Love Bites

Opting Out of Dinner

The silence between me and my mother was suffocating. I could sense that she wanted to say something, probably a reprimand of some sort. I stared at the side of her face while she was driving, mentally preparing for the argument that was bound to happen. "Aspen I would prefer it if you didn't look at me like that."

"How else am I supposed to look at you?" I asked. I wasn't completely unaware, I knew that I was disrespectfully glaring at my mother but I had a right to.

"Look at me like I'm your mother. One that you love and respect despite the choices that she makes. Seriously, Aspen, I am your mother can you treat me as such?" She ranted.

I looked at the road ahead of us. We were mere seconds away from Bella's house. "I'm looking at you because of what you're doing and how it's making me feel-"

"You are old enough to know how to stop being so selfish. Raine wouldn't be acting the way you're acting." My mother said.

I rolled my eyes, it was stupid to even bring up Raine. She was away on a field trip so thankfully she got to skip this bogus ass dinner. "Raine doesn't know the real reason Dad left. So of course she would be perfectly fine with coming to Charlie's house."

"You always have to make things difficult. I understand that you lost your father but I lost my husband." My mother pulled into a driveway. The house looked oddly familiar even though I had no real memory of it.

"Because of your actions," I mumbled.

My mother sighed and parked the car. "Enough. Get in the house. Please." I knew by her tone that there was no room for debate.

So, defeatedly, I got out of the car and followed my mom to the front door. My mom just walked right in, like she owned the damn place. Charlie greeted us and let us in with a kind smile. I wanted nothing more than to smack the mustache off of his face.

"It's been a while since I've seen you, Aspen." Charlie shook out his hand for a handshake. I stared blankly at it until he let his hand fall. "You guys are a bit early."

My mother shrugged. "I wanted to help cook. I didn't want the burden to fall onto Bella."

Bella came down the stairs, clearly dressed for a different occasion. "Actually, I'm not staying."

Charlie frowned. "Bella I thought we already discussed this. You can't skip out on this dinner to meet the Cullens."

"But, I already made plans before this spontaneous dinner," Bella said.

"I told you about it a week ago," Charlie said.

"I guess I forgot." Bella shrugged.

"At least you got a heads up," I mumbled. My mother told me to get in the car for a 'quick trip'. I didn't find out where we were headed until we were nearby.

"Hey, Aspen." Bella came over to give me a hug. "How's your arm?"

"Dr. Cullen says I'm healing nicely." Honestly, I had no idea what that meant. All I wanted to know was when I could be out of the cast. "The cast is getting removed in two weeks."

"Good, you guys are friends. This dinner will be pleasant." Charlie smiled. Friends... was a stretch but Bella was going out of her way to be nice to me after the situation with Edward and I.

"I really can't stay. Edward already told his parents that I was coming to join them. And Mrs. Cullen is really excited to see me." Bella said.

"Oh, she's dating a Cullen? I thought they kept to themselves." My mother butted in.

"Not particularly. I had Alice Cullen over a week ago." I mentioned.

Bella turned to me with an excited look on her face. "Hey, the Cullens and I are going to play baseball would you like to come?"