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Willie was in pain.
It wasn't physical. No, it really wasn't. But it was there. And it hurt.
To explain why, he'd have to start at the very beginning. About a month ago, he'd bumped into a blond. His name was Alex, and he'd been having the cutest afterlife crisis Willie had ever had the pleasure of witnessing.
Willie quickly grew very fond of Alex, and wanted to impress him. The easiest way to do that seemed like helping him and his bandmates get revenge on someone for stealing their songs.
That was a mistake.
It was the worst thing Willie had ever done.
Now he had to watch Alex tremble in pain every half an hour or so. Shaking, overcome with powerful jolts of electricity that threatened to poof him out of existence. That threatened to take away the best thing Willie had in his life. His love.
"Did I close my fist around something delicate, did I shatter you?"
He regretted ever bringing Alex to Caleb. He regretted everything. He'd practically begged his boyfriend to accept the offer, anything so he could stay. But Alex and his bandmates were stubborn. And they didn't want to join Caleb's band. They cared too much about Julie. And he couldn't blame them. She sounded wonderful, and he knew she'd told them they should do the same thing.
"What's a life time of achievement, if I push you to the edge and you're too polite to leave me?"
Before Alex came along, Willie had everything he'd ever thought he needed. And after Alex came along? Willie knew his life was complete. The guilt was eating him alive (even if he technically wasn't), and Alex refused to even blame him for what happened. It hurt even more when his boyfriend put on a smile and pretended to be okay. Willie could clearly see he wasn't.
"Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring"
He thought about the month they'd spent together. Their little "dates" felt like a lifetime in and of itself. The other day, they'd gone to a theme park. Alex was eyeing this huge teddy bear, but Willie's aim wasn't good enough to win it for him. He hated that. But maybe it was for the better. Maybe this way, after Alex was gone he wouldn't have a painful reminder of what had been. Of what had ended because of him.
The other day, Willie had seen Alex holding a cake. He'd mentioned how his birthday was coming up and his mom always used to make this lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. It was a weird combination, but he'd loved it. Alex tried to make it for him. And succeeded. And just as Willie was riding towards him, a jolt made him curl up on the ground, and the cake dropped to the pavement. Alex apologized profusely, but he didn't see that Willie didn't care about any cake. Willie just cared about him.
The jolts had gotten particularly bad, occuring every ten minutes or so. Both Alex and Willie were quiet. The end was near, and they could both feel it. Willie couldn't breathe with all the heaviness in the air. That's when he'd poofed all the way to New York. To Coney Island.
"And now I'm sitting on a bench in Coney Island wondering where did my baby go."
He knew he wouldn't be there when it finally happened. He didn't think he could bare being there when the love of his (after)life ceased to exist. So he sat here. Vision blurry, eyes watery, clutching his skateboard to his chest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The end was getting near. Alex, Reggie and Luke were together. They were scared, but strangely at peace. Julie was with him. Luke had his head in her lap, and she was playing with his hair. She flinched every time they got a jolt. She couldn't help it. Human reflex.
"The sight that flashed before me was your face."
It was quiet. No one had anything to say. And Alex knew exactly when it came. Right before he poofed out of existence, his whole life flashed before his eyes. The last thing he saw...was Willie's face.
And then everything went dark.