"I'm fine." Bella insisted again to the disbelieving vampires hovering over her a short amount of time later. She frowned at the porridge in front of her -not just because it was prepared awfully- and tried to push it away. "I'm not underweight."

"I knew she was remarkably light." Edward announced to no one in particular. "And I thought it was endearing" He added, wringing his hands. Carlisle shook his head unhappily as he removed the blood pressure strap from Bella's arm and chucked it on the chair beside the leather couch she was propped on.

"I'm hoping it's just forgetfulness." He informed her as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. "You don't actively avoid eating do you?"

Bella thought back over the last week of meals and couldn't actually recall preparing a proper dinner, but to Carlisle she shook her head.

"Of course not." She murmured, swinging her legs around to sit up. Edward sped to the place next to her and had a spoonful of porridge into her mouth before she was even aware of his movement. Bella understandably choked on it. "What are you doing?" She spluttered angrily.

"Just because we don't eat doesn't mean you can get away with it." Edward admonished her. "You're too skinny. I want you to gain at least twenty kilos." He looked up at Carlisle. "That's healthy for her, right?" He asked with boyish calm. Carlisle blinked at him.

"I'm not sure if such a rapid-"

"There, see, it's decided." Edward said to Bella, ignoring Carlisle. The girl blanched at him.

"Twenty?!"

"Well you must be merely, what, thirty at the moment?" The young vampire said earnestly. Bella's face went suddenly very red.

"We weighed her Edward." Carlisle interjected calmly. "She was fourty-five. Still too slight for her frame I daresay. About five to ten underweight, at least."

The somewhat above-average height for her gender girl scowled at the two and then hastily fought down her gag reflex as she smelled the porridge wafting towards her.

It wasn't that she actively avoided eating, but when one hung around with someone who didn't eat, well, what was there to remind you to eat? Edward was utterly distracting in so many ways… his looks, his smell, his voice. It was hardly her fault that she barely touched food! Besides, Charlie always picked up the groceries on the way back from work and he constantly forgot the grocery list, and them improvised. They were certainly never short of red meat but Bella was getting thoroughly sick of the bags of pre-cut fries stacking up in the outside freezer.

"Honestly I am fine." Bella said again. She picked up her spoon and allowed the gluggy mixture to drip back into the rest with a resounding plop. She raised a hopeful face to Carlisle. "Do you have any, er, other food in the house?"

"Typical!" An angry Rosalie's voice shrieked from the other room; she had made the porridge. Bella looked about nervously but Edward quickly left the room to sort things out. Carlisle listened, appeared to blanch at some sound she couldn't hear herself, and then hastily made his excuses to leave when Edward wandered back into the room. Claw marks were rapidly fading from the side of his face.

"I'll take you out to lunch." Edward told her vapidly. He absentmindedly rubbed his cheek and frowned. "We can take Rosalie's car since she's being such a-"

A loud roaring sounded as the aforementioned woman drove off in her car. Edward shrugged.

"We'll take your truck then." And he plucked the keys from Bella's pocket.

He didn't quite look at her for much of the time spent driving and Bella began to feel more and more uncomfortable. She stared out of the window, played with her hair, and realised she did in fact have a raging appetite. They came into town and drove past the place she normally went for dinner with her father… past the place Edward had remarked on the other week… and then drove out the other side of town. Bella very nearly attacked her boyfriend.

"What the hell are you doing?!" She demanded of him as she twisted around in her seat to stare back at Forks. "I thought you were taking me to lunch!"

"I am." Edward murmured cryptically. She bore holes into the side of his face with her eyes until he elaborated. "Well the one thing I've heard that's fattening is McDonalds. I'm going to buy you McDonalds."

Bella blinked at him. He continued with his explanation.

"I blame myself, I really do. So I've decided something: I am going to eat normal human meals if I am around you at the appropriate time of day."

Bella stared at him as though he had lost his mind. He rather happily stared out over the road; impressed with his gallantness. Bella began to slowly shake her head.

"No, no, that's insane, Edward!" She informed him. He shrugged apathetically. Bella whacked him in the arm.

"Barely felt that." He said impishly. She hit him harder and instantly regretted it. Edward panicked and swerved off the road onto its shoulder and hastily switched the engine off to peer at her hand. He went to gently cradle it in his hand and accidentally squeezed it. Bella gasped and Edward looked crestfallen. "I break everything!" He exclaimed; restarting the car and stepping on the gas in order to get to the next town quickly. The truck groaned, complained, and then the engine gave out completely. Bella stared at her boyfriend in utter shock as it slowly rolled to a stop in the centre of the road; Edward maintaining his hopeful stance of holding the wheel and leaning towards the road as though that would make it keep moving. Finally he took his hands off the wheel and flung them above himself in a gesture of defeat. "Your car is broken." He told her.

"Truck." Bella absentmindedly corrected. She felt foolish. "You broke my truck." She informed him. Edward turned to her with a look of absolute glee.

"I shall buy you a new one!" He exclaimed. Bella recoiled in horror.

"And how on earth can I explain that to Charlie hmm?" She jumped out her side of the truck and motioned for him to pop the hood. She wasn't quite sure why she got him to do this; it wasn't as though she knew anything about truck's engines. "I think the… thing's blown." She announced to the general vicinity. "Yep. We'll need a new one." When she looked back at Edward he was gone. Completely. Bella did a 360 turn five times and then gave up. He'd be back soon. She was pretty sure anyway.

When she looked up some large amount of time later Edward had shown up again with two bags of McDonald's food. He thrust her one towards her (which looked to contain several combo meals) and then opened his heartily and took a large bite out of his burger. He visibly gagged but choked it down. Bella stared at him. His reactions were hardly helping her appetite but she began to nibble on some chips.

"I called a mechanic to come out too." Edward informed her. He'd given up on his food and instead thrust it towards her. She happily demolished the rest of his burger and was onto her second; feeling sated and on the way to becoming mildly stuffed. Edward cocked his head and listened to something she couldn't hear. "That must be Emmett… surely…" He mused out loud. A couple of minutes ticked by and then his face went even whiter than it usually was. He threw a glance at Bella and casually said, "Hey, shall we… er… run home, perhaps?"

She knew why he was being so affectedly calm. He'd mentioned this problem earlier. Bella put her unfinished lunch in the car and walked around to his back. He grabbed her arms, threw her up onto him and then took off.

This time she didn't mind the nausea. It was better than dealing with unfriendly guests.