Saturday morning sees Bella with her notebooks about magic all in her knapsack, her medallion safety-pinned by its chain to her bra just in case she trips the wrong way, waiting with Charlie for pickup for the Avalon trip.
"If you want to ask her and be sure, go ahead," he says, coldly. "She'll just say exactly what I have been saying. Do try not to treat her like a carnival prize, Mike, difficult as it might be for you. She takes offense to that sort of thing."
"To asking her about her preferences, rather than treating her like she is not a person, I hope."
Darren rolls his eyes. "There you go. Again. Do you know what the word 'hoarding' has the connotation of? An item to be prized. Stop using it. She is a person, she has preferences, it is impossible to hoard her. If you've exchanged even the briefest of conversations with her you would understand that, because she has some very strong opinions and is not the meek, shy waif you're acting like she is. She would not allow herself to be 'hoarded.'"
"Yes. It is, actually! Because she is Bella Swan and she would not tolerate someone doing that. Literally none of my actions were so she would go out with me! Oh, wait, there was one - asking her out. That is it!"
"Yes, I am. No, you would not know that. But rather than trying to be certain whether what happened is what she wants or not you start trying to get me to back off. Behind her back. Frankly I'm disgusted we're even having this conversation without her present. Do you respect her as a person at all?"
Darren rolls his eyes. "I'm sure telling yourself that and soothing the pathetic excuse you call a conscience is the only way you can sleep at night. No, you are perfectly capable of not respecting her and giving her space. The two are not mutually exclusive."
"Actually, if you'd been paying attention, you'd notice that wasn't what I was doing at all. My argument was that you are not treating her with enough respect and that it is literally impossible to hoard her like she's a collectible item. Savannah and I asked her for her preferences, did what she wanted, and moved on from there. If you want to think otherwise, go ask her rather than trying to bludgeon me into submission with bad logic, then you can see exactly how she feels about the subject."
Savannah laughs with utter contempt. Come on now, twit, you can do better than that!
"I never knew you had claws!" she laughs to Darren when class is over. "Go you!"
And then he walks off to go do that.