A/N: New week, new chapters! Enjoy!

I'll Always Find Peace In The Meadow

Previously...

Edward waits on the lawn while I lock my bike to the mailbox. I'm silent as I lead him up the porch steps. I try to ignore the shaking of my hands as I slide my key into the door lock. I'm grateful for the fact that Edward pretends to not notice, too.

Once the door is unlocked, a task that took too much time, I step inside. I keep my back to Edward, blocking the doorway while I take a deep breath to calm myself. Why am I so nervous?

Chapter Twenty-five: 'My treat' (Bella POV)

Friday 2 June 2017

When the time that I've had my back to Edward is bordering on rude, I finally turn around. "Please, come in," I say quietly, stepping back to allow him entry.

He's looking at me with an odd expression on his face as he steps inside the house. Worry joins my nerves; have I offended him with my behaviour? What must he think? I focus intently on my movements as I close the door, probably a little too intently. When I turn back to face Edward, my hands are twisting together, clasped at my front. He's still looking at me with that expression. His brows are pinched together like he's thinking hard, trying to figure something out. When my teeth sink into my bottom lip - it's a bad habit I've had for as long as I can remember; something I do when I'm anxious, nervous and worried - Edward's worrisome frown transforms into a smile. I can literally feel the worry lift from my body.

I unclasp my clammy hands and hold my arms out. "So, this is it." Edward nods, looking around the front entrance hall. I feel a blush tinge my cheeks, embarrassment joining my mess of emotions. "It's nothing like your house," I mumble quietly. His attention sharply turns to me, his observation of my house temporarily forgotten.

"It's lovely, Bella," he says with a smile. I attempt to offer him one in return. I fail. Miserably. And all because I know he's lying. It's not lovely. Sure, it's clean. It reminds me of a show home. Impersonal. Nothing that says a family lives here. The bare wall to the right of the entrance, beside the former family room door, is strikingly blank. It used to be the home of a wonderful collage of framed photographs. The wall was a montage of our families journey, from my parents as teens, their wedding, my baby years and all the way through to six years ago. After my father's funeral, after the wake and once she was out of the public eye, my mother tore down the photos in a rage. They are now all shoved into a box and stored in the basement. There is no character in this house. Not really.

"Right," I reply, finally using words, though I don't sound all too happy. I try to shake my sudden somber mood both mentally and physically. I don't want to ruin Edward's first time here with depressive shit. "Would you like a drink?" I ask him. He nods, so I lead him through to the kitchen.

After dropping my bag to the floor beside the breakfast table, where Edward decides to sit, I have a look in the fridge. "Hmm... we have orange juice, milk, cans of Coke?" I rattle off what I see. When I get no reply, I stand from my slightly bent over position and partially turn to look at Edward. He fidgets in the seat, the tips of his ears red.

"Uuuh," he hesitates, obviously stumped. I guess he doesn't want any of those.

"Or you can have some water? Coffee? Tea?"

"Water will be fine. Thank you, Bella," he answers, rather formally.

I feel my brows furrow as I reply with a slow, drawn out, "O-kaaay." I grab two glasses and turn back to him. "Ice?". He nods silently. I carry over our glasses of water and hand him his. He gulps half of it down within seconds. Meanwhile, my glass is held frozen in the air close to my mouth while I watch on in confusion. What is up with him?

"You ready to begin with the torture, I mean tutoring?" I ask, trying to distract him from whatever seems to have bothered him. It works. He chuckles at my question, nodding as he stands.

"Sure."

"Where would be best? We could use the dining room, or my bedroom like we do at your house? I have a desk in there, though it's pretty small-"

"Let's just use the dining room," he says quickly, interrupting the end of my sentence.

"Okay. Let me give you a brief tour first, not that there's much to see." He just rolls his eyes at my statement. No more than three and a half minutes later, I lead him into the dining room. "It looks like it's going to rain, otherwise I'd have suggested using the backyard," I tell him, nodding to the window that's at the end of the table. The previously blue sky is now a dreary grey.

He shrugs. "Here is fine," he replies, pulling out one of the chairs before he begins retrieving things from inside his bag. I pull out the chair opposite his, and drop my bag onto it.

"Let me just go change real quick, and then we can begin." I leave him in the dining room as I quickly run up the stairs. I go to my room and pull off my charcoal Converse, which I place at the bottom of my wardrobe. From my dresser, I pull out a pair of black three-quarter length sweatpants, and after slipping off my denim pinafore dress I wore today, I put them on. The AC/DC band-tee I was wearing underneath the pinafore, I keep on. I quickly check my appearance in the mirror, looking most importantly at my face to make sure my concealer is still masking my freckles before I head down stairs. "Okay, I'm back. Let's start."

~I*A*F*P*I*T*M~

"Done," I announce happily. Edward takes the worksheet from my side of the table, pushes aside the homework he'd been doing while he waited for me to finish, and places it down to start marking it. I'm watching his pen, my smile growing with every little 'tick' I see him draw. The last one is the only one he marks with a 'cross'. When he looks up at me, a proud smile graces his face.

"I have to say, Bella, I'm impressed. You got all but one correct. We've only been doing these for an hour. You've picked it up really quick." I can't prevent the big, stupid grin that stretches across my face.

After an hour of linear equations, of me not picking it up at all, Edward suggested we take a break from them and try something else for now. He said he'd discuss with his teacher simpler ways he could explain linear equations. Instead of those, he helped me with trigonometry, specifically 'Trigonometric functions'. It requires a fancier calculator than my standard one. For this one occasion, Edward let me use his, though he advised me to get my own one soon, as they are "vital" - his words, not mine. I've always dreaded learning about this. In class, we briefly touched on it closer to the beginning of the year, but once words such as sine, cosine and tangent were used, I was lost. Miraculously, Edward somehow managed to help it all make sense today. Again. I honestly don't know how he does it. He has a way of explaining things like no teacher can.

"Thank you." I lean across the table, looking at the one - the only one - I got wrong. "So, explain where I failed with the last one." He turns the paper so we can both see it a bit easier, and, using the end of his green "correction" pen to point, he begins to explain to me what I did wrong.

"Well, you see, you should have used sine, because it's opposite and-"

A loud BANG! echos through the house, startling both me and Edward. I quickly stand, my heart feeling like it's jumped to my throat as I speedwalk to the front hall. Edward is close on my heels. My heart drops to my stomach, the colour in my cheeks leaking away as I watch my mother clumsily kick off her heels. She closes the door with another loud BANG!, just as she'd opened it.

She's oblivious to her audience of two. I don't even want to glimpse at Edward's expression right now. How could she do this? Today of all days!

"Oh," she stumbles back a few steps when she sees me and Edward stood in the corner of the room, watching her trainwreck. I rush forward, reaching out to steady her. "I'm fine, Bella. Stop fussing," she says in a soft, light tone. I have to fight the urge to frown at her change in behaviour. She giggles, very out of character, and lifts her eyes to look behind me. I'm assessing her appearance, her eyes, her balance, I'm even trying to get a subtle whiff of her scent, all to determine how much my mother has had to drink. She doesn't seem drunk, I realise now that I've been stood watching her. She's just tipsy.

She steps back with an unsteady foot and I reach out to help balance her again. She giggles once more. "What is she like?" She directs her question to Edward. I don't turn to see his reaction, but he doesn't offer a verbal one. "I said I'm fine, Bells," she tells me, reaching up to lightly tap my cheek. My sudden gasp isn't at her gentle physical contact. No. It's at her use of my old nickname, the one my father used. The one that only my father used. My eyes grow wide as I stare at her in shock, filling with dreaded tears. I haven't heard that nickname in so long. What the heck is she playing at? "Well, are you just going to stand here? Or are you going to introduce me to the handsome boy behind you?" I snap myself out of my shock and, after blinking away the tears, turn my body so I'm facing Edward, who's blushing, but so I still don't have my back to my mother completely.

"Of course. Um, Edward, this is my mother, Renee. Mom," I say, having to force out the title, so used to calling her 'Mother' aloud and often 'Renee' in my head, "this is Edward Cullen."

She walks around me, her steps much more balanced now as she focuses on getting to Edward. She stops a few feet in front of him and shakes his hand. "Edward, it's so lovely to finally meet one of my Bella's friends," she greets him, pretending to be a kind, warm-hearted human being. "It's been years since she brought anyone home." I blush a deep red and glance down at my sock-clad feet.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs..." he trails off, unsure of how to address my mother. I get why. He isn't sure if she still has my father's name so long after his death.

"Renee is fine." Edward nods silently at that, a genuine smile on his face as he shakes my mother's hand.

"So," my mother says, not stepping away from Edward, "how is the tutoring going?" she asks. When she turns to briefly look at me, I almost shudder at the sight of the forced pleasantness that's plastered onto her face.

"It's going really well. Bella is doing great. We're flying through the work," Edward answers. My mother smiles sweetly at him.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Renee exclaims, clapping her hands together. "I'm glad to hear it. Well, I think you kids deserve a treat. Are you hungry?" My heart does a triple skip and a sweat breaks out on my forehead. Shitting shit! She's going to offer to cook! Edward nods and I do what could be better described as a tilt of my head. "Great. What do you want? Pizza? Chinese?"

My sigh of relief is very nearly audible in the small entrance hall. Both me and my mother look to Edward, waiting for his opinion seeing as he's the guest. "Oh, I don't mind really... pizza?"

Renee smiles kindly, patting his shoulder before walking toward the kitchen door. "What toppings?" she turns to ask us both.

"Pepperoni," we answer, turning to grin at one another when we say it at the same time.

"Okay. I'll go order that now. Why don't you two take a break?" she suggests. Edward and I glance to one another, silently deciding. He raises his shoulders and I tilt my head. We both nod and turn back to Renee.

"Sounds good. I think we've done enough for now," Edward says. His confidence in speaking to my mother makes me feel a little envious. I barely got two words out in front of his parents, only having really felt at ease when alone with Edward, or his housekeeper, Beverly. I still can't believe he has a housekeeper, though I shouldn't really be surprised.

My mother turns away from the kitchen door to walk over to the entrance table that stands beside the front door. There, she gets her wallet out of her purse, before fishing out some cash. She presses the bills into my palm, and looking me straight in the eye, the smile still firmly in place, she says, "Why don't you go to Main Street to get yourselves some snacks for after dinner. My treat."

My mouth slackens, my jaw dropping. In a completely different state of emotion to my shocked and speechless, Edward steps closer, the appreciation clear in his voice as he replies. "Thank you, Renee. That's so kind of you. But are you sure?" Her smile broadens at his praise. Her hand falls away from mine as she waves off his search for uncertainty.

"Of course I'm sure. I remember how hard school work was, and that was years ago. It's only increased in difficulty since then. It's not a problem."

There's a part of me that wants to laugh at my mother's behaviour that's so polar opposite from how she is with just me. Maybe having Edward around more could be used as a buffer against her angry outbursts toward me. Then there's another part of me that wants to cry; why can't she be like this all the time? So pleasant and kind, her words spoken calmly, her touch gentle.

"Thank you, Mom," I say, holding eye contact with her for an extended second. Then I turn away, putting my back to her so I can address Edward. "I'll just grab my shoes and a hoodie and then we'll go?" He nods, and I race upstairs. I move the quickest I've ever moved, not wanting to leave my best friend alone in a room with her for long. I don't even bother getting back into my denim pinafore, deciding to stay in the sweatpants as I grab my black, scruffy pair of converse and my large black AC/DC hoodie.

I race back down, sitting on the bottom step to tie my laces. Edward is stood by the door, alone. "Where's R-... my mom?"

"In the kitchen, ordering the pizza."

I nod, standing up. I slip on my hoodie, my head popping through the correct hole just as my mother comes waltzing back into the room. My eyes are drawn to the bottle of white wine she holds in her left hand. She's not got a glass.

"We should be back before the pizza arrives," I say, my eyes flickering between her face and the bottle nervously. I'm hoping that my intended pleading look is visible. Please don't get drunk! I know there's a pack of beer cans in the fridge, as well as a bottle of Vodka in a cupboard. Her stats of alcohol seems to be growing by the day.

Renee nods. "Of course you will," she says confidently. There are no fast food places here in Forks. The closest one is in a small town, but not as small as Forks, that's about a half hour drive West.

I make sure I have my phone, my keys and the cash. Then I head for the door. "Ah ah!" Renee protests, reaching out to grab my arm. I pray to whatever powers at be are up there that Edward didn't notice my flinch. "Hug, please." I stand, stupidly staring at my mother silently, my mouth gaping for several seconds before I snap out of it and slowly hug her. When her head is next to mine, her arms wrapped around me tightly, she quietly whispers in my ear. "Make sure you pay me back later." The words are too quiet for Edward to hear them. I'm almost too distracted by the wine bottle I can feel resting against my shoulder to catch her words. I don't miss them, however, and I imperceptibly nod before I pull back. She brushes some imaginary dirt from my shoulder before stepping away completely. "Right. Off you go then. See you both in a while."

I lead Edward from the house after he thanks her again. We're at the end of my street when he finally breaks our silence. "Your Mom is so nice, Bella. I can't remember the last time mine asked me for a hug," he says wistfully.

I offer him a tenser than tense smile as a form of reply. The words I think in response remain in my head, where they're safe: You know what, Edward? Aside from today, neither can I.

A/N: This day isn't over just yet. I'll be back on Wednesday with what happens next...

Thanks for reading and I hope you liked! Don't be afraid to leave a review... seriously! The review section of this story is starting to get cobwebs.