Chapter 10

The kiss was short lived though. Jesse dematerialised about two seconds before Paul ran around the corner looking wild and frantic.

"Oh Suze!" He exclaimed as he reached out to hug me. "Thank god. Listen, I can explain -"

I evaded his grip.

"No, Paul," I said to him. "Don't. I really don't care."

Paul looked confused.

"Look," I sighed. "I kind of suspected something was going on between you two when she came over to me this morning and said she'd prefer it if you were vice-president."

Paul's eyes widened.

"You were class VP? Suze, you should have told me! I wouldn't have agreed if I'd have known that I was taking it away from you!"

Okay, now I was getting a headache.

"No, Paul. I don't care about that either."

"Then, why -"

"Paul!" I practically shouted trying to get his attention back on me. I don't even know why he's so desperate for me to forgive him when there's a mighty pissed Kelly Prescott waiting for an explanation. "I was going to break up with you soon, anyway. It's better like this."

Paul's face was wiped of all emotion.

"You," he spat out. "Was going to break up with me?"

Suddenly, I didn't feel so safe.

"Um," I squeaked. "Yes?"

Then he laughed. Seriously. A deep, full laugh that was almost mocking in the way it screamed 'yeah, like someone like you would ever break up with me!' He was laughing so hard that tears decorated his eyelashes.

"Oh, Suze," he said finally. "That was a good one."

He put his arm around my shoulders.

Now, I was angry.

"Okay, no." I wrenched away from his touch like it burned. Which it did. Only it was more like shivers then a burn. "Paul. We. Are. Over. Okay? O-ver."

I emphasised the last word in my effort to get it across.

"Wait a minute," I guess he didn't find it so funny anymore. "You're really breaking up with me."

"Yes." I spoke firmly even as I was wishing that lunch would be over soonish. We still had over half an hour left.

"You're breaking up with me," he repeated, "because I kissed another girl?"

I winced.

"Among other things," I said.

"And pray tell," Paul walked closer to me as I kept backing away, pushing me against a support pillar as he put his arms up to stop me running away. "What are these other reasons?"

"Um," Shoot, I had nothing. There was no way I was telling him about Jesse. Nuh-uh.

Paul's laugh this time was lighter, but still full of menace.

"Exactly," he whispered. "There are none. You're just overreacting. I promise you, I will never kiss another girl ever again."

And then he leaned in really close and closed his eyes. The space between us was closing rapidly. I could smell his breath. Stay calm, Suze, I told myself.

It was as I leaned in closer to Paul - to push him away. Everyone knows that the best way to surprise someone is to lure him into a false sense of security - that I saw a shimmer over Paul's shoulders.

Oh no. I shut my eyes as I willed Jesse not to do anything he'd regret.

Only Paul took the fact that I'd closed my eyes as an invitation and chose that moment to collide our lips.

Once again my kiss was cut short. Only this time it was because Jesse had grabbed the back of Paul's t-shirt and pulled him off of me with a growl, causing Paul to lose his balance.

"You stay away from her, Slater." Jesse snarled at the boy on the floor.

Paul looked hesitantly up at me.

It was a minute before I remembered that Paul didn't know I could see Jesse and that he was obviously expecting me to be a bit more confused over the fact that he'd been wrenched away from me by an invisible force.

Once I'd schooled my face into what I thought was a suitable expression, Paul looked back towards Jesse who was stood there shaking with rage.

"She just told you that it was over!" Jesse shouted. "Why didn't you listen?"

Paul cockily picked himself back up from the floor and sauntered towards me again. My response was to cringe away from him.

I heard Jesse let out another growl.

"Oh, come off it!" Paul shouted to Jesse. Or, you know, to himself depending on whether you were a mediator or not. Which Paul didn't know I was.

I groaned. Wow, confusing.

"Um, Paul?" I asked deciding to intervene. "Why are you talking to yourself?"

Hey, I'm not as bad as an actor as I thought I was.

"Oh, um" Paul was flustered. Maybe I should just tell him what I was.

"Yeah, Slater," I heard Jesse snigger from behind him, Paul having blocked my view of him. "Why are you talking to yourself?"

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. Jesse was so obviously having fun with this.

Paul's eyes narrowed into slits.

"Excuse me," he said to me before turning around and punching what looked like thin air.

Well, to anybody else. But, I saw what it was really. I saw the man I love's head jerk sideways with the force of the blow.

"Jesse!" I shouted before I could stop myself.

Both hands clapped over my mouth as I watched Paul freeze - the only movement in his body was the slight flicker of tension on his neck. He turned slowly to face me.

"Jesse?" he hissed. "Who is Jesse, Suze?"

"Um," I tried desperately. "No one?"

"You can see him!" He roared angrily. "All that time, all those excuses, it was for him?!"

Paul's finger pointed towards Jesse who wasn't the least bit injured due to his status as ghost. I should have remembered that that was the case. Ghosts cannot got hurt, because they're already dead. Now I'd ruined everything. Me and my big mouth.

"Leave her alone, Slater." Jesse spoke in a bored tone of voice, a twinkle in his eye as he looked at me. "She can't help it if I'm the better man."

"Why you -" Paul broke off his sentence to restart the fight with Jesse.

Only I was sure to stop it before it began this time. I ran in between Jesse and Paul who, thankfully, saw me in time and stopped the course of his fist. I had my back to Jesse.

Paul glared at the both of us as Jesse's arm snaked around my waist.

"You'll pay for this de Silva," he threatened. "I'll make it so you can never see Suze ever again."

"That's not going to happen," I told him assuredly. And it wasn't. There's no way I was going to not see Jesse again. I loved him too much.

Without another word Paul stormed out of the alcove we'd been in.

I leaned back towards Jesse as all of my bravado left me and I was shaking as what he'd threatened sunk in. What if he could find a way to split us up? Forever?

Jesse was there to comfort me, though.

"Don't worry, querida," he whispered, placing a kiss on the top of my head. "He won't do it."

I nodded, agreeing with him.

Paul was only 16. While he may be a mediator, we only help ghosts move on. And by the sound of Jesse's reassurances to me, he didn't plan on doing that very soon. Everything was going to be fine.