Thanks for all your reviews. Your support really means a lot to me, and, it makes me very happy. Anyways, I've updated, so you better read.
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To say I looked surprised would be an understatement. I mean, here I was, getting ready to have a perfectly normal meal, as normal as you can when there's a murderer sitting on the side opposite yours, when Jesse shows up. And, he's dressed as one of the waiters. Is there something I don't know about? Apparently, there is, because as I excuse myself and grab Jesse in order to have a "talk" with him, he tells me that he's working here.
"What do you mean, you're working here?" I ask.
"I'm sure it's not that hard to understand, Susannah," he says irritably, unable to look at me. I don't know what he's so upset about. It's my date that he's ruined.
"It is hard to understand," I start saying, "how is it that when I'm out on a date at some fancy restaurant, which, if I remember correctly, I told you about, you happen to coincidently work there?" I ask, getting quite hysterical.
"And, if I remember correctly, you told me you were going out with a friend," Jesse says contemptuously, "not on a date with that thing." On the word thing, Jesse, looking disgusted, points at Josh.
"Who are you calling a thing?" I ask. "You don't even know him." God, look at me, defending Josh-the-murderer.
Jesse, completely ignoring me, goes, "it's not like I care, really, I'm only helping out a friend."
Though, whether he cares or not, he does, if I may say so, look a bit disappointed.
I, puzzled by his remark, go "What?"
"You know, for the contest, I'm helping out a friend. He works here, and, since he isn't feeling very well, I offered to take his shift," he says.
"Are you even allowed to do that?" I ask, rather loudly, and a couple sitting nearby gives us a frightened sort of look.
"If you have the right qualifications," he says huffily, looking down at the floor.
"Right, whatever you're doing here Jesse, I want you to stay out of this," I say. All I needed was Jesse getting involved with "thing" over there and getting his head chopped off.
I stalk off.
As I near our table, Josh goes, "What was that all about?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it," I say, and, after a short pause, I continue with, "So, where were we?"
"You were about to order," he says, smiling at me.
"Right." I smile awkwardly back. A waiter comes over and I order my chicken with bread. Josh orders something that I can't pronounce.
I sit back, my heart still beating rapidly. Out of all things, why this? Why is Jesse here?
I doubt Josh would be too happy about Jesse, and, God only knows what he'll do when he isn't too happy.
"So," Josh says smilingly, looking at me, "how was this past week, get hit by any more basketballs?"
"No," I say absently.
"That's good to hear…at our campus there was this…and it reminded me of…
Why does he always have to ruin everything?
…so I'm thinking that…
He must be really stupid if he thinks I'm going to believe his lie about helping out his sickly little friend.
…which I guess is good because…Suze, are you all right?"
"Uh, what?" I start. Was he saying something? I need to pay attention, this could be important.
"You had this far off look, I just wondered if you were feeling ok…"
"I'm fine," I say, reverting my attention back to Josh. "What were you saying?"
"Oh…just something about school and…" he starts to repeat and my mind kind of drifts off. This, let me tell you, is not good, since it kind of defeats the entire purpose of my being here.
I try to focus on what he is saying when the object gripping my thoughts suddenly appears beside me. And, who is this so-called mysterious object?
It's Jesse.
He comes over with my order, a mocking smile on his lips. I see that he's feeling a lot better.
"I'm going to be your waiter this evening," Jesse whispers in my ear. He walks off so proud of himself, as though he just won a Grammy. He is so incredibly sick.
I don't know what he's trying to do, but I really dislike it.
Why does he have to make everything so much harder?
Josh starts talking again but I don't hear a thing that he says. I need to figure out what to do about Jesse.
No, I must stop thinking about Jesse. Focus on Josh. Josh is the important figure here.
I smile up at Josh and start eating my chicken. He starts talking about this really peculiar thing that happened to him, where his biology professor called his home and told his mom that he was chosen to go on this island expedition thing, but when he asked his professor about it in class, she said that she didn't do any such thing, and that they don't even have any island expedition things.
"Weird, huh?" he asks me. I nod, turning my face away so he wouldn't figure out from the guilty expression on my face the culprit's identity and yell, "You!" But I doubt he'd be able to decipher my involvement in the aforementioned criminal act from my face expression. I guess that a guilty conscience makes you paranoid. No, change that, I'm certain. There's definitely no guessing.
I start making up peculiar things that I had happen to me, which Josh thoroughly enjoys because I make them really farfetched.
We somehow end up on the topic of cards, and then I remember, that card, the one that I found at the banquet hall, the Jack with the lighter. Should I ask him about it?
But, before I have a chance to say anything, Josh stretches out his hand and touches my cheek, much in the same way Jesse did a few days before, though this time my heart doesn't stop or anything.
But, as Josh is about to kiss me, a plate of these weird looking things lands on our table.
This sort of ruins the moment. Thank god. I thought I was going to have to take drastic measures and tell him I had to go to the bathroom, which would be extremely rude. I mean, here he is, trying to kiss me, and I tell him, right at the point when his lips are about to collide with mine, that I have to go to the bathroom. Like, how would that make me look?
Anyway, you'd expect Josh to be grateful for the plate of weird looking things that Jesse brought over, but all he says is, "I didn't order this."
To which Jesse responds by saying, "Oh well," and walks off.
Under any other circumstances this might have appeared funny, but, under the ones I'm currently residing in, it had the totally opposite effect.
I needed to act quickly to try and save the situation. I couldn't let Josh get angry.
"Well, I'm sure they're really good," I say, putting one in my mouth. Bad idea.
I chew-vomit-smile all at the same time, and, when Josh isn't looking, I spit the thing out into the lake. Josh, who watched me chew, and, thinking that I probably swallowed the thing, thinks that maybe it is edible, so he grabs one and starts eating it.
Josh, to my utter amazement, says that it's really good. Whatever rocks your boat, I guess.
He tells me to have some more. I say that my food was so filling that I can't eat anything anymore.
After we're done our meal, Josh asks me if I want to dance. This automatically makes me think of dance lessons (by which I mean the horrible way that I dance).
"Oh, um, I can't…dance…I don't…" I say, making a face, to which Josh responds by grabbing my hand and pulling me all the way to the dance floor.
There is music, by the way, provided by some people playing their violins.
A few people are already dancing.
"It's really easy, I'll show you," Josh says, taking hold of me. He takes control of my hands, putting one around his neck, the other on top of his shoulder.
I feel my face grow hot, and it's not because being close to Josh gives me any sort of rush or anything, but because I just caught sight of Jesse. He has taken a seat at our table and now watches me as though I'm a thoroughly amusing TV show. He's not very excited though, if the pissed-off expression he is wearing is any indication.
Josh begins dragging me around in circles. "You see, it's easy," he says.
I start staring interestedly at the floor because I can't bear to look at Jesse.
What's wrong with me? I shouldn't have to look away. I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just dancing with my date.
Then why do I feel so wretched? My insides feel like someone has taken a big shovel and is passionately ripping out my guts and throwing them down to the floor for small creatures to eat.
And why, may I ask, is Jesse looking at me like that, like this wounded puppy? It's so totally unpleasant. Like, if he stabbed me with a fork and threw me in the lake I wouldn't have felt as bad as I do just looking at him.
I was incredibly glad when we went back to our seats.
I notice that Jesse left.
I don't get it, why is he so mad at me? It couldn't obviously be because he wanted to dance too.
It's me. He's mad at me. But I don't get what I did wrong. What could he possibly be mad at me for?
A waiter comes over. It isn't Jesse. He wants to know if we're ordering dessert. I look at the menu and absently pick some sort of fruitcake and a strawberry smoothie. Josh orders Poire Belle-Hélènes.
I stare attentively at my hands. Josh asks me if I'm ok. I say I'm fine.
I start playing with the napkins when Jesse brings me my dessert. He doesn't even look at me, which makes me feel even worse.
"Oh, can I also have some water with my order?" Josh asks. Jesse looks at Josh as though he's something disgusting, like a worm, then leaves.
He comes back a few seconds later with the water and Josh's order.
"Here you go, sir, your water," Jesse says.
What happens next is so totally unbelievable that I can only describe it in this manner.
Jesse: (accidentally on purposely trips, the water within the glass tips over and gets all over Josh, his Poire Belle-Hélènes land straight in his face)
Me: In shock.
Jesse: "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry, sir" (not looking very sorry at all, not even sounding very sorry. Actually, he sounds quite pleased).
Josh: (Poire Belle-Hélènes stuck to his forehead and chocolate covering dripping down his face) "Um, it's all right, just an accident" (tries to wipe himself off with napkins).
Jesse: (not helping at all) "Oh, ok" (and walks off).
He just walks off. It's not at all like he just dropped his customer's food all over their face, oh no, nothing like that.
I tell Josh that it's ok if he wants to go home now. He takes me up on my offer, and, after we, or should I say, he, pays up at the front, we leave. I tell Josh that he doesn't have to drive me home, that I'll get there myself, since I still have some things to do around here. He asks me if I'm sure for about a hundred times, then, when he's sure that I'm sure, he leaves.
I go back inside, find Jesse, drag him, in plain view of all the customers, outside, and demand what he was thinking.
"It was an accident," he says simply.
"An accident? That is such bull, Jesse, and you didn't even bother to help him clean up," I say angrily. Does he know what he did? This date was set up specifically for the collection of evidence about Josh's murdering Gabrielle, which, if not already obvious, went completely askew, and, I have Jesse to thank for that.
Plus, I very much doubt that Josh would ever want to take me out again after what happened today.
"So?" he asks, as though all he did wrong was bring Josh a fork instead a spoon.
"What do you mean, 'so'?" I demand, "You shouldn't have even been here in the first place!"
"If I hadn't been there who knows what he would have done," Jesse says defensively. Oh, I see, now he's blaming everything on Josh. Jesse has some major denial issues going on, that's for sure.
"Done what? What was he going to do?" I shout heatedly. Other than kill me, that is.
Jesse scoffs, and, watching the floor as though it's the most amusing thing he has ever seen, he says, "Oh, don't act like you don't know."
"I…no, I don't," I say, confused. As far as I'm concerned Josh didn't do anything wrong.
Jesse, frustration almost visibly dripping down his face, says, "Wh…why him…what do you see in that?"
"That is a lot nicer than you!" I shout. Right away I wish I hadn't said that.
Jesse winces, as though my words might have actually hit him.
"Right," he says gruffly.
"Right, then, I'm leaving," I say.
"Of course you are," Jesse says sarcastically, "I'm driving you home."
"No, you're not," I say, pushing my eyebrows together. First he yells at me then he offers to drive me home? Who does he think I am?
"Then how are you planning to get back?" Jesse asks.
I don't even bother replying, I just stalk off angrily. Jesse tries to stop me, but I ward him off.
I get as far as the corner when my body grows incredibly hot and I contract a persistent stabbing pain in my forehead. It feels as though someone is constantly hitting me on the head with a baseball bat.
I grab the wall to try and stabilize myself, but the pain gets even worse. Now I feel as though someone is drilling a hole in my head.
Everything around me starts to bounce up and down. The stop sign right beside me begins to wave merrily. I detect a vomiting sensation.
Then, thinking that nothing could possibly get any worse, my stomach begins to hurt. It feels really horrible, like, if anyone where to ever shoot me in the abdomen, that pain would probably bear a whole lot of resemblance to the pain I feel there now. Suddenly, I can't see anything in front me (might be because it's getting darker, but I believe that it's due to my eyes malfunctioning).
The world starts spinning.
After a few seconds, darkness falls all around me.
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A/N: Hope you liked it. Sorry for the end. PLEASE REVIEW.