Jake's POV:

I stumbled backwards as he brought down his hand onto my face. Pain
erupted in my cheek and my head snapped back, causing me to fall on
the cold floor of our apartment. I let out a whimper as another slap
landed on my face. He just laughed.

"You're pathetic." he spat before delivering a sharp kick to my
stomach. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut. I wouldn't let him see me
cry. I should be used to this, it was a normal thing now. I was beaten
every day as soon as he came home, usually shit-faced drunk.

Jinxx, Andy, Sammi and Ashley told me to get help, but I never did. I
just put up with it. He told me he loved me when he was sober. Even I
didn't believe it. I had never really loved him in the first place,
but I stuck around. Don't ask me why. Even I have no idea.

"Open your eyes, bitch." he commanded. I whimpered, but did as I was
told. He pulled out the pocketknife he always carried. I gulped. He
had never actually pulled the knife on me. I had thought they were
empty threats. I began to crawl backwards as he flicked it open, but
his hand lashed out and he held me with an iron grip.

I was going to die.

Sadly, I wasn't even surprised. He quickly slashed three lines down my
stomach before grasping one of my forearms. He took great care in
re-opening each scar that littered my skin. My vision was blurring and
I wanted to scream as he flipped me onto my back, but I knew better.
He had trained me well. Resistance and screaming bring more pain. I
could feel each of his movements as he carved angry slashes into my
back. I felt the blade rip across my flesh before being harshly
stabbed in between my shoulder blades.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry out. I just let my eyes slip shut and
darkness overtake me.

I woke up to a blinding white light. When my vision cleared, I
discovered I was still lying on the floor. I moved to pull myself
upright, expecting the horrible pain that usually came after beatings,
but nothing came.

Examining my body, I found no wounds. No bruises. Not even scars. I
glanced around but there was nothing there. I was surrounded by miles
of pure white light except for a figure in the distance that was
slowly coming closer. As soon as the person came close enough, I
recognized him immediately.

"CC!" I gasped, rising to my feet. He stopped in his tracks and gave
me a wide smile.

"Hey Jake!" he said, offering me a small wave. I ran towards him and
enveloped his skinny body into a large hug.

"Oh my god, C. You don't even know how much I've missed you." I said
burying my face into his hair.

"Jake. Can't breathe." he said. I smiled and let him go. "Sorry, but
how often do I get to see my dead best friend?" I asked. He shrugged.
CC had died two years ago. He was hit by a drunk driver our senior
year of high school and was killed on impact. We were all devastated.
CC was the heart of our weird little outcast family, but I was hit the
hardest. Not only was he my best friend, but I'd been in love with the
kid since he transferred to our school in ninth grade. After he died,
I kinda gave up.

"Well, a lot more than you think. Welcome to the rest of forever."
he
said. I looked at him, puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"You're dead, Jakey. He- he killed you."

"Oh. So this is my afterlife? You and me and a million miles of white space?"

"No. This is just like the waiting room of heaven. It's where new
souls go right after they die. Then angles come and get them and take
them to heaven." he said.

"So you're my angle?"

"Kinda. Somebody else was supposed to be, but I really wanted to do
it. You know, for future reference, begging goes a long way here." he
said. I laughed.

"So where do we go from here?" I asked after a moment.

"Well, normally you'd be taken to your soul mate, or go to the place
where you wait until your soul mate dies, but that's not necessary
here."

"Soul mate?"

"Yeah. You know, the person you're meant to be with for all eternity.
The one person you were born to love. You meet up with them here and
enter heaven. When you get into heaven, you spend the rest of forever
with them." he explained

"So why don't I have to meet up with mine? Do I not have one?" I
really wasn't into the idea of being forever alone.

"Everyone has one. Like Andy and Ash, or Jinxx and Sammi."

"Then who's mine?"

"Me." he said, smiling. I felt a large grin of my own spread across my
face. "You're serious?" he nodded. "Oh thank god. You have no idea how
long I've wanted to do this." CC looked at me, confused for a second
before I grabbed his waist and connected our lips. He relaxed into the
kiss almost immediately. Our lips moved together in perfect sync as
his long fingers tangled themselves into my hair. I kept one hand on
his waist and moved the other to the center of his back, pressing our
bodies closer.

I ran my tongue across his bottom lip, begging for entrance. He
complied and let my tongue slip in. We battled for dominance for a few
moments before I won. I took the opportunity to explore his mouth and
committing the taste to memory. He was like wild cherry Pepsi and
chocolate. It was strange, but wonderful, just like him. When we
eventually pulled away, we were both breathing heavily.

"I love you, Jake." he said. "I have since the middle of ninth grade."
An adorable blush was dusting his features a light pink. His fingers
had been untangled from my hair and his arms were draped lazily across
my shoulders. He buried his head into the crook of my neck as I pecked
him on the cheek.

"I love you too, CC. It almost killed me when you died. I missed you
so much." I admitted, keeping my arms loosely around his hips. We
stood like that for a few moments, just enjoying being together again.
I noticed something different and decided to break the silence.

"Hey, C? Since when did you have wings?" his head shot up, a smile
playing on his lips.

"We earned our wings, Jake! Look! You have a pair too!" he squealed. I
glanced at my back.

"Well I'll be damned..." I muttered. I had a pair of black, glossy
wings to match CC's.

"Fuck yeah! Now we can fly!" he said before attempting to use his new
wings. Thirty seconds later he was laying face first on the ground. I
couldn't help it and began to giggle uncontrollably. "Well that hurt."
he grumbled. "Hey! Have some sympathy for the wounded! Now help me
up!" I nodded and pulled him to his feet.

"Maybe we should just stick to walking." I said. He nodded and laced
our fingers together.

"I watched down on you after I was killed." he said after we had been
walking a while.

"Really?" I asked

"Yeah. Heaven was boring as fuck without you guys! So many rules to
follow. I'm now banned from like half of one of the towns. Anyway,
Sammi and the guys seemed to be doing alright, but you just seemed to
give up. You even went out with that asshole of a man. Why did you let
him push you around like that? Why did you let him hurt you?" he
sounded as if he was about to cry. "I saw your corpse, Jake. I never
want to see you hurt like that again." I stopped walking and pulled
him back into my arms.

"Alright, Chuppy. I'm sorry. I just felt so empty when you were gone.
I stopped caring."

"Well I'm not going anywhere. I swear." he said "Cross my heart and
hope to die, stick a drumstick in my eye." he made an x mark over his
heart. I chuckled.

"Alright, C. I believe you. Now lets go. I can't wait to spend my rest
of forever with you."