White Wedding – Chapter Fourteen

"One second!" I heard a voice yell from the inside the room.

"Hey Jeb."

He opened the door and gestured for me to enter. "Well hello there Melanie. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

I took a quick look around his room before responding. It was so much bigger than everyone else's. I guess this would make sense, considering he was the one to find this place so many people call their home now. His room didn't feel like a home to me, however. It felt more like just a place to sleep, perhaps like a hotel room would feel. It felt almost empty, despite all his belongings spread out everywhere. Almost as if he had not expected to stay here for that long and never took the time to make his house into a home. I immediately felt bad about this. I somehow felt responsible for never taking the time to get to really know him. After all, we are family.

"I just came by to see if you wanted to talk."

"Talk hmm?

"Yeah, we are family, right? We haven't really spent any time together since I got here. I just wanted to change that."

Okay, so maybe this was a stretch. We are family, but that wasn't the reason I was here to talk to him. I was a little nervous that he would be able to tell this from my body language, but if he did he didn't say it out loud.

"Well what would you like to talk about?" He motioned me to take a seat on the bed. I took him up on his offer and sat down. In my head I was hoping I wouldn't have to stay here for that long. Just long enough to get what I needed.

"Oh, I don't know," I said innocently. "I never got to hear the whole story about how you found this place."

A smile appeared on his lips. "Well," he looked at me and put his hand on my knee, "that is one incredible story."

And so I sat there for over an hour listening to Jeb's "incredible story," which as it turns out, is pretty incredible. I nodded and agreed in all of the right places, only adding comments when I felt they were needed. Overall I let Jeb to do all of the talking; he didn't seem to mind. If nothing else I learned that once you get him talking about something he loves, there is no stopping him.

"And that is how I came to find this fascinating place," he looked around and patted my knee a few times.

"Wow."

"I know, I am one lucky guy for that."

"So," I said, finally able to ask the question I had been waiting all day for, "was anything here when you showed up? I mean like any signs of anyone else living here or anything?" I felt my heart beat quicken.

"Nope, no signs of anyone living here."

Now it could have been my imagination, but I could have sworn he put an emphasis on "living." Do I press the issue or will he get suspicious? I decided to press my luck.

"Hard to imagine you would be the only person to ever come here. I would have thought someone would have come out here before and, oh I don't know, left a beer bottle or something?"

He turned to look me straight in the eye. I could tell something was off when I said this. His body language changed dramatically. He had been sitting loosely and clam, but now he stiffened up. Was he hiding something?

We continued to stare into each others eyes for about twenty more seconds before he blinked and turned away. "Well now that you mention it, I did find a camera in the main room."

"Do you still have it?" I questioned, a little too quickly.

"Yeah, I think so. I put it in a box over here," Jeb said. He got up off the bed and grabbed a box by the wall. He brought it back and set it next to me. I peeked into it and saw what looked to me like a bunch of junk. Must have been his past possessions that he considered important.

"Mel?"

Jeb and I both looked up to see Kyle standing in the doorway. I turned my head slightly as if to question what was wrong.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked.

"Um, I'm kind of in the middle of something, Kyle. Can we talk later?" I didn't want him to get in the way of me and the piece of evidence I needed. I had to see this camera for myself and find out what was on it. It might have nothing, but it could be exactly what I need.

"It's about Sunny." He sounded weary. He put his hands up on his head and sighed.

I rolled my eyes, but was careful to not let him notice. "Go ahead, Melanie. We've talked enough for one day. There is always tomorrow." Jeb did the shoo shoo movement with his hand. When I didn't stand up he practically pushed me off the bed. I caught my balance and walked out of the room, looking over my shoulder one last time to memorize which box the camera was in.

We walked back to his room before he said a word.

"Is everything okay?"

He looked up to the ceiling and then back at me. "I've been thinking.... a lot lately."

"About what?"

Kyle put his hands in his pockets. "About everything. Like how is it possible that Wanda and Ian have completely different personalities now, but Sunny can't find Jodi?"

"Kyle, there is still hope for that. She's trying and she won't give up. She wants to help you."

"I know she is still trying, but it's been too long. She won't find her. I've accepted that now."

"Then what is this about?"

I was annoyed that Kyle would ruin my opportunity for proof to tell me that he had accepted that Jodi wasn't coming back. We were friends, but was this really necessary? He could have waited till I was done with Jeb to tell me, but no, that is not how Kyle is.

"I'm worried that Sunny won't be able to cope with us not being together. Like Ian did with Wanda."

"You think she will hurt herself?" I ask incredulously. I did not think she would be capable of such a thing.

"No. I think she might just leave." I could tell he was genuinely worried about Sunny. He still loved her, he was just not in love with her.

"Hey, Kyle. Oh, hey babe, didn't know you were in here. Sorry to interrupt." Jared walked over to give me a kiss on the cheek.

"'Sup Jared," Kyle said.

"Just came to ask if you had seen Mel, but I guess I found her." He let out a small chuckle and put his hand around my waist. I rested my right hand on his.

Kyle leaned against the wall and slid down so he was sitting. His knees were in front of him and he rested his head in his hands. He looked too stressed, I wished there was something I could do to help him. If I could just get his mind off of Sunny and Jodi maybe he could be happy, even if just for a little while.

"Kyle do you believe in ghosts?" I shot out without thinking. Apparently I had caught both Kyle and Jared off guard because they both turned to look at me with confused expressions.

"Oh, not this again." Jared said.

I took his hand off of my waist. "Jared, if we are going to get married you are going to have to start trusting me more."

"Babe I do trust you. I just think you are way out of line with this whole ghost thing."

I was thankful that Kyle asked, "What ghost thing?" so I did not have to continue my argument with Jared. I love him, but when we didn't agree on something there was no getting around it. That makes me a little nervous for when we start to plan our wedding. We haven't talked about any of it because of all the drama that has been happening around here. Knowing him he will want something more romantic while I would go for something more casual. Don't get me wrong, I love to get dolled up every once in a while, but my dream wedding was not like most girls I knew. I had to push these thoughts to the back of my mind. Hopefully we can get past all the drama soon so we can move on with our lives. I need my bridesmaids happy and normal, but that is seeming to be a difficult task.

I went on to explain to Kyle what happened in my dream. Unlike when Jeb tells a story, I don't go on and on about all of the little details. I only told the parts that were important. When I finished with my ghost theory about how Wanda is A, and Ian is J, I stopped to let it all soak in for Kyle and for Jared as well. Maybe hearing it a second time would somehow make it more real for him.

"Still seems like a lot of bullshit to me, no offense hon." Of course I would be mistaken. I always hated how someone says something offensive, but then adds 'no offense' at the end. Like that takes all of the offensive parts out of it. I didn't let him know that it bothered me, however.

"I don't know, Jared. She has a point. I mean, one day they are fine and then the next they are completely different? Seems pretty odd to me as well."

"And that's not all." I said, holding my finger up for dramatic effect. They both nodded for me to continue. I went on to explain why I went to talk to Jeb and how I was forced to listen to his long story for an hour, which led me to the camera.

Kyle raised a hand to smack his head slightly, "I thought it was weird that you were talking to Jeb. No wonder you didn't want to talk to me, he has the camera!"

I put my hands on my hips. "Exactly." I raised my eyebrows at Jared who didn't look any more convinced.

I will just have to show him the camera when I get it and then he will be forced to believe me. It hurt that Jared would still not take my side, but at least I had Kyle. He was proving to be one of the best friends I ever had. In the past few days he had really opened up to me and I now felt that I could open up to him. If he could believe my theory about ghosts surely he would believe anything else I had to say without thinking I was crazy. Unlike my fiancée.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get that camera!" Kyle said, jumping to his feet.