Disclaimer: I do not own the characters all rights belong to Stephanie Myers.
"Alright so we'll see you in an hour," Edward announced as he pulled into their driveway. "Can't wait," he joked making me laugh as I got out of the car. One day at Forks Washington and I could tell that it was going to be a complicated year. Alice was right about Tanya making my life a living hell, she'd already started today. The thing is I don't know if I could blame her. She was only doing it because she thought I was trying to move in on Edward. I can tell you one thing for sure, Edward had definitely caught my eye, and that wasn't an easy thing to do. I walked in to the front door of my house seeing my mother sitting on the couch with Phil waiting to see how my day went I was sure.
"How was the first day?" Renee asked before Phil could. She looked more nervous than I did this morning.
"It was good." I answered briefly. "Actually I needed to talk to you both about something and mom I need you to listen before you talk." My mom glanced up at me and put her finger up pouring herself a glass of wine before letting me go on. "So the thing is Esme is literally our next door neighbor, and I go to school with her kids, so she wanted to invite us all to dinner tonight to hash shit out so it isn't drama central. The way I see it, it'll either be a good thing or a bad thing but we have to go to figure it out." I rushed through not bothering to give myself a chance to breath. My mother didn't look nearly as mad as I thought she was going to.
"I think it's a fantastic idea. We were waiting for you in case you wanted to change into different clothes." I think I'm more shut off about this situation than my mom. I only got up off the couch and went to my room looking through my closet. I glanced through my wardrobe trying to find something that would look good. Alice told me to wear some kind of sundress look nice because some of her friends were going to be there as well. I settled on a black sundress that stopped above my knees. This was all insane to me. I didn't know what to think of anything, and I didn't know how I was going to react to seeing Charlie. Charlie had always observed everything I do under a microscope. After my problems at my old school he told my mother he didn't care if he saw me or not. Charlie was, and always will be Charlie. I'll always be the daughter that never lived up to his expectations. I looked myself in the mirror before tearing myself away to go downstairs to meet my mom and Phil.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Renee asked me before we left the house. "We don't have to do this if you do not want to." I knew I had the option to not go, but I didn't think that was the best thing. I was friends with Esmes kids. I was going to have to face him eventually. I only shook my head in response to her question Renee simply grabbed my hand and led me the short distance to their house. Esmes door was wide open.
"Edward, Alice, Charlie," Esme yelled from what sounded like the kitchen. Edward and Alice were the first ones in the living room followed by Esme. "Charlie will be down in a moment. He was getting dressed," she explained wiping her hands on her apron. Emmett ran into the house grabbing Edward around his neck.
"I killed you," Emmett smiled as he plopped on the white couch. Edward rolled his eyes, that's when Charlie came into the room.
"Hi," he spoke shortly like he did anytime we were in the same room. "Good to see all of you," Alice only rolled her eyes.
"You look well," Renee was the first to speak. Charlie only shook his head glancing over to me.
"Yeah, let's not pretend like I'm your daughter or something," I hissed without a second thought. "We've got homework to do," I announced looking to Edward. He cleared his throat getting the attention in the room. Charlie only glared down at me.
"Yeah, big Romeo and Juliet debate." He put his hand on the small of my back leading me up the stairs, Alice and Emmett following behind us. I could hear Renee and Charlie arguing and I knew later there was going to be a blow up, but that was a battle for later. "You're lucky; usually I don't let anyone see my bedroom." I gave a slight chuckle walking into the bedroom. It seemed odd to me that his bedroom seemed like more of a living room. "So," Edward shut the door after Emmett and Alice walked through.
"So before you start in," Alice spoke looking to me and Emmett. "Are you good to hang with Edward for a bit?" I furrowed my eyebrows together. "We want some alone time while we can get it," Edward made a gagging sound. That's one couple I never would have guessed in a million years. I only shook my head; Alice grabbed Emmett's hand and led him into the bathroom.
"Jack and Jill bathroom," Edward explained with a chuckle. "They do that a lot; they'll reemerge in about an hour. So, why don't you get along with your dad?" I only shook my head. "We've got an hour to kill." He laughed.
"I left Arizona because of some problems I was having, and Charlie said some not so nice things," I explained vaguely. He only raised his eyebrow. "My boyfriend spread a pretty nasty rumor about me, and everyone hated me. My dad said it was my fault for being me pretty much." It's not like I wanted to get into details about it with a stranger.
"What kind of rumor?" I only shrugged my shoulders.
"We went to a party, and things got pretty intense. You know good make out session. He wanted more then make out, I didn't. He told everyone him and his friend fucked me the same night. Everyone hated me after that," Edward shook his head leaning back on his bed. He didn't need to know the full story. "Charlie said that if I wouldn't have gone to that party it wouldn't have happened. He thinks it was the truth so what I say doesn't matter. Charlie has never thought very highly of me though." Edward shook his head like he was annoyed.
"Fuck it," he shrugged his shoulders. "Fuck what anyone thinks. You know what did or didn't happen, no one else." I'd heard this all before. "You seem like the kind of girl who wouldn't care what anyone else has to say." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Sometimes acting is a really good skill to have," Edward only gave a slight smile leaning up on the bed towards me.
"You look like a gamer girl; do you want to play zombies? You might be better than Emmett," Edward chuckled sitting on the couch in his bedroom and handing me the second controller. "I promise I don't bite," he laughed patting the seat next to him.
We sat in Edwards's room playing zombies for what felt like hours. Cuss words flying out of our mouths, yelling at each other about how much they suck. We were doing the normal shit talking friends do when they play video games. It was at least one hour before we heard the footsteps coming toward the door. I knew we both noticed because he looked at me and rolled his eyes. As long as it wasn't Charlie I was fine. I would deal with that firestorm when I was ready for it, if at all.
"Edward," Esme knocked on the door before she cracked it open. "Tanya came by to see you. She said it was an emergency." Edward gave a loud groan and shook his head. Esme only opened the door as wide as it would go, Tanya was standing next to her. "Tanya, you have five minutes. We're having a family dinner."
"You two are related?" Tanya questioned looking to Edward.
"No we're not. Esme takes care of Bella's father. Look Tanya I'm busy I don't have time for fake emergencies. We were a summer thing; you knew that from the beginning. It was a fun summer, it's over, and so are we. Please, stop coming by, stop texting me constantly. I am not your boyfriend and that is something you need to understand." I sat on Edwards couch playing the video game pretending like I can't hear every word. He was being a little harsh but I still found it slightly funny.
"Do you think we could at least talk, Eddie?" I put the controller on Edward's TV stand and got on my feet.
"I'm going to wash up before dinner. Can you point me to the bathroom?" Edward walked beside Tanya pointing to the bathroom down the hall. I didn't want to use his bathroom, mainly because I wasn't sure if it was a public bathroom as well. Some people are weird with their bathrooms. Besides I didn't want to be in the middle of a shit storm that I'm sure was going to go down between them.
Edward had said there were pictures all over the house of me earlier today, turns out he lied. I could point out one picture of me and Charlie from when I was three. He bought me my first bike, it was one of the few good memories I had with Charlie before he decided that I wasn't his daughter anymore. Charlie and I had a lot of issues that we would probably never be able to work out. We're too much alike; we were too stubborn to say I'm sorry because in our own way we both felt like we were right. Charlie is my blood. Phil is my dad. That fact will never change.
"You're a piece of shit!" It was Tanya that screamed causing Alice to walk out of her bedroom at the same time that I walked out of the bathroom. "You are just another dumb jock who only wants sex! You fucking asshole!" Esme walked up the stairs standing slightly besides Tanya.
"You need to go," Edward spoke so calmly it was scary. Alice grabbed my arm and pulled me close to her.
"Go in that room and tell Edward you're ready for another round of Zombies." I shot Alice one of my famous are you kidding me glances. "She already hates you, just do it please?" I rolled my eyes and walked by Tanya like she didn't exist.
"You ready for me to kick your ass again?" I asked stopping in front of Edward.
"You're not going to kick my ass again; I play better when I'm mad." Edward walked back inside his room with me, shutting the door in Tanya's face. Through the door we heard Alice, Esme, and then Renee trying to get Tanya out of the house. I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips. Edward tried to glare at me but only ended up laughing with me. Before we knew it we couldn't hear any of the yelling over our laughs. Tanya was crazy. "She's totally going to kick my ass," I was laughing so hard tears were falling down my face.
"No she might break a nail if that happens. She'll talk a bunch of shit though," he announced as soon as he stopped laughing. I only rolled my eyes and gave him a fake smile. "You know, you're not half as bad as I expected you to be. Charlie really isn't your biggest fan right now though." Edward reminded me of the doom that was going to be dinner. I gave a hard swallow pointing at the controller.
"Any way we can eat up here?" Edward gave a dry humorless laugh.
"Meal time is family time. Rules of the dinner table, no cell phones, no electronics, and we all sit at that table for at least an hour. The one time I got out of that was when I had my tonsils removed." I gave a groan as he turned off his play station. "Let's get this dinner over with, Swan." Edward reopened his door seeing Alice and Emmett motioning for us to come down. "If it gets out of hand just squeeze my leg and I'll get you out." He whispered low enough so that only I could hear him. I shook my head as we walked into the kitchen.
"I hope everyone likes Italian," Esme announced as we got into the kitchen. All the plates were already full of food, and all of the adults were already sitting at the table. "Bella, we thought you could sit next to Charlie?" I only took the seat next to Charlie without another word. "So Bella," Esme spoke taking a bite out of her garlic bread, "is Washington better or worse that Arizona?" She was only trying to make the dinner table less awkward.
"Well the fact that it's not one hundred degrees outside is nice. Other than that it's pretty much the same." I shrugged my shoulders. High school is the same anywhere you go. It's the same high school with different people.
"I'm sure there's that added bonus of no one in Washington knowing your history." Charlie spoke sharply; I simply put my fork down and looked over to him.
"What history would that be Charlie?" Who did he think he was? He didn't know anything about me, and he certainly doesn't know what kind of woman I turned out to be. Who is he to make assumptions on a person he doesn't even know? Charlie only shook his head slowly meeting my eyes.
"You ran away from your school in Arizona. Why don't you tell everyone the real reason? I heard that bullshit story you told Edward, but did you tell him what lead to those rumors? Did you tell anyone the kind of person you are?" Esme cleared her throat silently telling Charlie to drop it. "No of course not, because you're just like your mother, nothing but some slut after money." I slammed my hands on Esmes table making just about everyone except Edward jump.
"You do not know me," my voice was calm but my blood was boiling. "You know absolutely nothing about me. Did you know when I was eight and got to their middle school I was picked on my entire first year before I made one friend? Did you know that for a year I came home crying every day? Did you know that my first year of high school I got into my first fight? Do you know anything about me?" I hissed all my questions. Charlie remained silent. "That's right you don't know anything. So maybe you should keep your mouth shut about people you know nothing about." Charlie's jaw clenched.
"I just find it funny your mother says to lighten up on you because you're still a child, but the thing is you're not a child Isabella. People made up those rumors, if they were rumors, because of the kind of girl you are." If I was a cartoon steam would be coming out of my ears.
"What kind of girl am I?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
"The kind of girl that screws a teacher," I fought back tears in my eye putting a napkin on my plate.
"Dinner was lovely. Mom you can stay and talk with Esme. I'm going for a walk, I'll meet you at home." I announced getting to my feet.
"You are not going anywhere alone this time of night Isabella," Renee got to her feet. "We'll just go home, we can talk anytime." I shook my head telling her no. I needed time to myself.
"I'll make sure she gets home safe Mrs. Swan," Edward announced getting to his feet. Renee only shook her head telling him it was okay. "You have a coat?" Edward asked looking at my tank top I was wearing. I only shook my head telling him no. He grabbed two off the coat rack putting one of them over my shoulders. "So," Edward spoke as soon as we got outside, "what did Charlie mean?" His voice wasn't judging, wasn't vindictive, he was genuinely curious. I took a deep breath debating if I wanted to tell him or not.
"Back in Arizona there was this English teacher, he was only 21, and he wasn't bad to look at. You know all the girls flirted, all the girls talked about what they would do to him. You know just girl talk. Anyways my friends dared me to ask him for his number one morning at this coffee shop that we always went to. I did. I told them I didn't get it, but I did." We'd walked for a block before Edward sat down on a bench tapping the spot next to him.
"What happened?" He asked softly.
"We started texting, he initiated it one day after class a few weeks later letting me know how he liked my new outfit, and it spiraled from there. A few innocent texts, a few innocent coffees going over class work. It turned into a few dinners at his place, a few not so innocent texts. Then it turned into more. After a few months rumors circulated school, and I got questioned, they went through phone records. It wasn't something I'm proud of, and it was probably the biggest mistake of my life so far. But you know I thought he liked me," I couldn't help the tears that were escaping from my eyes. Edward only squeezed my leg.
"What happened to him?" I shrugged my shoulders.
"Renee took a restraining order out against him because after I told, after I broke it off, he started harassing me at school, and showing up at my house, following my mom around town. Then we moved here so that I could start over." I wiped the tears out of my eyes. "I mean Charlie's right though. I'm a slut, and I'll always be a slut. I dated my fucking teacher." I gave a half laugh, half cry sound.
"Look," Edward leaned back looking up at the sky. "We all make mistakes. We've all done stupid things. It's just a part of life and it's something you have to go through. You made a mistake, that doesn't define who you are." I gave a humorless giggle. Edward put his hands on my face making sure I was looking at him. "Your mistake does not define you," he whipped my tears off of my face. I only leaned into his hand letting the overwhelming silence take over.
"How do you know that?" Edward shrugged his shoulders leaning in closer to me.
"Call it a hunch."He pulled himself away from me as he got to his feet offering to help me up with his hand. "We should get back to the house." I shook my head trying to figure out what the hell just happened. I could have sworn he was going to kiss me. Then there was nothing.
A/N: Alright, first draft of word drabble. Let me know what you think!
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