Crazy Alex's Note: I finally came to the conclusion that I know nothing about love after the twenties and I can't truthfully continue with Jesse and Suze, so I'm just going to finish Oliver's and Isabel's story, because if I don't get it out of my head I won't be able to continue with my other projects like the Princes Diaries Fic I'm planning or other Harry Potter projects that have been neglected for quite some time now. Oliver and Isabel are my twist on Jesse's and Suze's story, and I'm not sure about the happy ending yet. You don't have to read it, but if you do, please review and give me ideas!
On with the story:
CHAPTER SIX: TRY
It wasn't really late on that Saturday afternoon, but Isabel had already made it back from her night out with her friends. Daisy had been on her case for days until she agreed to go bowling with them: One: because she really liked bowling, Two: because Daisy had ranted at her for hours about how she was living like a recluse. It was partiality true, she thought, besides cheerleading, the soccer games and school, she rarely went anywhere outside family things. Much of her spare time was spent at home with Oliver, both of them watching old TV shows and Lifetime movies and game shows. She never mind it, she was actually happy staying at home.
Daisy, however, was very frustrated at this. They were still best friends, the shared more than what they cared to remember, and they were a lot a like, it was said that they had almost nothing in common but were very alike. Both girls like to see it that way.
"Mom, I'm home" Isabel yelled happily "Hi dad," she said hugging her dad "Uncle Jesse, aunt Suze" she said waving and going to get some popcorn and a can of soda, they were at their weekly trivial pursuit challenge. Later, Jesse and Emilio would go out to play poker with Father D's group at the rectory but they had to beat Abby and Suze first "Daisy told me to tell you that you to pick her up at Chubbie's at the convened hour, I didn't felt like going so I came home early"
"Ok, thanks Isabel" Suze said absently, thinking her answered hard
"I'm going up to see TV"
"Ok, sweetie, but watch out, Oliver has been in a bad mood since you left. Well he has been quiet for a while now, but better not make him angry, would you?" Abby said "He already broke one of my b-list favorite cups when he was letting out the steam a while a go" Isabel nodded taking her snacks "Tokyo, it has to be Tokyo, Suze"
Isabel ignored her family and went upstairs, to her room, placed the snacks in the bureau and started to take off her jeans and top, and went inside the closet "I know you're there" she yelled out while putting on her pj's "Don't hide"
All I knowIs everything is not as it's so
But the more I grow the less I know
And I have lived so many lives
Though I'm not old
And the more I see, the less I grow
The fewer the seeds the more I sow"You're back early" Oliver said re-materializing in her bed
"Yup," she said and she could almost feel as Oliver started to turn towards the direction her voice had came "Don't look" she yelled again and Oliver turned and fixed his glare at the black TV screen. Usually he was good at this, sharing space with her, but sometimes it was hard "Anyway, they were going to hang out at Chubbie's and Aidan was going all mushy on me, so I faked sick and came home" She said coming out the closet and jumping on bed with him, while he floated her snacks in her direction "Now, lets see what you were watching" she said turning the TV on "Mmm, a Gilmore Girls marathon? Are you going all gay on me now?" she asked playfully. But then they settle in, and he started to tell her the where abouts of Lorelai and Rory and how frustrated he was that Lorelai and Luke spent more than half of the show dancing around each other
It was their usual Saturday night. And it was only interrupted when Daisy called form Chubbie's later that night, after episode three of the second season "Isabel, are you watching TV with Oliver?" she asked over the line but didn't give her time to answer "Listen, all I have to say to you is that things that were cute when you were twelve, aren't so cute now. Give it a rest" and then she hang up. Isabel stared at the phone afterwards, puzzled, what had Daisy meant by that?
****
Daisy was ranting about Isabel's conduct during the ride home, at sixteen she couldn't understand Isabel's attitude. All she could think of was having a good time, with loads of friends (her good real friends were always there) and shopping and just being a happy teen. Isabel on the other hand…
"I just don't get it" she yelled frustrated, knowing that Suze was only half listening, she still got nervous while driving "I mean, how is as stupid as to fall for a ghost?" Suze came to an abrupt stop, rubbing the spot where her head hit the roof, Daisy said "Now I know why dad doesn't likes when you drive"
"Is not that, Daisy" she said idling the car and turning it off
"What's the matter?"
"You said, how is as stupid as to fall for a ghost" Suze repeated slowly looking straight ahead to the black night
"Yeah, so?"
"I did" Suze said, looking at her "I fell in love with a ghost"
"Really, who?"
"Your dad"
"WHAT?!?!" Daisy screamed. Suze told her the story, from the moment she moved to Carmel to New York, to Paul and shifting and equalizing. It was a long ride home, Daisy asked and asked questions, and Suze answered them as honestly as she could. It took her some time, but she came to terms with this new information, she agreed with her mom, she couldn't imagine someone else to be her father but Jesse, just as her mom had said.
****
Two years later…
"My back is so sore" Daisy said stretching out in her bed, it had been a game night and she had hurt her back on cheerleading duty, someone had pressed her knee too hard while climbing up the pyramid. Now she was finally home, declining the party invitation with the rest of the squad. It was a hot night so instead of her pj's she was only wearing the P. E. uniform shorts and a tank top. Oliver came to bed with her and was rubbing her back, scowling at her for not going to the party, he was only half meaning it, though; He loved having her home with him, as selfish as it sounded, he liked being a priority in her life. It had been so long since he had been priority in someone's life, he thought it would probably had been when he was dating Abby back in high school and he wasn't so sure about that now, the images from back then were very blurry.
"Occupational hazard" Oliver said sweetly at her "You know, when I was alive I wasn't cool enough like to be in bed with a varsity cheerleader" She was only making sounds, experimenting some sort of extasis because of the backrub. She had grown up to be quite pretty, in truth she looked a lot like Abby, except for the huge blue eyes she had, but they were very, very different. Oliver knew this at heart, as it was said that Isabel and Daisy had nothing in common but were a lot a like, he said that Abby and Isabel had a lot of things in common but they were nothing alike, no one single bit.
Later that same night, they were watching 'Someone Like You' Isabel loved chick movies, and she was cuddling with him in a way that was getting him into trouble, once it hadn't been a problem, but once he hadn't been in love with her. And sometimes she would do things that would put him on the edge, sometimes it was the way she looked at him, sometimes the way she rubbed her leg against him, the countless times he almost ran into her changing. It was so hard for him being with her, but so hard not to have her, either way, it hurt him
"It must be so great to have someone like that" Isabel said, sighing before looking up to meet Oliver's eyes. For some reason, they were about to kiss. But Oliver jumped out of bed, so suddenly that Isabel almost lost her balance. He just stared at her for a while, a whole mixture of feelings dancing in the airThen I see you standing there
Wanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Then I see you standing there
Wanting more from meAnd all I can do is try
"You can't do that to me" Oliver said, he sounded angry, and confusion rose in Isabel eyes
"Do what?" she asked "I wasn't doing anything. It doesn't mean anything" her voice sounded so weird, Oliver never got angry at her, and now he looked really pissed off, it hurt her that he was angry at her.
"It never does, does it?" he shouted "You never do anything, you never mean anything, when you look at me like that, when you oh-so-innocently touch me, you don't know what it does to me, I might be a dead man but I'm still a man and it drives my body crazy, and my heart gets broken because you never mean anything by it" The mirror was shaking, so were the windows and it made Isabel get more scared. Oliver didn't wanted to do that, he didn't wanted to scare her, but suddenly, with that almost kiss, he had been too much aware that he had to keep her away from him before something happened. He had to be the sensible one, he had to do what was best for her.
"I'm sorry Oliver" she said in a pleading tone that broke his heart "I won't do it again, just calm down"
"I.." he said unsure, he didn't knew if he was strong enough to leave "I can't do this anymore" He said finally and vanished
"No, wait!" Isabel yelled "Oliver, wait! Don't leave me, please" She called for him for a long time, and ended up crying her eyes out. She didn't knew that he was there, all the time, wishing for nothing more than to comfort her, as he had so many other times when other people had hurt her, now he was doing the damage and he was the only one that could repair it but for her sake, he wouldn't "I mean it" she said finally "every time, Oliver, I mean it"
I wish I hadn't seen all of the realness
And all the real people are really not real at all
The more I learn the more I cry
As I say goodbye to the way of life
I thought I had designed for me
Daisy came over two days later, Isabel had been crying for 48 hours straight, dozing off at times, calling his name. Since that night two years ago, Daisy had been different towards the Oliver-Isabel thing
"Calm down, sweetie" Daisy said stroking Isabel's hair as she wept, her head on Isabel's lab
"He doesn't feel anything for me, Daisy" Isabel cried "I thought he at least liked me"
"He doesn't like you, He loves you" Daisy said in her 'I-know-I'm-right' voice. Isabel looked at her in disbelieve
"I don't think he…"
"Oh, I'm sure, he looks at you in the same way my dad looks at my mom. I remember the first time I catch him looking at you when you weren't looking, I remember wishing for someone to look at me like that. He loves you so much that he is willing to sacrifice everything he feels for you in order to 'protect' you, he doesn't want to tie you down"
Then I see you standing thereWanting more from me
And all I can do is try
Then I see you standing there
I'm all I'll ever be
But all I can do is try
"I don't need his protection, I need him"
"I know, I know but man are clueless when it comes to girls and love"
Oliver watched them… His heart aching to tell Isabel the three words she wanted to hear…
Try*****
Isabel stayed in a flunk all the way through graduation, she had been accepted early decision at Berkley University, and for the last weeks of her high school life she focused on what she still had after Oliver's departure: Cheerleading, Soccer, School, things she had enjoyed all her life now seemed hollow. She was just waiting for fall to arrive again, so she could leave Carmel behind, she hoped she could also leave Oliver behind, but deep down she knew better than that. Robert Swain, the football captain, had recently broke up with his girlfriend, being that he needed a date, preferably a cheerleader, he asked Isabel to the prom. Isabel had always been against the well choreographed world of jock love, she was against being the cheerleader in turn for an athlete but she gave in, she barely had the strength to fight against anything anymore; and it was her senior prom, and Daisy wanted her to go.
Robert had been fine, she thought, till the moment he got to her house to pick her up. The corsage had been clearly bought for someone with a different dress color, and he was already utterly drunk. Resigned to her fate, she went along, pined the miniature pink roses (the one flower she disliked the most) to her red dress and went to fulfill her Cosmo girl dreams of prom night. She regret it almost immediately
As this things happened, it all went in a blur, they were walking towards the hall where the party was held and next thing she knew he had her pined up against the wall, trying to get her out of her dress. Isabel tried and tried to push him off, but he was a big guy. She screamed more than once, but the music was too loud and no one heard. Suddenly, just as Robert was about to break her dress, and as unexpectedly as it had begun, someone was yanking him away from her. Isabel fell to the ground, crying. She cried a lot lately, she realized. Looking up through her tears, she saw that the Oliver's ghostly form was beating the crap out of Robert, he was trashing him verbally too, which was meaning less, since he couldn't hear him. But Isabel could, and she started to cry harder. Finally, Oliver let Robert fall to the ground, now that he looked down he thought that maybe he had gone a bit too far, but that idiot deserved it
Isabel was still crying when Oliver wrapped her arms around her, and her sobs died as she leaned into that well know embrace. He was stroking her hair in that way that sooth her immensely
"Are you ok?" he asked when she calmed down enough to speak
"Did you meant what you said?" she asked, no looking at him, she had her face buried in his shoulder so her voice was barely audible, he was sure he had only heard her because she was close to his ear "About loving me? about being your girl?"
All of the moments that already passed
We'll try to go back and make them last
All of the things we want each other to be
We never will be
And that's wonderful, and that's life
And that's you, baby
This is me, baby
And we are, we are, we are, we are
Free
In our love
We are free in our loveOliver tear himself apart form her, holding her in front of him "Every word" he said looking her in the eye.
She was looking at him with such expression of love when she spoke next "Then, I'm ok"
Finally, they kiss. As he nibbled at her lips, asking for entrance, he wasn't thinking, he was just felling her soft lips kissing him back. He didn't want to ponder about how strange was all of this (him knowing her since forever, the fact that twenty-something years ago he had loved her mother), all he knew was that this moment was what he had waited for his entire life (both dead and alive). This sweet little girl was giving him what he had seek all his life, and it scared the hell our of him, but Oliver had missed Isabel so much on the weeks he hadn't see her smile. So he let go, caressing her tongue with his own, he just let go.
Isabel thoughts weren't' nearly as complex, all she was thinking was that this was "The Kiss", the kiss against all other future kisses would be measure up… and they all will be found inferior.
Try…****
Notes:
The song, as you can tell, is Try by Nelly Furtado.
Next chapter should be up soon, with a song by Sin Bandera, great duo. Tell me what you want, happy ending? Tragic ending? Paul's redemption? If you remember Cielo, then you know what I think about good Karma. I would like a happy ending….
Thanks for reading!
Alex.