TA TALKS BACK: THE LAST TIME I SAW TWILIGHT
TA fan May talks about the last time she saw Twilight:
The lights fade in a movie theatre and my friend Ally and I exchange anxious glances. This will be the 14th time we’ve seen Twilight in as many weeks. We groan through the previews we have now seen 14 times and we pray there aren’t any unfortunate outbursts from crying babies or rabid fans, both of which have dampened the film before.As the opening scene of Bella in Arizona plays and the audience seems to be composed, I settle in for one more viewing. Ally nervously checks her cell phone for a call from her boyfriend, which should have come an hour before, but as the movie continues to Forks, she too begins to settle. I hear us sigh as Edward enters the cafeteria and I wonder how we’ve both become so completely consumed.
I remember seeing the preview for Twilight once, back in October. I also remember hearing of chaos breaking out in Midwestern malls because Robert Pattinson was signing autographs there. And other than a college friend of mine recommending the series, I had never heard anything else of the movie or books before. I guessed it was a bunch of tweens and their lonely moms going crazy, but as media attention began to mount I gave into curiosity.
I bought Twilight in mid–November and was instantly hooked. Like countless others, I could not put it down.
I called Ally the next day, bleary eyed and exhausted.
“You’ve got to get the book today,” I told her. “I was up until 3 this morning reading.”
She wasn’t convinced. “I just bought two books, I’ll get it when I finish those – or I’ll just borrow your copy.”
“By then it will be too late. We have to see the movie when it comes out on Friday,” I said. “Get it today. Just read a couple pages, you’ll see what I mean.”
“Fine,” She said, “I’ll get it today.”
Ally called me a few hours later, book in hand. She too had been bitten.
For the next few days we devoured Twilight. It consumed our conversations and every bit of free time we had. We hunted the internet for pictures, interviews, and commentaries. We saw the movie at midnight on November 21st. We bought New Moon, then Eclipse and were just as captivated by each.
Ally and I would call each other from time to time during our strange recess from the outside world. We both so deeply participated in the stories that it was hard to untangle ourselves from them. Somehow we began to work Twilight quotes into our daily lives, sometimes modifying them to fit the current situation.
“How you likin’ the rain girl?” Ally asked one drizzly evening. She had called while I was reading Eclipse next to an open window. The sound of rain and a heady breeze mixed with lingering thoughts of the book – it took me a minute to snap back to the real world. I knew she was really calling just to chat about the books, so I dismissed her question with a phony laugh. “Well, I haven’t showered in 36 hours and I think that’s also about the last time I ate, but I think I’ll be ready to buy the fourth book tomorrow,” I told her.
Her house is a 20-minute drive from mine and twice a week we would meet for dinner, somewhere in between, to catch up and discuss the series. The night before we began Breaking Dawn we met like this one last time. Both of us wore wrinkled clothes and had our hair in ratty ponytails as we rubbed our weary eyes. The countless pages and late nights were catching up with us.
“So, you’re ready to find out how it all ends?” I asked.
Ally sighed and added, “I guess so.”
I knew how she felt. As excited as we were to finish the series, we were close to parting with characters and stories in which we had become increasingly involved. We would miss them when they were gone.
“Did you tell Jaime you’re reading the series?” Ally asked.
Jaime is a friend of ours. I had told her. I was usually protective of my devotion to the books, but I thought Jaime might be game. She had rolled her eyes and laughed it off. She had called me “one of those Twihards.” I remembered when I also felt that way about Twilight fans, but here I was – a Twihard, sleep deprived and starving because I couldn’t escape the story’s exotic charm.
“Yeah.” I said. “She doesn’t get it.”
“Her loss.” Ally shrugs.
At this point my thoughts return back to the movie theatre and I watch again as Edward strikes up his first conversation with Bella for the 14th time.
This is when it finally dawns on me – how glad I am to experience this obsession with someone else, especially with a friend whom I’ve known nearly all my life. Ally and I have shared everything from hairbrushes to heartache. We’ve seen each other through tragedy, laughed at each others’ stupid mistakes, but this Twilight thing is different. It has allowed us to escape from the stresses of the real world, to fall for the same guy, to argue about vampires and werewolves, and to explore a whole new gray world while we rediscover our own, long passed, obsessive teen loves. It’s strange how a book about curbing addiction to reap greater rewards has created such an addictive quality itself, but had I not been able to share this addiction it wouldn’t have nearly been as much fun.
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I actualy really liked reading that.. it felt like i was reading about my own life. I had never heard of the books either until the movie came out.. and then I fell in love with the books and their characters and their stories.. I am now completely obsessed with anything and everything twilight and thank god I had my friend stephanie with me to obsess on twilight with or, like you said, it wouldn’t have been the same!.. Great story.
I love this article, it reminds me of my neighbor. We totally got into the series together, talked about it all the time, drove our husbands crazy ( called her husband Charlie, he really looks like him) texted any new news, and waited not so anxiously for the premiere and then again for the dvd release. It’s been alot of fun! And yeah I stayed up til 3 for about 3 weeks reading and re-reading it almost killed me.
wow you guys that is so cool. It reminds me of when I first read the books. It was the day after my birthday and I had just got eclipse. I was up till 4.30 in the morning and I had to wake up at 8 for work. While I was there I couldn’t stop thinking about it. When I got home I went straight to the book. I was up again till the earlie hours of the morning and I don’t think I had eaten anything since my birthday. My mind was just TWILIGHT. My mum was a bit worried hahaha. I had finally finished the book (. I’m a slow reader) I cried because it was over. During the time I read it I hadn’t talked to my best friend and when I finally caught up to her I found out she had been doing the exacly same thing!!!
Yes May,Words well spoken! I too, am now a happy Twihard. Every night,I am on this delicious site,just talking and answering questions, and finding out new things, about anything and everything, that has to do with the Twilight series, and all the people too.Like yourself, lost sleep and weight, but I’m having so much fun. This Twilight thing, has made me come ALIVE again. I feel,my Edward is out there waiting for me too.For so long, the thought of seeking new love,was just fading. But now I believe, if Edward can wait,101yrs., I surely can wait what I have. Now, by no means am I a teen,but boy, this story has awaken something very teen like in me! The only bad part is, I keep reading the books over and over, to fill this empty void in me,since I finished the series.Other Vampire series,do not even come close. So, I’ll wait for NEW MOON to come out, then ECLIPSE,then BREAKING DAWN. Until then, I have my TWILIGHT that will just keep on watching, and continue to keep on REREADING! AHHHHH! WHAT WILL WE DO WHEN THIS IS ALL OVER? Maybe by then,my own Edward will come.
haha reading this makes me think of myself. altho i havnt seen the movie 14 times (im truly impressed guys). my friend was up to eclipse by th time i caught on to the craze. she had also seen the movie ages before me and told me i should watch it. my boyfriend and i went to see it one sunday night and i was hooked. i went to the store and bought twilight and read it in one day. not being able to help myself i went to the store the next day on my way to work (an hour early so i could read an hours worth before work) and bought new moon. i was up until about 3am after work reading. i got up at 7am when my boyfriend left for work and started reading again. i borrowed the 3rd and 4th books off a friend coz didnt have the money to buy them. it took me no more than a week to read all four books (im a fast reader). my boyfriend didnt see much of me and we live together. im so hooked and he thinks im crazy. everyday im reading for news on the new moon movie. ive read the series about 15 times and have seen the movie about 100 times on our xbox and last week i bought the dvd on the day it came out. im in love with everything about twilight and especially edward. haha maybe i am crazy.
HAHAHA I totally understand the addiction. I have always had a thing for vampyres and when my sixteen years old cousin told me I had to get it, I did. I started reading it the night before my wedding thinking that this book made for tweens would help me relax. Boy, was I wrong. My poor husband had to deal with me reading the whole series on our honeymoon (thank god he is addicted to video games)! I felt so bad but after he saw the movie (which he can quote now) he totally understands!
I was exactly the same with my best friend, I convinced her to read it (she hates reading)after i had read twilight and we both read the rest at the same time and talked about the books non-stop for the next few months.
I feel like I was reading about myself too! Part of the fun of Twilight is that everyone who reads it has some sort of little Twilight support group that they go through it with. I started because a friend insisted that I did. Then I spread the word to two of our other friends and my mom. My mom gave the books to my aunt. And now, pretty much no matter when I talk to them, something about Twilight will come up! I only saw it twice in the theater, but that’s mostly because I don’t want to go bankrupt. I am a single teacher after all
But the DVD is often on continuous play in my apartment. I do some work for an online tutoring company and yesterday I had about 12 hours worth of end of the month reports to do. So what’s a girl to do with all that time? Watch Twilight for the millionth time! I gave myself little deadlines. “I’ll work until the baseball scene then I’ll get a 15 minute break….” I alternated between the regular version and the commentary version. I think I played it 8 times total yesterday 
At any rate, I think we all have a similar female bonding experience and lasting impression left on us from the series. It’s great to know that I have my own little Twilight group but it also feels good to know I’m part of the Twilight community at large!
totally my story! I loved this!
kelly
May and Ally, You guys are my hero’s. May I had tears in my eyes when I read your article.
Way back when a friend who likes to read gave me Twilight , she had read all the books and she was looking forward to the Movie. I had not heard of it by this stage. Anyway like both of you I stayed up and read and read till 3-4 am in the morning. My friend in the meantime had gone to see the movie and said quote “It was ok” So when I finished Twilight , I went to see for myself, the moment Edward walked into the Canteen, MY LIFE AS I KNEW IT WAS OVER. Edward was exactly the way I had imagined him to be , I even let out a loud “ahh” only to be to be silenced by “shhhh” from all around, at the end of the movie when Edward said to Bella “I leave you alone for one minute and the wolves descent” and some people laughed ,I thought “That wasn’t that funny”, and then omg Victoria is in the window. I needed to buy New Moon straight away, I called my friend and almost shouted “Why didn’t you tell me about the Twilight Saga before I LOVE IT. I now have Team Edward T-Shirts, Team Pattinson T-Shirts, more photos of Robert Pattinson then of my husband and children. I have the Twilight Ringtone, key rings , and bags . I have a fridge magnet that says ”If you don’t like Twilight” well” you are just stupid” When I finally got my DVD I went home locked the door took the phone of the hook and I was lost with Edward in the meadow. ….
So anyway May and Ally, I which I was your friend ( my so called friends roll their eyes now when I mention anything Twilight, so I don’t speak to them anymore, nothing to say) I have now seen Twilight at the cinema 28 times, yes 28.I have read and re-read all four books 4 times, and reading Eclipse again as we speak. I also quote lines from Twilight every day . I live it. I wish I had true Twilight friends that I could talk to, but I don’t. So I log onto Twilighters.Anonymous every day and devour every photo every article that is written. And I add my comments with everyone else because to me this is as close as I am going to get to have true Twilight Friends. Please everyone keep your stories coming.
Ahhh it’s so good to find such similar stories. Mine is slightly different but just as obsessive as the rest of ya’ll. I had seen Stephenie Meyer on Good Morning America and I thought, that sounds interesting. But I talked myself out of reading them, writing it off as a teen thing. Months later a girl I barely knew from a sports forum I frequented sent me a PM. She had picked on my love of shows like Lost and Heroes, thought we had similar taste, and she asked if I’d read Twilight. I said no, but I heard about it and thought about possibly reading it. She said do. So I went out that weekend and got it. Went out the next day and got New Moon and Eclipse, as I had finished Twilight in one sitting. I didn’t know about Breaking Dawn yet, found that out a couple weeks later and had to order it as it was sold out in the store. Stumbled across Midnight Sun online and read that in one sitting. I finished each book in a day, if that tells you the level of my inability to put it down. And during that time, the girl that recommended it and I became as close of friends as we could be. We call ourselves long lost twins for our similar tastes and loves. So, Twilight can even form friendships!
I was in the book store this weekend and buying another vamp series on recommendation (Nowhere near as addicting as Twilight, thankfully) and the salesperson said that she was a Twilight reader and she couldn’t put the books down. Like me, she tried to read other things during the height of her obsession and she found herself unable because of missing the Twilight characters. I told her I “jones” for them all the time myself and that Meyer had gotten the heroin line right but it was more like her books were heroin because once you tried them, you were addicted.
I got rambly, sorry, it was just cute and I had to share!
It all started for me on a boring weekend last month. I was sick to death of March Madness, my hubby watched basketball games EVERY NIGHT and the weekends. I had only heard of this “vampire movie” that had played in the theaters last year and it had recently been released on DVD. I wasn’t interested in vampires, or whatever kind of “paranormal romance” the movie was about. So I’m perusing the local Blockbuster Video and I see it, the movie everyone had been talking about. “Ok, why not there is not much else out right now anyways.” So I rented it - I was hooked. I watched the movie three times that weekend. By the 2nd viewing I had ordered New Moon and Eclipse. I thought, I’ll skip the first book and read it whenever I finish the series. I returned the video Sunday night and by Monday 10am I was sweating bullets – how was I ever going to make it until later in the week for the other two books to arrive??? So, I ran to Target during my lunch break to buy the 3 Disc Twilight movie. Whew! I had something to sink my teeth into while I waited for the next books. The books arrived a few days later and I about choked! I didn’t realize they were so HUGE! I commented to my husband, who is a guidance counselor at a middle school, “I can’t believe how long these books are!” He said, “I could have told you that.” How on earth would he know?? “..Every teen girl at the school is carrying a copy of one of those books.” I blushed. So I start to read New Moon and think, wow, it will probably be a while before I need to order the last book. WRONG, I finished New Moon the next evening but at least I still had Eclipse to read while on our road trip the next day. The next morning we’re packing for our trip and my hubby says, he wants to run out to the book store to pick up a book for the trip. When he arrives home, he hands me Breaking Dawn, “I figured you’ll probably finish the other one while we’re gone” (what a sweetheart). Needless to say, I finished Eclipse and Breaking Dawn while on the trip and had to pick up Twilight at a bookstore on the way home. I finished them all in less than 2 weeks. I got my sister hooked on the books too and she also now owns the 3 disc dvd set. We are planning to see New Moon together in November. She called me the other day, she was so sad, “It’s over, I’m done, now what do I do??” I gave her this site and told her “don’t worry, this will get you through a little each day.” “It’s not the movie or the books, but it’s at least something when you start to need a fix.” I’ll never forget this year’s March Madness, because it was the start of my own journey, into the Twilight Madness.
I wish I had a good friend to get into this with. I feel so alone. Both my best friends shrugged it off. One of them even read the first two and didn’t like it much. *sigh*
lol. Wow! reading this reminds me of my sister and me. we are completly consumed by the twilight series. we have readed and reread the books countless times and watched the movie just about the same amount of time. we are forever checking back here for any news or info about the movies. cant wait for new moon!!!!
this was so beautiful!! it totally reminded me of how I am with my best friend. We’re both fans too, but due to distance never got to see the movie together. This got me all misty eyed!
All I can say is you are lucky to have a friend who loves the story as much as you do & is obsessed. Some of my friends have read the books & enjoyed them & have seen the movie. But they don’t love the story & the characters like I do. And so I don’t have anyone I can really talk with about everything.
Wow, I feel the same way. I have a good friend of mine (she is 33) and my younger sister (she is 20 and I am 27)to share the addiction/obsession with. I think it definitely would not have been as much fun if I was on my own. This site is also really great two, anything I can think of is here and it’s awesome. I just wish my boyfriend would understand, I have to be a closet fan around him.
Yay May, it is all so true. I couldn’t think of better friend to face this addiction with. So are you up for a dvd viewing? Think you can handle it?
I know what you mean. I started this series with my friend Amanda and together we saw the film countless times. And we read and discussed the book often. I finished and continue with my friend Cindy here on TA, reading and enjoying all of our unknown friends out there in TwiLand. It’s nice.