AN: I think a "Thank you" to all of my reviewers is in order. So thank you to everyone who is supporting my story right off the bat!
Now, I know there are a lot of questions about some things (e.g. the ghost girl, the woman in Jesse's dreams, etc. etc.), but you must read, for then will you find the answers! And I realize that the first chapter might have been a little vague…but I'm going to bring up an important feeling for Suze in this one…and that proposal of Marc's!
Hope you enjoy this chapter; I tried to get it to you as quickly as I could! My life has been pretty hectic lately: Science Olympiad Mock competition is tomorrow, Quiz Bowl competition this weekend, homework…Gosh!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Two
I have Susannah molded to me, her lips are all mine. I cherish the feeling of her curves under my fingertips, the taste of her lips, the smell of her hair. Everything about her is pleasing my senses. I am in heaven. Mi Querida does seem to be enjoying herself as well; she is moaning while I let my tongue meander around her mouth. I enjoy making her feel such passion.
Suddenly, Susannah pushes herself up off of me, and our wonderful kiss abruptly stops. I want to pout, but the look on Susannah's face, makes me stop and ask, "Querida, what's wrong?"
Susannah, slips off of me and sits down on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. "Jesse, I though you were going to tell me about your dream, but instead I feel as if you are trying to avoid the subject with all this making out."
I look down at Susannah, and then slip off the couch and sit next to her, folding my fingers together in my lap. Susannah looks over at me and puts a hand on my cheek.
"Jesse, please tell me what's going on. I hate it when you leave me in the dark." I sigh and look over at Susannah.
After tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear, I begin, "I've had many of these dreams before, and although they all consist of the same thing, each of them is slightly different. Does that make sense?" Susannah nods and I go on. "Well, in my dream, I'm with another woman." I stop and look at Susannah's reaction to this. She seems unaltered by the information, so I continue. "And, um, we are, well…" I fade off trying to get myself to just spit it out and tell her, but I can't. The words won't leave my lips.
After a moment of silence, Susannah questions me, "Jesse?"
"I'm sorry Susannah, I—this is just very hard for me to tell you this, since it might hurt you. And you know I could never do that purposely. Querida, I love you more than anyone, you know this right?"
"Of course, Jesse, and I love you more than anyone else." Our gazes lock, and all is quiet for a moment. "Jesse, just tell it to me quick—like ripping off a Band-Aid, you know?" I smile at her.
"Okay…inmydream,I'mhavingsexwithanotherwoman." I look at Susannah, wondering how she's going to react. But nothing happens. She just looks at me blankly.
"Susannah?"
Then she smiles. "Is that is, Jesse? You are just dreaming about having sex with another woman?"
I nod solemnly, preparing myself for her wrath, but then she laughs. "Oh Jesse! I think you need to stop spending so much time with Kirk!" She giggles and for a moment I feel hurt. I don't think she understands how much it hurts me to think about such things, much less dream about them all night long.
Susannah looks over at me and quiets. "Oh Jesse, I'm sorry for laughing. It's just, it's normal for guys your age to dream about things like that."
"But Susannah, I love you."
"I know, but that doesn't stop your hormones."
I look at her vacantly. "It's okay Jesse. It only makes you human." Susannah giggles again and puts a hand on my thigh. I just stare at her, wondering how she's taking this so well, when I'm freaking out.
Susannah tucks her legs under her butt and then leans up against me—her head coming to my chest. "Hold me, Jesse," she whispers and I comply by sliding my arm around her shoulders and scooting closer to her.
We sit there for a minute or two. Then I kiss the top of her head and move gradually down the side of her cheek. I take her lips in my own and clutch her close to me. She lets me kiss her and hold her all I want, but then when my hand slips down to her lower back, she tenses and breaks away from me.
"Querida, I'm sorry," I say immediately.
Susannah just looks at me. "I'm sorry to. It's just, you know…"
I nod my head, because in fact I do know what she's feeling. Since Paul and I got switched back, whenever Susannah or I try to "get intimate" she gets spooked and pushes away. It's understandable, but still I want to show her that it's okay, and that I don't want to push her like Paul did when he was in my body.
Susannah gets off of the floor and smiles sadly down at me. "Will you help me with my Western Civ homework?" She asks me in that voice that she knows I can't refuse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We are done with her Western Civ homework, and now Susannah is working on English homework, which I am no help in, because I don't like the subject. I'm watching her over my Anatomy reading. I love the way her hair comes undone from behind her ears and then she'll sigh and tuck it back again, only to find it a minute later undone again. I smile when she glances over at me to find me looking over at her. She blushes and then returns to her homework again. I'm still watching her, trying to figure out how I am so fortunate to have the love of a person like Susannah, when my cell phone rings in my pocket, and I just about jump up out of my seat.
Susannah laughs at me while I take my phone out of my pocket with a smile on my face.
"Hello?" I answer when I click the answer button.
"Jesse, it's Marc."
"Hey, what's going on?"
"Well, like I said this morning I have a proposal for you."
"I'm listening." I raise my eyebrows at Susannah, who giggles.
"I was invited to a medical research convention. It's going to have loads of MDs there and they will be presenting both the pros and cons of all the new drugs that have come out over that past year. The conflict is, that I cannot go, but I want to make an appearance. So, I want you to go on my behalf."
"Really?" I ask while walking around the room.
"Indeed. So what do you say? Mingle with some top MDs, get a free room and food, the works!"
"When do I leave?" At this Susannah looks up from her book and her eyes lock onto mine with a question in them.
"Ah, yes, well, you leave in two days. Will that be a problem with your professors? Because if it will be, then I can of course jot a note to them."
I think about it for a moment. "I don't think it'll be a problem…where is it?"
"Well, this year, they're centering it in DC."
"Okay. Washington, DC in two days."
"Yup," Marc says merrily and I smile.
"Marc, you have no idea how much this means to me. This is going to be a big thing for me. Thank you so much." Marc tells me that it wasn't a problem and we arrange to meet for coffee tomorrow so he can give me more details.
I finally hang up the phone. The second I do, Susannah questions me. "Jesse, what was all that about? What's in Washington, and why are you leaving?"
"Susannah, something big has come up! Marc wants me to go to a Medical Convention in Washington, DC! Isn't that great? Oh, this is a big step; I'm going to be meeting some very important doctors…" I break off. "Susannah?"
She looks over at me. "How long are you going to be gone?"
"I'm not sure how long the convention is going to last, actually." I frown and run a hand through my hair. I know she doesn't want me to go, I can feel it. She's worried that something will happen to me. I walk over to her and kneel at her feet. "Querida," I say while taking her hands in mine. "Nothing will happen to me. I promise I will be me when I come back. I would never let anything like that happen again."
Susannah looks at me, the tears filling up her eyes, and then they roll down her cheeks. I pull her into me and hug her tightly, while whispering soft Spanish nothings into her ear. I kiss her tears away. "Don't make promises you can't keep," she whispers into my ear, a sad overtone to her voice.
"I don't."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I drop Susannah off at her house before dinner is scheduled to commence and then drive off to the beach to sit and think for a while. I walk out slowly from my car and listen to the gentle rocking of the ocean. After plopping down on the sand, I take a handful and let it sift through my fingers.
The sand reminds me of life: you can never hold onto to anything forever. Eventually it will all slip away from you with the shortest of notice.
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. The moon's reflection is bright on the calm ocean surface. Taking a deep breath in through my nose, I can feel that the air is heavy with salt.
"It's so quiet," a voice suddenly says and I just about jump out of my skin. Looking to my right I see the ghost girl from before in the quad, sitting next to me.
"Yes it is," I reply and then we both look out to the ocean.
After a minute of only the roaring of the ocean's waves, she speaks, "Whenever I would come down here, it would always be very noisy and crowded. It seemed like I was never alone. There was always someone flittering around me. I was the It-Girl. I was their queen. No one could touch me and freshman threw flowers at my feet." Her voice wavered; I looked over at her and saw tears bordering the rims of her eyelids. "But then I died, and they—they just have forgotten about me."
Out of the corner of my eye I see her shoulders begin to shake. I turn to the ghost girl and put an arm around her shaking shoulders. I don't say anything, because I know she doesn't want anything to be said. She doesn't want me to make false promises to her.
"All of the people I knew just forgot about me after a day. My own best friend moved up to my place! Even my own parents have forgotten about me, their prized beauty! Now they have turned to my genius of a brother. My grave hasn't gotten any fresh flowers in a week!" She shudders to a stop and sobs some more. I just sit and pat her back, trying to soothe her without words.
After a while, she stops shaking and looks over at me. "I don't even know your name," she states.
"I don't know yours either," I reply and she blushes.
"You first," she says as if we're second graders meeting for the first time.
"Jesse." She doesn't say anything for a minute and I get concerned. "It's your turn now."
"Kate Turner," she says with a blush on her cheeks. Then something clicks.
"Wait! You aren't Ekaterina Turner, are you?"
Kate blushes, which I take as a 'yes'.
"There was quite a spread on you in the newspaper. You went to RLS, right?"
"Yes," Kate says quietly. "And now the only thing that's going to remember me is the year book!"
"But you were a renowned teen beauty queen, why wouldn't they remember you?"
"How'd you know that?" Kate asks me.
"I remember my girlfriend saying something about you." I wasn't about to add that Susannah had practically made her sound like a horrible, backstabbing wench.
"Oh, is she nice?"
"Yes," I say to Kate with a smile on my face.
"Oh."
"So…I must ask, what does your name mean?"
Kate blushes, "You mean Ekaterina?" I nod. "It's Russian or Georgian for 'pure'. My parents are messed up, why they would curse me with such a weird sounding name, I don't know."
"I think it's very beautiful," I say while making a note to mention it to Susannah for possible names of our daughter.
"You love her, don't you?" Kate asks me, somehow knowing where my thoughts are, after a moment of nothing except the splashing of the waves against each other.
"I would die for her," I respond.
"So going to get something to eat sometimes, is out of the question, right?"
"Well, you technically don't eat anyways, but yes."
Kate just looks at me and sighs. "Well, Jess, thanks for the convo, but I'm gonna go and…" She trails off. "I'll see you around."
I smile at her as she stands up and brushes off some sand while beginning to dematerialize. After a while, my thoughts stray to what I remember about being a ghost.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: Looking back, this story sounds so formal so far, but I guess that's because it's Jesse's POV. Well, tell me what you think, and if it's that bad, I'll fix it stat.