Timeout
By: ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with the Mediator Series by Meg Cabot/Jenny Carroll, including Jesse (*cough*darn*cough*), Suze, Paul, Father D, CeeCee, Adam, etc.
Claimer: I own Miss Evelyn "Eve" Gemma and the plot. (I still wish I owned Jesse instead of Eve.)
To Clavel: So taking Spanish for the last 2 ½ years has paid off! Good. I'm glad. ^__^ Too bad no matter what I do I can't seem to completely translate that quote from your sister you put in your review…
Oh well. Thanks again!
To xPERSONx: Thanks for the review! No matter how short it is it's still appreciated! ^_-
Chapter 8: A Dance with You
After watching the De Silva family for a while, I'd decided to walk around Carmel in search of Jesse to no avail.
So now, it was a little past nightfall, and here I was stepping off Gabriel and Angelina's carriage and staring at the biggest freakin' house I'd ever seen. I'm serious. It was like the granddaddy of all manors with its stone molding, marble steps leading way up to a veranda with tall white pillars holding up the part of the roof of the mansion that stuck out over the porch. The manor behind it was three stories of pale gray stone with two big double doors leading inside.
We walked up the steps and through the doors to a foyer all three stories high with a huge crystal chandelier. The little clear diamond-shaped gems that hung from it were winking in the light coming from the candles lit on it. I have absolutely no clue how they lit the candles way up there – maybe they pulled it carefully down – but the chandelier was gorgeous.
The whole foyer was gorgeous for that matter. It was green and gold with a glinting marble floor that led to five paths. Two were shut via heavy oak doors on the right and left walls, while the three others were on the walls right in front of us. Two of the paths on that wall were staircases leading up in a curve with the last path in between. The final path was a set of double doors opened wide with a mini pillar with a statue on it on either side.
My mouth had to be gapping as we went through the last path and into a banquet hall. I had managed to clean up my disheveled appearance from the heat and bad landing out of the "Timeout Tunnel" – yet I still managed to feel unclean surrounded by so much finery. Every woman in the tall room was bejeweled in some way or another. They were all in hoop skirts and frills, and the men were dressed in various colored suits – some with embroidery. The ceiling was painted to look like a sunset and the walls were a pale gold.
A quick glance of the room and I caught a glimpse of a dark, trailing braid on a tan head. I knew instantly it was one of Jesse's sisters – the third oldest with the one braid. She was slender in a pale pink gown with puffy magenta skirts. She was tugging on the upper arm of the youngest De Silva girl – Carmen.
"Come on, Carmen. Mama told you to stay with me," I heard the older sister hiss at Carmen.
"But I wanna tell Jesse something!" protested Carmen, digging the heels of her little black shoes into the floor. "Felly! Felicidad!"
Felicidad turned to her sister and fiercely whispered, "Silencio, Carmen! You'll-"
"Nombre de Dios, what is causing such difficulty between two of my hermanitas?" said a familiar, amused voice from behind the feuding siblings. And there was my Jesse – yes, you heard right. MY Jesse – with his arms crossed and a smirk on his well known face.
And, Gods, he looked good. He was just how he'd appeared in my dream. I studied my surroundings harder at that realization and comprehended something important. This was the exact place where my dream had taken place… In other words, I'd bet anything Jesse would dance with me sometime that night! WOOHOO!
My eyes widened as something else occurred to me. Paul was here somewhere! In my dream he'd been in a corner chatting with some girls when Jesse asked me to dance, so he couldn't be too far off. I just couldn't let him see me.
So I scanned the crowd again and spotted him with Maria on the far right of the dance floor. Sighing in relief, I turned back to the three De Silva siblings.
"Jesse, I saw another one!" Carmen was telling Jesse. Felicidad was looking on with a fed-up expression on her face before she slipped off towards a young brown-haired boy her age. As I was glancing at where she'd gone, I noticed the second oldest sister dancing with a man in navy attire.
"You're certain?" Jesse replied to Carmen.
"Of course!" Carmen insisted. "It was a fantasma. 'Just like in the stories Abuela told us!"
Fantasma? I don't know Spanish, but that sounded awfully like the English word phantom. Was Jesse's youngest sister a mediator?
"What did it look like?" Jesse asked.
"Señor De Marea. It was Señor De Marea!" said Carmen with a frightened glint in her young brown eyes. I knew then. She definitely had seen a ghost. And not a very nice one at that. It had scared the child half to death.
"Shhh, it's okay, Carmen," Jesse said soothingly. He bent down and hugged Carmen protectively then – just like I wished he'd do to me. With a heavy sigh, I sat down in a chair at the edge of the dance floor.
With Carmen's hand in his, Jesse led her over to the refreshment table and poured her a little crystal cup of juice out of a big bowl. Carmen then nodded and went over by her mother, who was sitting with Jesse's dad and some other adults. Jesse's mom scooped Carmen onto her lap, where the six-year-old joyfully slipped her drink.
Jesse – after making sure his sis was all right – went over and began chatting with some guy in a green suit embroidered in silver.
This was it. I knew it just as effortlessly as one knows their own name. The dream had become a reality for me.
Jesse glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and excused himself from the conversation with the green-wearing guy. He strolled over to me and – just like in my dream – said, "Buenos noches, senorita."
"Oh, hello," I said, my heart laboriously thumping in my chest.
"My name is Hector De Silva," introduced Jesse with a gentle smile.
"Susannah Simon," I said. It was amazing I wasn't a pile of goop on the floor at his feet.
He nodded and held out one hand towards me. "May I have this dance, Senorita Simon?" he asked.
I am Suze, the great puddle of goop. Somehow though, I replied, "Of course," and took his outstretched hand with my gloved one. I stood up, and he led me towards one side of the dance floor. The dance wasn't terribly slow, and by a few beats he had spun me around once and my heart had pretty much died and gone to heaven – I was that happy. Here I was in a fairytale princess dress with the epiphany of male decency, dancing to an almost-slow dance.
To make conversation that I could atleast contribute to, I asked, "Isn't that one of your sisters, Je – er – Mr. De Silva?" I already knew the answer, but I knew he would jump at that topic.
Jesse immediately turned towards where I was looking and smiled. "Yes. That is Juanita, or 'Nita, as we call her," he stated. "I have four other younger sisters as well." He looked around and pointed to Carmen. "That's Carmen and over there-" here he pointed towards the second eldest De Silva girl and the second youngest "-is Estefana, my second eldest hermanita, and Dolores, my second youngest." He spotted Felicidad still dancing with the boy and introduced her as well.
"Do you have any siblings, Senorita Simon?" Jesse queried.
"Me?" I should've known he'd ask that. "I have three stepbrothers. Jake, Brad, and David," I finally answered.
"Ah. And how are these three stepbrothers?" asked Jesse, spinning me around again.
"Well," I began, pondering my answer. "Brad gets on my nerves. He's the same age as me you see. Jake is the oldest and tends to just sleep. I like David the best though. He's a smart little kid."
"Get on your nerves?"
"It means he bothers me," I said without a second thought. It was just like how things had always been with Jesse. I tended to use modern jargon, and he wouldn't understand it and would ask what it means. Then later he'd use the lingo on me. It always sounds strange when he does though.
"Ah. I see," said Jesse. "And what about you? Where are you from, Senorita Simon?"
"Brooklyn," I lied. Once again, not a total lie, but a needed one.
The song ended then and several people filed off the dance floor. Jesse bowed and said, "It was a pleasure meeting you, quer –" Bewildered, he blinked and finished, "Senorita Simon."
This Jesse had never met me – yet somehow he'd almost called me "querida." I was sure of that, and I didn't care why it had happened. My heart had done a cartwheel in heaven when the "quer – " had slipped from Jesse's lips.
I curtsied just like I could see some of the other girls doing as their male dance partners bowed. "The pleasure's all mine, Mr. De Silva," I said, smirking. I couldn't help but smirk really.
Jesse and I sat on the edge of the dance floor and just, well, talked. And I realized something. He was a lot more open to talk alive than dead. He told me funny stories about his sisters – like how Juanita used to pretend to be a rodeo star by climbing up on the family cow at the De Silva Ranch. While on the cow, she would cradle her kitten, Dulce, who was scared-stiff of being up so high and would've bitten anyone else if they'd done that to her. While the kitten's name was Dulce, which Jesse explained means "sweet" or "gentle," his dad called the kitten Agridulce, or bittersweet, for Dulce's awful, sometimes skittish, sometimes vicious, temperament.
It was hard to find a story that wouldn't sound odd to a guy from the 1800s who'd never eaten a burger or a slice of pizza and had never known girls who wore jeans – not dresses. But I eventually found one and told him about how Gina and I used to sell lemonade right in front of my house, while my dad would hover over us like a tall bodyguard. Jesse seemed to find my dad's behavior justifiable, but I flat out told him we were tough for ten-year-olds and could've taken care of ourselves.
"You are a very strong-minded woman, Senorita Simon," Jesse said.
I smirked and said, "How else would I get what I want?"
Jesse smirked right back at me and, before he could respond verbally, Juanita had stepped up to us and stated, "Papa says it's time to leave, Jesse. We have a busy day tomorrow."
Juanita! Of course. I stood up and pulled the necklace out from under my clothes, slipped it over my head, and handed it to Juanita.
"Oh!" Juanita gasped, examining the pendant. She traced her name with her thumbnail before looking up at me and asking, "Where did you get this?"
"Some boy told me to give it to you," I said with a grin. Now that I thought about it, Owen could've given the necklace to Carmen instead because she was a mediator and closer to Juanita, but he didn't… Why?
"Oh. Gracias, senorita," said Juanita with a curtsy. She then pulled the chain over her head and looked down at the glinting metal for a moment. Afterwards, she glanced at Jesse and turned and walked away.
Jesse looked at me curiously for a moment and said, "I must take my leave, Senorita Simon. Adiós."
"Bye…" I said, waving feebly. After he was well out of earshot, I whispered, "…Jesse."
I remembered something Juanita had said then. "We have a busy day tomorrow." The wedding!!! I just knew it – just like I'd known about how the dream had become real life.
Jesse would be murdered tonight, and I would have to stop Paul before he stopped Diego from killing Jesse – if that makes sense. I stared out the window at the dark and sighed.
This was going to be a long night.
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A/N: I have sworn to myself that I must finish the story I have to write for my Language Arts class during my Spring Break before I write chapter 9 of this, so, alas, I must postpone chapter 9 for atleast a few days. I suspect the next chapter will be on time anyway though, as the story shouldn't take too long. It's under the POV of my grandma's dog and… I won't say anymore. I'm stalling. Hehe. ^__^
A/N 2: REVIEW!!! ^___- Adiós!