"Where are you all going, exactly?" He was still looking down, his eyes on the ground, expressionless.
"Down to La Push, to First Beach."131 I studied his face, trying to read it like a book-document. His eyes seemed to narrow infinitely, although not so that they seemed squinty or crooked.
He glanced down at me from the corner of his narrow eye, smiling wryly. "I really don't think I was invited."
I sighed. I was just trying to show him off to make Horseshit Mike, Loser Eric, and all the rest of the Forks High School leave me alone for good. "Well, I just invited you.'"
"Let's you and I not la push that poor Mike any further this week. We don't want him to snap." His eyes danced and invited mine to join in; our eyes waltzed, untrained but intuitive, across the ballroom of possibilities.
"Mike-schmike," I muttered, so preoccupied by the way he'd said "you and I" that my glowing wit was not up to par.
We were near the parking lot now. I veered left, he passed to the right, toward my truck. Something caught my jacket, yanking me back.
"Where do you think you're going?" He yelled, outraged. He had turned on me once again, but I knew that after a brief fight, our eyes would go back to the lovedance once more, and I would feel whole again.
"I'm going home," I teased.
"Did you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition?" His voice was still indignant.
"What condition? And what about my truck?" I complained.
"I'll have Alice drop it off after school." He was towing me toward his car, pulling me by the jacket. It was all I could do to keep from falling backward.132 He'd probably just drag me along anyway if I did. I had a brief but vivid flashback of the time when my Uncle Clyde had tried to force me into his own shiny Volvo. I was seven years old at the time; I weighed only seventy-five pounds then.
131. Bella refers to the beach as First Beach because she is uninformed about ancient history; she assumes that since Native Americans live in a way that she perceives as incredibly savage (e.g. men having long hair), that they were the first people to inhabit the earth. Thus, this reservation beach is the first beach to ever exist.
132. It is unclear exactly what all Bella was doing to keep from falling backward, although she remained doing it.