Only The Good

Bury me standing under your window with this cinder block in hand
Yeah cause no one will ever feel like this again
And if I could move I'm sure it would only be to crawl back to you
I must have dragged my guts a block... they were gone by the time we (talked)

Fall Out Boy - The Pros and Cons of Breathing

I wasn't looking forward to returning home. So I went to the mall. Yes, that's how much I feared facing Andy and my mother. If I was going to be caught up in a storm of emotions, I at least wanted to look nice for it. And God knows retail therapy does wonders to sooth frazzled nerves.

Jesse wasn't even reluctant to traipse around countless numbers of boutiques with me, like any normal boyfriend would be. Not that we visited a great number. We had been at the mall for two whole hours and I was still in my first shop. For one of those hours I had been striking various poses for both Jesse and the mirror, trying to decide which dress to buy. The one I currently wore, a pale green slip dress did wonders for my backside, but the black one I had just removed accentuated my curves.

"What do you think?" I asked Jesse, the mirror being no help at all. He turned to look at me, having obviously been in a world of his own, and nodded. I scowled to let him know that this was not at all helpful and he smiled.

"Whatever," he said. Damnme for teaching him that word!I sighed and sidestepped back into the cubicle where I changed back into my own clothes. When I resurfaced, I hung both dresses and the three pairs of jeans I had collected on a rack just outside the changing rooms.

"You are useless!" I fumed.

"Oh, I have my uses," he smiled, placing his arm around me as we vacated the store. I was torturing him, I know, but he was too polite to tell me so.

Before I could drag him into a lingerie store - which would, I'm sure, have given the poor guy a heart attack - he suggested that we go somewhere to eat. I had to agree, and so did my stomach. It was funny how I ate so little at lunch. But what can I say? My mind was on something, or someone, far more important to me than food. Because, like nourishment, I needed Jesse to survive. Soppy, I know, but it was true. Without him, I would only be half alive.

We settled down in the same food court I had dined with Gina in last time she was here. I was already suffering from mall-related sensory overload, but it was better than going home. Sure, Andy and mom would still be out, but there was still Brad (who loved to torture me...not that it ever worked), Jake (who was still going on about my bruised neck) and Doc (who loved to constantly lecture me on NASA's new advancements or whatever) to deal with. And I didn't want Jesse to have to endure yet another surf lecture from Jake.

As I sat munching on my fries, I couldn't help but wonder what my mother's reaction would be. In one scenario, she swept me up in her arms and swung me around, screaming with delight, while in another she started hitting Jesse with the dog brush. Both scenarios were highly embarassing, but I knew neither of them would happen. The most likely outcome would be her crying into her pillow again after having lectured me on that commitment really is. Either that or just avoiding me until she decided whether or not she liked the idea.

Regardless, it was dark by the time Jesse and I returned to ninety-nine Pine Crest Road and Andy's Mustang was already parked neatly beside the kid's Rover. Thank God my mom's car was nowhere to be seen. I made quite a fuss as Jesse dragged me up the porch steps, I have to admit. I even scuffed my Prada slides (ironically the same ones which had broken Maria de Silva Diego's pretty little neck with one stomp).

Ansy was there to greet us when I opened the front door.

"Have fun, kids?" He asked. I scowled at him. Jesse and I were hardly 'kids'. In fact, Jesse hadn't been a kid for about, oh, a hundred and sixty years. But he didn't need to know that. So I assured him that we had had fun, not caring if my scowl had assured him otherwise.

"Sir, could I talk to you for a moment?" Jesse asked, ever so politely. But that was him all over.Andy looked surprised, but agreed, smiling as he lead Jesse into the living room. I guess that he was having fun, playing father to a girl for a change. I decided to make myself scarce and wandered up to my room, deciding that it would be good for me to keep a lookout for my mom from my window. Besides, if Andy had a problem with it, I would be able to hear him yell from my bedroom.

There were two thing that surprised me when I entered my bedroom. One was the ghostly Layla tugging at my bedsheets, and the other was a note that lay folded up on my dressing table. Layla heard the door shut behind me.

"Oh, sorry," she mumbled, obviously embarassed. "Your room was a mess, and I...well I have a thing about messy stuff." I laughed, causing her to blush. "Um...Stanley told me about your...visitor." She looked at me questiongly, waiting for an answer.

"Oh yeah?" I know,smooth. Layla raised an eyebrow at me, like I should have known better than to have said that. I turned away from her and picked up the folded paper.

"He's very dangerous, this man," she stated. "Don't involve yourself with him." I chuckled again, unfolding the note. Who could have left it? I noticed Layla eyeing it suspiciously.

"Who is he?" I heard her sigh.

"It's in your best interests that you don't know." I obviously wasn't going to get anymore from her. "He's a very dangerous man. Don't get involved." Involved? I was already involved, apparantly.

I opened the last fold of the letter to see thick, black writing. It was straight yet still messy. I didn't recognise it. But when I read what its owner had to say, I gasped, causing Layla to walk over.

One heart will break while two unite. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I felt her cold hand on my wrist as she pulled it down to read the cryptic letter. I don't know why, but a shiver ran up and down my spine as I read the words over and over again. LAyla was obviously as oblivious to its meaning as I was.

"I thought I felt...a presence here," she informed me. "It wasn't nice. Stanley and I have been taking turns to watch you ever since you were attacked." Somehow, this didn't surprise me. It would explain the footsteps at Jesse's, and the reason why Crazy English Guy hadn't returned. I wondered whether I should tell her about him visiting Paul. I wasn't sure what it meant, but it couldn't have been anything good.

"That man," she continued. "Used to torment Stanley when he was commited. I exorcised him, but he came back. I saw him on the night I died. He just stood there, smiling at me..." Her expression faltered as she trailed her words off and I swear she was about to say something else, but my bedroom door flew open. I looked up, ready to curse whoever it was, only to see Jesse, looking extremely pleased with himself. But why? Oh, yes! He was asking Andy for my hand in marriage. I turned to apologise to Layla, but she was already gone.

"Querida," he sang, taking me in his arms. "He said yes!" He what? I couldn't control the grin that slowly crept its way across my face.

"That's brilliant!" I squealed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, drawing him closer to me. This was amazing!

"I explained that we didn't intend to marry straight away and he said that if your mother didn't like it, he would try to talk her round." He was obviously thrilled. "This is really happening!" He let go of me and wandered over to the window seat, staring out into thenight. As he did so, I bent down and picked up the cryptic threat. I couldn't trouble him with this. Not now, he was way too happy. So, I opened one of the drawers in my dressing table and hastily shoved it inside. Jesse heard the soft thud of the drawer closing and turned to look at me, smiling. I could only smile back, concealing the pain that it caused me to lie to him. Our eyes met and all the emotions that we had kept bottled up for so long seemed to break free from their prisons.

I took a step forward, ready to kiss him passionately, but my window suddenly shattered and a glowing hand grasped the back of Jesse's shirt. I barely had time to scream before it yanked hard, pulling him though the window.I jumped through the now-open window, hoping to see Jesse, dazed but unhurt, sprawled out on the pine needle-covered roof. But he was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the ghost which the hand belonged to. It wasn't until I heard a woman - my mother - scream down by the carport, that I looked over the side. This time I screamed.

AN - Yeah, I suck at cliffhangers. And I'm suffering from mild writer's block, so I apologise if that chapter was a bit...crap. It's short, and I swear I'm trying to make them longer. But I seem to be posting half-chapters at a time.

So...what happened to Jesse! Don't worry, SweetlySarcastic, it won't be all lollypops and candycanes. As Father Dominic once said "horrors such as you and I could never imagine are about to begin". Well, almost. I'm almost finished re-reading the mediator series, and once that happens, it's on to Dean Koontz. Phantoms in particular, so...heh.

Review please, they are the best cure for writer's block, lol :P.

Disclaimer - Me + owns nothing.