I don't even know what to say. You guys all shocked the hell out of me. Oh, and by the way, Emmett was supposed to creep you out. :)

Okay, I promised this for yesterday, but I didn't plan what's about to happen. It just...happened. So hard to write too... :(

Songs on my mind: Shinedown – Second Chance and Flyleaf - Missing

"Emmett was just being Emmett," Edward said coolly.

"He called a bunch of kids 'virgins', Edward. That is so not normal," I protested.

"But that's Emmett. He's not normal. Trust me, it means little...just a stupid little comment off the top of his head. Its all good, Bella. Believe me."

"I do. Its just..." I stopped in the middle of the hallway. "Did you know this is too good to be true?" I asked him suddenly.

His eyebrows pulled together and he looked at me uncomfortably. "Uh, what do you mean?"

"I mean that your too good to be true. That your house is too good to be true. That your whole family is too good to be true. I want to thank you, but..." I looked away, shuffling my feet. I was already in too deep to just ignore it. "Look, the girls have never been around so many people that actually want to...entertain them, I guess you could say, and I don't want something to go wr—"

"Uh, if this is too much for you Bella, I can just take you home I guess..." His hand reached up to scratch his head and I could see the confusion. "Or you just don't have to tell me this...whatever your about to say..."

It was one of those awkward moments I'd always read about or seen in movies. I wondered what on earth I was doing, but my mouth just wouldn't stop running.

"Ever sense you've met them, the girls, and they know you now and they like you...I don't want to see them get hurt," I said, distractedly tracing the silver of a picture frame on the wall. The baby had such trademark eyes and hair; Edward was an adorable child. "Emma is always so happy when she sees you, and Melly..." I looked at him quickly; he looked interestingly perplexed. I laughed once at the words on my tongue. "Melly doesn't get close to anyone, and she really likes you too."

There was another beat of silence. "But what about you, Bella?"

This time I looked at him, confused. "What about me?"

He smiled for only a second. "You always talk about them. Everything circulates around those four girls. You always talk about them and what they need or deserve, but I never hear anything about you, Bella. Tell me... What do you want?"

My mouth felt dry. Edward was far from a stupid person, far from a blind one too: He had to have had his own hunches, especially after the Caitlyn issue, about my family. He had to know. I just did not what to say it. My eyes went back to the picture and I turned my back to him. "I want a friend that I know won't turn on me. I want to know that every decision I make for myself"—and the girls, I mentally added—"is the right one." When he didn't say anything, I added what I thought to be necessary:

"I've never had friends, Edward. I was always the...the weird one, I guess. No one wanted to spend time with me ever, and I was in withdrawal. But things just got...out of control when Caitlyn was born. Um...my family just fell into a whirlwind of disgust and...horrible tendencies," I struggled, bordering the truth carefully. "And then Melly came along, and soon later there were two babies. Everything just got worse and worse and there's no way to make things better. I've done my best but I have to protect them."

Edward was struck in silence, staring at me like I had a third head. I felt bad to dump this on him, but my excuse was that he asked.

"What I want, Edward, is a friend that won't abandon me or the girls. That's all I want," I mumbled. "And all I have is the girls."

I don't know what I expected him to say. Poor boy. Just moves to Forks, befriends a maniac and gets this horrible lecture. I knew he didn't deserve to be put through this, but it needed to be known that if he was going to change his mind about friendship, he better do it quick. Before all the girls were head-over-heels for him.

Before I was.

"Bella, what's going on in your family?"

I did expect this question at some point, just not so soon. I glanced down the hallway, in the direction that I heard a chorus of giggles and little footsteps. It instinctively brought a smile to my face. "Is there a place that we can go with more privacy?" I asked, turning back to him.

"Yeah, sure, follow me," he mumbled quickly, starting down the hall in the opposite direction. I followed slowly, trying to put my thoughts in a single order. Maybe I could be something like happy with this friendship if this was all out in the open. To anyone else I would have turned my back to them and told them to mind their own business, but here I was, about to offer it up. Everything up.

And I didn't even know why.

Edward took me through the kitchen and to a door on the far left, which led down a long strand of stairs. Edward flicked on the light and gestured me first. I went uneasily and as I continued the decent I realized that this was the basement. The floor was hardwood and the walls were dark. A bar spread over the far corner, a pool table and air hockey table in the center. There was a huge sound system across the room surrounded by couches and chairs.

Wow.

"I barely have a family," I muttered, looking at the blank wall. "I have no one."

"What happens behind closed doors?"

"Too much." I finally looked at Edward. "There are different levels of abuse at my house – its made up of obedience." When I saw the look on Edward's face, I realized what I'd just said. What I'd confessed. I had the urge to cry and run, but something was keeping me there. What I hated the most was that my mouth still didn't stop moving. "Yes, I've finally told someone," I said aloud, not necessarily to Edward. "My parents abuse me. My father hits me when I do something wrong, or he's just bored. Once I broke my nose because of it."

The silence was just as expected – cold and awkward. Edward looked at me completely blank, surpassing plain shock or astonishment. I should have kept my mouth shut, I shouldn't have even come here in the first place.

"You...Bella, you really didn't have to tell me all that..." he mumbled. I watched as he wondered off to the bar, picking up a crystal glass and filling it up with a dark golden liquid. He tipped it back and I watched as he quickly drained it. "You want some?" he offered distantly. "Its this Russian stuff – fifty percent alcohol."

"Uh...I don't drink or...anything," I muttered awkwardly.

"Me neither, but right now, I think we could both use something a little stiff."

"Do your parents let you drink like this?" I asked hesitantly. I may not have been raised to avoid alcohol but I did grow up seeing how it could transform a person; I didn't want to see that happen to myself. And I definitely did not want to see Edward transform into something only alcohol can bring out in a person.

He sighed. "They taught me the pros of moderation," he corrected. Edward seemed to visibly snap back to our conversation from a minute ago, and looked down at the now-empty glass. "I really didn't want to know that, Bella. That's...that's just sick."

There was no way of passing this off as something every kid in Forks went through.

"You didn't have to hear that," I agreed, "but I just...I had to tell you." I exhaled, sitting down on one of the couches. "I just planned on telling you that my sisters don't deserve to have every good thing in their life ripped away. And I know they really like you, and I just don't want to see you to..." I struggled, searching for a word that didn't make it sound like he was in a lifelong commitment. "Drift away, I guess."

"This is a lot, Bella," he said quietly. "Its making it hard to be just friends."

"This is my point. If you don't want to be friends, I knew you to make that decision now. Before you have a parade of four little girls on your heels everywhere you go."

Edward laughed as he hoped up on the bar, much more relaxed now. "This is like a lecture. At first, I had no idea what you wanted to talk about, and this wasn't even close to my guess."

"I just wanted you to know. Even if you didn't." I looked at him across the room but it was hard to read his expression. "Are you going to try to forget it?" I asked hopefully.

"Without a doubt. Are you going to promise to never drop something like that on me?"

I smiled tightly. "I'm pretty sure I have no more skeletons like that."

"Like the abuse one?" Edward mumbled, so quietly that I almost didn't hear. I didn't even know if he wanted me to.

"Its ending though," I said quickly. "He's stopped. Behind closed doors, my family is just distant. The abuse has stopped." What other choice did I have to lie? I shouldn't have opened my mouth and just blabbed; why hadn't I cut out all the crap and lecture, and just went to the point? I just had to say it. Maybe, being the new kid and all, he would think nothing of it and be too shy to do anything. Maybe he would be one of those kids that couldn't talk to their parents in a civilized way enough to say, "Hey, Mom, I know this girl that's being abused."

I hoped that was the case.

"So, how about that tour now?" Edward asked.

I smiled guiltily, realizing that I'd taken from said tour. "Absolutely."

As we started back up the stairs – after a thorough explanation about the basement – I asked what we were having for dinner.

"Well, my ever-so reliable parents," he said dramatically, "have left us to fend for ourselves. And because we will significantly start a fire, I think we're going for pizza."

I smiled. "My favourite."

*laughing* This was really hard to write because they just started talking...and I couldn't make them stop! You must know how I feel. Cheers for when characters just don't STFU. Yeah, so I think I may have jumbled some stuff up and mixed ideas together...but I am not feeling myself today. LOL. Bare with me till next update.

Review for Edward to put down the half-alcohol Russian drink and pick up lollipops.

Love, Glitter. 3