CHAPTER SIX
Okay, I fainted.
Once, I regained at least some consciousness, I blinked lazily and opened my eyes. And there was Jesse, leaning over top of me, with an extremely concerned look on his beautiful face.
"Susannah? Susannah, wake up!" Jesse cried, shaking my shoulders.
There he was only a few inches away from my face, his hands gripping my shoulders. Those hands that had taken me to so many places so many years ago, speaking to me in that voice that had whispered my name in so many sighs of ecstasy. After six years of hell he put me through, he just says "Susannah wake up." like its all fine and nothing has happened! If he thought I was going to just fall into his arms crying, begging for him to take my back, he had another think coming!
I shot Jesse a look of extreme disgust. I could tell he'd tried to hide his hurt. I stumbled to my feet and tried to stand up, unsuccessfully.
"W-what are you doing here?" I managed to stutter out. He took my hand and helped me up. The strong, yet gentle touch of his hand made me shudder. In a good way.
I stood up as straight and as tall as I could, so my green eyes met his black ones. But after a few seconds of his impenetrable, inky gaze, I looked away, unable to bear it. I focused my eyes safely on the curtains of the bay window behind us.
"Shouldn't I be asking you the same question, querida?"
I tried to ignore the fact that he called my querida. That word that I had longed to hear for what felt like lifetimes had finally been uttered, and it sent shivers of warmth straight up my spine.
I smiled in spite of myself.
"I'm here because I'm engaged."
The sentence that had just left my mouth immediately wiped that smile off my face.
I'm here because I'm engaged. To someone that's not you.
That realization should not have made me nauseosus, but it did.
There he was, the love of my li– I'm not going to finish that thought.
"So I've heard," Jesse growled. To say he didn't sound happy for me would be a major understatement. Well, he had his chance, and he blew it.
"So, what, you've finally decided to grace me with your presence?" I bitterly spewed out.
Jesse furrowed his brow. A look of hurt and confusion surfaced to his features. "What?" he asked me. Puh-leez.
"Well, nevermind that. The point is, I'm getting married in four months whether you like it or not, buddy."
I wasn't sure if I was the person these words were coming out of, but I immediately softened when I saw the look on Jesse's face.
"I've missed you," I said, my voice hardly above a whisper.
Jesse bit his lip, paused, then asked, "Do you love him?"
"What?"
"It's a simple question. You love this fiancé of yours, do you not?"
"Yeah, I do," I said.
"Well, in that case, congratulations. I'm glad someone could finally give you what you need."
There was something in the way he said that that I did not like.
I'm glad someone could finally give you what you needed.
'All I ever needed was you,' I thought to myself.
"I appreciate that," I said to him. And with that, unable to hold it in any longer, I sort of threw myself into his arms and buried my face into his chest. For about the zillionth time that day, I felt my eyes well up with tears.
"Oh, Jesse," I said in this sickening voice. "I've missed you so much."
"Ssshhh, querida, please don't cry," he whispered, stroking my hair.
I melted in his embrace, and for a brief moment, I was at ease with the world. I was in Jesse's arms, and everything was right.
"I'm engaged," I said in a strangled whisper, voicing the thought that stabbed my heart like a knife.
I abruptly pulled away from him. I blinked, wiped my eyes, and said again, "I'm engaged."
"So you'll get married, and you and I will be friends," Jesse said. I'm not sure if he meant it to be a question.
"Yeah, we'll be friends."
Friends.
It was then that my bedroom door opened. It was Jack.
"Hey, sweetheart, I came to check up on you. You were up here for a long time!"
Jesse glanced at him, then at me. I couldn't seem to look him in the eye.
"Yeah, baby, I'm fine," I said to the curtains.
"You sure? You look a little pale to me."
I turned to him. "Yep. Fit as a fiddle."
Jack smiled and took another step toward me.
"Just think, Suze. In less than half a year, we'll be husband and wife."
"That's right," I said, smiling back at him nervously.
He took yet another step closer to me, and draped his arms around my waist. He went in for a kiss on my lips, but I rejected it and turned my face so his lips hit my cheek.
Not giving up that easily, Jack moved his mouth down to my neck, planting a trail of kisses down to my collarbone. But I swatted him away. "Not now, baby."
I could just imagine being in my old room, making out with my new finace, with my...with Jesse standing right there with his arms crossed, watching us. Not such a great idea.
I looked out the corner of my eye, to see what Jesse thought of all this, only to find an empty space where Jesse stood a few moments ago.
I sighed and flopped down on my canopy bed. And Jack laid right down next to me. Man! Did this guy EVER give up? What a lovely wife I'd make.
I felt a pang of guilt for pushing him away like that, and curled up to him, resting my head on his chest. I must have had a little jet lag, or something, because right then I was hit by a wave of exhaustion. I yawned and cuddled up even closer to Jack. "Mmm, Jesse..." I heard a voice that sounded like my own murmur.
"What?" Jack asked, stirring from our embrace. His voice was as sharp as a razor.
"Who's Jesse?" He inquired.
"Uh, what do you mean?"
"I distinctively heard you say the word 'Jesse'. Do I have anything to worry about?"
Stricken with terror, I said through frozen lips, "No, Jack, you have nothing to worry about. You're my one and only."
It was then that I realized how bad things were going to get. That's generally what happens when you're in love with one person, and engaged to another.
END OF CHAPTER SIX
Notes: I know I stole a lot of names and phrases and stuff from books and movies...PLEASE DON'T SUE! R&R!
Love,
Linds
