Chapter 3

I won't lie to you. It was a nice kiss. But it was filled with hatred, embarrassment and just pure evil. The tickle of brown curly hair brought a gag to my throat, and the soft lips made me feel sick. I had to restrain myself from barfing right into the guy's mouth.

"Paul!" I pulled away instantly, furious. "What the hell are you on? You can't just go round KISSING people!"

"But what if they're just oh-so fine?" said Paul, smoothly. "Come on Suze, you know you want to."

"I thought that last semester we established that I loved Jesse, and you were going to settle for your evil beau Kelly Prescott and that the only thing we had in common was that we could both see the dead." I hate to be frank, but its the only way sometimes.I should have known that this wasn't gonna get Paul freaking Slater away. It was too easy.

"Aw, come on Suze, I was subdued. I thought I had well and truly lost the best-looking girl of all time to an ex-ghost! I could have said anything," smirked Paul. Uh, how I longed to smack that smirk right off his handsome face, but I knew the consequences.

"Yeah? Well you did lose me to an ex-ghost, okay? He loves me, and he would do anything for me," I replied proudly.

"Yeah. That's why you only pinched Debbie Mancuso for scoping out jesse the other day at your house."

I felt my mouth drop. "How did you... how? How..." But Paul pressed a tanned finger to my lips as if I was a big baby just trying to spit out her first word.

"I would normally leave you to guess at my amazing spywork, but I'll clue you in just this time," said Paul. "Debbie showed Kelly her bruise who told me what happened. Nice work with those nails, Simon." He stroked my fingers. I couldn't move. I was partly held down by astonishment, partly held down by pure hatred. All this time, Cee Cee was sitting next to me, just looking at me and Paul, as clueless as me.

Then, the tall, goofy looking figure of Adam McTavish swung round the door, and Cee's nails gripped my hand.

"Oh, Suze," she breathed in my ear. "What do I do"
Paul dropped my hand and his finger from my lips and walked away to his desk next to Kelly, a smug expression almost permanently painted onto his face. But before he was out of earshot, he said in a voice that matched his face, "Glad you mentioned the supernatural species, Suzie. They'll be coming back into our lives soon, mark my words."

Well, duh. We're mediators. But paul wasn't one to point out the obvious,and something in his eyes told me he meant something else. What was he up to? And why couldn't he just stay put with the most popular girl in school as his girlfriend?