Chapter Two

I had first woke up to the sound of a girl screaming at the top of her lungs, and then again, five hours later by the sound of my stepbrother Brad yelling that I had five minutes until breakfast started, and that it was officially my week to do the dishes, not something I wanted to be reminded of first-thing in the morning, thanks, Brad.

I groaned and rolled out of bed, pulling on some kind of clothes--I didn't exactly know or care what. I didn't have to work at looking good right now because Jesse wouldn't come over for another few hours. I combed my hair and went downstairs to eat the breakfast I was already five minutes late for.

"Suze," David said as soon as I sat down. His voice, which had gotten pretty deep lately, sounded kind of squeaky, which it did whenever he referred to Jesse (oh man, I know the feeling…only David's voice doesn't get squeaky for the same reason mine does). He had also managed to gain some weight, and his freckles were going away. He was also taller than me now. I was surprised that Shannon, his girlfriend of two years, hadn't started beating other girls away with a baseball bat. "When is Jesse coming over to pick you up? Because if you guys have time before the movie starts, I was wondering if I could show him my model of the galaxy on my computer…" The geek-ness hadn't gone anywhere, though.

I sighed. David's discussion of the wonders of the universe would probably make us late for the movie. "I don't care. You'll have to ask him if he'd like to see it," I said. David really needs a hobby.

"Suze, pass the pancakes," Brad demanded…with his mouth full of some chewed-up food.

"Brad, in most of civilization, it is considered rude to speak with your mouth full of food. It is also a choking hazard," Andy said to his middle son. Andy was still mad at Brad because Brad had managed to fail the twelfth grade, and had needed to repeat the entire year. Brad didn't have much hope for going to college. It seemed Andy was always mad at Brad for something.

I shot Brad a mean look. "Here," I said. He could have asked in a nicer manner. Especially considering the fact that it was supposed to be his turn to clear the table-but I had switched with him with his promise that he wouldn't disturb my phone conversations and movie nights with Jesse.

For instance, last time Jesse was over, Brad looked at Jesse and said, "You're that gang-banger from the Valley Jake was talking about. Why were you sneaking into my sister's room all those nights?"

…And when Jesse replied by asking, "What is a gang-banger?" Brad had nearly died laughing.

"Don't listen to him, Jesse, he wears tights and rolls around on the floor with other guys," I'd said. Not that Jesse knew what I was implying about my stepbrother, if you know what I mean.

Brad called me a bad name and attempted to storm from the room. I say that Brad attempted to storm from the room because Jesse followed him, and said, "Kindly do not insult your sister in such a manner."

"What do you care?" Brad had snapped, and stormed up the stairs to his room without waiting for an answer.

I ate my breakfast. David had proceeded to talk about his newest philosophy he'd come up with after reading some article in a science magazine. After David finished his lecture, Mom started asking me about how school was going. I told her that school was going well, that my professor in design class had really, really liked one of my designs for a purse, and had submitted it to a show. The winner of the contest would be given the chance to create his or her own brand of clothing and thus make a clothing line, which was to be picked up by Macy's and a few other department stores, and even a few boutiques. Brad snorted. "What?" I said. "You want a purse?" A purse would go great with his purple and white wrestling tights.

"Fashion design is a stupid major," he said matter-of-factly. Fashion design had been CeeCee's idea, and the motion had been seconded by Gina, who was a fashion slave. CeeCee had mentioned the idea when we had gotten our aptitude test scores back. She said that I liked clothes a lot, and why not do something involving what I loved, since I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do? And Gina had just mentioned to me when she'd come out to Carmel for a summertime visit that she'd love to wear something, and be all like, "Oh, this? My best friend designed this shirt for me. Do you like it?" Gina had also mentioned, by the way, that if I were not her best friend, she would do whatever she could to steal Jesse from me.

Comforting.

Not.

"At least I'm in college," I said.

"At least Suze is seeking the opportunity to do something productive with her life," Jake said. He was mad at Brad because Brad had wrecked his Camaro, which Jake had finally procured enough money for. It had been a fortune to repair.

Mom also asked me if I'd considered getting an apartment or a dorm room. I told her that I'd been too busy studying to look into it. I didn't tell her that I was kind of nervous about moving out on my own. She also looked as if she wanted to ask more, but she knew better than to ask about me and Jesse in front of Brad.

I finished my food and started to clear the table. Mom followed me to the kitchen. "What movie are you and Jesse seeing tonight?"

"I forgot," I said. I had forgotten what movie Jesse and I were going to see, what with all the excitement-of the wrong variety--I'd had at two in the morning. Had I been woken up at two in the morning by Jesse, I would not have forgotten. If anything, that would have been all I was capable of thinking about. But Jesse would never wake me up at two in the morning for anything, let alone, you know…

"Love does that to you," she said. "How did you and Jesse meet, anyway?"

I had been waiting for her to ask. Jesse and I had made up a story--okay, I made up the story and told Jesse to use it--that we'd tell. We simply met one day when I'd first moved to Carmel. It was the truth--but it wasn't as simple as just having met him on the street somewhere by chance; it involved something very complex that my mother and the rest of my family would never be able to comprehend--my special ability to converse with the dead on a regular basis. And then the nifty little fact that Jesse had once been among those dead.

Yeah, I expected my mom to believe that. Not. I didn't expect her to believe that any more than I expected Jesse and I to get past second base before my fiftieth birthday.

"Yeah." I sighed. "It does. Jesse and I met when I first got here."

"I hope you don't mind me asking then, why did it take you so long to tell me about him?"

How was I supposed to answer that?

"Well, it took him a while to be able to tell me how he felt," I said, and that was the truth, too.

"I'm glad you've found someone, Susie," she said, and she hugged me.

After I finished cleaning up, I went to my room and drew a sketch of my latest assignment for design class--an entire ensemble; pants or a skirt, a shirt, a hat, shoes, and any other accessories. For my exam, I would have to actually make the clothes and model them on a mannequin, and I wasn't sure if was actually ready for that, but my exam was only a week away. I'd made the shirt and the hat, but not the pants or the jacket I was going to make as well. This fashion designing stuff is hard, but I had a chance at making my own clothing brand and line, if my purse won in the contest my professor had entered it into.

I worried the entire time about how I was going to tell Jesse about Adeline. I was hoping that maybe she would find him and tell him not to dissect her body, because I seriously didn't want to be the one to tell him.

I cleaned up my cloth samples--the last thing I needed was for one of my stepbrothers to ruin them for me--and got ready for my date with Jesse.