Chapter 18:

"Okay then Eddie, enough is enough. You tell us what is going on in that stupid mind of yours or I will tear you up and set you on fire." Rosalie was not even bothering to keep her anger at bay. She'd had enough of Edward's stupidity to last her for the next few centuries! First his human lover, his singer no less, then his obsession with the witch. The witch she had just started to like and who could easily take away the one thing giving her empty existence a purpose, well, apart from Emmett, that is. Teddy! And if Hermione took Teddy away because of Edward, Rosalie would make it her immortal life's mission to kill him in the most unimaginably brutal way possible.

"What do you want to know?" Was there even a point of hiding anything in his family? Between his empath brother, future-seeing sister, and apparently, and this was a new one, a body-language expert sister with a foul temper, he would anyway be hard pressed to keep his confusion from them all for long.

"I'm confused," he owned up. "I do love Bella, but something's changed from the moment I saw Hermione. I don't see Bella the same way as before or maybe I see our relationship more clearly than what I used to. I don't know.. It's just... Bella is my first ever friend, the only girl in as far as I can remember, who braved all odds to befriend me and accepted me even after knowing what I am. She is dependent on me and it all makes me…" he made some odd motions with his hands that his family could not really decipher.

"But Hermione... I am dependent on her. She completes me somehow. Even being in the same room, or now, being away at her place with Teddy, just the fact that she is around here soothes me but when I think that she is not really next to me, it scares me."

"With Bella, I want her to be happy."

"But with Hermione, I need her to be happy to even have a chance at any happiness myself. And not just that too, I need her to be happy with me. I need her by my side and I want it to be her choice."

"I'm just... everything's just so fucked up! I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

"Tell me, Edward, does either of them ever make you feel different as if you are alive or do you feel like you have electricity shooting up your body when you're with them?" Carlisle asked from his spot on the white armchair.

Edward thought about that question before he answered it. "Bella reminds me of all my shortcomings, she's got everything I've not and I always feel like a monster with her, even though she has always told me otherwise."

"But Hermione.." here he chose his words with extra care to make sure he got his point across. "With her, I am just me. No shortcomings, no inferiority complex, no nothing. Every time I look into her eyes, I just see me, as I am, not how I want to be or how I would like to be. It's always just me in there. I fail to filter my thoughts around her, it's almost like I want her to know me correctly, properly, thoroughly."

"Being with Bella makes me notice the differences between us, I feel the cold I carry within me when I'm with her. I make it a point to keep away from her, so as not to hurt her in any way. But when I'm with Hermione, I feel a warmth spreading through me. I feel more alive than I have a right to feel. I have this urge in me to seek her out, and I just know I'd never hurt her or let her be hurt in any way."

"I feel the need to touch her, whenever she's around. There are times I actually have to stop myself from reaching out to her, whether it is to squeeze her shoulder in reassurance when her eyes cloud over with grief over leaving her friends behind or if it is to tuck a stray curl from falling over eyes. And to be honest, I don't know for how long I'll be able to control those urges anymore. My mouth anyway runs away from me when I am around her. And when she not around, all I can do is think about her and chide myself for even thinking of following her everywhere just so I breathe her in, so I can feast my eyes on her, so I can…"

"I don't much see the confusion there, little brother," Emmett smirked.

"Say it. You already know what's in your heart." Jasper thought loudly enough in his mind, 'We all know what's in your heart, just accept it.'

"I love Bella, I know I do. But I'm in love with Hermione."

Jasper was smirking at Edward as he finished his rant and Edward knew it was because that ass of a brother of his had probably felt all of his thoughts and knew of his feelings even before he did. Alice was smiling, again, Jasper had probably spoken to her already or she had seen it coming, Edward sighed. Rosalie was fuming and if it was possible, Edward knew she'd have smoke coming out of her ears. Emmett was caught between amusement and laughter, nothing new there, then. Esme only offered him a small smile in understanding, but Carlisle took the cake from them all.

With all the clinical detachment he possessed, he said, "Hermione might be your vampire mate. And if she is indeed that, let me warn you, Edward, you have your work cut out for you." Then he flashed him a big, broad smile full of paternal pride, "And if that's true, I am so happy for you. You could not have found a better person," and walked out of the hall.

"You screw this, hurt Hermione in any way, making her take Teddy away from me, and I will kill you, Edward, even before he magical friends get here, I will burn you at the stake," Rosalie warned and stormed out the window. Emmett winking at him and following her out.

"You're gonna need a lot of help," Alice said shaking her head and Edward grunted. Alice's method of help was always likely to get him back in the ass.

How much worse could things really get? He had a break up coming up with a suicidal girl and then a relationship to make with a headstrong witch. Things really couldn't go further south, right?

Ha! If only he knew, there was a storm headed their way…