Chapter 11: A Boring Betrayal

I jerked away from Edward. His eyes widened, and I realised getting interrupted by Renee was probably not what he expected when he leaned in quick to kiss me, but I couldn't guess why he looked so shocked right now. Upset. Angry even.

If anything, I was the one who had a reason to be angry. Getting kissed before getting into a fight with my parents seemed like a great motivation, but judging by Edward's attitude, getting kissed was definitely out of the picture right now.I couldn't postpone the inevitable, so I turned around to face my mother. She stood next to Edward's car window and for some reason, she was just as angry as him. She opened the door for me and roughly grabbed my arm.

"Fuck! What are you doing, Bella? Going off to God knows where with that… boy. He's bad news," she shouted in my face before addressing him. "And you, leave my daughter alone, you hear me?" she hissed to him.

"Mom!" I tried to break free from her grip but it was next to impossible. What was all of this?

"No! Get inside now." She had her back turned to me but there was no way in hell I would let her alone with Edward.

Whatever what was happening right now, the pit in my stomach told me I couldn't leave the both of them alone in the state they were in. They would kill each other.

"Miss Swan, I don't mean Bella any harm," Edward calmly explained, but his eyes burned with unspoken anger for some reason.

"Sure, you don't."

I had never seen Renee so angry, and it made me very uncomfortable. I tried to push her to our front door, end whatever this was and apologize to Edward, all in one swift motion.

Of course, it didn't work.

"Christ mom, can you act normal for once? Nothing is wrong here, except for you. And don't think for a second that I forgot what had happened this morning."

That done it. Finally, she turned around and pushed me hard towards the front door. I stumbled and almost fell.

"What happened this morning is nothing compared to what you've done today, Bella," Renee angrily whispered to me.

"I've done nothing wrong, damn it," I whispered back as angry tears fell down my cheeks. How could she say that to me? It was so unfair.

Inside the kitchen, Charlie was slightly more calm. He waited for us, his eyebrows raised for all this unnecessary commotion we've caused outside.

"Renee, calm down." He ordered her, and for a second, I was glad he took my side at least.

"No, I won't. She spent the whole day with… Edward." She sat down and let her face fall in her hands. She took a few deep breaths to calm down, but her eyes were just as tear-filled as mine.

Something that she said didn't seem right to me, but I couldn't name it. Then, it clicked. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. "How do you know his name?" I whispered.My mother's face became unreadable. Charlie offered her a cup of tea which she declined.

"We knew this day would come," he said to her, before he turned to me with an apologetic smile on his face. "But we hoped it would be later."

I looked at both of them. Charlie calm, Renee stressed. I prepared for the worst and sighed. "What are you talking about?"

Renee looked up. "We're so sorry. We thought it would be better this way."

"What! What would be better?" All this cryptic talk was killing me, but I was glad I would finally get all the answers I so desperately needed. I hoped.

She took a deep breath and looked at Charlie for moral support.

He gladly took over. "Bells, we aren't human," he simply blurted out.

We both looked at him in shock. Renee for how he could just say it like that, like how he would announce what dinner would be tonight. Something perfectly normal.

And me? I looked at him and everything clicked. I knew I wasn't human. I thought I always secretly fell out of place. And this didn't surprise me, not even in the slightest.

It all added up. The constant moving. The pictures. The aging. The doctors.

My memory loss.

"Then what are we?" I smiled at both of my parents, relieved for a teeny, tiny second. I had an answer. I didn't know a lot, but at least I had an answer. My instincts were right. They were right all along. I wasn't crazy, I was just a freak of nature. Not human, who would've thought? I giggled at how crazy it all was.

Renee's eyes widened at my sudden mood swings. Fuck, I could even be a nood swing fairy for all I know. I guess it was weird how I acted right now, but I didn't care. The calmth that came after knowing it was already enough.

Until it wasn't. If I wasn't human, that meant other things. Why did they let me believe I was even human to begin with?

"Hybrids." Charlie answered my earlier question before I could bombard him with more demanding ones.

I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Vampire hybrids. At least, your mother and I are," he continued.

What. The absolute. Fuck. I raised my eyebrows again.

"You must have a lot of questions."

I sure had. What's a hybrid? What was I? What's a vampire, besides from the obvious? Why didn't we drink blood? I mean, I had read Dracula and we didn't look alike. What did that mean? Since when were we hybrids? Why did we move around so often? Why couldn't I remember anything? How old was I?

But all those questions didn't leave my mouth. I could only stutter the most important one. "Why did you all lie to me?"

Renee's face fell and she even managed to look guilty despite everything. "Sweety, we thought it would be better if you didn't know."

"Better for who?" My voice sounded bitter.

"We wanted you to have a normal childhood. We didn't have that chance," Charlie continued as he reached out to grab my hand.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back. "I suppose a "thank you" is in order then? Oh, how hard that must've been for you two. I can't imagine," I shouted.

I stood up from the chair and walked to the far end of the room. I slapped a wall.

A piece of it fell to the ground. I looked at it, disgusted with myself. I knew I hadn't slapped the wall that hard, but still, a piece of it fell to the ground. Just how strong was I, if I could break a strong wall with my bare hands alone? I was scared.

"Look at what that Edward kid did to you," Renee cried out. She jumped up and ran to me, her arms wide for a hug.

I turned away from her. "What is it about Edward that made you hate him so much?"

She stood still and her arms fell to her sides. Charlie stood next to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not our place to tell you, Bells."

"Just great, more secrets then. I'm sure I didn't have enough of them."

He took a step in my direction. "I understand you're angry, but some secrets aren't ours to tell."

I took a step back. For some reason, I couldn't bear to be in the same room as those two. Hell, I couldn't even look at them.

So I turned around and ran. Again. I ran away from my problems, because that was something I was familiar with. That was something I had always done and I would continue to do so. I couldn't even see where I was running to. I only knew where I was running away from.

Renee shouted my name. Charlie told her it would be fine again. As if it would ever be fine again. As if it could ever be fine again. I was lied to. Time and time again. Lied to.

I ran out of the front door of my house, and into the forest right behind it. Everything was green around me from the grass, the trees and the mushy green stuff that covered it all.

Green that had calmed me before, now seemed as I was being sucked into something I couldn't get out of, no matter how hard I tried.

Until I ran into the arms of the one I desperately needed, although I couldn't exactly name why. Because he was always magically there when I needed him the most. Because I missed him, even though I had seen him all day. Because I had a stupid crush that didn't seem to go away, nor did I want it to.

I ran into Edward's arms.

"Edward…," I whispered into his broad chest.

"I know." He patted my back, trying to comfort me. I didn't know what surprised me the most; the fact that I found him here, alone in the woods. Or that I felt immediately comforted, by only his touch and his smell all around me. Other senses weren't important anymore.

"My parents…." I tried to explain, but he stopped me again.

"I know."

"And I…." My voice broke. It was all too much. I could barely hold myself together any longer. I hit rock bottom and I gave in to the pain, into the despair. I cried. I cried and thought I couldn't stop anymore, even if I wanted to. And I didn't want to.

"I know." His arms around me soothed me, gave me a little bit of courage, but it didn't hide the fact that I wasn't normal. The reality hit me there.

I wasn't normal.

I never was normal.

And I never would be normal.

But Edward wasn't human as well. That had to be it, since Renee acted so weird around him. There had to be something I didn't know off. And only he could help me with that. He must know that.

His arms around me stiffened as if he sensed my doubts. I closed my eyes, trying to find the courage I needed.

"Why do my parents know you?" I barely recognised my own voice, as I asked him the one thing that was left on my mind.

He sighed. "It's a long story."

I pulled myself away from him. Another person who didn't listen to me. Another person who probably thought I was weird and couldn't give me the time of day. I've had enough. More than enough, I was done. Edward or no Edward, I didn't want to be left in the dark for even a second longer.

He reached out, wrapped me in his embrace again. "Please, I can explain."

He kissed the top of my head, so he couldn't look in my eyes as he spoke. "I broke the treaty."

"What treaty?"

"I wasn't supposed to talk to you, let alone fall for you. My kind wasn't supposed to interfere with yours. And I can't even be guilty that I did it in the first place." His laugh that followed sent shivers down my spine which had nothing to do with humour.

"Isn't it ironic? That the first girl I was ever interested in is supposed to be the only one I could never have? My enemy, even. What kind of dark humour is that? A vampire falling in love with the daughter of two hybrids, only because she intrigued him. It could be the beginning of a bad joke."

Edward kissed my hair again, but I couldn't enjoy it. He spoke so fast, so incredibly fast, humans couldn't hear it, I thought.

And for some reason, I could hear and understand him perfectly fine. As if we finally talked in the same language. Everything clicked and there was only one possible conclusion left. Only one outcome.

I didn't hear he took an interest in me. I didn't hear he fell in love with me. I didn't hear he was a vampire. I only heard I was weird. An outcast. Never normal.

"So, you only talked to me because I'm a freak?" I shouted to him. My sudden anger surprised him, made him lose focus and made him lose his tight grip on me.

I used that moment to my advantage and I freed myself from him.

I ran from Edward's arms.

A/N: DID YOU GUESS IT???

So, I wrote that chapter during my flight back home. Please don't hate me, I'm just a soulless monster and salty that I'm back in the Netherlands again ;)