"And that would make me happy, how?" I asked, plucking a soda from his fridge and lifting the tab.
"Well," replied Paul, eyeing me disgustedly as I slurped the bubbles that were errupting from the can, then licking the few that had managed to stick to my nose. "Jesse, who haunts your room, is dead."
"Oh well done, genius," I said, finding myself imitating Jesse's sarcastic nature. "Most ghosts are, in fact, dead."
"Shut up, Suze. And can you please put that soda down? You're not listening to me."
"Sorry," I said, putting the can down.
"Right. Well, Jesse died because Felix Diego murdered him. 150 years later, you move into the room he haunts, and he manages to make your life, a living hell - right?"
Wrong. There was nothing hellish about sneaking a peek of those abs everyday. And that kiss - until he shoved me off - was amazing.
"It hasn't been peachy, adjusting to a male room-mate," I replied. "But I wouldn't call it hell."
The enthusiasm in Paul's eyes disappeared. Instead, he looked bored.
"Suze," he encouraged. "He confused oyu. He made you turn to drugs, and alcohol. He's going to make the remainder of our lives in Carmel a misery. But if he stayed alive, and died somewhere else-"
"I turned to drugs and alcohol because of the problems I left in Brooklyn," I said sharply. "Remember Brooklyn? Where I came from? I don't belong here in Carmel. I could easily turn around and go back home, leaving my Jesse problems here. Why go back to 1850, when I can just go back to New York?"
"Because you can't," replied Paul, seizing my hand that snaked out to grab the soda. "You said yourself, you got problems in Brooklyn. And I know you're too weak to face them. You have to stay in Carmel."
"She's not weak, Slater."
I whirled around to see Jesse standing in the kitchen doorway, nonchalantly.
"Jesse," I breathed admirably.
"Hear anything else, De Silva?" asked Paul, cautiously.
"Nothing I care to share with you," replied Jesse. I realised quickly that Jesse was every bit as smart as Paul. "But I do know, that whatever problems Susannah has back in New York, she's strong enough to face them."
"I don't care about that," snarled Paul rudely. "DId you hear any other part of the conversation?"
"Why? Feeling guilty, Slater?"
Busted. Jesse had seen through Paul's subtlty.
"No," replied Paul, quickly.
An amused smile played among Jesse's lips/ His eyes darted to me, and one eyebrow rose. His lips parted, ready to say something when -
"Suze, come on!"
Paul's eyes were closed. In one hand he was holding a small, brassy object, and with the other hand, he seized my wrist in a grip of iron before I could protest.
I turned to Jesse, and we exchanged glances of horror. Before he could pull me back, a dizzy feeling swept through my stomach and I felt myself fading.
"Jesse!" I shrieked, but it was too late. I feel through the floor, and onto grass. Paul landed next to me with a soft thud. I looked around and was horrified to see that Seventeen Mile Drive was nowhere in sight.