Angel [BoyXBoy]

The After

After: 2028

The day was gray, as it normally was in Seattle, Cole had his chin pressed to his chest and his shoulders hiked up to his ears as he tried to keep as dry as possible. He was still wearing his work clothes and could get another three days out of this suit jacket before having to wash it.

Ten years had gone by too quickly for anyone to really make a fuss about it, thousands, millions of things had happened since high school. Cole had graduated in the top 10% of his class, Angel had been asked to give the departing speech and they spent that last summer madly in love before parting ways for college.

Cole smiled into the rain as he remembers him and Angel getting lost in the woods behind Matt's cabin and shouting Marco Polo in the woods to find each other again. Cole found college impossible but kept his nose down and managed to graduate and be accepted into the child psychology graduate program at The University of Oregon. Now, four years after getting his masters he worked as a social worker with the city, he worked with CPS to make sure all children were being treated properly.

Some days it broke his heart, like the time he had to council a little girl who'd been starved by her mom and her boyfriend for three years when she was only five. Cole went home after each session with her and vomited until he passed out. But most of the time it made him unbelievably proud of himself- he was making a difference in people and doing his best to protect every child in Seattle. No one deserved to go what Angel went through.

Tara got married, to Carmen, and now lived in San Francisco working in civil law while Carmen opened her own restaurant after dropping out of law school shortly after they started dating. Tara was carrying their second child at the moment, a girl. A little sister for their son Jamison Cole Jackson.

James and Shay still lived in the same colonial and kept themselves busy by fostering shelter dogs until they got proper homes. Violet always made sure to put the dogs in place if they were too wild. Vinny moved to Colorado to study English and ended up having a kid with a one-night stand, but he loved his son like nothing else in the world mattered. Samson Angel Smith was Vinny's world. Rex and Becca got married shortly after high school, she taught kindergarten and he worked as an accountant downtown.

Laura was in New York running the collection department at the MOMA. She was still dating but at 28 she had no plans to settle down any time soon. Matt and Nick still lived in the mansion and merged companies three years ago- they now ran a corporate empire and spoiled their triplets with anything they wanted. Matt was the PTA president and Nick coached the girls' soccer team on the weekends.

Harry and Corey opened a new Physical Therapy center and now treated not only people who needed PT but also people recovering with drug addiction. They lived in a two-bedroom apartment above their shop and seemed happy to just be living.

Cole stopped in front of the building and sighed, he hoped he wasn't too late. The first floor was all mirrored glass, but he pulled the one of the large doors open with ease. A few people were inside, and he was pleased to see they all seemed entranced with their surroundings.

He'd waited two years for this, and he wanted to it go off without a hitch. A server came up and asked for his jacket, he told them he wouldn't be staying long and waved them away. The served looked at him for a moment before bowing their head and greeting the person who'd walked in after him. The wide-open room was warm, it made him happy as his home had been empty for too long. It had just been him in his big old apartment and he was feeling a little lonely recently. The room was painted a crisp white and the walls were covered in varying sizes of pictures of the native people of Australia. The pictures were blinding they were so spectacular. Cole locked his eyes and started at every one for minuets.