A Second Chance ✔

Twelve

It felt as if I had opened my eyes after a long time.

The first thing my eyes saw were two intertwined hands. At first, I thought both were my hands but then I noticed one was bigger and manlier than the other. My head was resting on the manlier arm.

I also noticed that I was in my dorm room.

To my great astonishment, I had a beautiful diamond ring on my ring finger. I spent a lot of time staring at our hands. I was too scared to turn back.

What if it was Jesse?

I couldn't find the courage to see who it was.

But the smell...it reminded me of Jake. But don't all men smell like that?

I tried to remember how Jesse used to smell but I couldn't remember, which was actually nice.

After a lot of procrastination, I finally made up my mind and decided to see who it was behind me once and for all.

I turned around and then froze in place.

It was Jake.

I smiled widely and tears began sprouting in my eyes. I can't believe it's him.

It felt so surreal. It was just yesterday that I was all alone, living a sad life with no friends and a shitty roommate and without a purpose in life. And now I might be the happiest person living right now.

"Jake?" I whispered and lifted my hand to touch him. I felt his soft cheek and cried more happy tears. It really was him.

I caressed his cheek and he shifted a little in his sleep before he finally opened his eyes and stared at me with his cerulean eyes.

We kept staring at each other for what seemed like forever.

And then he returned my smile and placed a kiss on my forehead, making me close my eyes and sigh in content.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning."

He sat up, taking me with him. That was when I realised he didn't have a shirt on and as my eyes travelled lower down, I saw that he was naked.

"Why are you naked?" I shrieked.

"What? Look at yourself," he said and I looked under the sheets to find that I was completely naked too.

"What the hell! How did we end up like this?"

Jake scrunched up his brows in confusion. "Don't you remember anything from last night?" He asked and looked down at my hand as if he was giving me a hint.

I looked down and saw the big diamond ring staring up at me.

"Did you propose to me last night?" I asked.

"Don't you remember? Yes, I did and you said yes."

"Really? But then why are we naked?"

Jake's cheeks burned crimson red as he rubbed his neck. "We slept together."

"You mean...we did the tango in bed last night?"

He chuckled and pulled me towards him to place a kiss on my forehead again. "Yes, if you'd like to call it that."

"Wait...I'm confused. Was it our first time?"

"Yeah."

I groaned. We did it for the first time and I can't even remember it. But somewhere in my subconscious, I had memories of time I did not spend with him. In those memories which did not feel like my own I knew exactly how he felt against mine. Flesh against flesh. Hot, sweaty and perfectly molding into each other. Pounding hearts beating together...as if they were one. And the ecstacy we gave each other, the need for more and many times. No inhibitions and no shyness as we explored each other with as much comfort as with oneself.

And then I saw as I closed my eyes. The ring. How he got down on one knee and presented the tiny jewellery box to me and said soul-stirring words that tugged at my heart, just like his dimpled smile did. How I screamed yes and squealed and the moment he slid the ring on my finger, I jumped on him and made sure to tell him how precious and loved he was to me.

But I had not experienced all that and yet I just knew somehow. That was more than enough.

Then I realised I wasn't even with him yesterday. What was he saying?

"You saved me," Jake whispered from beside me.

"What? What did you say?"

"You saved me. Thank you for that Claire."

I shook my head. "You know?"

He nodded.

"But then what were you talking about you proposing me yesterday when I wasn't even here?"

"That was a different version of you. You replaced her. This is a different world from the one you were at yesterday."

"Really?" I asked. This whole thing was seriously starting to hurt my brain. "But then what happened to her?"

"The three chances and their results were merged into one to create the events that happened three years ago. You know...Brian getting shot but surviving and me dying-" I quickly put a hand on his lips.

"Don't say that."

He placed a kiss on my hand before taking it and intertwining my fingers with his own. "So the Claire till yesterday was switched with you today and that Claire was put into the world where the three results merged into one. All thanks to Vanessa."

"I still don't understand properly but I don't care as long as I have you."

"You have me. You always did. You saved me."

I shook my head. "You saved me."

I didn't care that I never lived through our first time or him proposing to me. All I cared about was that he was with me.

"Will the other Claire remember these things?"

"No. But she might have dreams or nightmares about it."

"I too used to get nightmares about you getting killed."

"That might most probably be from one or many chances that different versions of you in different parallel worlds were given and you were replaced by some other version of yourself."

"Too complicated."

"I know. Now get up we have class."

I still kept sitting on the bed, trying to wrap my my head around these things but gave up when I failed yet again. Jake dressed up in his jeans and was about to put his shirt on when I saw two red straight bruises on his back. He probably got those when his wings were taken away.

"You're really my angel, you know that?"

Jake turned around with a smile. "I know."

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