Chapter 8

Bella POV

"I love Alice but couldn't she have at least called us?" Bella grumbled to Edward. The two of them were in his bedroom getting dressed for their day with Alice and Jasper. Edward was able to pick new clothes to wear but Bella was stuck with the same outfit she wore last night. Luckily, she hadn't worn something too revealing - just a long sleeved tight blue shirt that dipped just enough to hint at her cleavage, a pair of skinny jeans, and her favorite boots.

"I know, I kind of wanted you all to myself today," Edward whispered to her as he walked over to where she was fidgeting with her clothes by his door. He pushed her gently against it and claimed her lips as his, Bella could feel all of his love in that one kiss. They were quickly losing themselves in the kiss when they heard a knock on the door and Alice's giggle.

"Hey, if we want to get to the movie on time you two need to hurry up." Bella heard Jasper say something but he was too far away too hear what he said.

Bella grumbled and stuck out her bottom lip to Edward who just laughed at her and kissed her before he released her. He went to his dresser and grabbed his wallet, he put it in his back pocket and then walked back over to Bella who was still leaning against the door.

"For everything that I want to do to you we are going to need more time than those two are willing to give us," he told her with a smile.

"You'd think for all the nights that they have kept me up with their sex noises they could've given us a little more time alone," Bella said. She shuddered at the memories of hearing Alice groan out Jasper's name, that was when Bella had caved and bought earplugs so she would be able to look into Alice's eyes the next day without it being awkward.

"It's going to be so hard to sleep without you in my arms tonight," Edward told her as they exited the room.

"Me too, we may have to make this a habit," Bella joked. She was serious but she didn't want Edward to think that she was getting too clingy too quick. She was too worried about him finding out that he was better than she was and then he would leave her to find one of his last conquests before her. Before she could focus too much on that thought she shook her head to clear it so she could focus on this man that was, amazingly, hers.

"I'd like that," Edward murmured. Bella looked into his eyes and was pleased to see that he was serious. She got small butterflies at the thought of sleeping wrapped up in him again - she might be getting just a little spoiled.

"Finally," Alice called out when she saw them emerge from the small hallway and into the living room.

"You know, Alice, you used to be my favorite person," Bella grumbled to her. Alice just laughed before reaching out to grab hold of her hand.

"I have a feeling that I'm not going to be seeing you so much and I would like to get my Bella fill before you get all distracted by your man," Alice told her.

"Well, when you put it like that, how could I possibly say no to you?" Bella pulled her best friend in for a hug for a couple seconds before she pulled away. "Alright, so what movie are we going to see?"

When Alice said the name the boys groaned and Bella laughed at them.

"Is that too girly of a movie for you two?" She asked them.

"I may lose my man card for even entering the theater but for you I would do anything," Edward told her. She could see in his eyes that he was joking with her so she leaned up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss.

"Mmm, how did I get so lucky?" She thought out loud.

"I told you before, I'm the lucky one," Edward told her.

"Gag, you two are so sweet that I might get a cavity if you continue," Jasper said with a laugh. Alice slapped him in the stomach and pointed a finger at him accusingly.

"Why don't you ever say sweet things like that to me anymore?"

"Hey, I pretty much have a ring on you already, I don't think I need to impress you now," Jasper told her. Alice glared at him but when he leaned down to whisper something in her ear her cheeks pinked up and a soft smile appeared on her face.

"I don't think I want to know what he just said," Bella told Edward.

"Me neither."

They finally left the apartment, got into Jasper's truck, and were heading towards the theater that was just a little ways off campus.

~LCA~

The movie was fun for Bella and Alice and all through dinner the men grumbled about how they didn't understand what happened and that they should've gone to see the action movie that was booming in the box office.

They drove down to the Pike's Place Market and found a good restaurant to eat at that they could enjoy the view of the ocean and the way that the sun was beginning it's descent.

"So, what does your week look like, Bella?" Alice asked her as she dug into her crab leg.

"Three exams and a paper that's due," she groaned. She was good on the paper but she knew that she would have to put in a lot of hours studying for the exams. "And I have to work three days this week 6-10," Bella continued. It sucked to have to pack so much into one week but when that paycheck came she could never regret the time she spent in the library. Since she was raised in a house that lived paycheck to paycheck it was nice to put every dollar that she could in a savings account just in case anything bad happened.

"Do you need any help studying?" Edward asked her.

"I might but I wouldn't want you to take on too much; you also have classes and your job at the paper," Bella said. She knew from experience that Edward was really smart - it was a side of him that he didn't let out much - and she could really benefit from him helping her but she didn't want him to do anything because he felt responsible.

"Bella, I don't ever want you to feel overwhelmed," Edward told her. "I can always take my job home with me and I only have two papers to write this week and one exam. If it makes you feel any better I can even bring my books and we can study together."

Bella thought about it for a second, she knew that she couldn't possibly say no to him and if he was telling her that he could handle it then she had to believe him.

"Okay, but you have to tell me if it's too much and I can go back to studying on my own," she told him, she tried to give him a stern look but she had a feeling that it didn't come out the way that she had wanted it to.

"I promise," Edward said.

The rest of their early dinner went smoothly and a lot of laughing and joking around occured. Bella tried to wrack her brain but she didn't think that she had been this happy the entirety of college. None of her past boyfriends had made her feel this good - they never went out of their way to make sure she was happy like Edward was doing. If this was love she never wanted it to go away.

~LCA~

The rest of the day flew by and Bella had to, regretfully, say goodbye to Edward so she could go home to be ready for the week that was coming. One of the plus sides to him agreeing to help her study was that they would be seeing each other a lot more than they had the last couple weeks. Maybe Bella would even be able to convince him to spend the night…

After Alice and Bella had arrived back at their apartment they didn't even get all the way through the doorway before Alice put her hand on Bella's arm to stop her.

"So, you two are really serious?" Bella knew that even though Alice had pushed for this thing between Edward and her that she wouldn't force it if Bella really wasn't interested. It was one of the things that Bella loved most about Alice - she would do just about anything for her friends.

"Yeah. I really love him, Alice." Alice screeched and jumped around Bella in her excitement. Bella just laughed at her as she closed the door and made her way into the living room.

"I'm so happy for you two, you really are great together. You bring out the best in each other," Alice told her.

"He makes me so happy, Alice. I'm even going to see his parents at the beginning of the next break and then he's coming with me to Forks so he can meet my parents."

Alice looked at her with a shocked expression on her face for a moment before she finally found the words.

"Wow, I never thought I would see the day that he met a girl's parents," Alice mumbled to herself.

"Besides a couple high school guys that I went on a couple dates with I've never brought a serious boyfriend to meet my dad before, I'm going to have to give him a good heads up so he doesn't bring out his guns to scare Edward away," Bella told her.

"Oh, Lord. My dad did something similar when I brought Jasper home, he didn't want me with some 'country hick'. He was freaked out when I told him that Jasper was originally from Texas. He thought he was going to be this white trash male, he about had a heart attack when he finally met him and Jasper turned on his southern charm." Bella laughed with Alice while she tried to picture Mr. Brandon being intimidating. Bella had met him once and all she could remember was a cute balding older man that made her think of the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

"I'll tell my mom and dad next time I talk to them and hopefully that will give them plenty of time to get used to the idea." At least Bella could hope that it would.

~LCA~

The time to tell her parents came quicker than she thought possible. Just that night as she was getting ready to go to bed and make her nightly phone call with Edward her phone rang. Her heart picked up speed hoping that it would be Edward on the other end but when she saw MOM & DAD on the caller ID she had to close her eyes to take a deep breath before she swiped to answer the call.

"Hi," she squeaked when she picked up her phone.

"Hi, honey, how is school going?" Her mom asked her. Bella could hear pots and pans clanking around in the background and she shuddered at just the thought of her mother's cooking. She had never been much of a cook so as soon as Bella could she had taken over that duty - she apologized profusely to her dad when she had to move away knowing what he would have to eat. He would never tell her mom that she couldn't cook, he loved her too much to hurt her so he suffered through it every night he couldn't find an excuse to eat at the only restaurant in their town.

"Good, pretty busy and then I still have to pick a place to do my student teaching before graduation so I have kind of a lot on my plate," Bella told her. Her student teaching was going to take ten weeks and she would need to have it done by the time she graduated. She was excited but also really nervous when she thought of standing in front of second graders.

"You will do great, we are so proud of you," Renee said. Bella could hear that her mother was getting choked up - she tended to do that whenever Bella mentioned anything about graduation.

"Thanks," Bella muttered. She was a lot like her dad in the way that it was hard for her to express her emotions sometimes, she would always get uncomfortable when her mom would cry in front of her.

"I can't wait until Thanksgiving and you're back home. You don't have to cook dinner when you get here, honey, I'm capable of doing it," Renee said. Bella closed her eyes in exasperation, 'capable' was completely different than being able to cook an edible meal.

"It's okay, I love to cook for you guys." It was true. Bella loved to cook - she even planned to make something for Edward later this week when the two of them weren't so busy with school and work. "And speaking of Thanksgiving, I wanted to ask you and Dad something." She didn't think that her mom would have a problem with her bringing Edward but her dad would for sure have something to say about it.

"What is it?" Bella could tell that her mom was still slightly distracted so she asked her to put her on speaker and that was when her mom finally paused and focused on her daughter's tone. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Bella said. She waited until she heard her dad say hello before she spoke again. "Okay, so I know that you aren't going to particularly like this, either of you, but I won't be spending the whole holiday at home." She heard her mom grumble something to her father and then all she heard was silence, she had to pull the phone away from her ear to check that she was still connected. "The first week of break I'm going to visit my boyfriend's family and then I was hoping for the remainder of the break that I could bring him to meet you guys."

"Why are we just hearing about this guy now?" Her dad asked.

"Well, I wanted to make sure that this relationship was serious. I didn't want to tell you one day and then tell you the next that we were over," Bella explained.

There was another long pause; Bella prepared herself for her father yelling at her or something along those lines.

"How long have you two been dating?" Her mom asked her.

"Almost three weeks." At the shocked gasp on the other end of the phone Bella was quick to continue. "I know it seems like we are moving fast but I know in my gut that Edward is the right man for me and we love each other."

"Are you sure about this? What if he's just playing you or using you for his own entertainment?" Her mom asked her.

"Mom, you have to trust me. Edward would never hurt me, that is one thing I know for sure," Bella said. She made sure to make a note in her head to never tell either of her parents about Edward's past with girls, it would just give them more ammo not to like him.

"Fine, if you believe him then we will give him a chance, right, Charlie?"

"I can give him a chance but that doesn't mean that I will make things easy on him. If he wants my baby girl then he better be ready to jump through hoops and impress the hell out of me," her dad told her.

Bella smiled at that. Her dad was never one for long speeches so that was the longest she had heard him speak in a long time. She just had to have faith that Edward would be able to charm them like he had done to her.

"So, when will you be arriving?" Her mom asked her.

"We'll be getting there the night before Thanksgiving. It still gives me plenty of time to make the meal for the next day and then Edward and I can still spend the majority of the day before with his family." Edward and her had talked about their trip in detail during their night together. They had even checked out flight times so they could maximize their time with the two families. It was going to be a bit tricky but she hoped that it would be worth it.

"Alright, honey, just text me when your plane lands so we know when to expect you," her mom told her. Bella agreed and after their goodbyes she threw her phone on her bed and flipped down on top of it. She just had to tamp down the nerves from meeting Edward's parents and everything would be fine, she hoped.

A/N: Another chapter down! Please keep reviewing, I love hearing all of your positive thoughts! Thank you!