Photo
By: afallenblackrose
Disclaimer: All lines in italics are from Meg Cabot's book Haunted book five of the Mediator series. Unfortunately I do not own the characters and what they say. I wish I did.
Chapter Four: That I Wanna Say
I was about to walk out of the tunnel when Paul stopped me.
"Suze, wait I got a better idea." He said.
"Paul, I don't have time to for one of your brilliant ideas." I said.
"Remember how I told you about shifting?" He asked.
"Yeah, but what does this have to do with anything?" I asked.
"Why take the car when you can shift?" He said raising an eyebrow.
"You have got to be kidding me." I looked at Paul. He gazed back serious. "I guess not. Okay, fine, how does it work again?"
"Close your eyes and imagine your house." He said.
"Imagine my front porch that way it won't be weird if we just pop in." I responded.
"Okay, your front porch then." Paul said and closed his eyes. I did too and imagined my front porch and me being there. And when I opened my eyes I was there.
"Interesting." I said as Paul opened his eyes and grinned.
"Told you it would work." He did have a point and that was scared me. Paul was actually right about something. Scary. I opened the front door to find a disaster. Empty beer cups everywhere but no sign of my step brothers. And that was a good thing, 'cause if my step brothers were there then I would of slugged each one.
"Whoa, it looks like a natural disaster hit." Paul said from beside me.
"If you see my step-brothers let me know." I said clenching my fists.
"Yes ma'am." Paul said and ventured further into the house, with me following. Girls were passed out on the floor and the couch. With their shirts half way off and their jeans unzipped. Oh jeez. I wasn't going to slug my step brothers I was going to kill them.
"Suze?" A boy moaned. I looked up and there was Sleepy.
"Jake, what happened?" I asked.
"The party got a little out of hand." He responded. I sighed.
"Okay get everyone out of here. Did you see where Paul went?" I asked Sleepy.
"Um… I think he went upstairs?" He said and went to go wake up people and send them home. Upstairs? Why was Paul upstairs? I treaded up the stairs and noticed that my bedroom door was open. When I got there I heard two voices: Paul and Jesse's ? Jesse was still there!
"Slater." Jesse said in a not particularly friendly voice.
"Jesse," Paul said pleasantly. "How are you doing this evening?"
"I was doing better," Jesse said, "before you got here."
Paul's dark eyebrows rose, as if he were surprised to hear this. "Really? Suze didn't tell you the news then?"
"What n-" Jesse started to ask.
But I leaned on the door frame with my arms crossed over my chest and asked,
"What news Paul?" Paul turned around stunned to see me there.
"Nothing never mind Suze." He said.
"Well, if that's the case, Paul, why don't you go downstairs and help Jake and Brad get everyone out?" I asked pleasantly.
"Yeah, sure." Paul said and was about to go through the doorway when he stopped and said.
"Oh I forgot to give this to you while we were at the movies." He dug into the pocket of his jeans and extracted something small and dark from it. "You left it in my bedroom the other day."
I looked down at what he held in his outstretched palm. It was my tortoiseshell hair clip, the one I'd been missing. But not since I'd been in his room. I'd been missing it since Monday morning, the first day of school. I must have dropped it then, and he picked it up.
Picked it up and held it all week, just so he could fling it in Jesse's face, as he was doing now.
And ruin my life. Because that's what Paul was. Even after what I told him at the movies. Paul wasn't a mediator. Not a shifter. A ruiner.
A quick glance at Jesse showed me that those casually uttered words- Oh, I forgot to give this to you while we were at the movies you left it in my bedroom the other day-had hit home, all right. Jesse looked as if he'd been punched in the stomach.
I knew how he felt. Paul had that effect on people.
"Thanks," I said, snatching the hair clip from his hand. "But I dropped it at school, not your place."
"Are you sure?" Paul smiled at me. It was amazing how guileless he could look when he wanted to. "I could have sworn you left it in my bed."
The fist came out of nowhere. I swear I didn't see it coming. Seriously I didn't see it at all! And I was standing right there. But still it hit full force into Paul's face.
Paul hadn't seen it coming, either. Otherwise he would have ducked. Taken completely off guard, he went spinning right into my dressing table. Perfume and nail polish bottles rained down on Paul's body collided heavily with the ruffle-skirted desk.
I rushed towards Paul. While screaming at Jesse. "YOU IDIOT! He was trying to get you to do that. Why are you giving him the satisfaction?"
"No I wasn't." Paul groaned as his nose bleed. I grabbed some tissues and had him hold them to his nose with his head tilted forward. Jesse looked at me in disbelief.
"Susannah he tried to kill you! And you're defending him and giving him first aid! Are you crazy?" Jesse said.
"No, Jesse I'm not crazy. Paul said he didn't try to kill me and you know what I believe him. And if you don't that's too bad." I said.
"Susannah…" Jesse whispered.
"No, Jesse, I don't want to hear it."
"Oh, I think you do, Suze." Paul said taking the tissue away from his nose the bleeding stopped.
"Paul what are you talking about?" I asked.
Paul smirked. "Tell me something, Jesse. Does she sigh when you kiss her, too?"
I wanted to kill him myself. How could he? How could he?
The real question, of course, was how could I? How could I have been so stupid as to have let him kiss me like that? Because I had let him-I had even kissed him back. None of this would be happening if I had exercised a little more self-restraint.
I had been hurt, and I had been angry, and I had been, let's face it, lonely.
Just like Paul.
But I had never purposefully meant to hurt anyone.
Author's Notes: There you go another chapter of Photo for you all! It's still short I know but now you have to review right? So go review and as always I'll update soon!