A.N - Again, sorry for the late update. I'm trying my best to get them out as quick as I possibly can. Next weekend's going to be a bit tight for updates as well - seeing as I'm busy both Saturday and Sunday.

So, I'm sorry in advance for the delay. I hope you like this chapter mind. I liked writing it. xD

Suze Simon's To-Do List :

1. Dance in the Lake.

2. Listen to Jesse.

3. Try not to snap at Gina for the interruption.

Chapter Eight

"Are you ready?"

"Please. I was born ready."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded with a massive smile on my face.

"Okay. Ready, Set." Jesse laced his fingers with mine. "Jump!"

Laughing, we both ran towards the lake near Jesse's family's house and jumped together landing in the cold water with a splash.

Jesse resurfaced first, pulling me gently up by our attached hands. I resurfaced with a shiver.

"Wow." My teeth chattered. "Cold."

Jesse smiled.

"I warned you." He pulled me closer to him, his hands running up and down my arms to try and warm them up.

"Uh-huh." I agreed, kicking my legs to remain floating whilst trying to warm up. I was so glad that I'd kept my shorts on. "So, what now?"

Jesse kissed me quickly.

"Now," he announced, pulling away from me and making me pout. "We dance."

I laughed outright.

"Dance?" Jesse nodded. "How?"

He rolled his eyes at me.

"Susannah, you've been dancing for a good few years now - almost a decade?"

"Longer." I told him.

"Exactly. You should know how to dance by now."

I slapped his bare chest - yes, I know. I about screamed when he stripped off his shirt earlier - and swam a little bit away from him.

"I know how to dance." I told him. "But not how to dance in water."

Jesse smirked and swam further away from me.

"Try it." He called.

"I trust you." I called back.

A blinding smile broke out on his face and I couldn't help but smile in return.

Readying myself, I swam the short distance between us before jumping up into his arms. He caught me, as I knew he would, and then turned me around to face where the camera would be during the shoot. I'd like to say that it was a Dirty Dancing type scene, but it was more Bring It On.

He held me up for a long time, proving his strength, or it could just be to annoy me. It can get kind of scary remaining suspended in the air.

"Jesse!" I shouted at him. "Let me down."

I heard him chuckle.

"Nah," he protested. "I kind of like this."

"Jesse! I'm serious!"

I started to squirm in his hands wanting him to bring me down. All I succeeded in doing was making him lose his balance.

He slipped on something on the lake floor and fell backwards, letting go of me as he did so, pushing me forwards into the water.

I was greeted with the icy stab of the water I'd only just gotten used to - thanks to Jesse deciding to keep me out of it for so long.

Keeping my eyes shut, I pushed myself towards the surface, my chest burning in an effort to keep my breath. Finally, I surfaced with a splutter, coughing a little bit as I did so.

The surface of the lake was deadly still. And Jesse was nowhere to be seen.

"Very funny, Jesse." I called to the empty lake. I'd seen people do this type of thing in movies all the time. "You can come out now."

Another thirty seconds passed and my fear grew. Surely he couldn't hold his breath for that long? I struggled during my own trip under the water. What if he'd slipped and hit his head? He could be unconscious under there.

Gasping in a huge breath I dived under the water again, opening my eyes and searching frantically for any sign of Jesse. It was no use, the water was too dirty to see anything more than five centimetres away from me.

I felt something grab hold of my shoulder from above and I opened my mouth to scream, letting water rush into it. I was jerked upwards to the surface again.

"Don't you ever do that, Susannah!" I heard Jesse's voice scold me as I spat out the water that filled my mouth. "Don't every try to be a hero like that."

I coughed up the last of the water, my eyes watering with the burn of it against my throat.

"Excuse me?" I finally demanded of Jesse.

He looked at me disparagingly.

"Even if I had hit my head, you shouldn't have tried to help me." He told me. "You should have swam to shore, ran to the house and dialled for an ambulance."

"You would have died!" I protested.

Jesse's hands banded around my upper arms as he pulled me towards him for a bruising kiss - not that I was complaining much.

"And that's no reason for you to die too." He told me sadly. "I've been the reason for someone's death before, querida. I would hate to be the reason for your death as well."

I felt tears well up in my eyes as he reminded me of Josefina, even if he didn't know it.

"Jesse," I kissed him softly. "I wasn't going to die."

"Still, you shouldn't have gone after me."

"Well, you shouldn't have stayed down there for so long!" Jesse looked sheepish. "I was scared!"

"I'm sorry, Susannah." He told me. "I don't know what I was thinking."

I bit my lip as I nodded.

"Maybe we should get out of here." I thought out loud. "Water obviously isn't the best place for us to dance."

Jesse chuckled appreciatively.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Guess not."

We walked the short distance to the grass that surrounded the lake, my toes squelching into the lake bed as we did.

"Susannah, here."

Jesse held open a huge, extremely fluffy-looking towel for me to step in to. I held it together over my shoulders and Jesse rubbed the towel on my arms, trying to create the friction to keep me warm.

"What about you?" I asked concerned.

He winked at me.

"One step ahead of you." He slipped another towel around his shoulders, blocking his chest from my gaze.

We walked back towards the house in silence, our hands linked together, carrying the bundle of our clothes in our free arms.

"Jesse?" I asked eventually. "What did you mean, 'you've been the reason for someone's death before?'"

He sighed deeply and squeezed my hand before letting go and opening the kitchen back door.

"Get changed," he whispered, his eyes falling shut. "Then I'll tell you."

"If it's too painful, or something, you don't have to tell me."

"No, it's okay." He opened his eyes and brought them round to look at me intensely. "You should know."

I nodded quietly, pulling on my white tank top before pulling a red hoodie on top of that. It was cold out. I dressed slowly, wanting to give Jesse the time to collect his thoughts, or change his mind.

When I couldn't get away with stalling any longer, I walked into the front room, where Jesse had started up a fire in the old fireplace.

"Jesse?" I asked softly, not wanting to disturb him.

"She was my sister."

Recognition dawned on me. Josefina. She appeared behind Jesse, looking at him sadly. I walked over to Jesse and sat next to him, wrapping my arm around his waist in comfort.

"She died two years ago in a car accident."

I nodded without saying a word. I already knew that part; Josefina had told me.

"I was driving," Jesse continued, his eyes staring into a blank space in front of him, obviously lost in the memories of that day. "It was late. We were coming back home from a ballet performance." He smiled slightly. "Josefina loved ballet.

"She'd gotten the tickets for her birthday the week before. I offered to go with her."

Jesse swallowed heavily.

"There was another car," his voice shook. "The driver ran his car straight into Josefina's side and carried on driving. The force of it killed Josefina instantly and sent the car spiralling off the road. It smashed into a lamppost and knocked me out.

"When I woke up, I was in hospital." He took a deep breath. "Josefina was dead and I'd been in a comatose state for a few weeks. My mom and dad were devastated. Josefina died, and it was all my fault."

I glanced over at the ghost who was openly crying for her brother. She was shaking her head silently.

"No." She whispered. "It's not his fault. It's not your fault, Jesse."

"It's not your fault, Jesse." I repeated, partly for Josefina's benefit, mostly because I felt it too. "How could it have been?"

He turned away from me.

"It is." He insisted. "I was driving. I'd bought her the ballet tickets. I drove home a different way to what I normally would have done because I wanted to be there sooner. If only I had just …"

He trailed off.

I jumped up and stood in front of Jesse, kneeling down until we were eye level.

"No Jesse." I repeated. "It wasn't you're fault. It was the driver's. Did they ever catch the person?"

"No." He said quietly. "Never."

I felt my heart break for him. He'd been through so much. And then earlier, back at the lake, when he'd resurfaced and I hadn't been there …

I shivered. I can't imagine what he must have felt.

"Josefina died," he whispered. "And all I was left with was this scar."

He gestured to the scar that cut through his eyebrow. The one I'd wondered about many a time, but didn't dare to ask him.

"Listen to me Jesse," I took his head in my hands and forced him to look at me. "It's not your fault. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can move on."

He was silent for a while before nodding.

"Yeah, you're right." He smiled.

"Well, yeah." I joked.

"Thank you."

And then he kissed me. A slow, languid kiss that felt oh-so-good. His hands tangled in my hair as I moved to sit on his lap.

But then, annoying invention that it was, my phone rang.

"Ignore it." Jesse pulled me back in for another breathtaking kiss.

"Mmm, I can't."

I wrenched myself away from his lips and search for my phone. It stopped ringing.

"Oh well," I turned back to Jesse who had a big grin on his face, even if his eyes did betray some of the sadness that still lingered within him. "If it's important, they can ring back."

The cell phone rang again and Jesse pulled away with a sigh.

"I guess it was important."

I nodded and looked for my phone again. I found it in time and answered it, bringing the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" My greeting was short and screamed how angry I was for the interruption.

"Sorry to interrupt your Jesse-smooches, Suze," Gina's voice boomed down the line. "But there's been an accident."

My face paled, thoughts of Jesse's story racing to the forefront of my mind.

"Who?" I whispered.

"Bryce," she replied sadly. "Jake and him decided to go surfing today - being typical Californians, I'm thinking." I could practically see her roll her eyes. "Anyway, there was a particularly bad wave which Bryce decided to try and surf."

Jesse was looking at me in concern, squeezing my hand in silent support.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He was thrown off his board. Landed pretty painfully." She replied. "He broke his leg."

"What?!" I demanded.

"What?" Jesse asked. "What is it?"

I ignored him and talked to Gina instead.

"What are we supposed to do?" I asked her.

"I was hoping you could talk to our choreographer for that," she countered. "And seeing as you're with him right now …"

"Right." I nodded, even though she couldn't see me. "I'll do that. I'll call you later."

She hung up and I flipped my phone shut, my eyes closing as well.

"Susannah?" Jesse asked. "What happened?"

"Bryce." I sighed as Jesse clenched his teeth in anger. "Oh, no. Not like that. I'm with you, now. I was never with Bryce!"

I hastened to calm him down.

"Then what is it?" He asked.

"He broke his leg." I told Jesse. "Which means he can't do the shoot because he'll be in a cast for six weeks. Which means I don't have a partner."

Jesse laughed.

"That's it?" He asked incredulously. "Really? That's why you were so upset?"

I nodded slowly.

"Querida, I can be your dance partner for the video." He drew me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. "After all, I know the routine already."