In Which I Read Twilight: Chapter 14 -- Mind Over Matter · 4:31pm Jan 22nd, 2018
As Bella and Edward head back to her house, Edward promptly gives us another reason to hate his guts while listening to the radio:
“You like fifties music?” I asked.
“Music in the fifties was good. Much better than the sixties, or the seventies, ugh!” He shuddered.
So…
…these…
…albums…
…don’t…
…have…
…any…
…good…
…songs?
…Okay. Sure. (Although he says the eighties were “bearable”, and I’m suddenly amused by the idea of a sparkly metalhead.)
Bella asks about Edward’s age, and he starts backstorying. He was born in 1901, but in 1918, he was dying of Spanish flu when Carlisle saved him by turning him into a vampire. Edward’s parents were dead and he had no other family, which was part of the reason Carlisle chose him; he wouldn’t be missed. He also only turned the other Cullens — his wife Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie — when they were at death’s door and wouldn’t have survived otherwise. The Hales — Alice and Jasper — weren’t turned by Carlisle and stopped feeding on humans independently of Carlisle. Interestingly, unlike the others, Alice doesn’t remember a thing about being human and doesn’t know who turned her.
When they reach Bella’s house, Edward reveals that he’s been breaking in during the nights to watch her sleep. How romantic. Oh, and Bella’s flattered by this. You think I’m kidding?
“You spied on me?” But somehow I couldn’t infuse my voice with the proper outrage. I was flattered.
And Bella just doesn’t care. Boyfriend or not, Bella, you’ve got an admitted murderer breaking into your house almost every single night to watch you sleep. This is NOT OKAY.
Bella learns she talks in her sleep. That gets a reaction out of her, somehow. And… And then she… I don’t know what to say about this, because it makes no sense:
“You’re interesting when you sleep.” He spoke matter-of-factly. “You talk.”
“No!” I gasped, head flooding my face all the way to my hairline. I gripped the kitchen counter for support. I knew I talked in my sleep, of course; my mother teased me about it. I hadn’t thought it was something I needed to worry about here, though.
His expression shifted instantly to chagrin. “Are you very angry with me?”
“That depends!” I felt and sounded like I’d had the breath knocked out of me.
He waited.
“On?” he urged.
“What you heard!” I wailed.
You may or may not be angry with him based on what he heard? It’s not like he can choose what he hears, you’re the one who’s talking! And why are you angry with him hearing you talk in your sleep but not with his nightly breaking and entering?
When they hear Charlie coming home, Edward vanishes into Bella’s room; they don’t want him to know about their relationship just yet. Desperate to get back to her hormone receptacle ASAP, Bella claims she’s tired and snarfs down her dinner so she can go to bed.
“No plans tonight?” he asked suddenly.
“No, Dad, I just want to get some sleep.”
“None of the boys in town your type, eh?” He was suspicious, but trying to play it cool.
“No, none of the boys have caught my eye yet.” I was careful not to over-emphasize the word boys in my quest to be truthful to Charlie.
Oh, fuck you, Bella. You think that just because you say “boys” when Edward’s a vampire means you’re being truthful? Fuck you. You’re lying through your teeth and you know it. Why are you treating him like this? He’s your father and he’s been nothing but nice to you. He got you a car for free! He put on snow chains for you! And you’re acting like he’s an obstacle to be avoided! If you’re that concerned about lying to him, why not say, “Well, I think I might like this boy. Edward Cullen. I sit next to him in biology class and he’s cute. But I don’t have any plans to go out with him tonight.”? Even setting aside how you’re treating your own father like dirt, you’re only making things harder for yourself with all this lying.
“ ’Night, honey,” he called after me. No doubt he would be listening carefully all evening, waiting for me to try to sneak out.
“See you in the morning, Dad.” See you creeping into my room tonight at midnight to check on me.
Well, maybe if you weren’t such a raging bag of hormones, you could’ve controlled yourself a bit better, paced out the eating, kept the “I’m tired” excuse until dinner was done, and not have to worry about him being suspicious.
Bella scampers to her room. We get some more shallow dialogue before Bella turns to why Edward — and, out of the Cullens and Hales, only Edward — can read minds. He admits he doesn’t know; Carlisle has a theory that turned humans bring a bit of their strongest human traits to the other side, where they’re strengthened. Edward may have been sensitive to other peoples’ thoughts, so he can read minds. Jasper has charismatic, so now he can manipulate others’ emotions. (And, no, it’s not pointed out how creepy that is. The one time I wrote a story that contained that power, its creepiness factor was played up like whoa.) Alice can see the future, but doesn’t know a thing about her human life. The other gifts in Edward’s family are weak:
“Carlisle brought his compassion. Esme brought her ability to love passionately. Emmett brought his strength, Rosalie her… tenacity. Or you could call it pigheadedness.”
Still more shallow dialogue until Bella brings up the possibility of them getting married. I don’t even have anything to say to that. That’s some grade-A hormonal stupidity, right there. She’s only been aware of Edward’s existence for a few months, she’s only been in serious relationship with him for, what, a week?
Finally, Bella goes to sleep, and the chapter ends. So, in this chapter, we learned that Bella:
- Doesn’t care when someone breaks into her house to watch her sleep
- Cares when that someone listens to her talk in her sleep
- Thinks being very technical with the truth doesn’t qualify as deception
- Is seriously considering marriage to someone she’s only “known” for a few months
Such a great heroine.
I'm sorry, what?
And yeah, Bella makes Juliet look contemplative.
4779370
It’s probably meant to say heat. I think.
4779376
That makes sense. I'm going to blame Meyer for the typo. How? By the same logic that gives her vampires their unique powers.
You're wrong, Bella cares when her father breaks into her room to watch her sleep.
Wait, what?! How is him watching her sleep not only okay, but desirable?
I'm going to peg it to vampire charm powers making anything they do seem okay to people around them. Like, I doubt Bella would've been miffed about Eddy taking a drink from her veins right then.
Can I just... do Haycartes Method and slap the shit out of them...
Catching up on these blog posts, but this stood out to me:
So does that mean it's okay for Edward to do it because you don't see him doing it?