A/N I was slightly procrastinating this week, so here you go! A long awaited chapter. :P

Chapter Twenty-Three

Kyle and I headed into the house without Jasper, who had to go out to get the meat for the barbeque. As we walked in, we spotted Renesmee and Jacob sitting in the kitchen away from the rest of the family. "How come you guys avoided meeting Kyle earlier?" I asked, referring to the time where Kyle and I were sitting on the front stairs and my sister and Jacob went a different route into the house.

"You guys were looking so cozy by the time we caught up; I thought it'd be best we didn't interrupt." My sister said with a smile, before turning the smile over in Kyle's direction, "Hello, I'm Renesmee, and this here is my big hug-a-lug Jacob."

I looked at Kyle, who was staring at Renesmee with a look I've never seen on his face before. One of pure admiration. "H..hello." He replied with a shy smile. I searched his thoughts and blanched.

"Asshole!" I shouted, pushing him away from my side with a little too much force. He hit the wall and crumbled. As my family came rushing in to see what the commotion was, I stormed out of the house. I was furious.

I came to the edge of the river and clenched my fists. "He promised…that jerk promised he wouldn't fall in love with her…" In all my fury, I kicked a nearby oak tree, causing it to break and fall into the river, creating another bridge. I stood there fuming as I thought about what I'd do to that, lower than scum, of a man. In my anger, I didn't notice my dad behind me until he had put his hand on my shoulder. Reacting by instinct, I took his hand and threw him over my shoulder before my mind registered who he was. Thankfully, my dad hasn't been alive for over a century for nothing, and simply pushed off the ground with his hand and stood erect without falling.

"Edelle, you need to relax." He told me sternly, "your instincts are taking over your common sense."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked angrily, pointing towards the house, "you heard his thoughts. He fell in love with Renesmee at first glance. She looks the same as me, he confessed that he liked me.. and he falls in love with her just like that."

My father attempted to hide a smile, but failed. "You really like this boy, don't you?"

"Not anymore! That lying scum bag."

"Edelle…again, you're letting your instincts take over your common sense. You heard one little thought, that you didn't bother to cross-reference this across all his other thoughts, or even the one that he was thinking beneath his main thought."

I looked at him, my anger starting to mellow and I knew that Jasper was nearby. "What do you mean?"

Dad took my hand and tugged me lightly towards the house. "Come on, you need to talk to Kyle." He told me as he took my iPod away, "And finally learn to trust someone more than you trust your abilities."

I followed him silently into the house as Jasper followed behind us. "Don't control my emotions Uncle," I hissed at him, "I think I have the right to be furious."

Rosalie answered to me instead of Jasper, "Oh, you have the right to be furious…seems your boyfriend knows the line to practical jokes as Emmett does."

My eyes zeroed in on Kyle, who had an icepack on his shoulder, where I could already see that it was beginning to bruise a nice purple and blue. He looked at me sheepishly, "Sorry Edelle. I didn't think you were serious when you told me not to fall in love with your sister."

I raised an eyebrow, "Would I say something like that as a joke?"

"Most people would…" he replied, wincing as he shifted the icepack. I refused to let guilt slide into my emotions.

"So you're saying, you thought it'd be funny to make me think you had fallen in love with Renesmee?" This was a hard conversation to have with almost all of my family members watching…it showed off a side of myself I didn't like showing. That I really had an inferiority complex when it came to Renesmee.

"I thought it'd be funny," he agreed, "But I knew you'd be able to hear my true thoughts underneath, so I thought you'd take me seriously for half a minute before finding out my true intentions, and laugh."

I held my hand out to my dad for my iPod, so I could affirm the truth, but my dad shook his head with a smile. "We all had to learn trust with our partners…you have to do it too."

I gaped, but my family seemed to be on the same side as my father. My mother came and rubbed my arm in a comforting motion, "Sweetie, all of us had to learn trust…both in ourselves and in other people."

I looked at Kyle, who was looking at me seriously, "Edelle…your sister is pretty and all, but I only think that because she's your twin. Not because she's the source of my affection."

I couldn't help but snicker, causing my family to look at me in bewilderment and Kyle in amusement. "That's so corny!" I laughed as I walked over to him to examine his shoulder. I winced at the damage I had done. "Sorry. Seems like my anger got the best of me again."

"It's okay…I'm getting used to being abused." He replied jokingly, causing my family to look on with concern.

"Maybe we should change him for her…at least than he can fight back." Emmett joked, "I think these two would have awesome domestic fights."

"Nah…I don't think Kyle would hit her back," Jasper drawled, "If anything, he'd use his strength to stop her in her tracks."

"Wanna bet?" Emmett asked, and I knew that things were back to normal. I looked around but couldn't see my great grandfather.

"Where's Charlie?" I asked.

"He's out back skinning the deer I took down," Jasper remarked. "Said that he didn't want to hear everything going down…guess he figured that you were going to kill the boy and he didn't want to be the one to arrest you."

I chuckled as I looked at Kyle, "Told you." I teased lightly, causing him to laugh.

"Yes you did."

I looked at Carlisle, still not really believing that my whole family stuck in the room to watch me confront Kyle…I suppose they thought I'd really hurt him before he had the chance to share his true thoughts. "Anything broken Grandpa?"

"Deep bruising…he'll not be able to move his arm without feeling pain for about a week…but he'll be okay." He remarked, "Even in your anger you didn't try to hurt him too bad."

I shrugged, "Bursts of anger need to be controlled to some extent." Don't I know the truth in that.

Dad looked at me oddly, and that's when I realized I forgot my mind isn't shielded. "Hey Dad, can I have my iPod back? I'm sure I'm the one who has to keep track of our guests while they are here."

He handed it back, as he replied, "No, we trust our guests…we wouldn't have invited them if we thought they'd go on a killing rampage. They're free to go hunt, but they know they have to go to the next state to do so…one friend of ours joked that Canadians had better blood anyhow."

I chuckled uneasily as I placed my iPod headphone back in one ear. Charlie came back in wearing a bloodied apron, "Deer is ready to be placed on the barbeque," He told us as he smiled at me, "Hello sweetheart."

"Hi Charlie, Forks doing well under their chief of police?" I asked and he shrugged.

"As good as ever I suppose. How's your boyfriend's shoulder doing?"

I blushed and shrugged, "He's learned his lesson."

Charlie looked at Kyle, attempting to hide a smile, "Not to mess with a Cullen?"

Kyle grinned, "More like not to mess with someone who can throw you across a room."

My family chuckled before Jacob went over to Kyle, "Trust me, this whole family loves their supernatural strength… you should have seen Bella when she realized she could go all kung fu on a rock…like a child in a candy store."

Bella scowled jokingly, "I didn't see you complaining when I beat Emmett."

"Not at all. It was about time Emmett knew there was someone stronger than him." Jacob replied, causing me to remember Felix. I wonder who would win in a fight…

Kyle looked at me, "Kung fu on a rock?" He thought, feeling a little out of the loop.

I grinned, before answering his question aloud, "Mom was one step away from singing Cee lo Green as she kicked a rock in half… it was one of the most amusing shows of strength I've ever seen."

Bella shrugged, but looked at Kyle, "Now you understand how happy we are that our daughter didn't go after you more than throwing you across the room. She may only be a hybrid, but she packs a mean punch too."

Kyle grinned before looking at Charlie, who was shifting from foot to foot awkwardly. He still wasn't comfortable with everything supernatural that went around. He could handle it, but still was at the 'need to know' thinking, "Do you need help with the barbequing Charlie?"

Charlie nodded, "Sure…most of them here just wrinkle their nose when it comes to barbequing…something about what a waste. Don't know what they're talking about, Jacob and his crew probably will eat more than their share."

"Then we better hurry before Jacob goes after it before it even goes on the grill then." Kyle jumped off the stool, passing the icepack to Esme, "Thanks Esme, if you'd like to put that in the freezer for later, that'd be great."

"Sure thing honey." She replied with a smile, and I watched as my boyfriend disappeared with my grandpa into the back. Charlie was probably ecstatic to have another human that wasn't knee deep in this stuff.

I also could sense with the family that did stay behind that they weren't planning to let me leave as easily. "Edelle…" Mom began, but I held up a hand.

"Mom, everyone..it's fine. It won't happen again that I'll fly off the handle like that."

"You shouldn't have flown off the handle like that to begin with," Edward replied disapprovingly, "Abusing your boyfriend isn't a good way to start the relationship."

"Yeah, I have anger issues…I'll learn to control them." I shrugged, but Jasper shook his head.

"It's not that easy squirt. Once emotions become habit, it is a lot harder for vampires to break them then normal humans."

"Yeah, like Edward and his emoness, Esme with her lovingness… Rosalie with her…" Emmett caught himself when his wife raised an eyebrow, "Loveliness…"

Rosalie glared at her husband, "Want to share what you really wanted to say so I could hit you across the head?" He smiled at her, but she ignored it.

I smiled, "Rosalie and Emmett are always going at it! I snapped once, and you guys are treating me like I abuse Kyle on a daily basis. It's fine, it was a minor slip."

"Emmett wasn't wrong with suggesting we change Kyle…where are you planning to take this relationship Edelle?" Bella asked, and my eyes widened. Thankfully, I wasn't required to say anything, because Renesmee answered for me.

"Come on Mom, they've known each other for such a little amount of time. Not everyone is like you and Dad, or rather, like any of you with needing to be by each other's sides every moment of the day," Renesmee was saying this gently, in the way only she seemed to be able to, "I mean, it's not like Edelle is an abusive person on principle. We know that. She'd rather walk away in a huff than get into a fight."

"Thanks Renesmee." I said dryly, "Look, Kyle doesn't seem to be concerned…it's not like what Mom was like when she was human, finding danger in every corner. This was one rare occurrence, and it won't happen again. Can we just… I don't know… have a day where everyone isn't riding on me for every little thing?"

When my family nodded and didn't add anything to it, I headed out to the back to find my boyfriend. I might not have said it, but I did feel tremendously guilty I had thrown Kyle across the room.

I found him outside with Charlie, at the giant, shining barbeque that was far enough away from our house I knew no one who was in the house could hear our conversation. Kyle had been talking sports with Charlie, but they stopped when I came into view. "Hi Grandpa, can I borrow Kyle for a moment?" I asked, and Charlie nodded, so I took Kyle by his good arm and led him out into the forest so even Charlie couldn't hear our conversation.

I released Kyle and took a step away, looking at my feet awkwardly, "I'm sorry…my anger got the best of me…again."

"Yes, what did you mean by that before?" Kyle asked curiously, "You've mentioned that a few times now.."

I looked at him, pained, as I remembered my dad's words about trust. I didn't remove my iPod, but I didn't scrutinize his thoughts either. "The reason why I ran away from here had nothing to do with my family…it was more that I was hiding something from them that would make them really disappointed."

"What, did you get angry and kill a guy?" He asked jokingly, and I blanched. He saw my face and his smile dropped off his face.

"Edelle?" at his voice I started tearing up, something I rarely did.

"It was an accident…he started kissing me and I heard his thoughts about how if he closed his eyes I could be Renesmee… I got mad! It was all for a stupid bet…he was a moron, but he didn't deserve death!" I would have kept going, but Kyle walked to me and wrapped me up in his arms. My tears turned into sobs as Kyle led me to a log. He sat down and pulled me into his lap, holding me close and rocking slightly.

"Shh Edelle, it's okay…it'll be okay…" he murmured as he stroke my hair. After my sobs had eased, I pulled away slightly in embarrassment.

"I never get emotional like that.." I muttered and he laughed before kissing me softly.

"Apparently I'm good for you then. It's unhealthy to bottle things up don't you know?" He looked at me seriously, "I think it's wrong that you killed someone, but I forgive you."

My eyes widened, "Why?!"

"Because you're not a killer…normally. You could have easily killed my mom and sister, but you didn't. This was a rare instance, and since then you're getting better. I'm kind of happy I escaped with a hurt shoulder" He joked, and I kissed his hurt shoulder.

"Sorry."I muttered, and he pulled my chin gently to guide me away from his shoulder

"Don't worry about it." He whispered before kissing me.

We were only kissing for a few moments when we heard someone's voice, "Well, isn't this a party!"

I pulled away and smiled at the intruder, "Hello there…Garrett, isn't it?"