Chapter 14
Thanks to jayd-n33, I want to be Jesse's girl and uniqueillusion for reviewing. You guys rock.
Suze made her way to school later that morning still agitated from her phone call from Paul. A part of him had sounded sincere when he said he did not know what had happened. But than again, she knew Paul was a good liar. He had always been and to base her decision to forgive him on that, she decided would be crazy.
She had a couple of minutes before her class started and she didn't want to run into Paul, not yet. So she decided to go and see Father Dominic. Suze walked to his office, knocked on his door and let herself in. As she expected, he was sitting at his deck, absorbed in a book.
"Susannah," Father Dom greeted her, quickly putting the book he had been reading facedown on his desk, "and how are you doing? I dare say, yesterday was quite eventful"
Suze smirked. "You can say that again," she said as she sat down at the empty chair on the other side of his desk, "I'm just disappointed in myself mostly"
Father Dom nodded, knowing what she was talking about.
"We all believed Paul had changed. You must not blame yourself Susannah"
"I know. But now Jesse won't even talk to me anymore. I think I hurt him too much. I don't know if it will ever be the same between us anymore"
Suddenly Suze threw her head into her hands and started to cry softly. Her body shook with every sob she let out. Father Dom stood at her in astonishment, unsure of how to comfort her. Slowly he lent forward and reached across the desk to pat Suze lightly on the shoulder. Suze looked up, embarrassed.
"Oh I'm sorry. I shouldn't let all this out on you" she said sheepishly.
"Don't be silly, Susannah. I'm here for you for whatever you need." Father Dom said. Suze gave a grateful smile. "Thanks. Well I should get to class. I'll see you later okay?" With that Suze let herself out of his office. Father Dominc took a deep breath and sighed. The book he had quickly put down when Suze had come in was not something he could ever have shown her. He picked it up with trembling hands and glanced again at the page he had been reading. It was dated 1977, it was one of the cases he took on when he was mediating back in his young days. Below the date was a picture. The same picture the ghosts had shown him at the house. He was sure he had given himself away and Paul would catch on when they had shown him the picture and look on his face was that of sheer terror. But luckily Paul was too busy fighting for his life for it to sink in. He slowly closed up the book and sighed. He knew the ghosts had unfinished business. It was just a matter of time until they found him.
After school Suze walked to her locker to back up her bag. When she was done she closed it and turned around to find Paul standing behind her. Suze looked at him and noticed how awful he looked. He had grass stains on his jeans and he looked like he had not slept well since there were circles underneath his eyes.
"Suze, I know you're mad but I really need to talk to you" Suze thought for a second.
"What do you want?" Suze asked.
Paul took one of her hands in his. She exhaled tensely but didn't pull away.
"What you think I did. I promise you it isn't true. Something hard hit me and I was knocked out. And I don't remember anything after that."
Suze snorted. "Paul if you were knocked out, how did you leave that room? Look…I want to believe you but it doesn't make any sense"
Paul dropped Suze's hand, frustrated. "I don't know," suddenly he trailed off, "Jesse…"
Suze's mouth dropped. "No! You can't honestly think…"
"No," Paul interrupted pointing behind Suze, "its Jesse"
Suze twirled around and Jesse was standing there, glaring at Paul.
"Jesse, what are you doing here?" Suze asked, surprised. She was being careful only to make brief eye contact seeing as all the kids around her were probably unaccustomed to seeing someone speaking to air.
"I came to apologize for being so abrupt last night and to see how you were doing. But I see you two are doing quite fine" he said looking from Suze to Paul pointedly.
"No, this isn't what it looks like, Jesse!" Suze said frantically but was interrupted by Sister Ernestine, one of the head authority's of her prestigious catholic school.
"Susannah Simon. Why are you raising your voice like that? Come here this instant"
Suze reluctantly walked over to her, leaving Jesse and Paul by themselves.
Jesse looked Paul up and down.
"Geez, Slater, you don't look so good"
"Shut up. If only you knew what I've been through last night" Paul said. When Paul said that, Jesse glanced nervously to his side, noticeably breaking his eye contact with Paul. A sudden realization hit Paul.
"Well, well, well," Paul mused, "I should have known. It was you, wasn't it? I mean who else would have done it? The ghosts? They would have just killed me instead of saving me. And who did this really work out for?" Paul said nodding toward Suze, "you. You can have Suze now. And what she thinks of me now is nothing more than a filthy liar. Well congratulations Jesse, but just wait until I tell her the truth. She may not believe me at first but don't worry, I'll make sure she does sooner or later"
Jesse who had been listening to his rant with a cold expression only uttered 2 words.
"Tell her"
Paul stared at Jesse in disbelief. "What?" he demanded.
"I said tell her. It's been like torture keeping this from her. Yes I want Suze…but I want her to be happy. I care about her and what did I do? I tricked her. I stooped to your level, Slater, and I realize I made a mistake. And Suze will see how bad I feel. And I guarantee you she will choose me in the end. But until than I'm keeping my eye on you. I don't trust you and I don't believe you when you say you've changed into this new Paul. I know your gonna hurt her and I'm not letting that happen" Jesse said.
Paul glared at Jesse with ice in his eyes. Suddenly in a blind rage, not caring who was looking, he grabbed Jesse by the collar of his shirt and threw him hard into the locker behind him. Suddenly Suze was running back to them.
"Paul! What are you doing? Stop!"
Paul glanced from Suze to Jesse, shook his head than stormed off down the hall. Suze stared after Paul in shock.
"What got into him?" she demanded.
But she didn't get an answer because in that instant without a word Jesse shimmered away.