small mouth.

I watched as he stuck his claws into the mouse-like toy in Bella's hand, and when she raised her hand, he remained suspended, straining his back, his tail high in the air. I chuckled attracting his attention. He mewed and jumped on the couch then down and came to me. I picked him up and he looked back at Bella then at me, as if telling me she had been annoying him.

"I have to say he is very amusing," Bella said lightly.

"Until he's hungry," I added, touching my jaw. I sat next to her and picked the toy mouse. Ginger leaped at it, narrowly missing my hand.

"You're predisposed to accidents. So don't blame the kitten."

"Look who's talking," I mocked her. "Ms. 'let's complicate my life next to a human.'"

She giggled. "Well, Mr. 'I run with the vampires' you've managed to hurt yourself a lot before you got Ginger."

I choked on my spit and burst in laughter. "That's priceless," I said between gasps of air.

The doorbell rang and I went to answer. We were about to leave, who was there?

I came face to face with Alice. She was rocking on her heels, hyper as ever.

"Hello, Edward," she greeted and kissed my cheeks.

I blushed, not having anyone's attention besides Bella's and Mom's. "Err hi."

"I'm here to kidnap Bella."

"It's not kidnapping if she's willing to go," I said amused.

"I'm not going willingly, trust me," Bella muttered from behind me. "And the term is loose. I'm no longer a kid. Why do they say kidnapping when there is no kid involved?"

"Kidnap, according to the dictionary, means to seize and detain unlawfully and usually without reason," Alice explained slowly.

Bella brought my head down and kissed me, ignoring Alice. "I'll miss you."

"Me too," I whispered, pecking her mouth again. "Have fun?"

"I'll try. You take care."

I nodded and they left. Alice, skipping to a little yellow car that I didn't want to believe it was a Porsche, while Bella walked begrudgingly behind her.

"Ready?"

I jumped, and turned to Dad. "Yeah. We can go."

"Was that your friend?" he asked, stirring me to his car. It would be the first time in a long time since I went somewhere with them – as a family. Besides that time at the hospital, which doesn't count.

"Yeah, that was Alice. She's taking Bella shopping."

"I'm glad she has friends, you know? Your mother and I were quite worried…"

"Dad, she's a big girl."

"Edward, she's alone, having only an idiotic uncle that doesn't even visit. I'd love to meet that man. Who does this shit? She's not even eighteen, is she?"

"I…think so?" I answered, but it sounded like a question. I had no idea when her birthday was so I had no idea what age she was supposed to be. I couldn't very well tell him she was nineteen.

I got inside the car, waiting for Mom. Dad kept voicing his concern about Bella.

"Dad, she's fine. I swear. The Cullens are great and Carlisle and Esme are like parents to her. Since they have so many kids adopted, they love her. And she has me," I added hastily.

He turned toward me. "When we come back, we're going to have a talk, son. This is your last year in high school. You have to think of college and if you are serious about Bella, then you have to think about a good job-"

"You talk as if I'd have to support her too. I will – but Dad, this is the twenty first century."

He looked hard at me, and I gulped, feeling very small under his gaze. I couldn't have this conversation with him. Not when I knew that college wasn't even an option.

Mom came out and got in the car, effectively cutting off the tension. Dad turned back to the windscreen and I breathed in relief.

We arrived fast since it was only a fifteen minute drive and when Dad cut off the engine, I jumped out of the car before he could start talking again. I went to the door and before I could knock, Billy opened it, smiling brightly.

"Hello, Edward. Long time, no see."

"Hi. Yeah…I've been busy," I muttered.

He chuckled. "Jake's in his room."

I nodded and went to his room, down the narrow hallway. I raised my hand to knock when I heard a loud groan.

"Are you insane? I don't need a tie!" he yelled.

I laughed and knocked.

The door wrenched open and I ran straight into Leah. She huffed and dodged me, disappearing from the room. I furrowed my brows and looked after her then at Jake.

He was fiddling with the purple tie in his hands, his cheeks pink.

"Don't tell me…" I trialed off unable to believe it.

"You know, too? Who the hell told you? How the fuck does every one know?" he groaned and fell on his bed.

"No one had to tell me anything. It's in the way you act," I said.

He looked up surprised. "I think we're talking about different things."

"I was talking about you and Le..ah," I said unsure, suddenly.

He barked a loud laugh. "Me and that bitch? Honestly Edward!"

"Then what…? Or who?" I asked, confused.

"I met her in Seattle, last weekend. And everyone knows!"

"Really?"

"And you have some explanation to do. Everyone knows because of you!"

"Why is it always my fault?" I groaned.

"Because apparently you attract vampires around you! Who were the ones that dropped by yesterday?" he asked, upset.

I felt like being punched in the gut. "You weren't going to interfere!"

"If the situation called…"

"Did they see you?" I asked quickly, closing the door.

"No. Why? Who were they?" he asked, watching my actions confused.

I went to sit next to him on the bed. "Their leaders, Volturi. Have you heard of them?"

"Yeah…but…" He shook his head. "Fuck me, Masen! Do you have honey to you?"

"Quit it! It's a long story, but we're fine."

"You'll tell us when we eat."

"Us?" I wondered.

"Yes, our small family reunion turned out into something huge. We're dining at Leah's. Sue heard about it."

"Oh, great. Mom would have kittens."

He laughed, agreeing. "Dad wants to drive with your parents."

"I was about to suggest to drive with you. Dad's getting ideas I don't even wanna think about."

I stood and went to the door. Jake followed.

"Like what?"

"College," I muttered, realizing a second too late that I was entering dangerous waters.

"What's that bad abo-…Hell no!" he thundered, making me jump. "Tell me you aren't planning on….going stony!" he changed his words when he saw my parents in the small kitchen waiting for us.

"Later," I told him, glaring.

We went to his car; Leah was already waiting by it. I knew I couldn't and wouldn't escape their claws. Jake let Dad drive ahead of us and after a little while, he stopped the car and turned to me.

"Talk."

I considered ducking out of the car, but that was impossible since the front seat had to be pulled forward so I could leave. Reluctantly, I told them, in a few words, what had happened.

"And before either of you have anything to say against this – don't. It's my decision. Not Bella's. Not any of the Cullens'. Mine," I pointed out.

"I was going to say that I knew it would get here," Leah said softly, not meeting my eyes.

"Jake?" I asked. He was awfully quiet.

"What? Do you want my blessing?" he barked, turning around and driving off.

I sighed and looked out the window. Bella had been right – I shouldn't have dropped the bomb. Not yet. Was I ever going to get a moment of peace in my life?

I saw we weren't going toward Leah's house. "Where…"

Leah patted my knee. "We're getting his girlfriend."

"From Seattle?" I asked, surprised.

"She's from here, but he happened to meet her there," she explained.

Two minutes passed and Jake pulled up in front of a little house. "Wait here," he muttered and went to the front door.

"You should sit in the front seat. And don't judge. We'll explain everything to you. There are some wolf things…that you don't know, yet."

"Wouldn't Jake like his girlfriend up there?" I asked.

"No. Trust me. He'll want her bundled up in the back seat. He may even make you drive just to be sure she's safe," Leah said, giggling.

I frowned, looking toward the house. A middle aged woman was at the door, smiling and talking with him. Leah laughed louder, so I guessed she wasn't the one. Between the doorframe and the woman, a small girl around five years old, squeezed herself out and jumped in Jake's arms.

My eyes widened and I felt my stomach revolting. "What is he playing at?" I hissed.

"Didn't I just tell you not to judge?" Leah moaned. "Keep your mouth shut."

Jake came to the car with the girl clinging to his neck and talking his ear off. He slipped inside the car and turned to us. I should have moved in the front seat when I had the opportunity.

"Would you two keep an eye on her?" he asked softly.

He wasn't the Jake I knew. Everything about him was changed. The anger from a few minutes ago was gone. The roughness in his voice was gone.

The little girl sat between Leah and me. "Hi!" she said brightly, waving to me.

I had never liked kids, but she didn't look like other kids. She was one of a kind.

"Hey," I said back nervously.

Jake started driving, but his eyes stayed mostly on the rear view mirror glued to the little girl.

When we arrived at the Clearwaters, we went straight to Leah's room where Seth was waiting impatiently.

"Finally! Oh, I see the monster's here," he chuckled.

Jake sat on the chair with the girl on his lap. "I guess, we should introduce you two. Edward, this is Renesmee. Nessie, for short."

"Like the Loch Ness monster," she chirped with glee.

"Uhh… nice to meet you," I said. "So what's this all about?"

"She's my imprint. Did I mention to you how when we find the one, everything changes? We're not aging so until she's big enough, I'll wait," Jake explained. "And those idiots know my little secret because well…when we're in our wolf forms, we can read each others' thoughts."

"Cool." It was the smartest thing I could come up with. I had no idea what else to say.

Good for you? You're a perv? Why can everyone read minds?

"That means you have…imprints, too?" I asked, looking at Seth and Leah.

"No," she answered, looking down. Seth shook his head. "Wish I found her."

"I need help in the kitchen!" Sue shouted from outside the door, knocking.

Seth and Jake left the room, taking Nessie with them. What a weird name for a kid.

I looked at Leah and asked her the question that was eating at me. "Am I your imprint?"

She cracked a smiled that didn't reach her eyes. "If you were, you wouldn't plan on dying."

"I'm not going to… That's how you'll see it?"

"Yes. I am sorry, but that's the truth," she whispered.

"Have you had an imprint?" I insisted.

"Edward… two years ago, I was with Sam, remember?" I nodded. "Well, he met Emily…she's his imprint. You realize how difficult this is for me? I've always secretly wanted you then I found Sam just to lose him to my second cousin and then…when I tried it with you…"

"You were too late," I finished for her.

We looked at each other for a few minutes. I mulled on what I had just found out. I had no idea why she had broken things off with Sam.

"Do you think…" My voice cracked and I simply closed my mouth.

She understood me, though. "Sometimes, I wonder if it would have worked for us…if she wouldn't have appeared in your life."

"And you think it would have?" I questioned.

"I'm sure. It would have been as easy as breathing. You've seen Sam and Emily, surely. And now, you can see it from another perspective. Look at Jake and Nessie."

"It doesn't work," I muttered, meeting her dark gaze.

She sighed. "I am not trying to make you see who it's better to be with. You've already chosen. What about your parents, though?"

"I'll have to come up with something good." I shrugged.

She scooted closer to me and hugged me tightly. "I'll miss you. Just you. My best friend, Edward," she whispered.

I hugged her back. "It doesn't have to be like that."

"I'm sorry, Edward. It just won't work like that."

"I guess…I'll miss you too, Leah."

"When?" she breathed, putting her cheek to my shoulder. I knew she was crying and I tried to make it better, but I was just going to hurt her further with my answer.

"June."

She sniffed and pulled away, wiping her tears. "In the meanwhile, don't be a stranger. I don't even care that you reek of vampire."

I chuckled and took her in my arms again. "And you have to promise to find someone nice to imprint on."

"We'll see about that."

How was this? The drama is finally over and they carry on with their lives.

I hope I answered every review. If I missed anyone, sorry and I want you all to know that I love your reviews and read them all. Keep reviewing.