How It All Goes Down
Pressure
- It’s spring break again. Lying in bed, Bella muses,
Last spring break I’d been hunted by a vampire too. I hoped this wasn’t some kind of tradition forming. (15.1) - As Jacob and his pack are busy hunting Victoria, Bella wonders if it’s a bad thing that they all refer to her as Jacob’s "girlfriend." She decides that as long as Jacob knows the difference, she doesn’t care.
- At work, Mike asks Bella if she’s dating Jacob, because Mike obviously has a huge crush on her too. She says no. They’re just friends. Mike’s response: "Girls are cruel" (15.11).
- Jacob tells Bella that it’s very difficult to control your transformation into a werewolf. Case in point: Emily. Sam lost his temper once and she stood too close.
- At the same time, Jacob seems more skilled than all the others werewolves. He shifts his shape more easily and, due to his family background, has the strongest werewolf blood running through his veins. And he’s fast. Apparently faster than a vampire. (Faster than Edward?)
- Bella tells Jacob of the fateful day when James bit her and Edward sucked out the venom in an amazing act of self-control. She remembers that Alice foresaw her dying and becoming a vampire, which, to Bella’s agony, never happened.
- During the following weeks, Bella tries, unsuccessfully, to distract herself in La Push while Jacob goes about his werewolf business. Jacob promises to take her cliff-diving soon.
- The next morning, however, the wolf pack detects a fresh Victoria trail. Alone again, Bella feels her hole acting up. It doesn’t help that she’s worried about putting Jacob and his friends in danger by involving them in her wrecked life. Desperate to hear Edward’s voice and to quench her pain, she decides to go cliff diving by herself:
I knew this was the stupidest, most reckless thing I had done yet. The thought made me smile. The pain was already easing as if my body knew that Edward’s voice was just seconds away. (15.141) - Bella flings herself off the cliff. She safely lands in the water. That was easy – if it wasn’t for the current. Bella quickly accepts that she’s going to drown:
I didn’t want to fight anymore… I was almost happy that it was over… Oddly peaceful. (15.173) - Her last thoughts go to Edward, "Goodbye, I love you" (15.180), just before the current shoves her against a big rock.