In Which I Tolerate Eclipse: Chapter 14 -- Declaration · 12:31pm May 20th, 2018
Even with the threat of the newborn army, Alice wants Bella’s graduation party to go on. After all, Bella can only graduate from high school for the first time once. And in spite of Bella’s protests, the Cullens are taking the newborn issue seriously; they’ll be heading out to Seattle in a week.
There’s a message from Renee waiting at home; Phil has a broken thigh bone and needs her help, so she won’t be able to go to Bella’s graduation. Bella calls her up so they can talk in person, and Edward plays with her hair as Renee apologizes.
It was probably superficial to notice such things while I had many more important things to worry about, but his smile still knocked the breath out of me. He was so beautiful that it made it hard sometimes to think about anything else, hard to concentrate on Phil’s troubles or Renee’s apologies or hostile vampire armies.
CM + 1
Edward says he’s some of the other Cullens are going out to hunt tomorrow, to ensure they’re as strong as possible. Bella doesn’t like the idea of being babysat by the Cullens who aren’t hunting, so suggests going to La Push. Edward accepts.
When Bella arrives at La Push, Billy’s not there and Jacob’s tired. Billy’s staying at the Clearwaters’ — he’s been doing that a lot since Harry died and Sue’s having some trouble with her kids, Leah and Seth — and Sam doesn’t trust the vampires, so he’s having the wolves do double shifts and Jacob can’t get a lot of sleep. Bella’s miffed at Jacob going through all this trouble for her, but Jacob tells her not to worry.
In spite of his best efforts, Jacob falls asleep. Rather than wake him, Bella considers becoming a vampire again. More nothing-new back-and-forth. Bella admits that it doesn’t matter who bites her, and having someone other than Edward do it would bypass his marriage scheme, but:
Even more embarrassingly, something I would never say aloud, I wanted his venom to poison my system. It would make me belong to him in a tangible, quantifiable way.
Alice didn’t belong to James, did she? CM + 1
Jacob wakes up, feeling stupid that he fell asleep. He and Bella go for a walk. While out, he says he has something he needs to tell Bella. Something big and important. Something to ensure as little miscommunication as possible. That something? He loves her.
And… this is news? He keeps loving to spend time with her, keeps flirting with her, keeps trying to steer her away from Edward… Why is this the shocking end-of-chapter revelation? It’s obvious even if you go into the series blind!
Clinginess Meter: 18
Fifteen pages. Sheesh. It’s not as bad as the second-to-last chapter, but still. Wow.
Sheesh indeed. :| It really feels like we're just circling the drain here.
I knew this relationship was toxic, but this is something else.