Thanks you guys for the reviews and the people who corrected some of my spelling errors. I appreciate it.
I was sitting by the fountain at the Mission Academy. Everything was silent like before. I like it. It has a certain sense of peace and tranquility. Even though there's cemetery right next to it, but what do the dead have to say, you ask? A lot. You wouldn't know until you take a nice long walk in my shoes.
I wonder who that Kerri girl is. She looked very protective over Jesse. It's not like I'm going to snatch him up and take him from her, I barley know the guy but he's one of the first person I've talked to in over one-hundred-years, so I'll have to manage with who I have to talk to.
Because, really, Father Dominic isn't all that a great host unless he's trying to guide me out of here, onto my next life. But I don't want to go. Who says I have to go?
Out of the silence I heard a voice. That same preppy girly voice from a few minutes before. But this time, oh this time it was going to be worse because Jesse isn't here to stop her from what she's going to say to me.
"Well, hello, Suze. Fancy meeting you here again." Kerri said cheerfully but with no sign of innocence in her voice to be heard.
"Hm," I said. "Charmed." I was sitting back on from her staring into the flaming sun that was reflecting off of the water. Yet, I had no reflection in the water.
"Look, let's just cut to the chase, shall we?" She stood behind me with her hands on her sides. I could see it in the reflection of the water. "You are dead and Jesse is alive. So whatever intentions you may have in that head of yours, it's not going to work."
"I have no intentions with Jesse. He is only merely a friend to me, and is it so wrong for a girl to have a friend? Especially since she hasn't talked to a single living being since the day she died? But don't worry, I only just met Jesse."
"But that Paul guy-"
"That Paul guy," I spat, "is an immature jerk who doesn't know what he's talking about. He's the reason we're both dead. Why do you even care, anyway?" So, I was being a little bit bitchy at her. But she started it.
"Because," she said in an annoyed way like I was stupid or something, "you and Jesse seem to have an attraction toward each other. He was fast spoken for you. He didn't even seem all that happy to see me." While Kerri pondered, I stood up, ready to go.
"Well, I wouldn't know about that. Jesse has his own opinions about things." Then I started to dematerialize and I was gone. One minute I was in the Mission courtyard, the next I was in Jesse's room sitting on his window seat.
"You always seem," I heard a voice, "to find your way back here, don't you?"
"Do I have any other choice?" I asked Jesse, my eyes still staring at the ocean that was twinkling off of the water like diamonds. Like many aqua colored crystals that faded into a darker emerald green. Like the one that was strung around my neck on a gold chain. The one that my mother had given me for my sixteenth birthday. She said they matched my eyes and I've been wearing it ever since.
"I guess not." He said walking over to where I was sitting. I never looked at him. I didn't let him read my expressions of how Kerri made me have such a nice impression of her.
Not.
There's a name that's used these days for girls like her: A jealous girlfriend. But was I going to tell Jesse about what she said to me? No, I should not.
"Did you tell her?" Paul asked Kerri as he leaned against one of the pillar's of the breeze way where they were supposed to meet again.
"Yes." Kerri answered, dropping her sweet candy coated voice to a harsher tone. "But she seems so," she paused for a minute to try and find the right word, "dull about the whole thing. Like she doesn't know what she's got right under her nose."
"We don't want her to find out what she's got under her nose, remember?" Paul snapped back bitterly.
"All because you're so greedy about your girls." Kerri muttered under her breath but Paul heard her anyway. "Christ, don't get your panties in a bunch. I made it pretty clear to her that they can't be together. The alive with the alive, and the dead with the dead."
"Just how it should be."
Suze's POV
My eyes still on the water, even though it was tranquil, never calmed me down from what Kerri had said to me. She made it pretty clear that Jesse was hers. I really care.
I knew my emotions were visible. I just didn't want Jesse to catch a glimpse of my face and ask about it. But of course he was going to see it. According to Paul, mediators know everything . . .
"Susannah," I heard his smooth voice say. "What's wrong? You're not talking." It sort of surprised me how he wanted me to talk. I'm not all that interesting. And when I do get talking, it's hard to get me to stop. My mother would tell me it's not very lady like to cut people off when they're talking and to sneak out in the middle of the night, as well. But sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century.
"Oh, uh," I croaked, "nothing is wrong. Why would there be anything wrong?" I forced the words out of my mouth. I knew they never sounded very nice. My voice was harsh as I said them.
He sat down next to me on the window sill. The light reflecting in to hit his face at just the right angle. The sun was warm and so was the rays it was beating down upon me. Warm. Something I will never be. Never again.
"There must be something wrong if Susannah Simon is not talking and ignoring me." I kept a straight face as he tried to meet his eyes with mine but I tore my gaze from him. It was hard to turn away from that white radiant smile, but I did it.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?" I shook my head no. "Is this something to do with Kerri?" Wow, mediator and psychic. What a great package. I shook my head no again as my hair fell in my face. I brushed it away and over my shoulder with a flick of a hand.
Then I finally said, "It feels like I should trust you," I breathed. "But I barley know you." I curled up in a ball, pulling my legs close to my chest and resting my chin on my knees. My hair fell into my eyes again and I was looking at him through the hair. This time I never bothered brushing it away. I let it cover my eyes and my expressions.
"But you should." He said, tucking the piece of hair behind my ear. "But if that's how you feel," he swung his legs over the side of the window seat and stepped off of it, "I'll give you time. But there's something in me that makes me trust you, querida." Every time he says it I get goose bumps. It's something he calls me and I'll never know what it means. Maybe it's something bad, is that why he won't tell me?
"Jesse, it's just -" I turned around, he was gone. I was left to stare at the room. It had changed so much over the past century. I remember all the colors it was painted, designs is was wallpapered with, and how every day of every year I would sit here and do nothing. Talk to no one, because no one could see me. And no one ever will. If I could just live one more time...
Sorry that was short and sorry that it took so long for me to update.
-M. JW-
