After Jesse dropped me off at home, telling me that he would be there at seven o' clock to pick me up, I walked inside, expecting to see an empty living room. After all, it was almost dinnertime, so Andy would be in the kitchen cooking. My mother would be sitting at the table talking to him. David would be in his room studying (obviously), and Brad would have already done something and would be sulking in his room. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the living room and found my entire family in there.
Brad was looking sulky (no surprise there), and David just looked like…well, David. Andy was sitting across from Brad, glaring a bit. My mother was sitting next to Andy, serene as always." Family meeting, I presume?" I said dryly, as I stood in the doorway.
"Not exactly," said Andy shortly, still staring hard at Brad, "Someone left their window open all day today in order to get his room cooler, and instead, a whole hive of bees build a nest in his light fixture." My, mother laid her hand on Andy's arm, obviously in an effort to get him to calm down. "I'm sure that it was an accident," she said soothingly. I could tell who the culprit was, obviously, but looking closer at Brad, I could notice red marks on his arms where bees had stung him. Andy had similar marks. "Is the whole upstairs infested?" I asked delicately, as it seemed that Andy was about to explode.
"Brad's room is uninhabitable until Monday, when the exterminators can come out here and get rid of the swarm. The ventilation to David's room is connected to Brad's and I can't risk any bees getting into David's room." David nodded enthusiastically "I'm allergic," he said, "It is estimated that between one and two million people in the United States are allergic to the Apis mellifera ligustica, the common bee of North America. Between ninety and one hundred people are reported to die from bee stings annually, but the number in actuality is most likely much higher as many of these, sting-related deaths are misreported as heart attacks, heat stroke, and other conditions."
As usual, we all stared at him wordlessly for a few moments, me and my mother with our mouths hanging open a bit, and then returned to the earlier conversation that we had been having. "Anyway, Brad and David will have to sleep in Jake's room this weekend, as I have no inclination to have David swell up to three times his size. Brad, however…" Andy sighed, and then looked up again. "And what is the lesson we have taken from all of this, people?" We all muttered about how we should all keep our windows closed when we are not in our rooms. "Good," Andy said, standing up, "Meeting dismissed."
I turned to my mother as Andy walked into the kitchen and said, "I am going to go get ready for tonight." I was already assessing my situation. I had about two hours to take a shower, pick out an outfit and in general make myself look fabulous for my date with Jesse.
My mom said "Goodness, I had forgotten all about that, Susie. It has been a while since he asked if it was all right to take you out. How are you two doing?" Mom and Andy were very fond of Jesse, as he was the most polite boy that they had ever met. No surprise considering that the only boy that they had around to compare him with was Brad, who had the tact and intelligence of a gorilla. No, the gorilla was more tactful and intelligent than Brad.
"We are very happy together." I said, smiling slightly. It was true, though. Jesse and I were so much closer now that he was, well, alive. Part of it was that he could do normal things, like seeing a movie, or driving. The other was that everyone thought that he was awesome, and wanted to know why I had been hiding him. It made everything seem more normal. Of course there was always the disadvantage that I couldn't tell people the truth about how we had met and everything. Nonetheless, everything still awesome.
"Well, you had better get ready!" said my mom with a knowing smile, and I made my way up to my, thankfully bee-free, room. I quickly took a shower, and blow-dried my hair. Wrapped in a bathrobe, I surveyed my wardrobe. Being as this was California, it was about seventy-five degrees outside, but, being as we were near the ocean, it often got much colder at night. I picked out a long skirt in a silky fading blue material and a white tank-top, covered with a jacket that was black with pinstripes of the same blue color. Instead of straightening my hair, I just let it curl into its normal mass of loose ringlets, and then put half of it up into one of those messy, yet elegant buns. I peered at myself in the mirror, twisting so that I could see every angle. Just right, I decided; not too dressy, but just enough to impress.
The doorbell rang just as I was putting the final touch on my makeup. My mother called up the stairs, "Susie, Jesse is here!" "Coming!" I yelled back. I quickly put on some light-pink gloss, slipped on some strappy heeled black sandals, grabbed my Prada purse, surveyed my appearance once more in the mirror, tucked a stray hair into place, and set off down the stairs.
I was fully satisfied with my appearance when I saw the look on Jesse's face. He smiled in a fully appreciative manner as I came down the stairs. "You look beautiful Susannah," he said as I walked over to him. "You don't look too bad yourself," I said, admiring his dark grey pants and crisp white shirt. He handed me a bouquet of flowers, which I sniffed happily, and then handed to my mother to put in water.
Snapping out of his admiration of my appearance, Jesse turned to my mother and Andy, who had left cleaning up to see us off. "I will have her home by ten o'clock," Jesse said to Andy. "Oh, it's Friday night, make it eleven," Andy said, smiling at me. Have I mentioned how much I have come to appreciate my step-father? Jesse also looked pleased by the thought of an extra hour in my company.
Jesse and I said our farewells, and closed the door behind us. We stopped on the front step, and looked at each other. "Hi," he said very quietly. "Hi," I said just as quietly. "Shall we?" he asked, offering me his arm. "But of course," I said, accepting the arm, and, formalities being out of the way, we began making our way down the path to his car. On the way, we met Debbie Manicuso who appeared to be on her way to our front door.
"Hey Suze, and…Jesse, right?" she said, batting her eyelashes at the latter. Jesse assented, looking amused at the look on my face. OK, I know that he is the hottest guy from around these parts, but I was not happy to watch every girl falling all over herself in front of him. Seeing that Jesse was not going to respond to the apparent eye-spasm that she was having, she asked "Is Brad home?"
"He's home, but I don't know is he is allowed to go out. You could try, though." My God, anything to keep her away from Jesse. Not that I don't have absolute trust in him. I just never know what Debbie will do, although she appears to be obsessed with my step-brother. "Well, I'll just go and talk to your father," she said, her eyes still on Jesse. "You do that," I said, automatically in my mind thinking Andy is my stepfather, not my father. We parted ways, Jesse opening my door for me, and settling into his own seat. He smiled at me, and then started the car. We were off, and thankfully, alone.