Chapter 8 – Paul
"How could you, Paul? I mean, the day after we broke up! And her of all people! I can't believe you could be so cold."
Well, I suppose we couldn't have kept it quiet forever. Everything was bound to come out at some time. And now, two days later, the news that I was seeing Suze Simon had finally spread around the school.
And Kelly was not happy about it.
So that was why I was stood in the middle of the corridor on the way to English with Kelly glaring at me. Passers by were giving us interested glances, wondering what all the drama was about. Although I suspected that a few of them already had a good idea.
"Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is? That you dumped me for her? Why?"
I couldn't believe she actually had to ask. Well, okay, I could, but only because it was Kelly. For anyone else, such a ridiculous question would have been inexcusable.
"Why are you talking to me, Kelly?" I asked, bored.
I hadn't actually expected her to confront me about this, you know. She was talking about me embarrassing her, but, if you ask me, she was actually just embarrassing herself by being so dramatic about it all. Still, I suppose her shame must have been too great to keep to herself, and I was the one who had to feel her wrath because of it.
Lucky me.
Kelly narrowed her eyes, giving me the dirtiest look she was capable of. "Why do you have to be such a jerk, Paul? You didn't even know Suze at the beginning of the week, and you still wouldn't if it wasn't for me!"
Hmm, it was kind of cold, now that she mentioned it. But, still at least I got what I wanted out of it.
So I suppose I should have been thanking her, then. Maybe Kelly isn't as bad as I always thought she was.
Actually forget I said that.
"Well then thanks for the introduction, Kelly," I said with a smile in Kelly's direction, which only seemed to upset her more. Okay, so maybe I was enjoying this.
"What did I do to deserve it, though? Did you pick her just to embarrass me? Because it really seems like you did."
God, sometimes the idiocy and vanity of this girl really astounds me. And I thought I had a tendency to be self-centred. Well… just a little bit.
"And the thought that maybe I just like her better than you and that's all there is to it, never even crossed your mind?"
Okay, so I was wrong before, the look she gave me then wasn't the dirtiest look she was capable of, the look she gave me when I said that was the dirtiest look she was capable of. The girl just really couldn't cope with the fact that she wasn't the be all and end all of the universe. Too bad.
"God," she said, sounding furious, "I don't know what I ever saw in you, Paul Slater! You're a jerk!"
I smirked as she stormed away. Maybe that had been worth being late for my lesson after all.
Kelly didn't stop giving Suze and me dirty looks for the rest of the day. It was like everywhere I went she was there, glaring at me. At first I was worried that Suze might decide that being practically stalked by a jealous Kelly Prescott wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she agreed to go out with me, so maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. But, of course, I was wrong. It was stupid of me to think that anyway, since part of the reason I noticed her in the first place was that she didn't care what Kelly thought.
Apart from the Kelly problem, though, everything was great. The date went brilliantly. When I first met her somehow I'd just known that she'd be really cool, but even then I hadn't expected to find myself like in her quite as much as I did. And it seemed that Suze liked me too, she'd invited me over to have lunch with her and her friends the day after the date and today I was sitting with her again. Although, I have to admit I would have preferred it if it had just been the two of us.
"She is really creeping me out, you know," Suze's friend Adam said, glancing nervously at Kelly. "I swear I can actually feel her staring at us. Can't you make her stop?"
I looked up at Kelly when I realised that this question was directed at me. "I don't know," I said, shrugging. "She's not my problem anymore, thank God."
CeeCee grinned when I said this. "I don't remember ever seeing her this angry," she told me, sounding impressed. "Well there was that time in our freshman year when Adam accidentally spilled coffee on her new shirt, that was pretty bad, but this really does come close."
Adam nodded in agreement, looking proud of himself.
"He couldn't have done it without me, though," Suze announced. "Remember that. Kelly would never have been this angry if Paul hadn't asked me out."
"Suze saves the day again," Adam said and he and CeeCee looked proudly at their friend.
"Yeah! Go me!" Suze cheered.
I grinned at her and she smiled back in that same way she had in the parking lot yesterday, the way that always seemed to catch me off guard and I'd forget for a minute that I'm the sort of guy who's never had a problem getting anyone he wants without ever really trying. Yeah, not exactly a comforting thought, but somehow, I couldn't get enough of it. It made me feel like this was different to all the other relationships I've been in, and I'll admit that that's quite a few, even if 'relationship' was sometimes the wrong word to describe them. But something told me that it was going to be different with Suze, it was going to last this time.
We went out again that weekend. Then again during the week. Being with Suze seemed really new and exciting to me. And not because I'd only just met her, it was because I've never met anyone who's made me feel like that before. I'd never met a girl like Suze before. I wasn't all about looks or sex with her. It went beyond that, Suze and I would talk for hours about anything that came to our heads. She'd make me laugh, and just the thought of seeing her when I was having a bad day cheered me up. I had more fun on one date with Suze than I had the whole time I was with Kelly. There's not even really any point in comparing the two of them. There was absolutely no competition between them; Suze would win every time.
I loved finding out new things about her, or being able to talk to her about totally pointless things that would suddenly seem like the most fascinating thing on earth. Having never felt like this before, I sure as hell didn't get what was going on in my head. But I went with it anyway because Suze just had that effect on me
I spent as much time as I could with Suze and a week passed in what seemed like no time at all.
When my parents got home from work on Thursday evening they told Jack and me that they needed to talk to us.
This was going to be fun.
Not.
I noticed right away that my mom was upset about something and I wondered if maybe my grandfather had croaked already. 'Cause if so, this whole moving to California thing was a total waste of time. Well, okay, maybe not since I'd met Suze.
The look on my dad's face seemed to confirm this suspicion: he looked annoyed, which is how I imagine he'd feel if he had a funeral to organise.
"What's up?" I asked.
I didn't get the answer I expected, which was a relief. I wouldn't have put it past my parents to move straight back to Seattle once they weren't needed any more. And of course, that was the last thing I wanted right now.
"It turns out that there are a few things that your mom and I need to sort out in Seattle," my dad told us. "I won't bore you with the details, but we need to go back there for a few days."
"What, all of us?" I asked.
"You two shouldn't need to come," Mom replied. "Although I do feel bad leaving you both here…"
Yeah, like having my parents out of the house for a few days was going to be a bad thing.
"When are you going?"
"We leave tomorrow and we'll be back by Sunday. You two will be alright on your own until then, won't you."
At that point I looked at Jack and realised with horror that I was expected to baby-sit him for the whole weekend.
"I'm not looking after him," I said suddenly.
My mother looked shocked, like she always did whenever her supposedly perfect son said or did anything that was, well… less than perfect. I didn't care, though; there was no way I was spending my weekend babysitting my little brother.
"Paauul!" Jack whined, he looked like he was going to cry or something.
"Come on, Paul help us out a little here. There's nowhere else that Jack can stay."
"Sorry, but I've got plans this weekend," I told them.
"But you always have plans, Paul!" Jack said. "Can't you just say you're busy for once?"
"Why can't you take him with you?" I asked, annoyed. "There are plenty of people in Seattle that he can stay with while you do whatever it is you've gotta do."
My parents didn't look pleased with the idea, but there was no way I was backing down. My mom must have realised this because after a few seconds she sighed and said to my dad, "I guess we could take him."
He nodded. "Looks like you're coming with us, Jack."
"Okay…" Jack said quietly. I noticed that he didn't actually look very happy about this. No one else noticed. Too bad.
"Well that's sorted then," Mom said, looking pleased. Then she and my dad went off with Jack trailing along behind them.
So it looked like I had the house to myself this weekend.
Excellent.
