A/N: I'm SO VERY SORRY to all those I kept waiting (and confused) (aka the Ultimate Nagger genies9 =o)), I was away at a swim meet over the weekend and had this horrible, horrible spanish project to finish. The only good part about Spanish? I know what Jesse's saying…..muahahaha. I hope I'll get the update up faster next time!
Disclaimer: The wondrous, genius, amazingly talented Meg Cabot owns all you recognize! Characters and everything!
~*The Undoing of the Mediator*~
Chapter 7: Saturday Night Fever
I clutched the book to my chest and ran to catch up with the bike, which (along with Jesse) was slowly moving up the hill ahead of me. Luckily there wasn't anyone on the street to see an invisible force wheeling Dopey's bike up the road.
When I got back, my mother was waiting for me.
"Susannah Simon! Where have you been?" she yelled. I mean, I did leave at nine o'clock in the morning on Sunday for two hours without telling her I was gone. "Have you been out all night?"
"Mom! No! I just left to go…….um……talk to Father D about my new VP nomination," I lied. No use digging myself into a hole.
"Well, next time tell me when you leave, alright? I had no idea where you were!" she said, pushing her hair back. I feel really bad for my mom. I mean, it's not her fault my life is completely screwed up right now. "So," she continued, "you got the nomination? No more of that Slater boy to take your place?"
I involuntarily flinched at the name. "Kelly Prescott dumped him as her running mate. She's going to win, and since she picked me as her new one, I will, too" I said simply, but all I wanted to do was go into my room.
"That's great honey," she replied.
"Right, mom. Thanks," I replied. I ran upstairs toward my bedroom and threw myself down on my bed thinking over and over 'Jesse. I'm going to see Jesse again.'
~*Jesse*~
I followed Susannah up to her room and watched her lying on her bed. Her lips were moving faintly, and I walked up to her to see if I could figure out what she was saying. Very softly I could make out "Jesse. I'm going to see Jesse again." I sighed at those words. It had been the longest few days of my life after she lost her gift, even longer than those 150 years I spent in isolation from everything and everyone. I gently sat down next to her and watched her staring at her ceiling. Nombre de dios, she was beautiful. Maria had been pretty, and the other girls I had seen were cute, but Susannah was amazingly gorgeous.
Her feet were dangling off her bed, and I remembered when she had some home in that condition. I looked at her blistering and bleeding feet and wanted to smack the person who did that. Namely, I found out later, Paul Slater. He had kissed her. I had often wondered what he meant when he asked if she "sighed" when I kissed her, but I couldn't remember such a thing. When I kissed her, there was no sighing; there was only love and passion. I chuckled to myself. That passion was what made me move out………I was afraid that if I stayed there any longer, I would lose the minimal control I had been able to keep while living with her. I lost it majorly once, and if it weren't for David breaking us up in the middle of it, I had no doubt that it would have gone too far. I had tried to remove myself romantically from her life, but I soon found that impossible. I knew now without a shadow of a doubt that I would love her forever.
~*Suze*~
CeeCee came barging into the room a few minutes later.
"Alright," she said as she plopped down next to me, "Spill."
"Spill?" I asked dumbly.
"I'm getting sick of this Simon, I want to know all about Jesse, and I want to know what that book contains, and I'm not leaving till you tell me," she said simply. CeeCee can be that way sometimes, a little commanding.
"Well," I said, a little reluctantly, "it all started when I was two…." I went on to tell her about skipping school, Madame Zara's predictions, and then my trip here. I told her about Father Dominic and Michael Meducci and the RLS Angels and even Heather. She drank in every word.
"But what about Jesse? Why haven't you mentioned Jesse?" she asked impatiently. To tell you the truth, I didn't mention him because of my fear that he was in the room. But Jesse always left at times like this, so I took a deep breath and continued.
"You were right, CeeCee, Jesse's a ghost. Remember that guy you wrote about in the Carmel Pinecone? The dead one? Hector? Yeah, well his nickname's Jesse and he's lived in my bedroom ever since I've moved here," I said. CeeCee took in a deep breath.
"You mean the guy who was murdered by his girlfriend Maria?" she asked quietly.
"The one and only," I replied, "Paul Slater's the same way as me, and once he left me to die………somewhere. The place where ghosts go after they die. That's why I hate him. And I know that probably sounds completely ridiculous to you and you could never believe it, but you're the first and only person I've told everything to, not even Father D knows everything so I would really appreciate if you didn't think I was a lunatic," I rambled.
"Chill it, Simon, this is so cool! What's it like after you die? Is there a hell? What does Jesse look like?" she asked, and I'm pretty sure she guessed my answer after she saw the look in my eyes.
"He's gorgeous," I said, and I was never one to really gush over guys. But it was nice to have someone to talk to about things like this. "He has this really nice hair that curls crisply at his neck, and these deep brown eyes. Oh, and killer washboard abs………even better than Michael Meducci's," I said with a grin. CeeCee's mouth fell open and she shrieked.
"I wish I could see him," she said with a sigh, "just catching a glimpse of that would make my day."
~*Jesse*~
I quietly left as soon as Susannah's friend brought up the subject of me. I was incredibly curious as to what my querida had to say, but that would be invading her privacy. Just because she couldn't see me doesn't mean that I can go around listening o her private conversations now. It just doesn't feel right. I am really glad that she told someone about her life, though. She won't be so disconnected from her friends now like she was before. I slipped out onto the roof and sat looking towards the sky. The clouds moved past slowly, and I heard a shriek and rushed back into the room to find a blushing Susannah looking at her friend CeeCee while CeeCee said, "I wish I could see him. Just catching a glimpse of him would make my day." I felt dirty at once. I thought that Paul Slater had come to kill Susannah or something but instead walked right into the middle of a conversation about me. I sat on the windowsill and watched as CeeCee left.
~*Suze*~
I felt like a new person. It had taken several hours to explain everything to CeeCee, and by the time she left it was dark out. I found myself falling asleep in the chair I was sitting in and dozed off.
~*Jesse*~
I watched as Susannah drifted off to sleep. She looked to peaceful and vulnerable, which surprised me. Susannah was one of the least vulnerable people I knew. Her eyelashes fluttered closed one last time and I watched her like that for awhile, her chest gently rising and falling and her hair blowing gently in the ocean breeze.
'I could do this for eternity,' I realized, 'just sit here and watch her, study her face and look at her forever. If only she felt like that about me.' I sighed.
'But we have no future together, I reminded myself. Look at yourself! You're dead and that isn't going to change anytime soon, so forget about it.' I saw her shiver a little and so I went to shut the windows. I gathered up a blanket in my hands and lifted her easily into it. I couldn't touch her directly, because my hands would pass right through her, but I could touch her with other things like blankets. I held her in my arms for a moment and cherished being with her. Then I set her on her bed and pulled the covers over her sleeping body.
"Goodnight, querida," I said quietly into her ear. I knew she couldn't hear it but I said it anyway.
A smile formed on Susannah's beautiful lips as she stirred. She settled down once more and was deep in dreamland.
~*Suze*~
I was in Paul's room, sitting on his bed and staring out through the glass windows towards the ocean. His grandfather had a small dock with a motorboat attached and I watched it bob up and down in the storm.
"I will have you, Suze," said a sickeningly familiar voice.
"Don't get near me, or I swear I will kill you!" I yelled, clutching the bedsheets. I couldn't move. I was stuck in one place and my arms were spread out to the sides of me, spread-eagle fashion.
"You don't really mean that, do you?" he asked, his wicked grin widening, "you sure seemed to enjoy last time you were here. I can tell Susannah. I bet Jesse's never kissed you half as well as I did."
"He's ten times the man you will ever be," I spat out, enraged. He came closer to me. His nose was bruised and purple from the place where I had broken it the other day.
"I think you'll like what I have in mind, Suze," he whispered as he leaned down to kiss me.
I woke up sweating with a yell. I looked wildly around me, taking in my room, and its familiarity. 'It was just a dream,' I told myself, 'only a dream.'
A/N: this chapter was originally mucha longer, but I cut it back because I'm going out of town this weekend (again) and I wanted to have more updates. Enjoy!