EPOV
"Obviously Stanley and Brandon were sitting on her passwords since they've had it all this time," Tanya argues.
"That doesn't answer why you had a party while we were out of town, Tanya," Esme says, rolling her eyes.
I want to laugh because she reminds me of Mom at this moment.
They were two years apart in age, my mom the oldest and Esme the youngest. They could pass for twins with their faces mirroring each other, vibrant green eyes, and copper hair.
"It was her birthday, I was trying to celebrate my new friend," she defends.
Carlisle is just a spectator to Tanya's trial, he takes a bite of his pasta but lets Esme run the show.
"Your new friend— if she wanted a party, why did she hide away with Edward in the pool house."
"He's a male, he's attractive," she shrugs at her answer.
"She seemed to be avoiding the house," I say, speaking up.
Carlisle glances at me then at Esme, they share a look.
"I followed your ground rules."
"Tanya, those rules are for when we grant permission for a party," Esme says dryly. "We only allowed Jasper and Bella to stay over."
With the pointed look, Esme was giving her I would say they knew she had Maggie here.
Tanya was near finished with her food when Esme dismissed her.
"Charlie's not going to trust us after this," Esme sighs, placing her face in her hands.
"I feel like there is more going on here than the normal teenage debauchery," I say, looking at both my aunt and uncle.
"I've been friends with Charlie since we were kids," Carlisle starts, shaking his head. "Bella has always been a good kid— outgoing, something happened last year that was out of character for her. It blindsided Charlie."
"So Tanya and Bella are recent friends?"
"Jasper befriended Bella and your cousin doesn't exclude," my aunt says waving her hand around.
"Does any of this have to do with that Royce kid?" I ask, not sure how much of this girl's life is public knowledge.
"Royce King?" Esme asks with a frown.
"Yeah that's something you were talking about, does it have to do with Royce King?"
"Bella had to have her stomach pumped at the start of the summer, Charlie has been worried about her ever since. Did she say something about Royce King," she asks, shooting a look at Carlisle.
"She called him a predator."
"She said that?" Carlisle asks calmly.
I nod.
My aunt and uncle decided to have a silent conversation in front of me.
"Edward, can you take the dishes to the kitchen?" Esme asks sweetly but I know she wants a private conversation with Carlisle.
"Sure," I shrug.
I clear the table but stick by the dining-room door when Esme starts to talk.
"That boy did something to her," Esme accuses.
"You can't say that, Es," Carlisle sighs.
"It explains so much, Carlisle. Bella withdrew around Prom and the drinking. You heard what Bradford Hale said about Rosalie, she begged for those surgeries and you know that her mother wants her to be a trophy for guys like Royce King," Esme spat.
Between my aunt and my mother, they had their share of the wrong guy. Esme's first husband was abusive and my dad was a philanderer. They now held Carlisle as the standard, and mom was biased when it came to me.
I move away from the door feeling conflicted. I was drawn to Bella and thought if anything we could have some fun, but with these new revelations, I don't think it would be anything but complicated.
When Bella walked into the diner my first impression was she looked gorgeous. She had a short yellow and black plaid skirt on with a fitted black hoodie, her Docs were knee-high only making her legs look longer. Under her heavy eyeliner, I could see how young she could be, her face was angelic.
The girl was a contradiction, she was withdrawn but had moments where you could see her shine. She had a darker sense of humor and her intensity seemed more than teenage angst.
When Charlie Swan came over to the house to talk to Esme and Carlisle he was upset that she would be naïve to take pictures like that and store them on her phone.
It was something my dad had lectured me about more than once explaining how it could ruin our reputation. The girls I dated in high school would try but I knew what was at stake.
The more I thought about Bella and her situation, the more I knew we could only be friends. I came to Forks to find myself, I was sick being under my father's thumb. My mom backed me in my decisions and my grandfather even understood that criminal law wasn't something that held my interest.
My father was a good lawyer but I believed the only reason Gramps kept him on as a partner after the divorce was for me, otherwise I believe he would have let him buy out his portion of the firm.
I also think that is why my father has pushed me to study criminal law so he isn't pushed out. At this point, I can't see Gramps forcing him out of the firm.
My other reason for leaving was Kate, my former fiancé. I walked in on her giving a blow job to my father's legal clerk, James. Her father was also a partner at Gramps' firm and she was doing her summer internship there as well.
A month into her internship she was closed off, she'd shrug away from my touch. Her father and my father were super enthusiastic about our engagement. Kate must have realized what me finding out meant for her.
I, of course, didn't say anything but used my quest for finding the bigger picture in my life as my excuse for leaving.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
I groan thinking it's Kate again but see that it's my boss's son, Emmett. He's really the first friend I've made here, but he's so jovial that he's probably friends with the whole town.
Meet me at The Tavern at 9. – Em
I roll my eyes, almost every night I get a text like this from him but tonight I was taking him up on his offer.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Esme asks entering the kitchen.
I nod.
"You probably think your uncle and I are being super secretive when it comes to Bella—"
"It's okay, small-town business, right?"
She laughs at me shaking her head.
"I do appreciate how you handled the situation with the girls, if you weren't there they might have not known to keep Bella's iCloud active in order to trace who was responsible for hacking her account."
"I remember how teenage girls behave, Aunt Es," I tell her.
"I feel that your Chicago private school education would be rather eye-opening compared to little old Forks."
Now I laugh.
"Nope, this is at that level," I say.
Yes, we had social media scandals, but I hadn't realized that it could go this far at smaller schools but I guess high school is high school.
"Just, thank you for helping out," Esme says, squeezing my arm. "Dad called asking about you today."
"Oh yeah?"
"He's worried about you. He thinks Kate is in cahoots with your dad."
"Cahoots?" I ask with a snort.
"She's been calling your mother, which you know she won't betray your trust, but Dad said that she has been hanging around your father's office."
I frown.
My dad was ecstatic about our engagement last year, only for the joining of the families, but he usually only traded pleasantries with Kate, nothing more.
"Are you going to tell anyone what happened?" she asks.
"I think for all parties involved, what happened with Kate should stay in Chicago. It doesn't affect her ability to do her job for Gramps, her internship is based on her own merit not her relationship with me," I say.
Es is eyeing me like she is not buying it.
"I need to go get ready, I'm meeting Emmett McCarty down at The Tavern for drinks," I say, giving her a hug before she can get any more information out of me.
It takes me a half-hour to get ready and pull into one of the street parking spaces. The Tavern is on Forks' main street where the diner is and a handful of other small businesses. There was a small group of people smoking by the door as I passed to enter the bar.
Emmett isn't hard to find as he's surrounded by a group of people at the bar. His laugh is booming louder than his audience.
"Ed," he yells over the music, waving me over.
I notice a few of the girls surrounding him perk up when they hear my name. I'm finding that Emmett might also be my hype man.
"Hey," I say.
"What can I get you, doll?" The bartender asks, leaning forward on the bar.
She's cute with short blonde hair and pale blue eyes. Jane, her name tag reads.
"Blue moon, please," I tell her.
She grins a little.
"Em, your boy is so polite."
"Ed's a man of the world," he says.
I roll my eyes.
He liked to tease me about my privileges.
One of the main reasons I took the job at McCarty Construction was due to their environmental mission. Emmett's dad was passionate about cutting down the carbon footprint of household energy. His company was one of the rising stars in Washington for being environmentally efficient in commercial and residential architecture.
I was hoping to possibly work for his company on their legal team once I get registered for law school next year.
"So you finally decided to join me," Em says with a goofy grin.
"Last night my cousin had a party, things spiraled from there, I needed to get away from the aftermath."
"High school shit?"
"Yeah," I said, taking a sip of my beer.
"My brother, Brady said the party was a rager."
"It was, from what I saw from the pool house."
"He also said Bella Swan posted a photo with my Dad's new guy in it."
"She didn't post it."
"So, you into Swan? She's cute and legal now, I believe."
"Do you know Bella?"
"She was Junior Varsity captain of the cheer squad my senior year, from what I remember she was a hellion. She liked to bust balls, but that face let her get away with it," he says with a smile.
"She's not a cheerleader anymore," I tell him.
"I know, my brother was bummed. He was hoping to be captain of the football team this year, but Royce King got the spot, out of nowhere Alice Brandon is now the cheer captain."
"Why was your brother bummed?"
"Traditionally at school events the football and cheer captains get paired together at school events. He had a crush on Bella."
"Bella didn't post that picture of us," I told him. "A girl named Jessica Stanley did."
He lets out a low whistle.
"That girl is trouble."
"Well she's in a lot of trouble, Alice Brandon is too."
"That's interesting, since Bella was basically their leader."
I nodded, not sure what to say.
Jane comes back leaning on the bar giving me a sly look, I lean forward with a smile.
"How's that Blue Moon, city boy?"
"Good, can I get another?" I ask, tapping the neck of the bottle.
She smiles touching my forearm while she grabs another bottle under the bar for me. The night is pretty laid back as Jane and I flirt back and forth throughout the night.
Once she announces last call, Em and I start to leave but she grabs my arm stopping me. She asks me to wait, she cashes out the registers coming around the bar settling between my legs.
She kisses me first.
I picked her up sitting her on top of the bar.
It doesn't take us long to fumble back to her car. She drives us back to my place where we thoroughly learn more about each other.
A/N: Hi!