Me: Hello peoples!

Emmett: Where have you been young lady?

Edward: weren't you supposed to have updated last week or so?

Me: Um…..yes I was but I had trouble with this chapter, I ended up rewriting it about three times and then I had some personal things happen and it got placed on the back burner for a couple of days. I apologize for the wait!

Emmett: Fine, I accept your apology.

Me:…I was apologizing to the readers…

Emmett: What! Don't we get an apology too!

Edward: Okay before these two start fighting…All things twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer booklover2thextreme is only borrowing them for the time being.

Chapter 22: On the mend

"What is positive Bella?"

"Um… well you see…" I was frozen like a deer in the headlights, standing before me was an angry Emmett, Alice, Jasper, and Edward….I did the first thing that popped into my head…

I threw the test into the bathroom, giving an apologetic look at Rosalie and tried to lie through my teeth. "It's positively way too crowded up here?" I admit I'm not the best when it comes to lying…I didn't mean for it to come out as a question.

Emmett gave me his I-can-so-tell-that-what-came-out-of-your-mouth-was-complete-and-total-bullshit look and started walking up to Rose and me. Almost without thinking I moved to stand in front of Rose with my arms outstretched in a protective stance, causing my brother to stop moving and stare at me as though I had lost my mind. "What are you doing?"

My brilliant response, "Um…standing?" in retrospect I probably shouldn't have said that.

"Standing? Is that all you have been doing since you left school is standing?"

"…..No?" Why won't my mouth just shut up already?

"Well that's good to know! Do you have any idea how worried we have all been trying to find the two of you?" I could see the vein on his forehead throbbing as his face went from a light red color to a nice shade of purple.

"Technically yes, I do, considering you mentioned it when you called a little while ago." Again why hasn't someone come and shut me up already!

"What the hell is wrong with the two of you!" Oh god here it comes. "First you two have been avoiding us all like the plague for the past couple of weeks, don't think I haven't noticed, and now you pull this stunt about leaving school without telling anyone! Do you know how close we were to calling dad, Sam, Sue, and Jacob to find out where you were?" He was no longer purple by the end of his speech and he looked at Rose and I with such a defeated appearance, shoulder stooped and everything.

I looked away from him not liking how this conversation was making me feel. I will not feel guilty, I will not feel guilty, he will not make me feel guilty! Mentally giving myself a pep talk I looked up again and looked past Emmett to see that Alice and Jasper had the same defeated stance, I couldn't bring myself to look past them to Edward (yep I'm a coward).

I was trying to think of what to say when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked behind me to see Rose with tears silently running down her face. She needed to talk to Em and let him know what was going on, she didn't need the others to find out at the moment until she had a chance to figure things out. How the hell am I going to get the others to go away?

"Alight, while this is a lot more entertaining than an episode of Doctor Phil, I think it's about time to break this little party up before it gets any further out of hand." Lucky for me Leah had come back up the stairs to save the day! I love it when she takes charge of the situation.

"Em, you need to have a talk with Rose with just the two of you. Alice why don't you and Jasper do me a quick favor and run to the grocery store for me, I need you to run and get a few things for dinner, I called your folks a little bit ago and they agreed to coming over for dinner along with my parents. I think it would be a good idea to give the others some space." Alice and Jasper gave her a quick nod before going back down the stairs as Rose walked into the bathroom for a brief moment and then walked into the guest bedroom, Emmett hesitantly following her.

That left Leah, Edward and I standing awkwardly in the hallway, Edward and I both looking at the floor as though it was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Alright that just leaves me with you two bone heads." That got my attention as my head shot back up to look at Leah. "Look I'm not going to get into the middle of whatever is going on between you, but I do know that you need to talk about whatever it is before it's too late to fix it. I will hold down the fort here while you go and pick Seth up from school, I take it you forgot about him with all that happened this afternoon." I nodded my head, feeling even more guilty for forgetting about Seth (I knew the poor kid was doomed).

Apparently Leah wasn't finished "And since I don't trust you with my car you will probably have to walk there, don't worry its only a twenty minute walk from here, plenty of time to talk on your way there." With that she herded Edward and I down the stairs and out of the house, locking the door behind us…it was then that I realized I didn't have my keys on me. Did I mention how much I hate it when Leah takes charge of the situation?

"The elementary school gets out in about fifteen minutes; I guess we better start heading that way." With a sigh Edward turned and started walking. This was going to be the longest twenty minutes of my life….

For the first couple of minutes we walked in complete silence. I didn't know what to say or even how to bring the whole thing up without it turning into another fiasco (did he even want to talk to me about it?). I probably should have been paying more attention to where I was walking because one minute I was on walking just fine and the next I managed to slip on a tiny rock and I could see the sidewalk coming closer and closer to my face. I braced myself for the impact.

It took me a moment or two to realize that I had stopped falling and that familiar arms had circled themselves around my waist. God how I missed those arms….Bella Focus Here!

"Bella! Are you alright?" Edward asked as he helped me to stand in the upright position and removing his hold on me, much to my regret.

"Um..." I decided right then and there that I should say something. I mentally put on my big girl panties and took the plunge so to speak. "Actually Edward, I'm not. I haven't been alright since the night of Alice's party. What you said to me really hurt me. I loved you and I thought you might have loved me too! Man I must have been so stupid!" I went to turn around when Edward stopped me by grabbing hold of my arm, I could have easily pulled away if I wanted to.

"Bella you aren't stupid. I am, I am the idiot who didn't think about what I was saying. I am the idiot who let myself get too freaked out about thinking of the future that I responded without thinking. I never meant to hurt you! I do love you and it's been killing me the past couple of weeks because you won't as much as look at me!"

"Why couldn't you have just told me that talking about the future freaked you out? I would have backed off."

"I don't know why I couldn't just say that. It's just that the future is never set in stone and to think too much into it is to eventually lead to a sense of failure if it doesn't work out. I would much rather stay in the moment." I gave myself a moment to process what he was talking about. I made some sense while at the same time it didn't. "Bella if I have learned anything from not being with you is that is sucks. I felt as though a part of me was missing and knowing that I hurt you...I understand if you can't forgive me."

"Edward, I have hated not being around you just as much as you have." He pulled me towards him with a hopeful expression. "However it's going to take a little more for me to completely forgive you. I mean do you even want to be with me?"

"Bella I never want you to doubt my feelings for you. I know I screwed up and I'm sorry for that, I am a million time sorry for ever making you doubt me when it comes to you. Have you not been listening? My life has no meaning without you with me." Edward lifted his hand to wipe my cheek; I didn't even know I had started crying. When he went to take his hand away I quickly lifted my own hand to hold it in place.

"I'm sorry too, I'm sorry I have been avoiding you and everyone and I'm sorry about today and making you all worry. I'm so sor-"before I could finish my apology Edward leaned down and kissed me. It was hesitant and questioning at first. It took me a moment to respond to him, after the shock was over it was like my body had a mind of its own and deepened the kiss.

God, how I missed kissing him. It ended way too soon in my opinion as we pulled away from each other for some air (who needs to breathe if my last conscious thought could be the feeling of Edward's lips on mine?). He cradled me face in his hands for a minute. "Come on, let's go get Seth before he starts to worry about being stuck at school forever." After he let my face go he took hold of my hand and started walking again. "Are we okay now?"

"Hmmm…I think so, but there is one more thing you have to do for me before all will be completely forgiven."

"Anything, Bella. I will do anything for you." I could feel the evil smirk on my face as I glanced his way.

"You have to eat all of Leah's cookies that she baked before she can force the rest of us to eat them." From the corner of my eye I could see his face get a few shades paler. "Alright, if that's what it takes for you to fully forgive me I will eat them."

The rest of the walk to the elementary school was spent talking about all the stupid stuff that had been going on at school; however, I neglected to mention anything about why Rose and I had left school early. Naturally Seth was pissed to have been kept waiting for us to get there and that we had to walk back, but after a quick text to Sam Edward and I were forgiven for being late since Seth got to ride in the back of a cop car. It wasn't until we pulled up to Leah's that reality hit me. Carlisle and Esme's car was already in the parking lot along with dad's and mama Sue's car.

Dinner was going to be one hell of an experience…