On their way back to Forks, Edward explains to Bella how his gift of reading minds works; of how his ability gains distance as his familiarity with a mind grows stronger (never more than a couple miles).
Edward's analogy put things more into perspective for me. I can see how not being able to escape everyone's simultaneous thoughts can be very distracting. It must be like trying to listen to ten people speaking to you at once. Edward, however, seems to have perfected the art of tuning everyone out, and zeroing in on one person. (I'm still practicing tuning out just two little people.)
After Bella looks at the speedometer and realizes Edward has a lead foot (he was going over 100 mph), she has a hissy fit. Bella goes on about how she was raised as a law abiding citizen because her dad is a cop. Edward hates driving slow (and from what I hear, so do some Californians), but finally slows down to 80 mph after Bella accuses him of likely being able to walk away from the car without a scratch if they crashed, then realizing that Bella wouldn't be so lucky.
Finally, Edward coaxes Bella into sharing her theory of just what she thinks Edward is. She tells him about how she tricked Jacob into telling her what he knew about the Cullens, and about going home to do research on the internet, then giving up because even if Edward was a vampire it didn't matter to her. She was still curious, though. So Edward killed some of that curiosity with answers.
First the myths: Vampires don't burn in the sun or sleep in coffins. However, they can never sleep. (Can you imagine what you could get accomplished if you never had to sleep? I'd have at least an extra seven hours in my days. That's assuming my boys continued their sleeping pattern.)
Then on to the big question of Edward's (and the rest of the Cullens's) diet. Jacob said the Cullens were supposed to be safe because they don't hunt people; only animals, but the Quilutes still wanted them off of their land just in case. Who could blame them? Better safe than sorry, but Edward agrees that the Quilutes should keep their distance; Edward himself considers the Cullens to be dangerous.
He goes on to tell Bella about their inside joke: calling themselves "vegetarians" because they drink only animal blood, and not human blood. He compares it to "living on tofu and soy milk." While the animal blood doesn't completely satisfy their thirst, it keeps them satisfied enough to resist the urge for the alternative . . . most of the time.
While Edward answers a lot of Bella's questions, he also raised a new one: why can't vampires be out in the sunlight where anyone can see them? What would they see? He promised to show her some time.
They both confess that being separated makes each of them anxious (aww, isn't that cute?).
Once Bella is safely at home and in the comfort of her own room, she concludes three things: 1) Edward is a vampire. 2) A part of him thirsted for her blood. 3) She is "unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."
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