EPOV

"Alice, what are you doing here?" I asked her.

I could see Jasper shifting from side to side. He looked uncomfortable.

"Me, my aunt lives here; what are you doing here?" she told me. Huh?

"Who's your aunt," I looked at her skeptically. Maybe she needs to go back to Volcano.

"Esme Harrison; I heard she got married, and I've been tried to get in touch with her…you know my family situation, she's all I got left…"she looked down sadly. Jasper grabbed her hand reassuringly as if to tell her that he wasn't going anywhere. I stepped aside and welcomed them inside.

"I'll go get her…" I said and walked past the living room to the kitchen. I saw that Bella looked at Alice skeptically.

I walked into the kitchen and Esme was in the kitchen setting the table.

"uh, Esme I think your going to need two more place settings. There's some one here to see you," she looked at me confused.

I led her to the living room to where Alice and Jasper were waiting.

"…and who are you again," I heard Rosalie ask.

"Oh I'm Emmett's cousin," Alice said and looked at Rosalie un intimidated

"I still can't believe you're my lil pixie cousin," Emmett said.

"Alice! It's so good to see you, how have you been; oh my, your so gown up now." Esme exclaimed.

"Aunt Esme, it's been a long time." She said and stood up; so did Jasper. She took his hand and said, "Oh Esme this is my boyfriend Jasper." She said and smiled.

He said hello. Then Esme and Alice went into the kitchen to catch up. I guess the interrogation begins.

"So Jasper, where did you meet Alice?" Emmett asked a little protectively.

"We met in High school, I was a senior and she was a junior."Jasper replied a little uncomfortably.

"So what college do you go to," Rosalie asked.

"Well, this fall I'm enrolling at Seattle State." He told her.

"Wait, back up. Edward how do you know Alice?" Rosalie asked me, she looked at me suspiciously. I was at a lost for words, I didn't know how to explain it to them without telling them about what I did to ______.

"Well, I…um… its complicated. Well we met at—" I was interrupted by Alice.

"At the institute." She said. She gave me a disapproving look. "Um, Edward can I talked to you outside for a minute?"

"Uh, yeah sure." I knew I was in trouble. We went outside and sat on the porch. I stared down out my hands that were balled up into fists. I knew she was disappointed in me for not telling the others the truth about why I'm here.

"So, Edward, I had a little chat with Esme. And I'm guessing cousin Emmett and his friends don't know either."

"Me and Carlisle decided that it would be best that no one know about my past. Well I didn't want anyone to know those things about me. After I left the institute I wanted a clean slate, you know a fresh start." I said to her while looking into her eyes.

She looked away and frowned.

"That's understandable, but how are we suppose to explain to the rest of them how we know each other?" she asked me

"Well since you let slip that we met at the institute, I guess we could say that I volunteered to help the patients there." I told her with a devious look in my eyes.

She looked at me with unreadable eyes.

"Edward, is the brunette girl your girlfriend?" she asked me.

"Yea. Her name is Bella, you'd like her" I said with a smile.

"Are you planning on telling her about your---" I interrupted her.

"no, never. Why would I do that. I don't want her to know about that part of my past."

"Well, Edward she has a right to know," she said warily.

"If I do want her to know, then I'll do it when I'm ready. But I'm not now." I looked down again. I really didn't want Bella to know about what happened with _______. I didn't want her to know about that side of me. It's all in the past and that's where it should stay.

'You won't be able to get rid of me that easily. Aw, Eddie wants to protect his wittle girlfriend from his big bad past. Get real, she'll find out what a monster you are.'

I looked out into he driveway trying to clear my thoughts…

"Good news, me and Jasper are moving to Forks. Esme is the only relative who'll speak to me, and I want to hang on to that. I'm staying here with you guys. Jasper too, well just for the summer; he has an apartment in Seattle close to the campus." She said with a smile.

"Alice that's great. So are you going to enroll at Forks High?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I'll be a senior with you in September." She said proudly.

"C'mon Edward, aren't you going to introduce your best friend to your girlfriend," she stood up and offered me her hand. I took it and we walked back into the house.

BPOV

There I was sitting on the couch all alone. Emmett and Rosalie were talking to Jasper about how their all going to the same college. I felt left out. Edward had left me to talk to Alice. Alice, who was she. The only thing I know is that she's Emmett's cousin. But how does she know Edward? She said she met him at an Institute, whatever that means. This may be completely childish, but I'm a little pissed that Edward didn't mention her at all. Then she shows up and their all hugs, what does he want me to think? If he doesn't come back in 5 minutes, I'ma make a break for it.

I got up and stretched my legs. Hmm maybe I'll help Esme with Dinner she's in there all by herself. I walked in the kitchen to see Esme at the table sobbing silently. I ran over to her and gave her a hug. I didn't know what else to so and say, so I said, "Esme are you alright? What's wrong?"

She looked up at me with a sad smile and said, "Oh Bella, I'm fine. She looked down at her hands and slowly rose up and walked to the cupboard to get glasses. "Is there anything I could you with," I asked her. She was facing away from me.

"No, everything is fine, you go back into the living room and I'll call when dinner's ready." She said it in a strained voice.

With one last worried glance at her, I turned away heading back into the living room. Then I heard a crash and turned around to see Esme picking up pieces of the glass that fell out of her hand. I went over to her and helped her pick it up. She started crying again. "Should I go get Emmett, or call Carlisle?" I asked her, a little frantically.

"No, no, just stay here with me," she said breathlessly. She sat down and leaned against the counter, I sat by her. She held my hand very tightly. I looked at with a worried expression. She noticed and said, "Oh, don't worry about me Bella; I just got some bad news from Alice."

"What is it?" I asked, concerned.

"Well, its not my business to tell, but she said she wanted to talk to everyone when Carlisle gets home after dinner." Looked down at her hands, they were bleeding.

"Oh no Esme your hands!" I stood up quickly to get a towel. I wet the towel and wrapped it around her hands. She held the towel, and looked up at me defeated.

"Don't worry I'll clean all this up, and I'll finish cooking dinner. Why don't you sit down at the table." I lifted her up and she sat at the table drying her tears.

I went to the stove and finished cooking, and cleaned the glass off the floor. Edward walked in with Alice in tow.

"Bella, there you are, I didn't get a chance too…" Edward was saying, but I wasn't paying attention to him as I was ladling out food on to the plates that were set on the table.

"Oh Edward, get some glasses out for everyone and set them on the table. Alice could you tell everyone that dinner is ready please." I practically demanded of them without looking at them.

Alice gave a weary look at Esme then retreated to the living room. She came back with everyone including Carlisle who just arrived. He immediately rushed over to Esme and took her in his arms. He got her some bandages for her hand and softly whispered in her ear.

"Carlisle I'm fine, let's just have a nice dinner with Alice." She said with a smile and looked at Alice who returned the gesture.

We sat down around the table. I sat between Edward and Rosalie who sat next to Emmett. Across from us was Alice and Jasper. Carlisle sat at the head of the table and Esme at the other end. We dug in to the nice dinner Esme prepared. Everyone was just finishing up when Esme looked over at Alice and said "Do you want to start now?"

APOV

Okay, this is going to be just like group session. I have to tell my story again. I've done it countless times in group, but I've only said it to complete strangers. In front of them its easier, but to my own flesh and blood. It's like putting them through what I went through. I don't want them to feel the pan I felt. I looked at my now empty plate and stalled for a little more time. Earlier, when I told Esme that my father was abusing me, she started crying after that I couldn't tell her the rest. In Group no one cried when I told my story. I don't want Aunt Esme to cry about what's already happened. I looked at everyone's faces, they all held confused expressions, I looked at Esme she had a brave look in her eye. I looked at Jasper, he reached out and held my hand tightly – giving me the strength I needed to tell the story.

"Well, sophomore year my Mom died. It was just me and my Dad, we promised to take care of each other. It was hard for a while, but I thought we were getting through it. My dad he started drinking a lot and at first I thought it was nothing. Then he started hitting me." I looked down at me and Jasper's entwined fingers. I gave him a tight squeeze. I looked across the table and Edward's girlfriend Bella, she was staring at me with unreadable eyes. I was getting the vibe that she didn't trust me.

"Dad left me bruises where no one could see. Everything at school went normal, I kept my grades up, did everything I was told. Everyday I felt numb; I couldn't feel anything, not even when my dad was hitting me. So I did something really stupid, and I regret it to this day. I started cutting myself, trying to make myself feel something. One day at school I bumped into someone on my way out of the bathroom from cutting myself." I looked from Bella's nonjudgmental eyes to Jasper's loving blue ones.

"Thankfully I bumped into Jasper; I fell flat on my butt. When he helped me up he saw the blood; I tried to run to class, but he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulders and marched to the nurse's office. I didn't go without a fight, I went kicking and screaming." I said laughing and looking at Jasper.

"After the nurse saw my cuts, she excused me from class and Jasper drove me to the hospital. I remember our conversation like it was yesterday…

X Flashback x

"Okay, whatever your name is you can drop me of at the side of the road, I'll walk home." I looked at him as he drove closer to the hospital.

"Why do you cut yourself, why hurt yourself?" he asked in a quiet voice.

What the hell, I don't have to answer to him; it's none of his business. There is no way I was going to tell him why I did it. He wouldn't understand. No one understands.

He pulled over to the side of the road. Good he's letting me go. I unbuckled my seat belt and reached for the door, when he locked the door. I looked at him skeptically. I was little scared.

"What are you doing? If you don't let me go I'll scream or worse" I said getting ready to fight.

He reached for my arm, I was paralyzed in fear I didn't know what to do. He pulled up the sleeve of my shirt to reveal a series of scars from past cuts. He gently rubbed his fingers over my scars. I got this tingly feeling when he touched me. I looked up at him and finally noticed…he wasn't half bad. He had short blond hair, blue eyes, sharp cheek bones, and nice lips…

His eyes reminded me of something, my mom. Her eyes were blue too…

Before I knew it I was crying. He hands went up to my face and wiped away my tears. I didn't really understand why he was doing this but I didn't stop him. I just sat there.

"What's wrong?" he asked

I told him everything, I didn't why but I did. It felt like he wanted to know why I was upset, why I what I did. I felt like myself when I was around him, I couldn't describe it, but it felt right.

Xxx

"After we went to the hospital we visited Jasper's lawyer. We got some papers signed and after a few weeks I became an emancipated minor. Then I checked myself into the Volcano Institute, Jasper said I couldn't live with him until I learned how to take care of myself." I said while looking around the table at everyone. Mostly everyone had tears in their eyes, except for Bella. She had an admiring expression on her face. I saw Edward reach for her hand and she flinched away from him. Uh oh trouble in paradise…

A/N: so there's Alice's official story! Yay! Uh oh…whats happening between Bella & Edward. Can she really trust him? Will he finally open up and tell her the truth???