How It All Goes Down
Paris
- More rocks slam into Bella, but somehow her head makes it above the surface of the water. It takes her some time to realize that the rocks are Jacob’s fists, beating against her back to force the water out of her lungs.
- We learn that Jacob saved Bella in the nick of time. Before he carries her to the house, Bella’s eyes catch "a small flash of fire… dancing on the black water, far out in the bay" (16.32).
- Jacob tells Bella that they lost Victoria when she jumped into the ocean, because vampires can swim faster than werewolves. Knowing how much time Bella has been spending at the beach, he raced home to find her. He also tells her that Harry Clearwater, one of Charlie’s best friends, has been hospitalized with a heart attack. Bella feels horrible about her reckless actions.
- Bella dreams about a scene in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. When she wakes up, she wonders what Juliet would have done if Romeo hadn’t died, but just walked out on Juliet. She decides Juliet would have rather died a broken-hearted spinster than married Paris.
- But what if there was more to Paris? (Read: what if Paris was as cool as Jacob?) And what if Juliet kind of loved Paris? Not like she loved Romeo, but enough so that she’d want to make Paris happy, and that he could make her happy?
- Harry Clearwater passes away. Jacob drives Bella home. She’s still undecided if to take their relationship to the next level and again uses Shakespeare’s play to help her out:
Even if the love I felt for him [Jacob] was no more than a weak echo of what I was capable of, even if my heart was far away… grieving after my fickle Romeo, would it be so very wrong? (16.117) - They find Carlisle Cullen’s black Mercedes parked in front of Bella’s house. Jacob has smelled vampire from afar and wants to turn around and take off. Bella forces him to stop and gets out. Jacob acts hurt and angry:
Treaty or no treaty, that’s my enemy there… Bye Bella, I really hope you don’t die. (15.170-175) - Bella feels bad, but her excitement wins over her guilt. Just when she enters the dark house, it dawns on her that the red flame she saw dancing on the ocean must have been Victoria’s hair. And someone’s waiting for her in the dark.