See Willie grew up in 70s, which means he was most likely a hippie. The 70s are considered the peak for hippie culture in the states, and Willie embraced that in his youth: the parties, the peaceful protests, the drugs maybe, the life on the road, meeting new people constantly and maybe never seeing them again. It's all music and fun and he loves it.
Until he gets so much into it that he doesn't remember he had a family. And he dies completely estranged from them, alone, maybe high as balls, maybe that's why he had the incident to begin with- he seems too skilled a skateboarder to get himself injured like that (but then again, it was an accident, so maybe this is a stretch).
And so he dies alone. His friends will say that he died for a bigger good, cause that's what they believe in, but when he comes back to the afterlife, he isn't so sure that there is a bigger good. He's alone, and scared maybe, confused, and that's when he finds Caleb. And oh, Caleb is good at taking advantage of gullible teenagers.
He presents the club to Willie, and truly, how is it any different from the communities he grew up in? Except this time it's a party that never ends, it's endless pleasures that he can't even name, and it's exactly what he has always wished as a hippie teenager, right? He sees the good in it: and that's why he wants to get Alex into it at first. Willie genuinely believes the club is the best place on earth, and he wants to take this person that he likes so much there.
But Alex... he grew up polar opposite to Willie: unaccepting, homophobic parents, chronic anxiety, three close friends but that was it. Alex can smell danger and anger from miles away, Alex knows pain and sadness and Willie wouldn't want to hear about any of this but it's Alex, and he is over the moon for this young man, and so he listens.
He listens to the burden of his heart and how terrified he is, and Willie remembers how terrified he was when he came back too, but he and Alex were a different kind of scared: Willie was scared of being in pain, Alex was scared cause he couldn't feel pain anymore. After spending his whole life worrying about what he may need to hide next, Alex doesn't have to hide anymore, and no thought has ever scared him half as much.
Willie shows Alex that he shouldn't feel guilty for enjoying things. Willie shows Alex what freedom feels like.
And in exchange, Alex shows Willie what home feels like. How it is when you settle in one spot, with one person to return to. Willie doesn't know anything about settling in one place, but this place, the one spot where he lays his head on Alex's chest, that's a spot he wants to return to.
That's when he realises the club isn't what he thought he was. That's when he realises why he never found a home.
His home is here. With this stupidly anxious blondie that has made him feel more alive that he ever has.
It feels right. It's just right.
There is a truth into it that he realises one night as he looks up at the stars, his head on Alex's chest.
This is his unfinished business.
That's why it's so right.
He couldn't have seen it coming, lost in a pair of blue eyes that are not so afraid anymore.
Those blue eyes though, belonging to the right person, they had felt it the first time they held hands. That he was the right person. So afraid of letting him see who he was because, in his non-beating heart, he knew that one day, that would be what would set them apart.
But when it does, it doesn't hurt.
He lets Willie go, his soul dissolving through his fingers like fairy dust.
In his place, on that spot on his chest, there is a scar in the shape of his head laying there.
It had been there long before Willie laid on it, and now it will be there as a reminder that memories are precious.