Eclipse Read Online Free

new Cullen wing of the library? Ugh. Why are we having this discussion again?"
    "Will you just fill out the application, please, Bella? It won't hurt you to apply." My jaw flexed. "You know what? I don't think I will."
    I reached for the papers, planning to crumple them into a suitable shape for lobbing at the trashcan, but they were already gone. I stared at the empty table for a moment, and then at Edward. He didn't appear to have moved, but the application was probably already tucked away in his jacket.
    "What are you doing?" I demanded.
    "I sign your name better than you do yourself. You've already written the essays."
    "You're going way overboard with this, you know." I whispered on the off chance that Charlie wasn't completely lost in his game. "I really don't need to apply anywhere else. I've been accepted in Alaska. I can almost afford the first semester's tuition. It's as good an alibi as any. There's no need to throw away a bunch of money, no matter whose it is." A pained looked tightened his face. "Bella -"
    "Don't start. I agree that I need to go through the motions for Charlie's sake, but we both know I'm not going to be in any condition to go to school next fall. To be anywhere near people."
    My knowledge of those first few years as a new vampire was sketchy. Edward had never gone into details - it wasn't his favorite subject - but I knew it wasn't pretty. Self-control was apparently an acquired skill. Anything more than correspondence school was out of the question.
    "I thought the timing was still undecided," Edward reminded me softly. "You might enjoy a semester or two of college. There are a lot of human experiences you've never had."
    "I'll get to those afterward."
    "They won't be human experiences afterward. You don't get a second chance at humanity, Bella."
    I sighed. "You've got to be reasonable about the timing, Edward. It's just too dangerous to mess around with."
    "There's no danger yet," he insisted.
    I glared at him. No danger? Sure. I only had a sadistic vampire trying to avenge her mate's death with my own, preferably through some slow and torturous method. Who was worried about Victoria? And, oh yeah, the Volturi - the vampire royal family with their small army of vampire warriors - who insisted that my heart stop beating one way or another in the near future, because humans weren't allowed to know they existed. Right. No reason at all to panic.
    Even with Alice keeping watch - Edward was relying on her uncannily accurate visions of the future to give us advance warning - it was insane to take chances.
    Besides, I'd already won this argument. The date for my transformation was tentatively set for shortly after my graduation from high school, only a handful of weeks away. A sharp jolt of unease pierced my stomach as I realized how short the time really was. Of course this change was necessary - and the key to what I wanted more than everything else in the world put together - but I was deeply conscious of Charlie sitting in the other room enjoying his game, just like every other night. And my mother, Renée, far away in sunny Florida, still pleading with me to spend the summer on the beach with her and her new husband. And Jacob, who, unlike my parents, would know exactly what was going on when I disappeared to some distant school. Even if my parents didn't grow suspicious for a long time, even if I could put off visits with excuses about travel expenses or study loads or illnesses, Jacob would know the truth.
    For a moment, the idea of Jacob's certain revulsion overshadowed every other pain.
    "Bella," Edward murmured, his face twisting when he read the distress in mine. "There's no hurry. I won't let anyone hurt you. You can take all the time you need."
    "I want to hurry," I whispered, smiling weakly, trying to make a joke of it. "I want to be a monster, too."
    His teeth clenched; he spoke through them. "You have no idea what you're saying." Abruptly, he flung the damp newspaper onto the table in