Chapter Two: Secrets Lies

Paul, and I just finished bringing over the rest of my clothes, and a few other things I needed. So yeah I did say yes. That I would move in with him, I mean. Breaking the news to Mom and Andy was slightly different. Shocking almost.

My mother was calm, and said, "Well Suzie, if that's what you want to do. If I really had a choice like I did a year ago my answer would have probably been no. But I can't keep my baby from growing up. Promise me you will stop by frequently please?" she said, and of course I told her I would. It's not like I'm going far it's just two miles down the road.

Once there, Paul helped me lug up my bags, cursing the whole time, wondering why they were so heavy. I had laughed at him and he gave me an un-amused look.

"Why do you need all of this stuff?" He asked.

"For reasons." I replied. "But, now since you ask, I think the reason of pissing you off seems funnier."

I laughed and eventually he joined in.

I finished putting the stuff in my room, and headed out into the kitchen where Paul was. He seemed Happier, and a lot more...well, alive since I said yes to move in with him. I think he missed having someone around all the time. I mean, if I had to stay in a big empty house all the time, yeah, I'd be sad, and lonely.

"Hey," I said, when I got out into the kitchen

"Hey, look what I bought today," he grabbed a plastic bag from the counter, and took out a DVD.

"What is it?" Me, having a blonde moment (no offense to blondes)

"Open Water." He answered, looking at the cover. "It came out the other day," he said.

He sounded like a little kid on Christmas.

"Oh my god, I have wanted to see that for the longest time!" I was truly excited, and decided to join Paul on the "little kid on Christmas" bandwagon.

"Want to watch it now?" he asked, making his way to the trash barrel to get rid of the plastic wrapped around the DVD case.

"Sure, Popcorn?" I asked opening a cabinet where I hid a secret stash of popcorn, because if I left it where Paul could find it... It would be gone by now. That's one of his quirks he comes with. He swears he could survive on popcorn, and Fresca. I tell him otherwise, but he just tunes me out when I get into all the diet, and dental issue situation... Men.

"Yep, I'll go put it on." he said, and disappeared off into the living room.

So 3 bags of popcorn and 6 sodas later, I was huddled right against Paul. We were still watching the movie, and every little thing made me jump.

I'm not sure what happened after the last scary part, due to me falling asleep. I didn't wake until morning. I was actually in my bed instead of on the couch. Hmm I wonder how I got in here.

Egh.

Oh well, I rolled out of bed, and went to brush my teeth. That's when I saw it. The biggest Zit on my forehead. I let out probably the most blood-curdling scream anyone could imagine.

Well, then Paul came barreling into the bathroom.

"Suze, what's wrong?" he asked, sounding like he just ran up a flight of stairs.

Haha he probably did.

"I have a zit," I said in a whiney voice.

My god, doesn't anyone know how bad that is. I mean, what if it pops or something! It's sure to leave a giant scar! Oh my god I cannot believe this.

"That scream...Over a ZIT!" his voice sounded half cracked, "My god, Suze, I thought someone was trying to kill you." I shot him a glare. Men just don't understand how fragile of a state we're in when we get zits. Especially me.

"IT'S HUGE!" I said, sounding as if it was consuming me whole face.

"Okay, anything else, before I have another massive coronary?" he asked being sarcastic.

"No," I said threw gritted teeth.

"Okay, well I'll make breakfast. See you in ten Miss Dramatic" he said, walking out of the bathroom. As soon as he left, I slammed the door shut.

I took one last glance in the mirror before heading downstairs; I let out a small whine. Then headed downstairs to bitch at Paul for making fun of me. When I got down there before chewing out Paul, I went on a quest for some Windex...why? Haven't you ever seen the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding?" it really works too?

"Paul, where's the Windex?" I asked searching the cabinet under the sink.

"Other side, and why, are you looking for Windex?" he said sounding some what amused, while mixing what ever concoction he uses to make pancakes. What ever it is I surely do not want to know.

I found the Windex, sprayed some on a paper towel, and held it to my forehead. Then I put the Windex back where I would be able to find it later.

I then grabbed two glasses from the cabinets across from the stove. I placed them on the counter, and went to get the Orange juice from the fridge. I poured it in the two glasses, and put it back in the fridge.

Paul finished making the Pancakes, and had two on each dish. Now, Paul knew how to cook pancakes...good, no AWESOME pancakes. And that's about it... Anything else cooking wise he is most defiantly inept of doing.

After breakfast, I took a shower, got dressed, did my make up, and told Paul I had to run some errands. Seen, as Paul was basically a millionaire, he had an extra car, which he gave me the keys to.

I was headed for the mission academy; Father Dom had left a message on my cell phone asking me to come down to the mission this morning. So, I made the three and a half-mile drive to the school. Without totaling Paul's car. Thank-God!

Once I got there I headed down to the main office. Only to be greeted by Sister Ernestine.

What a joy…NOT!

"Why, hello Ms. Simon, what brings you here? You didn't get held back did you?" she asked in voice that sounded as if she was going to throw a party if I did get held back. But I didn't. In fact, I graduated on the high honor roll. Valedictorian. Shocking, I know, but I busted my butt so I could get into a good college. When I wanted to go.

"No, I did not get held back." I said in an uninterested tone. "In fact, weren't you the one who presented me with the award for Valedictorian, and High honors?" I asked as if to say ha…ha. BITCH!

"Oh, yes, you're right." Haha, Undefeated! "Sorry, must have slipped my mind. What brings you here anyway?" she asked sounding a bit pissed off.

"Father Dominic left a message for me to come meet him this morning." I said politely.

"Well, I'm sorry, Ms. Simon, but Father Dominic is extremely bus-" but Father Dominic cut her off.

"Why, Susannah." He said somewhat smiling. "Just the person I was expecting."

He gave Sister Ernestine a look, which only made me crack up. I walked into his office, and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his big mahogany desk. He shut the door, and made his way to his chair behind the desk.

"So Susannah, how have things been going with you?" he asked probably trying to not get right to the point of why he called me here in the first place.

"Good, you?" I asked

"Very well, thank you." He said in response. "Susannah, the reason I called you here today is to discuss something with you, about Jesse." He said staring at the desk not wanting to look me in the eye. Great when ever he does that its something bad.

"Okay…" I said, maybe a bit too sarcastically.

"Jesse, has come back." He said with a weird tone in his voice. My heart flip-flopped when he revealed that. I wonder where he's been all this time.

"Where has he been?" I asked sounding kind of ticked off.

"I'm not sure, he wont tell me. But before he left, did you two have some sort of an argument?" Father Dom asked, this time looking at me instead of the desk.

"No we didn't have any argument…at all" I said shaking my head

"That's quite odd, because when I mentioned you to him, about how happy you would be to see him again, and how you have been so worried, he told me that well…" Father Dominic hesitated.

"He told you what?" I asked trying to get him to spit it out already.

" He told me that he doesn't want to see you right now. But, he wants to see you soon."

The way he said it gave it all away, and I knew that was bullshit. Jesse probably said something that Father Dom just doesn't want to say.

"Well, instead of saying what he said, could you at least write it down for me, because you, and I both know that is a load of crap. That's not Jesse's M.O" I said, looking straight at him to let him know I was serious.

"Very well then," Father Dom began writing on a pad of note paper. When he was finished, he handed the paper to me. It read:

No I do not wish to see that Punta ever again, She made it quite clear that she did not want to see me again.

"How did I make it clear to him that I did not want to see him again? Hmmm, Oh, and do you know what Punta means?" I asked because I was clueless as to what it meant honestly, and I'm probably sure I didn't want to know what it meant but the curiosity would have killed me.

"Actually, no, I do not know what Punta means. But, there is a Spanish/English dictionary over there on the shelf if you would like to look it up" he told me. So, I went and got the dictionary, and looked up Punta in the Spanish part of the dictionary. When I found it, I couldn't believe my eyes

Punta: offensive, meaning Whore, or Slut.

"THAT ASSHOLE!" I thought out loud.

"SUSANNAH, LANGUAGE PLEASE!" he said sounding angry

"Sorry, but I think this calls for that." I placed the dictionary on his desk, facing him. And pointed out the word, and its definition.

"Well that certainly changes things around a bit." He said in disbelief.

"Where is he?" I asked threw gritted teeth. But father Dom only looked past me. I had not heard the door open, and then close.

"Behind you," I turned, and the moment I saw him, I sucker punched him in the face.

"Jesu Cristo," he said holding a hand over his mouth.

Good serves him right.

"SUSANNAH!" Father Dominic said, standing up from his chair.

"You know Jesse, I really don't appreciate being called a WHORE! And how did I make it clear that I did not want to see you again? Please, enlighten me, because I remember nothing of the sort." I practically yelled.

"Yeah, and that's why your living with Slater now." He growled. Isn't it interesting when everything is someone else's fault Susannah? Hmm….So how does it feel now when something is really your fault?" he spat back at me.

Then I noticed something: Jesse was not surrounded by his usual glow. In fact, he wasn't in his normal clothing either he was dressed in men's dress pant's, and a blue collared shirt.

"You're alive?" I asked, in a cracked voice.

"Oh, you just now noticed that?" he said sounding annoyed. He had pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and was holding it to his lip.

"Well actually yeah I did just notice it now," I said in a bitchy tone. "How did you come back to life?" I asked sounding less bitchy, and more dumbfounded.

"Well, it's amazing Susannah, when you leave the book filled with notes from your shifter lessons with Paul on your desk, labeled "shifter lesson notes", and you expect me not to look.

"Then I noticed something interesting about the last set of notes you took. Time travel. So, I brought the book to father Dominic here. And explained to him that all I needed was for him to shift back while touching my body, and then I would be able to fill in the place of the old soul. Because like I read from your notes, two of the same souls cannot exist in one dimension, and the old one would be left behind in the old dimension. And well, here I am alive and well." He explained thoroughly.

"Father D, you went back and got him?" I asked, sounding dumbfounded.

"Actually, no he didn't." Jesse said. "Catarina did, because the good father here didn't want to. He felt it was un-safe and may not work" Jesse answered for him.

"Who's Catarina?" I asked sounding confused.

"She's another shifter I met a while back before you moved here."

"Oh," was all I could say.

"I still don't get why your angry at me, because as far as I'm concerned I did nothing to you!" I said taking a step closer to him so that we were basically nose to nose. I can't believe I wasn't more upset about the Catarina thing but I was still in shock that he was alive. He looked down at me, his eyes still looked like the same dark pools.

"Because you lied to me, and didn't tell me about your lessons with Paul. And now you are living with him." He said, sounding hurt but still angry.

"Yeah, well, you disappeared off the face of the earth for about 5 months. You expect me to dwell on something that long? I actually did till about a month ago. Oh, and those shifter lessons were to protect you from another doing of un-justice."

"Well Susannah, like I told you before, I can take care of my self." He said. We were still nose to nose basically.

"You know what Jesse…FUCK YOU!" I said, and went to go around him to leave, but I didn't even get my foot back on the ground, because Jesse grabbed me by the top half's of my arms and slammed me to the wall that was behind him. My eyes started filling with tears. Then he got in my face and said:

"I'm sick of you Susannah, and your poor me act-" Jesse didn't get to finish what he was saying because Father Dominic yelled.

"JESSE ENOUGH! LET HER GO, AND GET OUT THIS INSTANT!" He bellowed.

Wow, I've never seen Father Dominic get that pissed before. This was so not the old Jesse I knew. In fact, it wasn't the Jesse I knew…ever. Jesse let go of me, and left, slamming the door behind him.

I sat down in the chair I sat in when I first came into the office. I rested my head in my hands. Trying not to cry. I really couldn't believe that just happened.

"Susannah are you alright?" Father Dominic said, coming over, and sitting in the seat behind me. I looked up, and shook my head.

"Why would he do something like that? It's not him, it's not, it can't be," I said as Father Dom handed me some tissues.

"Susannah, I was afraid to tell you he was alive, because I was going to talk to you about something about him that I had discovered when I researched him in the one of the historical books." He said. He paused for a moment.

"What were you going to tell me" I asked after a moment.

"When you first told me about him, I had looked him up in a few books, to search for some explanations on why he was still here and had not moved on. What I discovered was in every book I had read about him. The books said he had a bad temper, but also a very gentle side.

"I kept telling you not to get attached, because he will be moving on someday. But the real reason was this. I was afraid for your safety." He said.

" I just can't believe this." I mumbled. I looked up at Father Dom. "I'm sorry Father Dom, but I need some fresh air," I said, standing up, wiping my eyes with the remaining un-used tissues.

"Alright, just if you see him try not to talk to him, and let him be. I just don't want another repeat of what just happened." He said softly.

"Alright," I said, opening the door and closing it behind me. I walked out of the main building and went down to the court yard. Thank god they didn't have school today. Other wise, a hall monitor would be like 'get to class!'.

I made my way to the bench on the far side of the court yard. As soon as I sat down, my cell phone rang.

It was Paul.

"Hey," I said, when I answered. Damn it sounded like I was crying still.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked. He could tell I was crying.

"Nothing," I said, wiping my nose with the tissue.

"So, what did the Priest want?" he asked sounding interested.

"Oh, nothing." I said in a toneless voice. "Just wanted to discuss some paperwork. Jesse's alive" I said casually.

"What, he's alive?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, he found my Shifter Notebook in my room and read the last set of notes. Took it to Father Dom, explained to him about time travel. But Father D wouldn't do it so he went to another Shifter named Catarina, and got her to do it."

"Wow, I guess it does work then?" He said, sounding convinced.

"Who's this Catarina girl anyways?" he asked.

"I don't know, we didn't go into detail about that," I said, then looked up from the ground and saw Jesse striding towards me with a not too happy look on his face.

"Hey, want to meet in a half hour at the Olive garden, my treat?" he asked.

"Sure, I've got to go see you in an hour," I said, hanging up not giving him time to answer.

"What do you want?" I asked Jesse, as he approached me.