How It All Goes Down
- Edward and Bella are all dressed up for some special occasion. Edward has refused to tell Bella where he's taking her – it's a surprise.
- Bella has a spaz attack when she realizes that Edward is taking her to prom. She's afraid to dance in public, but that's not the only thing that's bothering her:
I was mortified. First, because I'd missed the obvious. And also because the vague suspicions – expectations, really – that I'd been forming all day, as Alice tried to transform me into a beauty queen, were so far wide of the mark. My half-fearful hopes seemed very silly now. (Epilogue.28) - Once at the dance, Edward places Bella's feet on top of his, which makes dancing easy. She's actually having fun.
- Then Jacob Black shows up, awkwardly cutting in and asking for a dance. He's ashamed that he has to deliver a message to Bella from his dad:
"Well – this is so stupid, I'm sorry, Bella – he wants you to break up with your boyfriend. He asked me to tell you 'please.'" He shook his head in disgust. […] "He said to tell you, no, to warn you, that – and this is his plural, not mine" – he lifted one hand from my waist and made little quotation marks in the air – "'We'll be watching.'" (Epilogue.103, 119) - Bella isn't too bothered by the message. She tells Jacob to let his father know she "know[s] he means well" (Epilogue.123).
- Edward, clearly a little jealous, takes Bella outside. He admits to Bella why he brought her to the prom:
"I brought you to the prom […] because I don't want you to miss anything. I don't want my presence to take anything away from you, if I can help it. I want you to be human. I want your life to continue as it would have if I'd died in nineteen-eighteen like I should have." (Epilogue.157) - Now Edward asks a question: "I'm curious – what did you think I was dressing you up for?" (Epilogue.168)
[Bella:] "Well…I assumed it was some kind of…occasion. But I didn't think it would be some trite human thing…prom!" I scoffed.
"Human?" he asked flatly. He'd picked up on the key word. […]
"Okay," I confessed in a rush. "So I was hoping that you might have changed your mind…that you were going to change me, after all." (Epilogue.176-177, 179) - Edward has not changed his mind – he refuses to transform her into a vampire.
"Bella." His fingers lightly traced the shape of my lips. "I will stay with you – isn't that enough?"
I smiled under his fingertips. "Enough for now." (Epilogue.207-208) - The novel ends with Edward kissing Bella's throat with his icy lips.