Mr. Banner turns off the lights so they can watch a movie in Biology, and Bella immediately feels an electric connection between herself and Edward. She is overcome by the urge to touch him. From his body language Bella can tell that he is feeling the same thing, and they both remain completely tense until Mr. Banner turns the lights back on.
Edward drives Bella home that day. She asks him to explain why he told her she could not be around when he hunted, and he replies that when vampires hunt, they give themselves over to their senses more and do not control themselves with their minds as much, so he would be much more dangerous to her.
Bella has trouble sleeping that night, disturbed by dreams about Edward. The next morning, he is there to pick her up again. He says it is his day to ask questions, and all day he asks her about her tastes and favorite things. Mr. Banner shows another movie, and as soon as the lights go off, Bella has the same feeling of intense electricity and tension.
Edward drives her home again, and they sit and talk in the driveway for awhile, with Bella describing what she finds so beautiful about Phoenix and the desert there. Edward leaves as a car pulls up, knowing that Charlie is about to get home. After he leaves, Jacob calls out to Bella from the other car, where he is in the driver’s seat and his father is in the passenger seat. Bella notices that Billy is looking at her in shock or horror, and she assumes that he recognized Edward, and believes the legends.
Once everyone has entered the house, Jacob takes the opportunity to ask Bella who was in the car with her. Bella watches the game with them, afraid to leave Billy alone with Charlie in case Edward’s name comes up.
The next day Edward comes to pick Bella up again, and he asks more questions, this time mostly about the people in her life. At lunch he tells her that he will leave early with Alice to go hunting as a precaution before being alone with Bella on Saturday. Alice, he says, is the most supportive one regarding his relationship with Bella, while the others do not understand his strange attraction to her.
Bella looks over at the other vampires and catches Rosalie’s eye. Rosalie glares back viciously. Edward explains that his spending time with Bella is dangerous for all of them, since if anything were to happen to Bella, it would draw attention to them.
Edward leaves to hunt with Alice, and Bella goes to class. She tells Mike, and later Jessica and then Charlie, that she will not be going to Seattle after all but instead will spend the day doing laundry and studying.
The next morning Edward comes to meet Bella, and they drive to the bottom of a hiking trail. Bella is worried that her clumsiness will cause huge problems. She admits that no one knows they are together, but this fact makes him furious because he wanted to have an extra motivation to bring her back safely. The hiking turns out fine with Edward’s help, and after several hours they arrive at a small clearing. It is the loveliest place Bella has ever seen.
The sun has come out, and Edward hesitates before stepping into it, but he finally does so with Bella’s encouragement. In the sunlight, Edward’s skin glistens as if it is embedded with thousands of tiny diamonds. Bella cannot get used to it, even after watching him all day, sitting next to him while he lies in the meadow. She slowly explores the exposed parts of his body, marveling at the texture.
When he asks what she is thinking, she says that she wishes that she were not so afraid, and when he misunderstands she says that she is not afraid of him or of what he might do to her, but of something else she cannot explain.
Edward’s face is very close to hers, and when she smells his delicious breath she cannot help moving closer to him. In an instant he is far from her and out of the meadow, trying to control himself. For the first time she really feels aware of the danger. Sensing this feeling, Edward shows her just how strong he is, ripping branches off of trees and sprinting around at amazing speeds. Bella has never seen him look so inhuman or so beautiful.
He finally recovers control of himself and swears that he will never hurt her. He asks her again what she is afraid of, and she explains that she is afraid about wanting to stay with him more than she should and perhaps against prudence. He tells her she must never forget that he is dangerous and especially dangerous to her. Every human has a different scent, and hers is especially intoxicating to him.
Bella asks how often the vampires feel this way, and Edward says it has never happened to Jacob or to him until now, but it has happened to Emmett twice before—and both times, he killed the person. Bella asks if this means that there is no hope for her, but Edward explains that Emmett was weaker, but Edward has cultivated his self-control over many long years.
He adds, however, that when he first saw her in the cafeteria, he was so overpowered by her smell that it took everything he had not to lure her away. In fact, he thought he could never be near her without killing her, so he ran away to Alaska. He missed his family too much, however, so he came back, resolved to be strong enough to resist Bella and his feelings. Edward tells Bella that she is the most important thing to him.
She responds that she has made her intentions clear by being here with him—she would rather risk death than be away from him. He slowly touches her neck and her face to prove that he can do so without hurting her, and he says it is getting easier to control himself around her. She then slowly explores his face and leans her head against his chest. They sit together like that until the forest starts to darken.
Edward asks Bella if he can show her how he travels through the forest. She agrees and climbs onto his back. He runs back to the truck at the speed of a bullet, barely touching the ground and not making any noise or changes in his breathing as the trees flash by. Bella feels terrified (and has a little motion sickness) during the ride, which takes only a few minutes. Feeling quite dizzy, she lies down on the ferns for a few minutes.
When she opens her eyes, Edward is sitting very close to her. He says he wants to try something, and he takes her face in his hands. Very slowly and carefully, he moves closer and finally kisses her. As his lips touch Bella’s, she reacts instantaneously, blood rushing to her lips, gasping, and Edward quickly has to back away. But he can do it safely, and he decides that he is stronger than he realized.
Analysis
In this section we see Bella and Edward really get to know each other. Although they have already made their feelings for each other fairly clear, they have not actually known very much about each other. During Edward’s days of asking Bella questions, most of his questions are at first about basic things—her favorite things, her family, herself. Their romance began with an attraction that did not have much to do with each other’s individual, inner qualities. Indeed, when the lights go off in class, their physical, electric connection is almost completely overpowering. We see here just how strongly they must fight to maintain self-control—not only so that Edward does not attack Bella, but also so that their relationship is not merely about unreflective, raw attraction.
Thus, as they become both physically and emotionally much closer, Edward really tests his self-control around Bella to a great degree. Fortunately for them both, he finds that he is, for the most part, capable of being close to her, so long as he can maintain control and she does not react unexpectedly. Bella, for her part, has a harder time, feeling driven to be with him and obeying this drive. She keeps herself from reaching out to touch Edward when she has the chance to do it secretly in the dark in Biology, but when he kisses her outside, she has absolutely no control over her reaction, putting her own life at risk.
Bella’s love for and faith in Edward are so profound that she lies to everyone about how she will be spending the day, partly to keep the relationship a secret but also, it seems, so that if he does kill her, he at least will be safe from suspicion. Likewise, when she reacts to the news that Rosalie hates her because her relationship with Edward puts Rosalie and the others in danger, she worries more about the possible repercussions for Edward and his family than about the prospect of being hurt herself. She still values herself too low compared with others.
In this section we also see Edward in his least human-like state. He has Superman-type qualities of great strength and speed, and when he gives her a ride readers might remember Lois Lane on Superman’s back. So far, however, Edward’s heroism is in prevailing against himself by succeeding in his self-control. In fact, we also see Edward here as a true predator, and Bella for the first time sees just how dangerous he is to her. Still, she is not repulsed; she finds him utterly beautiful, even his unusual skin.
Bella’s only fear is that she loves him too much for her own good, especially if she is merely a mortal and will not be able to stay with him forever. The problem for her is not that he might kill her or lose his self-control.
The romance here is compelling, particularly for women or girls who fear overbearing men who move too fast or are too forward. Edward takes it very slow, for he has to make sure he can handle every increase in intimacy. He is heroically a gentleman in this regard. This pattern enriches the feeling and meaning of each moment and each new level of closeness they share.
Light and darkness are common themes in the novel. in Chapter 11, Edward reveals that twilight is the "safest time of day" for vampires that do not prey on humans. They can be out in public without worrying about the sunlight, yet they can still be seen, so they are less likely to make a mistake and go after a human. Twilight is the ambiguous time between day and night, suggesting confusion and conflict, similar to Edward's and Bella's feelings about their relationship. In Chapter 13, they talk about addiction and intoxication, another way of looking at their feelings for each other, particularly as Edward engages in self-control and abstinence from killing Bella in the face of his strong desire for her.
