Augustus Waters entered the afterlife with a smile. He'd been waiting for this for a long time. No more cancer, no more pain, no more sadness. Just brightness and happiness and bliss.
He walked in, shaking hands with the greatest minds in the world, hugging children and reuniting with old friends.
He looked down at his legs. Both legs were there and his. He was 100% purely him. He grinned, not surprised.
He eventually walked up to a girl with black hair and tan skin that was looking down at the world. He sat down beside her.
"Whatcha lookin' at?" He asked her.
She looked up at him with bright green eyes. "Just watching over a few friends."
He nodded. "May I take a look?"
She nodded. "Go right ahead." She said, scooting over.
He smiled and looked down on Indiana, at a girl with short hair and blue fingernails. She was looking at a orange tulip that had been pressed inside her favorite book.
"Who's that?" The girl with black hair asked.
"That's my Hazel Grace. She gave me an infinity within numbered days. And I'm in love with her." He said. He smiled and looked at the girl beside him. "Who were you looking at?"
She directed the image to one of students in a classroom, taking a test. "Them. Those three boys." She said, pointing at the three boys that were sitting by each other in the middle row.
He nodded. "Okay, who are they?"
She pointed at the boy to the left. "That's Chip. He and I did a lot of pranks together. And uh..." she pointed at the Asian boy on the very right. "That'd be Takumi. He can rap. It's really cool," she said with a laugh. She then pointed at the boy in the middle. "And that's Pudgie. Well, Miles." She trailed off in her own thoughts.
Augustus nodded. "And what about him? Miles?"
She sighed. "He loves me. And he hopes I'm somewhere beautiful." She said, that Mona Lisa smile creeping slowly on her lips.
"Well you are. And that's a good thing." He said. He held out his hand. "I'm Augustus Waters."
She looked him over and shook it. "Nice to meet ya." She said before looking down at the boys.
He nodded and looked down with her. "And you are?" He asked. Suddenly he felt a tap on his left shoulder. He turned to look at it, but no one was there.
The girl next to him laughed. "Oldest trick in the book, but everyone falls for it." She pulled a box of cigarettes out of her pocket. "Want one?"
"Yes please." He said. She handed him one, and he held it between his teeth.
The girl got out a lighter. "Need a light?"
He shook his head. "No, I don't light mine."
She frowned. "Why?"
"It's a metaphor..." he said, smiling and shaking his head. "I guess my metaphor doesn't matter anymore since I'm dead."
"What was it?" She asked, lighting hers.
"I had cancer, you see. And it was in my body, and I didn't give it the power to kill me the first time. And I'm really into metaphors. So I asked my parents to buy me cigarettes, promising I wouldn't smoke them, and they did. I would put one between my teeth, but wouldn't light it."
She looked at him. "And the metaphor is...?" She asked, blowing out smoke.
"You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do the killing." He explained.
She frowned for a bit, thinking it over. "See, there's the difference between you and me. You had cigarettes to prove you wouldn't die. I had cigarettes because I wanted to die." She looked over at him and smiled. "I'm Alaska Young. And we're going to have fun."
Just a headcannon :) All characters belong to the ever-praised John Green. Hope you enjoyed.
