Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer gets props.
March, 2012
~11~
Supper with Dad is a quiet affair. But if I can say anything at all about my relationship with him, it is that we are very close, and very honest. So, setting my fork down on the counter, I ask him about Renee and Carlisle.
"Bella, it was a long time ago. Your mother and I got together in our twenties, quite a while after her and Carlisle. Esme and Carlisle were already married when I met Renee." Dad explains, quietly. "Besides, she never mentioned him, not once from the time I got to know her in college. I didn't think it was necessary to mention it to you; it's in the past. I'm sure your mother felt the same way."
Picking up his forgotten fork, Dad resumes eating and I know this topic of conversation is closed.
After supper is finished, the dishes washed and the food put away, I go on my five mile run, donning the customary rain jacket over my running gear. Running allows me the time and space to think, to reason out all the wayward thoughts that consume my brain. I think about what Dad said. Considering how close I was with Alice, with Edward, I can't help but sense that neither of them knew either. Surely it would have been an interesting thing to share to say the least, and Alice was always one for basking in a piece of gossip.
"Ooo Bella, you're going to love this one!" Alice squeals, her hand squeezing my forearm.
I raise my eyebrows at her, silently giving her the go-ahead.
"Jessica told me that Lauren saw Tyler Crowley coming out the boys' bathroom and his face was all red and sweaty and stuff." Alice slightly wrinkles her nose. "Anyway, she followed him and asked him what happened. You know how she has had that crush on him forever… "
I raise my eyebrows even higher, prompting Alice to get back on track.
"Apparently Edward had pushed Tyler into a wall of lockers, getting into his face. Jasper had to pull him off."
This shocks me. "Edward? Why?"
I don't understand, at all. Edward sometimes comes and hangs out with Alice and me when I am at their house. He is usually pretty quiet, and very polite. In fact, I kind of think he is frightened of me.
"Well Bella, because Tyler asked you to the fall dance, of course. You got to know of the huge crush my brother has on you. Haven't you noticed how awkward he is when you are here? It's really quite funny, actually" she finishes her story, thoroughly pleased at the stunned smile on my face.
I round the corner at the end of my street and head back to my apartment, feeling the endorphins from the run coursing through me. No, Edward and Alice must have had no idea about my mom and their dad being together, being an item.
And I can't help but think that if Renee and Carlisle were as unimportant and over as Dad seems to think, then why is the fact that they dated such a taboo subject, in both my household and, I assume, in the Cullen's?