“What?!” William asked in shock.

“Jen’s dead.” Sarah said with tears in her eyes. “She killed herself.”

William felt his heart stop.

“No! She can’t be dead! I just saw her last night! She can’t be dead!” William yelled as he ran through the door of his house, past his now sobbing sister. He ran until he came to a familiar house. He opened the door with the key that his best friend had given him and noticed no one was home, planning the funeral no doubt. He walked upstairs and opened the door to the room that was the brunette girl’s.

Everything was in place. Not a single thing was out of order. That is, except for the happy face of Jennifer. Without that, the place had a hollow feel to it.

William held his sadness in as he looked around the room again. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a picture was pushed down. He walked over to it and picked it up. It was a picture of Jennifer and him at the amusement park. They were having fun on the merry go round. It was taken about a year ago and they were celebrating William’s birthday. Jennifer was about 14 in the picture, and William was 19. Jennifer was smiling and laughing.

William’s grip on the picture frame tightened and the back of the picture fell open. Curiosity over-powered his pain for a moment as he turned the picture around. There, behind the picture, was a folded up piece of paper. William opened it up and his breath caught as he read it.

William,

Knowing you, you were probably the first to find this. If you are reading this now, it means I have finally followed through with my plans of suicide. I know this may hurt you that I have committed suicide, but I know you’ll get over it. It’s not like you have any feeling for my beyond friendship, right?

Now, you’re probably wondering why I committed suicide, right? Well, I just didn’t want to deal with everything going on with my life. I know that seems cowardly, but if you were in my situation, you might have done the same thing.

One of my problems is that no one ever saw the real me. Everyone who didn’t really know me thought I was the cheerful Goth girl and thought nothing beyond that. Even my friends never saw the real me. The real me is a scared little girl who’s afraid of getting hurt. Not even you, Will, saw the real me. And for that, I’m disappointed.

Another of my problems is that you never saw that my feelings for you went farther than friendship. I knew that you wouldn’t return my feelings and couldn’t work up the courage to tell you. I didn’t want to suffer heartbreak, so this was my only option.

You probably hate me now, huh? You probably see me as weak for not facing my problems and running away. Well, I’m sorry. I’m not perfect, Will.

Just know that it’s not your fault that I killed myself. I want you to move on and be happy, get married and have kids. I’m not asking that you forget about me entirely, but keep me at the back of your mind. I will personally rise from the grave and torture you if you be all emo and become cold, push everyone away, or kill yourself.

Just remember the foolish young girl that committed suicide. The girl who became your best friend. The girl who wanted more than friendship.

Forever Yours, even after death,
Jennifer Cross

William stood there, shocked, as tears of regret, despair, and longing flowed down his face. He felt regret for taking so long to confess his feelings, despair because Jennifer was dead, and longing because he wanted her back.

When William finally snapped out of it enough for him to move, he pocketed the letter after folding it back up and walked out of the house, carefully locking it on the way out. He walked around, not paying attention to his surroundings, lost in thought. The thought of committing suicide crossed his mind once or twice, but then remembered that Jen didn’t want that. The letter in his pocket felt as if it weighed ten pounds.

Because William wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, he walked across the street and didn’t see or hear the car racing towards him. When he finally took notice, it was too late. The car only had a few yards left and it was speeding forward. It would only be a few seconds before it hit him.

William froze and he noticed that everyone else froze as well, like in those cheesy movies when someone gets run over.

The car hit him head on. Will rolled over the car and landed on the asphalt. He felt several things break when the car hit and heard more than felt his head crack when it hit the pavement. William felt his life’s essence spilling out of him and immense pain as he heard the muted sounds of people screaming.

Will opened his eyes slowly and saw feet. That would be normal except for the fact that the feet had a faint white glow around them. William’s eyes followed the feet up the figure and landed on the person’s face. William’s dark blue eyes widened in shock and happiness.

‘Jen!’ Will thought, and tried to say, but when he sucked in the breath to speak, he coughed up blood. He must have ruptured a lung.

Jennifer was smiling down at him. Her hair was the coffee brown he knew, but was a little longer than he remembered. Her golden honey eyes were also a shade darker. Jen looked almost celestial in the light pink kimono with a white obi that she wore. There were light pink sandals on her feet and white socks. She had her hair down from its usual ponytail. On her kimono were small white flowers.

Will’s body suddenly didn’t hurt anymore and Jen offered him a hand, bending down slightly. Will took the offered hand and stood up. He noticed that his clothing had changed. He was now wearing a beautiful, dark blue kimono with a lighter blue obi and he had dark blue sandals on with white socks. His kimono bore no designs and was opened a little so it showed some of his chest.

William looked around and saw that people were fretting and running around. Some were kneeling on the ground, leaning over something. They moved just enough to see what it was. It was his body! His eyes were closed and his longish black hair was tousled, but, despite the blood and damage to his body, he wore a contented smile on his face.

William realized that he had died and turned to Jennifer.

Jennifer just smiled.

“Jen, I-” William started, but Jennifer placed a finger to his lips.

She took his hand, interlacing their fingers, and spoke in the melodious voice that Will loved.

“I know. I do too. Come. You’ll like Heaven.”

William smiled and walked with Jennifer where they were surrounded by a blinding white light.