Angels Watching Over Me
Part Two
Clare swallowed hard as JT's fingers curled around her wrist. It felt like butterfly wings. So faint and light but with enough power behind it to help her up. The two teenagers took a seat on the bed, leaning up against the headboard. "S-so um...h-how is this happening?" She asked, stuttering slightly. Her hands were shaking and her palms were sweaty. She felt so nervous. This wasn't something that she'd expected to happen. Never in a million years did she expect this. JT Yorke was sitting on her bed, looking exactly as he did the night that he died. His hair was as messy as she'd seen in those pictures, his face was still as boyish as ever. The only thing really different about him was the fact that he seemed to have luminousent glow.
JT smiled at her. "Well, all I know is that I ended up here. It's never happened before so the man upstairs must really think that you need me. You're actually the only person who has ever been able to see me. I've visited my ex-girlfriend and my friends, but they don't ever realise that I'm there." The smile wilted off of his thin lips when he said this. He looked pained.
Clare watched him sadly. She couldn't imagine what it was like, dying so young. Watching all the people that you love grow up and live and go on with their lives, without you. "I'm sorry." She murmured softly, lowering her head and staring down at her legs.
"It's not your fault. And besides, Heaven's not so bad. You can totally play pratical jokes on people down here, on Earth. No one ever knows who did it." He told her carefully, laughing deeply as he recalled a joke he'd played on a bully who'd been shoving some little niner kid into his locker. The poor bully had been scared for weeks afterword, thinking that he had a ghost after him. "Anyway, why are you writing about little old me?" He gave her a boyish grin as he awaited her answer.
She blinked and smiled at him shyly. "Um...I'm on my school newspaper. I have been for over year. My editor asked me to write an article about you, since it's so close to-you know. I've been trying to find out as much as I can about you, but other than clips from your show and articles about-" She cut herself off quickly, not wanting to say the words.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "You can say the word, you know. I know that I'm dead."
"It's kinda awkward with you sitting right here beside of me. You look so real." Clare commented slowly.
"Well, I am real. I'm just not human anymore. I'm not alive." JT said. "Your being part of the school newspaper reminds me of my ex-girlfriend. Her name was Liberty. That's how I died, by the way. It was her birthday party and I had suggested that one of our mutual friends-Manny Santos host this party for her. Liberty and I started talking then, and she told me that she still loved me. I didn't say it back. I told her that we couldn't be together anymore because I was with Mia. My best friend, Toby convinced me to find Liberty and tell her that I still loved her. I was stabbed before I could find her. She found me."
Clare didn't even think as she leaned in and through her arms tightly around the boy beside her, comfortingly. She felt tears spilling down her cheeks. She knew that it would be a hard story to do. After all, this boy died before he could really do anything. He hadn't even got to live his life.
"So, I guess I should tell you some things about me. My mom abandoned me when I was in about the eighth grade. I was raised by my grandmother from that moment, until the night that I died. I grew up with Emma Nelson and Manny Santos and they were my best friends. Toby came later in my life and he was another one of my friends. I was the class clown. I never really took things seriously. Not until I was older. I finally began to date Liberty the year that Rick Murray had died by his own gun. We got together while writing a play. I got to see her fiery side, then. Something I hadn't noticed before. After we'd been dating awhile, she found out that she was pregnant with our son. God, I wanted to raise him with her. To give him a family. Something I never really had since my dad abandoned me. It took alot of money and we couldn't afford an apartment. I ended up stealing Oxycodone from my job to sale down at the Ravine. I lost Liberty because of it. I almost lost my best friend. I ended up overdosing and scaring the crap out of Liberty. She decided that it would be best for the baby to give him up for adoption. I just want him to know that I care about him and that I love him."
Next part: Clare and Jake go see JT's old friends, Clare meets Liberty and goes on a desperate search for Jiberty's son.