"So I'll see you later," said Jesse, stuffing his hands in his pockets and smiling.
"Yeah, definitely," said Emily, smiling. "I'll bring Kaylie and Matt by the ice cream shop to see you. It's too bad they weren't here…"
"Yeah," said Jesse, kicking a pebble with his foot. "Well, see you then."
"Tell your family it was nice to meet them," said Emily, smiling. "Bye Jesse. I had tons of fun."
"Me too," said Jesse, turning to go.
He vaguely heard Emily say "bye" again, and shut the door as she went into the house. Then he started back toward town, toward the hotel where his family and he were staying.
The meeting between Emily and his parents hadn't gone exactly as planned. Sure, to Emily it was probably great, but she didn't know his parents. He couldn't tell what they were thinking the entire time, and he didn't like it. He didn't want to go home and have to listen to them when they could say what they'd wanted to say.
He walked down Main Street. The town had changed a lot from when he'd last been there. At least he'd known about Winnie this time. At least he didn't have to learn that she was dead this time. He thought back to when he'd first found out… But what was really eating him inside was that he felt hardly any pain at all now when he though of Winnie. He'd always thought before he'd found out that if Winnie died, his heart would break, and he'd be grief stricken forever. Maybe a little romantic and dramatic, but that was pretty much what he'd thought. But the sadness that he though would accompany him everywhere after Winnie died had all but completely disappeared. And something else was taking its place.
Was she really Winnie's granddaughter? She looked just like her. He also had this weird feeling around her. At first he thought it might be the way he'd felt about Winnie, only this felt different. Like there was something more.
He'd come to the hotel. He dreaded talking to his parents as he climbed the stairs up to their room. He sighed, took out the card-key to their suite, and opened the door.
His mom and dad were sitting on the couch. Miles was at the small table in the kitchen. All three looked up when he came in.
"What?" he asked immediately, shoving the card-key deep into his pocket.
"What d'you mean, what?" asked Miles, his eyes steely. Not cold; just hard. "You know what."
"If this is about Emily…" Jesse started.
"We don't want you to be hurt again, Jesse, that's all," said his mother, looking sad.
"I'm not gonna be hurt again, Ma!" said Jesse indignantly. "I'm not hurt."
"We don't want anything to happen with you and the girl," said Tuck, getting to his feet.
"Like what?" asked Jesse.
"Jesse…" Miles started, getting up from the table and starting toward him, but Jesse cut him off.
"I don't want to even talk to you, Miles," he said irately. "I don't need to hear anything you're going to say. I don't--"
"Look," Miles said softly, harshly, coming over to Jesse and taking him by the shoulders, "remember that night with Winnie in the woods? You said I didn't want you to have what I lost? Well, you were wrong. There's nothing wrong with what I lost. It's what I've still got that hurts."
Jesse was silent for a moment, and then he shoved Miles' hands off his shoulders. "I don't want to hear it. I'm going to the pool."
Without another word, he stalked off into his room, grabbed his bathing suit, and headed down to the swimming pool.
A/N: ok, it's short and boring, but I promise to write more as soon as I can! Thankz to those people who reviewed!