It's all meant for you

James felt a little ashamed of himself. Isaac was his best friend after all and still he felt kind of embarrassed about visiting him. But he had not been at university today and James had gotten worried.
It was most likely because of Valentine's Day and thus the annoying talking of the other students. Most of them did not have a problem with Isaac but as always there are those few idiots who just have to be the arseholes. Even when Isaac had not been in class they talked about him and then pointed at James because they knew that he was hanging around with him. Of course James tried not to listen to them and told himself that he did not care but somehow such nasty words always get to you even if you just think about them.
James had texted Isaac after class, asking if everything was alright.
J: Everything okay?
I: Yeah, I'm fine.
J: Don't think about those arseholes.
I: I'm not. They don't know anything.
A few minutes nothing. James was thinking about the next text message.
J: Shall I come over later?
No immediate reply.
I: Sure, I'd like that.
James shook his head. He had written that Isaac should not think about those idiots and now he was the one who felt strange because of them. Isaac had to deal with such shit in the past already, he had told James about it but you could not always pretend that it did not bother you. And normally Isaac was cool with such ridiculous stuff but Valentine's Day was different because it gave the others a huge palette of cruel jokes and scenarios to draw from. No wonder that Isaac preferred to stay home today.
James knocked at the door and it was opened almost immediately by Isaac. He looked slightly tired and pale but he was still wearing a smile on his face. The shirt all buttoned up with a tie around his neck and a fancy jacket closed with one button, James wondered if Isaac must be freezing but he put that aside as he was let in.
"I just got dinner ready." Isaac said smiling while he was leading James into the kitchen.
The small house was only partially lit so that some of the corridors went into the dark. Only from the kitchen came a warm orange light which automatically drew whoever entered the house into its direction. As James followed Isaac into the room he saw that several candles were burning on the counter and on the dining table while an old vintage lamp Isaac had once bought at a flea market was shining in the corner.
"Problems with electricity again?" James asked as he sat down.
Isaac only nodded since he was busy preparing the plates on the counter. James could see the smoke of the hot food while a pleasant smell slowly entered his nose.
"Did you cook meat?" he wondered since he knew that Isaac was a vegetarian.
Grinning, Isaac put the plate down in front of him and just as James had suspected a good and solid round piece of meat was on it. On Isaac's plate were only the grilled vegetables, sauce and a slice of garlic bread.
"I know that you don't like to go without a fresh piece of meat when it's about dinner." he answered with a laugh.
Smiling James agreed and right away attacked his plate with the fork. For a few seconds he was lost in this excellent dinner that he had nearly forgotten why he had come around.
"And you really are doing just fine?" he asked slightly suspicious. "You look a bit pale."
Isaac smiled faintly and nodded. "It's okay. - Sometimes I just can't bear listening to them."
"I believe no one could listen to their stupidity longer than two minutes." replied James and both of them laughed. Then James shrugged with his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "I just said that you're off sick today so they'd shut up."
"Thank you." Isaac nodded towards him with closed eyes. "But you don't have to make them shut up."
Angrily James swallowed the piece of meat he was chewing on. "I have to because they're behaving like intolerant old arseholes! We're living in the 21st century, goddammit! They have no right to say those things about you!"
Isaac only smiled about James' words. He would never ask him to stand in for him or help him but he just did it anyway and for that Isaac was more than grateful.
"'I'm sorry." he suddenly said instead. "I know that they're often drawing you in this too because we two are hanging around. I don't want you to-"
"Don't you dare to apologise to me!" James had put his cutlery down and was looking Isaac directly in the eyes. He was sitting right next to him and both of them could see each other's nostrils moving under their breath. "You've never done anything wrong and I'm not defending you because anyone asked me to or because I have to. I do it because I want to. Because you're too important to me as that I would let any of those arseholes treat you like this!"
Silently they looked at each other. Only the crackling of the candles filled this quiet moment in which none of them moved a muscle.
"Thank you." Isaac suddenly said in a whisper. "For everything."
James blinked but then Isaac started to cough. At first James thought that he was choking on something and he clapped him on the back but it only got worse. Splashes of blood now landed on the white table cloth and before James could even realise what this red fluid actually was, Isaac had fallen off the chair. Quickly James wanted to run into the hall to fetch the phone but Isaac reached for him. James knelt down while desperately gesticulating in blank panic.
Isaac kept coughing more and more blood, around his neck the tie was restricting his throat. In a hurry James loosened the tie and freed Isaac of the warm jacket. But as he did this he now saw the huge dark red stain that had already half of Isaac's shirt covered in blood. Under heavy breathing James ripped open the shirt and fell back with a scream.
A deep dark cut ran over Isaac's chest through which James could even look into the insides of Isaac's body. Blood was pouring out of the deep-seated wound where Isaac's heart was supposed to beat. But it did not beat. It was longer there.
"It's yours." Isaac said in a low tone towards James whose petrified face was looking at him and then at the dinner table. "It's always been yours."
James stared at the plate with his eyes ripped open then he flashed around.
"NO! NOT LIKE THIS! WHY DIDN'T YOU-?! NOT LIKE THIS!"
But Isaac was not listening. His heart was with the one he loved and now James was shaking his body that had died with a smile upon his lips.