A Promise Gone Wrong

Chapter Nineteen: Surprised

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+++Cameron+++
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"Hey guys, what do you think happens to someone after they die?"

One by one, the guys glance up at me from their mountains of textbooks and study sheets from where we sit on the floor around a short wooden table.

It's Friday, but instead of going out after school we decided to embrace our inner nerds for the evening.

I've finished going through my subjects twice now, so my mind couldn't help but wander as I lean against the couch chewing on the plastic of a mechanical pencil. Maybe it's because I spent the night listening to Rebecca's parents lecture her about Heaven and Hell. My dad believes in the same ideas, so I guess he would end up in one of those...right?

"Is that something you really want to talk about while we're studying?" Dylan asks, his wide brown eyes appearing larger behind a pair of glasses he uses to help him read.

Maybe not.

I don't want to distract everyone.

Although, I kind of already have.

"Ah, we've been going at this for like two hours," Pat yawns, stretching his arms out over his head and then dropping them so that one loops around Cody's neck. Cody scowls at him a moment, but doesn't bother to shove his arm off. "Are you asking because of your dad?"

His tone is gentle and bright green eyes are soft with a look of compassion and sympathy as he asks.

I hesitate a moment before replying, knowing death is a sensitive topic for some of us.

"Yeah."

A small itch on my neck draws me to scratch away my nerves as Jack combs his fingers through his hair, Dylan nibbles on his lower lip, Cody taps his pen on the table and Pat averts his gaze to the floor.

They're all silent.

I can assume they're lost in thoughts considering I brought this up out of nowhere.

"Maybe nothing happens," Cody speaks up first, gaining everyone's attention as he rolls his pen between his fingers. "I mean maybe after we die, that's just it. You don't go anywhere. You just stop existing."

To this, Pat scrunches his nose which he tends to do when he disagrees with something.

"You're telling me if I die that I will just become nothing?" he scoffs, and Cody shrugs. "As if! Do you know who I am? I can't ever be nothing. Nothing isn't good enough for me. I bet when I die I become everything."

Dylan's eyes narrow and his lips slightly part as he stares at Pat.

"I always consider myself to be open minded until you open your mouth," he shares.

After Cody and I nod, Pat rises to his feet and sets a hand on his chest.

"Hear me out!" he whines, and then awkwardly steps around our mess of backpacks until he gets to a window in our treehouse where he pulls up the blinds and reveals a landscape of trees. "What I mean is that when someone dies they become part of the world. Like, my--" he pauses to gesture his hands in circles around his torso "--essence," he settles on a word, "turns into nature."

"What?" Cody frowns.

"Look," he presses a finger to the glass of the window, "there are hella fucking trees in the world. Just like there are a lot of people who have passed away. I'm saying what if when we die we become trees. Trees give off oxygen, right? Oxygen helps the living breathe. So, in our death we actually help sustain life."