Edward takes a deep breath in then out before he looks at me.
"Do you want me to ask?"
I shrug. "I don't know. Sure. I've never told anyone what happened before." At least no one that has already read my medical folder or already heard it through the grapevine.
"Why me?" He asks, looking genuinely curious.
"Why not you?"
"Fair enough." Edward pauses again, then he asks. "What happened?"
I'm unprepared with the effects a simple question has on me.
All the sudden I'm seventeen again. I'm mad at my mom and haven't talked to her in nearly a week.
When my phone rings, it's an unfamiliar number, but I know the area code.
Everything comes crashing down.
"My mom was always...overbearing, you know? Like, she tried so hard to be my best friend when sometimes I just needed a mom."
Edward nodded and I took a deep breath before continuing.
"It was my senior year of high school and I had sent all my college apps out already. I didn't tell my mom that I hadn't applied to anything in Florida, where she was living. I'd applied only to the west coast.
Well, she kept talking about how excited she was that I would be moving closer to her and I never bothered telling her any differently. I didn't want to hurt her feelings."
I pause again and take a sip of my coke.
"One day I told her that I hadn't applied for any Florida schools. To say she was mad was an understatement. We ended up fighting over it. She was yelling at me, saying how I had been lying to her for months and how much she was looking forward to having me back with her. I hung up on her. I said I wanted to stay on the west coast and didn't want to be around her."
"Well, Bella. Lots of teens fight with their moms. I know I gave mine a few grey hairs when I was younger," Edward tells me.
"I know, but...I was just so mad. I didn't talk to her for almost a week. She only called me a couple of times, I think she was giving me space," I tell him.
I swallow hard and feel tears welling up.
This is the really hard part.
"There was a phone call. I don't know why I answered, It was the same area code as my mom, but I didn't recognize the number. It was a doctor. He said he was terribly sorry, but my mom had gotten sick and didn't make it."
"I'm so sorry," Edward says, he reaches out grabs my hand squeezing it. "What...what happened?"
"Brain aneurysm. It happened so fast. She was fine and then she wasn't." I scoff, "well, she wasn't fine. I guess she had been having headaches, but she would always brush it off as being stressed or something. She never mentioned them to me."
"She was at the house one night and I guess just...collapsed. There wasn't anything the doctors could do and within two hours of getting to the hospital...she was gone."
"I can't imagine you had to go through that."
The compassionate look on Edwards face causes me to burst into tears.
It feels like a dam has burst and there's no stopping the tears.
I expect Edward to be freaked out and run, but he doesn't. Instead, he pulls me to him and just...holds me.
When the tears ebb enough, I continue.
"Everything else kind of runs together. I remember telling my dad. Flying to Jacksonville. Going to the funeral. After all that, back at school I was treated differently. None of my friends called my anymore. I didn't go to football games or parties or anything. When I graduated high school, I wanted to get away from Forks, so I had some money saved up from working and from my mom and stuff, so I moved to San Francisco."
Edwards silent and I pull myself away from him.
I'm certain I've scared him off now.
"All I can think of is how we left things. Fighting. Not speaking to each other. If she saw me now, I don't even know what she would say."
I decide not to tell Edward about the recent events.
Not just yet.
Maybe not ever.
"Bella, I'm sure she'd be proud of you. And for how things were left when she passed, I'm sure she loved you just as much as you love her."
So Bella (finally?) opens up a bit to Edward and we find out what happened with Renee. I hope I did this part justice. Also, if I'm wrong with any of the medical stuff, I'm only as knowledgeable as Google makes me.