prompt: "Do willie finds out Alex crossed over if you haven’t alreaddyyy" (@VaporGillespie)
because my twitter moots woke up and chose violence. :) /j
Willie loved the rush of the wind through his hair as he glided down the sidewalk of Sunset Boulevard. The people were fun to watch and breeze passed as he enjoyed skating to his heart’s content. No worries about being caught and fined or about crashing into people.
The thought nearly sends Willie tumbling off of his board as he thought about the last time he did crash into someone. He just manages to stumble to a stop. His board takes off on its own and out of sight, but he could summon it to him whenever he wanted it.
He chewed his lip. Skating allowed his mind to go blank and enjoy living in the moment: like he did when he was alive - no worries and freedom. That’s all he had wanted.
Well, that’s all he wanted until he met Alex, and that was when he discovered he wanted something more than the freedom to skate anywhere; Willie wanted love. He wanted Alex Mercer, sweet, anxious, blonde himbo extraordinaire, to love him. Their relationship had changed so much in a matter of weeks. They had gone from tentative friends, to flirting, and then the Hollywood Ghost Club… He would give anything to redo that night and dance with Alex instead of letting Caleb control him. They wouldn’t have wasted that whole time on drama because of his avoiding Alex.
The thought makes Willie’s chest ache, which he finds ironic because he’s supposed to be made of air.
Their short time together after Alex had broken loose of Caleb’s hold and Willie soon after was a period he treasured. They went to the beach almost every night for a date; or they would go to a skate park and mess around on Willie’s board. Those times were when Alex was the least anxious. Different troubles surfaced over the months they were together.
At first, Alex had been terrified of the idea of dating Willie. He and Luke had dated in secret when they were alive in the 90s, but it had been different. They were always meant to be just best friends.
Alex and Willie had had feelings for one another since day one as Alex later confessed later.
Feeling unable to stand near the spot where he met his boyfriend and consequently ruined their relationship by confessing about Caleb’s curse, Willie poofed instead to a familiar art museum. It was no longer empty, as the people in charge of renovating got their act together and finally got the pieces put in and the new paint on the walls, but Willie could still picture it with tarps and empty echoing spaces. Spaces that were perfect for screaming in.
He smiled as he remembered how nervous Alex had been about yelling. His blue eyes had been so wide and scared at the idea of screaming in a (sort of) public space. It had been worth encouraging him to see the board smile that appeared on the tall blonde’s face: like the sun bursting through the clouds and flooding Willie with warmth. And feelings.
Willie walked over to a bench that had been painted since he last saw it, but he knew it was the one he and Alex had moved together all those months ago. He sat on it and just stared into space, remembering the love of his afterlife and everything he missed about him.
What stood out immediately was Alex’s big heart. He was anxious about a lot of things, but he rarely hesitated to comfort others. Willie had had a sort of breakdown after finding Alex safe and not destroyed by Caleb in their garage. He had jumped into his arms and cried as he apologized over and over for putting his soul in danger.
Alex had hugged him back and told him he was forgiven. They had a lot more time now that he had been freed. They wasted no time in spending as much time together as possible, having no idea what the future held for either of them.
Another endearing quality in Alex was his childlike wonder with the world. New ideas for the twenty-first century had intrigued him from DVDs to Tik Tok, Alex dove into everything as if determined to catch up on twenty-five years of pop culture in just a few hours. It was adorable when Willie would use modern slang, and his boyfriend would look blank or laugh light heartedly so as to not seem confused. Alex had always been bad at lying.
Willie laid on his back across the bench and smiled to himself when he thought about their first date on the beach. Not much of a romantic, the skater had brought a blanket and some pretty paper lanterns to make the mood warmer. They had leaned on each other’s shoulders and just talked about whatever came to mind. They avoided talking about their families from when they were alive. Much like Alex, Willie’s folks had never been supportive of their son being gay. They connected through their shared pain and talked about the loneliness that had truly never gone away even with supportive friends.
That was until they met each other.
Alex’s laugh when Willie had cracked jokes had been addictive to him. Hearing such a happy and carefree sound come from someone as guarded as Alex was a feeling Willie had trouble putting into words. He was simultaneously smug for being the cause of the laughter and pleased that Alex had felt secure enough to allow his walls to come down around him.
Willie was really missing that laugh. Sometimes, he fooled himself into thinking he heard Alex calling his name or chuckling beside him… only for him to turn and see nobody, and there never would be because Alex Mercer had found his unfinished business. He had crossed over.
The pain became overwhelming, so Willie poofed to the beach to have a wider space around him. He kicked aside sand, the setting sun to his left and bathing the surrounding area in orange light. He made his way over to a log that had long since washed ashore and been the natural bench for hundreds of people. He sat down and hugged his knees, staring out at the water and blinking tears out of his eyes as a fresh wave of misery overtook him.
It had only been a day since Alex told him goodbye with tears pouring from his eyes. Only a day since they kissed for the last time; only a day since his soulmate had left to crossover and leave him to an afterlife of pain and misery. But it felt like it had been decades. Time had little relevance to spirits, but in Alex’s absence, every second felt painfully slow, and the twenty-four hours since the crossover might as well have been years.
Alex Mercer had dropped into his life, made him the happiest he had ever been, then had vanished in a burst of light as his soul was freed from being bound to Earth. Not a lot of ghosts moved on so quickly, and Willie couldn’t help but feel resentful. Not to mention abandoned. He knew Alex had had little control over his crossing. Nobody knew their unfinished business until it was time to leave; to take the next step the afterlife had to offer.
Too bad Alex’s unfinished business had been telling Willie he loved him.
All his life, Alex had hidden who he was in the shadows, terrified of being ostracised for being himself. When he got older, he got braver and maybe a little hopeful he would be accepted. He had told Willie he came out to his parents first, and that, he said, had been a big mistake. He was no longer their son, but a problem they had to keep secret from their social groups. Heartbroken, Alex had shut down and hidden his secret from his best friends. He didn’t want his chosen family to shun him just like his blood family had.
But the silence ate away at Alex like acid, and he finally told his best friends. The reaction had been the opposite to his parents; they had accepted and loved him for who he was regardless of what others thought.
Willie smiled a little as he rubbed at his cheeks. Alex had been so brave and confident to the point he could talk to those he trusted about how he felt. Having your own parents not support and love him had hardened Alex a little, but he always let his guard down around Willie.
Cuddles. Willie missed their cuddling. They either did so in the garage (Reggie and Luke bolting and making various gagging sounds), or they had snuggled on their blanket at the beach. Despite them not having bodies, Willie could’ve sworn he felt warmth at his side when he laid beside his boyfriend. They would look up at the few visible stars, or even nap, it didn’t matter. They were with each other, and that was when Willie was happiest.
If that was when he was happiest, why hadn’t his unfinished business been falling for Alex!?
Frustrated tears spilled over his eyes again, and Willie swiped at them in frustration. How was any of this fair!? Why couldn’t their unfinished businesses be tied together? Without Alex, he was nothing but a wisp of a former human floating along aimlessly with neither a thought nor a goal. He was a shell - a shell made up of pain and confusion.
The pain was unbearable because part of Willie felt like Alex took a chunk of his soul with him, leaving him only a shadow of what he used to be. Leaving him feeling like wasn’t whole anymore. Without Alex, he was lost and alone, and that was the simple truth to it.
Sobs shook his body as he clutched a golden chain that up until that point had been nestled safely under his overlarge sweater. He thought of his love and his light, even as the sun set over the horizon and plunged the world in darkness, painting an accurate picture of how the young skater felt without his other half.
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