Is there any chance of Bella settling for an ordinary guy?(Could be AU with no Edward or post-break up but no Bella xJacob) There is this running gag in every book that Bella implies Mike Newton still holds the torch for her just in case and laughs at the audacty. What way the stars have to align in order for Mike to have a %1 chance?
I mean, we probably know the answer but I'm just curious about your thoughs :)
You know, not sure I've answered.
The thing about Edward in Twilight is that Bella unwittingly uses their relationship for a sense of validation. Bella has no idea why Edward would ever love a lowly creature like her, but through Edward's love her life has some meaning.
Edward is so special, wonderful, and unbelievably extraordinary that merely by being in a relationship with him Bella's life becomes special and extraordinary as well. And, if he turns her, she too will be special and extraordinary in her own right.
Basically, one of the massive appeals of Edward was that he was so beyond the scope of normal. He's faster and stronger than any creature, he's hauntingly beautiful, he has a perfect memory, he has special mind reading powers, and he's obsessively interested in her.
A normal guy in a normal relationship isn't going to have any of those things. He may be good looking, but he's not a god. He may be athletic, but that just makes him a jock (which Edward is very much not, he gets the package of nerdy intellectual bro plus super athletic hot), and he's not going to spend his every second thinking about her, crawling into her room to be together, telling her that he can't live without her he would literally die right now, etc.
And yeah, that's a markedly better relationship--
But Bella's not in a good place for a normal relationship. Right now she's in a headspace where she needs someone to need her unconditionally, or else she'll shatter.
Such as when Edward said "I tire of you" and dumped her, and Bella spiraled into severe and near lethal depression that lasted for six months up until he admitted "I was lying".
The thing is that even when Jacob becomes a love interest, he's only on the table for very similar reasons! There's not only the fact that he's good looking and supernatural which lends him athleticism without being too jocky, but there's the fact that after becoming a werewolf and his entire life falls apart he makes it his life's mission to get together with Bella/stop her from becoming a vampire. She's the only thing in his life that has remained marginally normal, and so he throws everything he has into the relationship and just as before, Bella uses Jacob's friendship/interest in her to validate herself. Jacob's positive regard for her and presence in her life is the sole thing that keeps her going until Edward returns.
So, basically, Bella at seventeen, in Forks right that second, is only interested in a guy who is obsessively interested in her to the detriment of their own (and ultimately her) well-being and who is in some way special.
It's very understandable, Bella's self-esteem is below ground-level and never really improves, and she has no friends who would otherwise form a social/support network (which is partly her doing but for understandable reasons).
But to get out of this mindset, Bella needs some self-reflection and maybe a bit of growing up/getting away from Renee and heading to an environment newer than high school.
Bella would undoubtedly have changed as things went on. She'd meet new people, attend university, and maybe she'd gain more confidence in herself and no longer need someone to make her the center of everything/someone she can label as 'special'.
But I don't see why not if she meets the right person at the right time. Yes, she's very attracted to the supernatural/specialness--but there are ways us ordinary folks can be special too and maybe she'd just outgrow that with enough time.
There's a lot of things that seem great when you're seventeen and a few years later you say, "Edward did what?"
Mike Newton Specifically/The Thing About Mike
The thing about Mike is he becomes the stand-in "normie" for Edward and Bella for some fucking reason but he's not actually the average human being. He is a person in his own right, he is not "representative of humanity", and Bella dislikes him as a person.
At first Bella just finds Mike a little annoying/overeager.
Okay, he wants to carry her books to all her classes, a bit much and he's drawing attention to her, but she guesses that's nice of him. Glad people find her popular for some reason, reasons she can't explain to herself.
Bella gets into her flirtatious on again off again relationship with Edward (in which he ignores her until he stops ignoring her and she's very intrigued) and Mike... is annoying about it. He hovers over her table, like the annoying coworker/classmate who just won't fucking leave your desk, and keeps talking, and talking, and thinks you're totally into him because you're too polite to somehow end the conversation.
"Wow, Mike, wow, everything you say is fascinating, wow--um, class is starting by the way"
Meanwhile, Bella's made aware that Jessica (who at the time is a friend) has feelings for Mike and is hoping he'll ask her to the dance. It's not official yet, but to Bella it seems like a pretty done deal in "oh, okay, that'll be really nice for them".
Then fucking Mike blows it by asking Bella.
Bella tells him she's not going, he pushes... annoyingly, she tells him that she's seriously not going. Is she sure she's not going? She then tells him, "hey, if you haven't noticed, which is hard because it's obvious, you should invite Jessica who would be thrilled to go with you."
Mike's reaction isn't "ew", to be fair, but there's a moment of being very taken aback (which is fair, he wasn't considering Jessica at all before that point) that Bella watches and thinks (in much kinder words in the prose) "this douche".
And then Bella has to pretend/make herself happy that Jessica's thrilled to be going to the dance with fucking Mike, and has no idea that she was his second choice.
And while Jessica starts dating Mike officially... Bella is haunted by the very clear evidence that Mike is still very horny for her specifically and would drop Jessica in a heartbeat to go out with Bella, Jessica who is Bella's friend. And Edward of course confirms all of this.
Add into this that somehow Mike is just around at stupid times in Bella's life when she doesn't want him there (such as interrupting the amazing time Bella had getting sick from blood fumes while Edward carries her to the nurse's office) and Bella just finds him... annoying.
She wants to think he's a nice guy, normal, but annoying, so deeply annoying.
And why can't he have a fucking nice relationship with Jessica?!
Mike was never an option for Bella, ever.
It's just that Edward fixates on the idea and can't let it go.
Edward also finds Mike deeply annoying and a typical normie, he's the epitome of slack-jawed teenage human youth where there's not many thoughts in his head except "wow, maybe I could date the hot girl". It's just that he's very persistent and interested in dating Bella.
And to Edward, who thinks Bella will figure out any second that he's a monster and dating him is a bad idea... he finds Mike to be a real and credible threat.
He needs constant validation that Bella won't leave him for the Mikes of the world (the humans) or Mike specifically who is right there. And when he imagines Bella in an ordinary human relationship, there's Mike in his mind holding her hand as they go to the hospital.
Add in the fact that Edward can't read Bella's mind, something he very much relies on... and his uncertainty is greater than it otherwise would be because he can't reassure himself that she's not into Mike.
He has to bring him up, casually, every so often just to hear Bella ask, "What the fuck? No. I am not into Mike, stop bringing this up, Edward".
So Edward can relax for a little bit about it.
From Bella's perspective, it's very much a "why are we always bringing up Mike??? out of all people??? consistently???"
Mike's not a bad guy at all, he's just normal and within the bounds of teenage obliviousness and douchiness.
