Izzie's POV

A few months later...

"Can I come in?"

I was too weak to respond as I buried my cheek further into my pillow, bringing the blanket closer to my neck as I felt the room get colder.

The door creaked open and I felt her looking at me in pity before I heard a sigh.

"You weren't at the dinner party yesterday," She said and I flipped myself to the other side. "I wasn't up to it," I simply replied, closing my eyes. "How long are you going to stay cooped up here Izzie?"

I finally pushed myself up to look at her. "As long as I have to."

"Casey came to see me today." That caught my attention but the mention of her name also made my heart sting. I haven't seen her in months. "She wanted to transfer to another world."

"I asked you for a transfer the first week I was here. I should have just went with it."

"And I told you it was impossible," Julia continued, slowly sitting down on my bed. "Happy birthday by the way," She said with a smile and I looked at her in confusion. "It's been exactly a year since you came to The Afterlife. Technically your first birthday."

A year. A whole year of being in love with Casey Gardner.

"You know... she's hurting..." She whispered, looking down. "She's hurting a lot. She's just been at home just like you. No one has seen her the last couple of months except for me when she came to see me yesterday. She's hurt Izzie. And I can see it in her eyes."

"What do you think I should have done then? You get why I can't be with her right?" I asked and she smiled sadly.

"I do. Izzie I understand why you did what you did. I would do the same thing if I were you. Here are the facts, she did die. She did leave you. And yes maybe she could have tried harder to survive. And those are valid reasons to be mad at her," She said and I raised my eyebrow, knowing she had more to say.

"But she died for you Izzie. You have to stop thinking that she didn't try harder for you but instead she died for you. Everything's still a little blurry but what we know is that she sacrificed her life to protect yours. It just shows how much that girl loves you. And she still loves you as much or even more."

I didn't respond and bent my head down, processing what she was saying. "Then why did she ask for a transfer? She hates me doesn't she?"

"Because she can't bare to be in the same life as you without being with you. She wants to move on from you so bad because she loves you that much," Julia said, stroking my cheek.

My lips started to quiver and she spoke again. "I know you're not mad at her. You're mad at yourself."

I looked up at her, my eyebrows furrowed as she continued. "You're not mad at her for dying. You're mad at yourself for not being able to save her. And you're blaming yourself because your kids never met their mother. And when you told Casey you hate her for dying... you just needed someone to take out your anger on. You needed someone else to blame. Because if you really meant what you said to her, you wouldn't still be crying over her."

She moved closer to me. "You can't bare to look at her anymore not because you're angry at her... it's because you're guilty."

Guilt. That's the feeling that's been choking me the last couple of months.

"You shouldn't be spending your birthday here alone. Now you don't have to talk to Casey just yet. But at least go spend time with Erika."

"What about Mr Taylor?" I asked.

Mr Taylor had taken an urgent leave for the past couple of months and because they couldn't find any other replacement, Julia just gave us a mandatory holiday. After all, we still have to study the same thing next year.

"No one has seen him. He usually keeps to himself anyways. Do you want me to talk to him?" She asked and I shook my head no.

"It's fine..."

"Alright, I shall leave you to it," She said, getting up and I watched her as she walked towards the door, thinking about what she said.

"And Izzie? I know I told you that meeting your lover in another life is close to impossible but I never said it was impossible. You and Casey are the lucky one in a trillionth to have that chance to love each other again. Don't throw it all away."

And with that, Julia left.

Casey's POV

I stared at the mirror as I lifted my shirt up. My eyes wandered over the scar on my stomach and I felt a nervous pang in my chest. The same feeling I've had since she left me.

Looking at the scar, I could only just imagine how badly it hurt... the impact of the bullet. But mostly I was questioning myself. Was what Izzie said true? Did I not fight hard enough for her? No way... I would fight hard for her in this life and I definitely did in my previous.

I couldn't bare to leave the house and this "mandatory holiday" thing was actually a huge relief because I didn't need to see her at all. But at the same time I was dying to.

I missed her. I really, really missed her. Her smile, the way her lips taste, the way our fingers intertwine perfectly.

I didn't even need to confirm with her that we broke up. It was clear the moment she walked away and left me alone with my tears.

It's been months and she's still the first person I think of every morning. Everyday, I look out of the window in hopes of catching any glimpse of her.

I felt like she was slowly drifting away from my life and I hated it.

Over the months, I have had dreams about what happened the night I died. I could king of piece everything together but it wasn't as clear as what Izzie saw that night.

It was so clear to her that it scared her away from me. At that point I didn't even want to know what happened.

But one thing that was strange was that I always saw a glimpse of a man in those dreams. He was with me a lot, even more than Izzie was. And he wore a prominent silver ring that looked very much like Mr Taylor's.

I was almost 90% sure he was Izzie's dad. But what was he doing there the night I died?

I shook my head to get rid of all this thoughts as I picked up my toothbrush.

When I opened the fridge to find something for breakfast, I heard a knock on my door. Every time someone knocked, I would pray hopelessly that it would be Izzie. I just needed to see her. I didn't even care if she wanted to scream at me again. Maybe this time I would shut her up by kissing her.

I opened the door to be once again disappointed. "Gretchen?"

She smiled sheepishly at me while she leaned on the frame on the door. "Why the sour face? Expecting someone else?" She asked with a chuckle.

"No, no... I just wasn't expecting you to come," I mumbled, moving aside to let her in.

"So Taylor dumped you?" She asked and I raised my eyebrows at her. "Come on literally everyone knows. You guys haven't been out of the house since forever. So what happened?"

"Why do you care?" I scoffed, grabbing my coffee cup and sitting on the sofa.

"Well you are my ex," She shrugged, moving to stand in front of me.

"I mean... we were together for just a week."

"Still counts though right?"

I chuckled a little before taking a sip of my coffee. "Things just didn't work out," I said simply, putting the cup down. "She got some crazy deja vu again, right? Yeah, she tends to do that a lot," She mocked and I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Well, you shouldn't worry about it too much, pretty," She whispered, climbing into my lap and I moved back in shock.

"Come on, we don't need to be exclusive. It'll take your mind off of her for a while," She mumbled, kissing my neck and I gently pushed her away. "Sex isn't gonna help," I said, holding onto her wrists.

"You haven't gotten any in months right? You guys are over. You're not cheating on her on something," She said, moving her hands down my chest and I closed my eyes, knowing I was going to regret this.

Eventually, I let her pull me into my bedroom.

Izzie's POV

"Happy 1st birthday."

"I still find that so ridiculous."

Erika smirked and leaned over on my kitchen counter as if to closely examine my face. "What the hell are you doing?" I asked.

"You know I can SEE the hurt on your face. You look physically DISTRAUGHT. You miss her don't you?" She asked and I scoffed, taking the bowl on chips before walking to the living room.

"You can tell me. It's not like I'm gonna tell her. I haven't seen her in months anyways."

Casey's POV

I was close to my orgasm. Izzie on my mind the entire time. I swear I forgot Gretchen was even there.

And when I came and yelled Izzie's name both out of pleasure and hurt, I felt the hurt in Gretchen's heart as she plopped down next to me, breathing hard. She didn't say anything about it though.

"Sorry..." was the only thing I knew to mumble. "I swear I'm gonna fuck that girl out of your mind," She said, both jokingly and condescendingly.

I was too out of breath to respond.

Gretchen moved closer to me and nuzzled her face in my neck, making me move around uncomfortably. "What? Just cos we're not dating doesn't mean we can't cuddle."

I didn't want to cuddle with her. I just wanted Izzie.

My sweet beautiful Izzie. She has me wrapped around her finger and it makes me go crazy.

Izzie's POV

"Julia just sent a message. She's holding an urgent town hall meeting," Erika said and I popped a chip in my mouth. "What's it about?"

"I don't know. But she bolded the word 'urgent'. I'm guessing it's urgent but I don't know," she said and I laughed.

"Hopefully she's not ending our mandatory holiday thing. I cannot go back to school without puking," Erika said as both of us walked out of my house.

"Wait... Casey's gonna be that right?" I mumbled, stopping her.

Casey's POV

After we had gotten the message from Julia, Gretchen and I left the house together and she was walking too close to me for my liking.

I didn't need her thinking I was looking for anything more than sex. In fact, I didn't even want to do the whole friends with benefits thing. Nothing would help me move on from Izzie Taylor.

"Fuck, Izzie's gonna be there isn't she?" I mumbled to Gretchen and she scoffed.

Izzie's POV

When we got to the town hall, many people were already gathered there. I found myself looking around for a glimpse of Casey but she was no where to be found.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being so prompt," We heard Julia and we turned to the front to give her our attention.

I then heard the doors open and in entered Casey with... Gretchen?

But Gretchen wasn't who I focused on. Casey was here. And when she turned her head to look at me, our eyes finally met for the first time in months.

I wanted to run to her so bad.

But instead, I looked away.

Casey's POV

Why is she so beautiful?

Why does she have to be the one that controls my heart?

Why did she look away from me?

"Now that everyone is here... I have some bad news..." We heard Julia say and Gretchen and I looked at each other in confusion. The hall started to bustle with murmurs of what the news could possibly be.

I took a glimpse at Izzie who was looking just as confused.

"We... we got signal with another lifetime."

Gasps of excitement was then heard. Signal with another life time? That's huge news.

I found myself smiling widely at the phenomenon and my face instantly gravitated to Izzie who was smiling radiantly. Our eyes met again and our smiles dropped.

"Wait then why is it bad news?" Erika asked and the whole town went quiet.

"We... we're going to have to do some... spring cleaning if you will," Julia said nervously.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion. "Both the lifetimes are getting crowded. You see Earth doesn't have a problem with this because people die. But in The Afterlife and the other forms of afterlife... people can't die. It gets crowded. We're going to need to randomly pick people to move to another lifetime. And people from that lifetime will come here."

"WHAT?!"

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"

"I'VE BEEN HERE FOR 200 YEARS! ALL MY FRIENDS ARE HERE!"

I started to breathe heavily, processing the news.

"And once this move has been made, it's permanent. You will not be able to see people in this lifetime anymore."

Izzie.

Izzie, Izzie, Izzie.

She was all I cared about right now. I couldn't get separated from her. And she can't get separated from me. I won't let it happen. It already happened once.

"By random selection, we have come up with the list of people who will be leaving this life. The move effectively will start taking place in 2 weeks," Julia said, controlling her tears.

Everyone started to shake in fear.

Izzie's POV

If Julia says Casey's name, I wouldn't know how to breathe anymore.

So as Casey was the only thing on my mind, I wasn't even paying attention to the other names being called. The cries from people felt distant.

As she went down the list, choking up as she did so, I caught Julia slowly look up at me and my heart clenched in my chest.

"Casey... Casey Gardner..." Her voice shook as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Casey and I finally looked at each other without looking away. Our lips started to quiver.

At the same time, we both ran towards Julia, pushing past all the other people.

"JULIA! You can't do this!" I cried. I so desperately wanted to hold onto Casey but it was hard for her to get through the crowd.

"Guys... I am so, so sorry. There's nothing I can do about this..." She whispered. "Julia please, there has to be another way... I can't leave... I can't leave this place..." Casey cried before looking at me.

"I can't leave Izzie. I can't leave her again."

"The president in that afterlife made up the list. There is nothing I can do about it..."

I turned around to see Erika, Gretchen and Mr Taylor looking at us in distraught.

"Julia please... please just do something... anything..." I begged, falling on my knees.

She didn't say a word, shook her head and then left.

"Julia please..." My voice cracked.

There was nothing I could do. I heard Casey's cries in the back.

Why does the world always think they can fucking take her from me?