Regrets

Chapter 3

Sitting next to Suze was completely pointless. I knew it wouldn't do any good whatsoever. But I did it anyway. What? Who did you expect me to choose? It's not like I was doing it just to bug her. I just didn't want to sit next to Kelly that's all. Who knows how she'd take that? Not that I worried about Kelly being angry with me for sitting next to her; it was the opposite I was bothered about.

I was expecting a reaction from Suze though. I guess after what happened at lunch I'd assumed she'd gone back to yelling at me when I annoyed her. But it must have been because I'd taken her by surprise at lunch, since when I sat next to her the second time she was back to ignoring me. Seriously, it was like I wasn't even there. She knew I was though, I know she did, she looked right at me, then just turned away and didn't look back in my direction for the rest of the lesson.

So it appeared she was back to pretending I didn't exist. Why? Because I wasn't worth her wasting her time, of course.

Perfect.

Reluctantly, I forced myself to look away from her and get on with my work. I'd deal with her later.

"Alright, what's going on?"

I turned from my car to face the person who was speaking to me, who turned out to be an angry looking Cee Cee Webb.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not really in the mood for listening to what was obviously going to be a rant about what I did to Suze.

"What have you done to Suze?" Cee Cee elaborated, glaring at me.

"I haven't done anything to Suze," I told her in a useless attempt to cut this short.

"Don't give me that Paul. Suze has changed, you'd have to be blind not to see it, and I know you've got something to do with it. So what did you do?"

I was fed up of this already. School had finally finished and all I wanted was to go home; instead I got an angry Cee Cee Webb with her heart set on interrogating me.

"Look," I said calmly, "Suze hasn't told you herself so she obviously doesn't want you to know. So if I told you then I really wouldn't be doing myself any favours, would I?"

Cee Cee gave me a very frustrated look. "This isn't about you, Paul, it's about Suze so stop thinking about yourself for a minute and tell me what's wrong with her."

After pretending to think about it for a few seconds I replied, "No, I don't think I will."

I turned to get into my car but Cee Cee grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Please," she said, "Just tell me. Is it to do with… Jesse?"

I turned to her. So she knew about Jesse. How much? I wondered. Cee Cee didn't seem like the type to believe in ghosts. But then, she'd seen what happened at the party so perhaps that was enough to make her believe.

"How, exactly, do you think you think you can help her?" I asked.

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you."

I looked at her for a while, then, I don't know why, but I gave in.

"I exorcised him," I said simply, then, while Cee Cee was standing there, in a kind of shocked silence, I got into my car and drove off.

April was quiet during lunch the next day. I wasn't in a particularly chatty mood myself, but April usually had quite a lot to say, it was odd to see her so quiet.

"Ok, what's wrong?" I asked eventually.

April looked up from her food, surprised that I'd asked. "Nothing."

"Is it to do with yesterday? Because I really don't need your help. I can handle it."

"I'm just worried about you," she said sincerely.

"Well don't be. I'm fine."

I smiled at her, a fake smile, of course, since I was not fine. I was no different from yesterday, or any other day since I met Suze. But April didn't need to know that. I wanted her off my case, remember. I'd decided in the end that I wasn't going to say anything to her after all. It wouldn't do anything except make her worry more. And I didn't need that.

"You don't seem fine to me," April muttered.

"Oh come on April," I said, fed up, "let's not get into all this again. Just pretend I'm fine if nothing else, because there's nothing you can do to help, believe me."

Thankfully, April was silent after that. I didn't want to get into an argument with her right then.

"What are we going to do about that biology assignment?" I asked after a while.

We'd been set an assignment to do in pairs the other day and I'd forgotten about it until now.

April shrugged. "I'm not sure," she said. "Wanna come over to mine after school and make a start on it?"

I nodded. "Sure," I replied.

We both went quiet again after that.

I looked around and my eyes settled on Suze's table. She appeared to be having an argument with her friends, probably over what I told Cee Cee last night. Cee Cee was talking to a very fed up Suze when the ghost of a woman in her late twenties materialized next to their table. Suze looked up as the ghost started talking to her.

At first I didn't think anything of it. She was just another of Suze's charity cases, no big deal.

But then, as Suze was making her excuses to leave to Adam and Cee Cee it hit me. These lost souls weren't always that easy to please. In fact I'd heard –courtesy of Father Dom- that Suze had gotten herself into quite a lot of bother in the past because of them. So what if I gave her a hand with this one? It would give me a perfect opportunity to spend time with her, and, since ghosts have a tendency to get a bit homicidal when their problems aren't solved, she wouldn't be able to just walk away. It wasn't one hundred percent guaranteed to work, of course, but I was willing to give it a try. It all depended on what the ghost's problem was.

So I told April I had something to do and I'd be back in a minute then got up and followed Suze. They went to an empty locker room to talk. I couldn't follow them in with out being seen but if I stood outside the door then I could just make out what Suze was saying.

"I promise I'm working on it, Eva, but it's not that easy. I can't just go round to this guy's house and ask him to confess to what he did. I need a plan."

The ghost, Eva, spoke then, "No, that's not what I'm asking. He's convinced someone to give him a fake alibi; you need to get her to go to the police."

"What do you know about her then? Is she dangerous?" Suze asked.

"I can't say, I don't know her."

"Well can you at least tell me where she lives? Or her phone number or something?" Suze asked sounding exasperated.

I took a chance and looked into the room. Luckily neither of them were looking my way, Suze was leaning against a locker looking bored while Eva spoke to her, "No, but I know her name. It's-"

But just as she was saying this Eva looked around and saw me, "Who's that?" She asked as I quickly got out of sight. It was too late though; Suze came out and saw me.

Whoops.

A/N: I'm not sure what I think of this chapter. I guess I'll just leave it to you to decide whether it was good or bad.

Thanks for the reviews…

Flonshoe: I don't want to disappoint you but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to because I wasn't planning on bringing Jesse back. I know ps is an evil pairing but once I got the idea for this I couldn't stop myself. Sorry. Just think about it this way though, if Jesse did come back then what good would it do in a story about Paul. Even if I managed to put loads of fluff in it the effect would be totally ruined by the fact that it's in Paul's pov. Thanks for reviewing anyway. Please don't abandon me now you know the horrible truth, you never know, you might like it. I'm not a Paul fan and I like it.

Sandra Rose: Don't worry about it; it would totally ruin the story if Paul fell for April. Not to mention the fact that any ps fans reading this would kill me. Anyway, thanks, I'm glad you like it.

RayHaisa: I don't like Paul that much either but this would make an interesting fic so I wrote it anyway. Thanks for reviewing.

Mystique Angelique: Thank you! I'm glad you like it. I'm not sure if I've got the commas right but it seemed okay when I read through it. Just let me know if I go wrong again.

TeenPrincess: Thanks. I think I updated pretty quickly considering I'm writing three fics at once and I had writer's block for a while on this one.

BookZwurm: They spoke a bit more in this chapter. Although, I'll admit it wasn't on purpose. It's just that my mum's an English teacher and she's always telling me that my characters talk too much, and since I'm rubbish at describing stuff I just write their feelings. Sorry if you think it's a bit boring.

Chloe: No point in saying much since I already spoke to you, but I just thought I'd say thanks so you don't feel left out. :D

Review please everyone!