25

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. That's about all I could think as I stood there with Bella hiding behind me, shaking. My father was standing there, watching us both. I couldn't really tell what he was thinking because he was always so reserved. It was all just….fuck.

"Ed, is he here?" asked my mother, Elizabeth, coming into the apartment with Esme on her heels. She smiled as soon as she saw me and launched herself at me. "EDWARD! Oh, I've missed you so much!"

"I've missed you, too, Mom," I said, hugging her but my eyes were still locked with my father's.

His lips twitched slightly as he fought the smile that threatened to break out on his face. My mother pulled back and looked me over before she noticed Bella standing behind me.

"Edward, aren't you going to introduce me to your…friend?" asked Elizabeth, smiling as she looked from Bella to me. I swear she was practically smirking, much like Esme was doing from behind her.

"Of course I am," I said, softly. I turned to Bella, who looked mortified, and mouthed a quick 'sorry' before I stepped aside and pulled her up a little bit. I could feel Bella's body trembling from embarrassment. "Mom, Dad, this is Bella Cullen, my girlfriend. Bella, these are my parents, Ed and Elizabeth Masen."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Masen," muttered Bella, shakily. I slipped my arm around her, hoping to calm her down a little bit but it didn't really work seeing as my mother damn near squealed.

"The pleasure is ours, Bella," smiled Elizabeth. "And please call us Ed and Elizabeth."

"I should go," whispered Bella, looking up at me with wide, fearful eyes.

"I'll, um, walk you to your car," I muttered. Bella nodded quickly and looked back at my parents, who were just watching the two of us.

"I, um…" Bella trailed off, looking at the floor. "I guess I'll…."

Bella trailed off again as she grabbed her coat and practically ran from the apartment. My parents both frowned as they watched her. I sighed as I looked back at them and said, "I'll be right back."

Chasing after Bella, I ran out of the apartment and caught up to her as she reached her car. I grabbed her arm and she spun around as she buried her face in my chest, letting the tears that had been swimming in her eyes fall freely down her face. I tightened my arms around her and held her as tight as I could.

"God, they are going to think I am the biggest whore now," whispered Bella.

"No, they won't," I sighed.

"Edward, you father walked in while you were feasting away on my boob," grumbled Bella, looking up at me. She shook her head as she snorted. "Thank fucking god I wore a bra today."

"It's going to be ok, Baby," I smiled, leaning my forehead down on hers. "I promise."

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered. She leaned up and kissed me. "I guess I'll see you at the gym tomorrow, if they let you come near me again."

"I'll be there," I promised. "I love you."

"I love you, too," blushed Bella, biting her lip.

Bella kissed me one more time before I opened her car door. She climbed in and I shut if behind her. I watched as she pulled her car out of the parking space and out into the traffic. I turned back and saw my father watching me from the window in the living room. Ducking my head, I slowly made my way up the back stairs and into the apartment.

I walked into the apartment and found my mother, sitting on the sofa with Esme. They were leaning into each other, whispering quietly. I had a sickening feeling that Bella and I were the topic of conversation between them. The moment I came in, however, they both stopped talking and looked back over at me.

"Oh, Edward, your face looks horrible," said Elizabeth, coming over to me. She started pressing down on the bruises from the tournament.

"Gee, thanks, Mom," I chuckled.

"You know what I meant," she smiled, shaking her head. She sighed and hugged me again. "I swear you've grown at least two inches since I last saw you."

"No, I haven't," I said, trying my hardest to reassure her. "You look beautiful, Mom. Italy must not be too bad, huh?"

"It has it's charms," said Elizabeth, pulling back. She moved her hands to my face. "But I have missed you, my baby boy."

"Mom," I whined. "I'm not a baby."

"You'll always be my baby," she laughed. I could hear Esme and Edward Sr. laughing behind us. Traiters. "Now, why don't I make us some dinner?"

"We'll just order something in, Mom," said Esme, standing up.

"Nonsense," scoffed Elizabeth, waving her off. "I want to cook us dinner. I haven't gotten to cook in a while."

"Ok, I guess we need to run to the store and get a few things," muttered Esme.

"Edward and I will go," smiled my father, looking over at me. Crap, this couldn't be good. "Just get us a list ready, my darling."

Twenty minutes later, my father and I had a list of groceries we needed to pick up and were sitting in my car, him driving of course. For the first thirty seconds or so, the car was filled with nothing but the awkward silence of a boy who had been caught rounding second base with his girlfriend. Then my father started laughing.

"You look like I'm about to string you up or something, Edward," laughed Ed, shaking his head. I snorted and looked over at him.

"Aren't you?" I asked.

"No," scoffed Ed, smiling at me. "Although, walking in on you and Bella was…"

"Awkward, humiliating, embarrassing, the single worst moment of my entire life," I said, filling in the blank for him. That just caused my father to laugh harder. "Glad, you find this so funny, Dad."

"Hey, I've got to laugh," he snorted. "You didn't see your face. Or Bella's face. I thought you both were going to shrink up into a little hole."

"Would have if we could," I muttered. Ed pulled my park into the parking lot of the grocery store and cut the engine. I made to get out but he pulled on my arm to stop me.

"Hold up a minute," he said. I sighed and sat back in my seat but didn't look over at him. "I'm worried about you."

"You don't need to be," I muttered.

"I think I do when Esme is telling us about you fighting, getting suspended," said Ed. I shook my head and looked out the window. "You've never been a trouble maker, Edward. Why all the sudden are you getting into fights?"

"I didn't start either of those fights," I said, defending myself. "The first time, this real prick named Mike Newton threw the first punch, after he called Bella a whore. I won't put up with that…stuff."

"You shouldn't," agreed Ed, "but now you are suspended."

"Not my fault," I muttered.

"Is anything your fault?" asked my father.

"There is this girl at school, Lauren Mallory, who insists on getting into Bella's face. Bella has things that she doesn't like to talk about, with anyone but me, anyway. Lauren tried to throw some crap in Bella's face and Bella fought back. Another girl, Jessica, tried to jump Bella from behind so they could gang up on her, when two other friends of mine, Angela and Kate, stopped her. Then three of their boys, Mike, Tyler, and Eric, tried to get involved. My other two friends, Ben and Garrett, and I had to stop them," I explained. "All of them started it and we were defending ourselves and Bella. What would you have done?"

"Beat the shit out of them," agreed my father. "But it doesn't mean it's ok to be fighting, Edward. You and Bella have training that those other kids don't have. It's gives you an edge."

"Maybe," I muttered.

"Look, I'm just worried about you," said Ed. "You've changed."

"You make that sound like a bad thing," I mumbled.

"I don't mean it to," frowned my father. "It's nice to hear the words 'my friends' come out of your mouth."

"It's nice to have some," I said, smiling at him. "They're really cool kids, Dad, and Bella is…she's really cool."

"I'm sure she is, Edward," laughed Ed, opening his car door. "I can't wait to get to know her better."

I groaned as my father just laughed harder and climbed out of the car. Reluctantly, I climbed out of the car and followed him inside. He was still snickering as we headed walked in. We made our way around the store, picking up the items on the list we were give. We were standing in the produce isle, looking at lettuce, when I saw Mike Newton and some woman, I could only assume was his mother, heading our way. I had sneaking suspicion that the apple didn't far from the asshole tree.

"Can I assume that you are this boy's father?" snapped the blond woman, gesturing to me. Mike looked like he was about ready to die from embarrassment. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"I'm Edward Masen Sr., Ma'am," said my father, politely. "You are?"

"I'm Karen Newton," sneered the woman. "You need to teach your son not to bully other children."

I snorted and looked away from her. What planet was she from that I was the bully? She was obviously clueless about her precious baby boy.

"You think that is funny?" asked Karen, looking over at me. I looked back at her.

"No, Ma'am," I replied.

"Mrs. Newton, I can assure you that my son is not a bully," said Ed, folding his arms across his chest. Karen Newton rolled her eyes and matched his stance while Mike groaned and looked around. Obviously, he didn't like mommy fighting his battles. "From what I've been told your son started both fights. Throwing wild punches is only going to get him hurt."

"Well, maybe you should spend more time with your son instead of leaving him in the care of your daughter," smirked Karen. I saw a smirk crepe up on Mike's face, too. "Obviously, she can't handle the boy."

Karen Newton turned and walked away. Mike laughed as he followed his mother through the produce isle. I took a deep breath as I grabbed a head of lettuce and threw it in our basket. Stupid motherfucking assholes. My father didn't say a word as we went back to our list. I could tell it bothered him that Karen said he wasn't doing his job as my father, but what did she know? She was just a bitch.

We quickly gathered the rest of our groceries, paid for them, and headed out to the car. Once we had everything loaded, we headed back to our apartment. My father was silent on the five minute drive, which while it wasn't unusual that he was quiet, I knew there was more to it than his normal reflections to his day. Karen Newton had gotten to him and I didn't know what to say to make him feel better.

He parked my car next to Esme's and sighed as he climbed out. I climbed and out and met him at the trunk. We started grabbing bags of fruits, veggies, and other foods.

"You know she's not right, don't you?" I asked.

"No, I don't, Edward," muttered my father, looking over at me. "I should be here. I should be the one raising you but I can't be. I know that you and Esme understand why the base in Italy needs me. I know you understand why I need you mom with me but that doesn't mean that she's wrong about me not being here. She is wrong about Esme not doing a good job with you, though."

"Dad, I…" I trailed off. "Are you and mom going to force me to Italy?"

"No," snorted Ed, closing the trunk of my car. "All that would do is make you miserable and I refuse to do that to you. You are happy here. You have friends here and a beautiful girlfriend. I won't take that away from you, no matter how much I've missed you."

"I've missed you, too, Dad," I laughed. "Even your snoring."

My father just laughed as we made our way up the back steps of the building and headed into our apartment. Elizabeth and Esme were sitting on the couch, giggling like a couple of school girls. I couldn't help but smile at them both. They were both so happy. They looked over at us and smiled.

"It's about time," laughed Elizabeth. "I thought you might have gotten lost."

"We had a hard time picking out the perfect head of lettuce," I explained, kissing her cheek.

"You always did," she snorted, taking the bags from my hands. "Come talk to me while I cook and I'm not asking."

"Yes, Ma'am," I laughed, shaking my head.

I saw Esme smirk as I followed my mother into the kitchen. She was so smug. Just wait until I tell my mother about Carlisle. Elizabeth started unloading the groceries out of the bag before she started cooking dinner. She had a huge smile on her face and I could tell that she had really missed this, being around family.

"So," she said, looking back at me. "You have a girlfriend now, huh?"

"Yep," I muttered.

"She's very pretty," smiled Elizabeth. "Even with the purple hair."

"She's beautiful," I whispered, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Tell me about her," insisted Elizabeth. I groaned and laid my head on the table.

"Mom," I whined.

"Don't be such a baby," she laughed, sitting down across from me. I looked up at her. "Tell me about her."

"What do you want to know?" I asked, rolling my eyes as I pouted.

"Everything," smiled Elizabeth.

"Fine," I said. "She's smart and funny. She's tough and doesn't talk crap from anyone. She's very protective of those she cares about. She's the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Sometimes, when she's telling me a story about one of her brothers, she gets this little smile on her face," I smiled, softly. "She's amazing and…I don't know."

"She's a boxer, too?" asked Elizabeth, standing up and heading back to the stove.

"Yep," I said. "Her brothers, Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper, run the gym and are my trainers, as well as hers."

"Oh, yes, the infamous Carlisle," laughed Elizabeth, looking back at me. "Just between us, Esme likes him, doesn't she?"

"Oh, yeah," I snorted.

"I thought so," smirked Elizabeth. Shaking her head, she turned back to the stove. "You both look happy here. I've been worried, Edward, but you seem to be ok, even if you have been fighting."

"I am happy here," I said. "I have friends here."

"Good," smiled Elizabeth. She turned and looked back at me. "That's really nice, Edward."

My mother finished dinner and the four of us settled around the table. It was nice to enjoy a family dinner for a change. My mother and father grilled both Esme and I about Carlisle and Bella. Esme narrowed her eyes at me as if she blamed me for the third degree she was getting but if I was going down, I sure the hell was taking her down with me.

After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen and went into my bedroom. Shutting the door behind me, I pulled out my cell phone and called Bella.

"Hello," she answered, after the second ring.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi," she whispered. "How are things with Ma and Pa Masen?"

"Fine," I chuckled. "I got a nice lecture about fighting from my father and a lot of questions about you from both of them."

"Fucking great," groaned Bella.

"It's fine," I laughed. "Don't be embarrassed, Bella."

"No, why should I be embarrassed? Just because your father caught us making out like a couple of horny teenagers," she scoffed.

"We are a couple of horny teenagers, remember?" I snorted.

"Yeah, yeah," laughed Bella. "So what are you doing now?"

"Nothing," I said. "Thinking about reading for a while."

"What are you reading?" she asked.

"The Stand by Stephen King. I've read it dozens of times but I like it," I explained.

"It's not as good as 'It'," said Bella. "That book scared the fucking shit out of me when I read it."

"Yeah, but the movie sucked," I snorted.

"It did," giggled Bella.

Bella and I talked on the phone for about another hour. I spent the rest of the night reading until I fell asleep, thinking about Bella.