Disclaimer: All of the original and familiar characters are property of Meg Cabot and her series The Mediator, but the plot and new faces are property of me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 3"Hi," I breathe into the phone.
"Suze, is that you? What's wrong with your voice?" Whoops, it's CeeCee.
"Nothing, I thought you were somebody else," I say quickly.
"Jesse?"
"Yeah."
"So I take it you heard about Father Dom, huh?" CeeCee asks me.
"Yeah, I did. Do you know how he died, Ceece?"
"No, I don't think so, but he was like a healthy old guy, so I doubt it was just by old age. I personally think someone was out to get him."
"CeeCee, who would be out to get a priest?" I ask her, dismissing the whole idea stat.
"Suze! I thought you were smarter than this! A ghost would be out to get Father D. I mean come on! Maybe it was like a jealous ex-girlfriend, or something."
CeeCee knows that I am a mediator, well, shifter, but I kinda forgot about the Father Dom thing. I figured too much at one time would overwhelm her. "Ceece, I'm pretty sure, Father Dom didn't have any jealous ex-girlfriends. I mean he is-was a priest for goodness sakes!"
"Oh well, that doesn't matter. I want you to write a tribute to him for the newspaper. Can you do it? I just thought that you would want to since you were so close an all."
"Yeah, sure I'll do it." My call waiting beeps, and I feel my heart begin to race. "Cee, I gotta go, call waiting."
"Sure, no prob. Bye!"
"Bye," I say and then click over.
"Hello?" I ask the phone.
"So you heard about Father Dom?" It's Paul, damn.
"Yes," I say shortly, wondering how he can be so easy about it.
"Well, it a tragedy, but now you don't have to be so soft anymore about mediating and shifting."
I can hear him smiling into the phone. "Shut up Paul. Why do you have to be so mean? Father Dominic was a great mediator! He had a soul and a heart, something you never had!" I yell at him, furiously anger at him for treating Father Dom's existence like it was nothing. It was everything.
"Suze, I do have a heart. Remember, you stole it and then broke it."
This leaves me speechless. Paul has a good habit of doing that to me.
"Good night, Suze." Paul says in that silky voice of his and then hangs up the phone.
I put the phone back in it's cradle, and am about to turn around, when it rings again. I pick it up, expecting Paul's smooth, sexy voice to come out, so I say something first.
"What do you want from me?"
"Querida?" Oh thank God! It's Jesse!
"Jesse, I am so happy to hear your voice!"
"What's wrong, Susannah? This is not just about Father Dominic."
"You knew? You knew and you didn't call me?" I ask him infuriated that he wouldn't call me the second he found out.
"Yes, I know, querida. I just got done watching the news." Jesse says with a sigh, as if I should have known this.
"Oh."
"So, what else is bothering you? Is it Slater, Susannah?"
I am silent for a minute. Jesse asks me again, "Suze? Is everything alright?"
I am silent for a second longer, but then everything just comes pouring out. "Everything is wrong, Jesse!" I yell at him, "I just found out that the Yoda to my Luke Skywalker is dead, from his ghost no less! Paul is freaking me out, even more than usual! CeeCee is so oblivious; Brad is a moron, and I haven't seen you in for-ever! And I have to meet Father Dom at the Mission tonight at midnight."
"Father Dom's came to you as a ghost?" Jesse asks, obviously missing all the other stuff I just said.
"Yes," I say quietly, because I can't be mad at him. I love him too much.
"I'm coming over to take you over to the Mission. Okay, querida? You are not to leave your house without me. Okay, Susannah?"
I swear he treats me like such a child sometimes.
"Jesse, I'm not a little girl anymore. I can take care of myself."
"Susannah, do not act like you are invincible. I don't know what I would do if I lost you. No, I will take care of you…that is final. I do not want you walking the streets alone when someone is out there just waiting for some young women to take his pleasures out on." In other words, he doesn't want some guy raping me. I should have known. I mean Jesse and I haven't even gotten pass second base, and I am like dying with anticipation!
"But Jesse!" I start to say, but he cuts me off.
"No buts, querida, I am taking you to the Mission." And then Jesse hangs up on me!
I throw the phone into its cradle with a flick of my wrist and pace my room fuming.
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My alarm wakes me up at eleven thirty. I get up silently and put on a skirt, in spite of myself. I dress up, I don't know why. Okay, so that's a lie, I know why. I am dressing up because I am seeing him tonight. Jesse. I'm seeing Jesse tonight, okay? That's why I am dressing up. I don't know why I care what he thinks; okay, so I do know why…it's because I am in love with him.
Are you happy? I'm in love with Jesse.
I smile at my reflection while I check myself out in the mirror. There's a knock on my window, and I turn around slowly, so Jesse can see what he's been missing. My heart rate speeds up when his eyes lock with mine. However, it doesn't stay that way for long, his eyes meander their way down to my skirt, and I can see a smile pulling at his lips. I decide to swing my hips for dramatic effect.
"Let's go," he says while taking my hand in his own big, strong one.
"Well, hi to you too," I say sarcastically, but sarcasm is wasted on Jesse.
Jesse pulls me out the window, and onto the roof. He then "tuts" at my skirt, as I try to shimmy down the tree. I make it. Hey, I've been doing this for a while.
When I get down to the bottom, I wait for Jesse to climb down the tree. I watch him, well, his butt. I can't help it; it's so cute. I blush when his feet touch the ground and he looks at me.
He takes my hand in his, and kisses the palm of it. "Oh, querida. You must be grieving."
I look into Jesse's warm, brown eyes, and suddenly realize just how much I miss Father Dominic. I begin to cry, "Oh Jesse." I throw myself into his arms, and he hugs me tight. I know I can come apart in Jesse's arms, because he's there to protect me.
I sob, and Jesse's warm body feels good against the cold night. Jesse mumbles things in Spanish to me, which I really wish I understood, but no, I had to take French, instead of Spanish! Jesse holds me, and I want him to hold me like this forever. He kisses the crown of my head. As I pull away, the cold air rushes in, and I shiver.
My eyes are blurry from the crying. Did I mention I hate crying? I look up at Jesse, but all I see is a blurred outline of his face. A face I know so well. Then, his lips are on mine. I gasp, like every time Jesse kisses me. His hands grip my face, his body is pressed up against mine, and suddenly I am really happy I wore a skirt. It's doing its job.
I run my hands through Jesse's silky black hair, and I sigh with the satisfaction. Jesse pulls back. "We should get going," he says to me while pulling me towards his car, which is parked on the curb in front of my house.
"Slow down, Jesse," I whisper to him while he pulls me along. He slows down a little bit, and when we reach his car, Jesse opens the door for me. I get in, and this time I don't look down to see if my skirt has ridden up. In fact I want it too, because then Jesse will see what's he's been missing.
Jesse drives in silence. He's actually a really good drive, better than me. I really don't want to talk; I just want to get the Mission so I can find out what happened to Father D. I need to know!
Jesse parks the car underneath some trees, and we walk stealthily to the open archways of the church. I know exactly where I'm going, and apparently so does Jesse. I walk close to him, because the church's open-air archways are pretty scary at night, even with their floodlights on.
Jesse pulls open the heavy door to the church's sanctuary, and I slip inside. I look around, and I hear the thump of Jesse closing the door behind him. I don't see Father Dom's glow anywhere, so I call out quietly.
"Father Dominic?" I yell in a stage whisper. "Are you here?"
Nothing happens. I glance back at Jesse, but he gives me a blank stare. Men.
"Father D! Where are you?" I say a little louder so he can hear me this time…obviously not.
Then Jesse says something, but I don't catch what it is, because his voice is muffled. I turn around in the middle of saying, "What Jesse?"
But I stop in the middle of "Jesse", because a ghost is standing behind him, with a hand over his mouth, and a weird looking knife to his neck.