Complications of the Heart

[--Kyle--]

--Xian's POV--

We were all sitting around the living room. Luana was reading a bridal magazine, Ethan was on the computer, Addy was watching T.V. and I was reading a book. It was a lazy Tuesday. Addy was still on Winter break so we were doing nothing.

It was very relaxing. Luana was excited for the wedding, but she didn't want to make a big fuss about it (I was glad she wasn't going to become a bridezilla). It was going to be small, just the four of us, and the Dartan's that were currently living in Vancouver. They also happened to be coming here to visit today.

I finished my book and went to return it on my shelf in my room, and to retrieve another. I had been shopping at local book stores latley, and have acquired a large collection. This made me think of Trudie. I wonder how she was doing. And all the rest of the others.

I had a vision suddenly. They have become easier over time, and instead of dropping me to my knees, they only made me paus for a moment.

It was about Trudie. I had also discovered that most of my visions were triggered by something. Thinking of Trudie must have triggered it.

I saw her walking down an aisle, with a large white dress on.

The vision stopped and for some reason I was pulled to my cell phone. I couldn't stop myself.

I saw that I had a message from two days ago. I grabbed it and opened my phone. It said it was from Trudie! I havn't talked to anyone in two years! I wondered is something had been wrong. But when I listened, it had been the opposite.

"Hey, Xian. It's Trudie.
I was just calling to let you know that I'm getting married!
I just wanted to invite you, so give me a call. Okay?
Alright, well the wedding is set for February 5th.
Talk to ya later." The message stopped and I was speechless.

I couldn't believe it. We were all moving on with our lives. But she never said who the groom was. What about Rivers. I was starting to like him, well before we had left. Poor Rivers. Wait it might still be him.

I called her back immediatly.

"Hello? Xian?" I heard her voice on the other end.

"Trudie! Hey, congradulations!" I said.

"Thanks. So how are you?" She asked.

"Good, good. Funny you are getting married, Ethan and Luana are too. Not for a while though." I said. I realized I was babbling.

"Oh, that is great. Tell them congrats." She said.

"I will. So. Is it Rivers?"

"What?" she sounded insulted.

"No, well, I mean. You didn't specify it was him in the message who you were actually marrying. So I had to ask." I said sounding like an idiot.

"Yes, it is Rivers." I thought I heard a smile in her voice, that was good.

"So we will definetly fly up for the wedding. When is it again?" I asked.

"Febuary 5th," she said. I could hear noise in the background.

"Well, you are probably really busy with planning, so I will let you go. I will call back to tell you when we will be coming."

"Okay, thanks. Talk to you later. Say hi to everyone for me."

"I will," I said. "Bye."

"Bye."

I couldnt believe it. We would be going to France soon. We've never been anywhere before.

I walked into the living room and told everyone the news. They were all excited to go to France and happy for Trudie and Rivers.

[--Kyle--]

--Orian's POV--

It has been two years since we had left Xian and all of his friends. It was also two years since we had left Luana. We had visited and she calls often, but it is difficult to hear her voice without seeing her face behind it.

We had all fit nicely here in Canada. Vancouver was a nice place to live. I had gotten a job at a local Starbuck's, not knowing how to do anything else but what Dr. Dartan had taught us.

Vancouver was full of things for us to learn about. Ray and Ty found jobs near our apartment. We were living on our own and it felt good. Before we had met Xian, we had been living in the forest. Now we are full fledged city dwellers.

We picked up the lingo from around the city; Xian always said we talked funny, and we needed to loosen up a little with our speech.

Luana keeps in touch with us, and she has told us that she, Addy, Ethan, Xian, are all living in Seattle. It is so close by, just a short ferry boat ride away, so we had visited, but that was before Xian and the rest of them had arrived.

We planned on going tomorrow. Ray and Ty had the weekend off, and after one of the coffee makers had exploded - not exactly my fault - Starbuck's was closed for a few days while they repaired the damages...- again, not my fault.

I walked into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. This reminded me of Cecil. I wonder how all of them were doing. We only get news in from Luana every once in a while, but nothing about them.

I sat at the small kitchen table and waited for Ray to get back from her early shift. She worked at as a secretary at a business corporation. She worked along with two other girls, so their shifts were reasonable. Ray had left early this morning. It was almost 11 am, so she should be home any minute.

Ty was sleeping still. His weekend off started today – Friday – and he won’t be up for a little while. He also worked at the same corporation Ray did, but as a mail carrier. They weren’t the best of jobs, but they paid the rent, and were enough.

I heard steps coming up the stairs near the entrance of the apartment, a jingle of keys, a click, and the door opened behind me.

“Morning Ray,” I said between sips. “How was work?”

“Fine,” She sat sown next to me and stole my cup. “Julie accidentally broke the copier last night during her shift, so I had to deal with the mess of it this morning. But other than that it was fine.”
“That’s good,” I said while standing and walking over to the coffee pot and poured another cup.

“Ty up yet?” she asked while getting up.

“No, still snoring away in his room.”

Ray got up and walked down the hall. Our apartment was fairly good size. Four bedrooms, one with a bathroom – which obviously went to Ray – and one other bathroom, the extra bedroom were used as a computer room and storage. The living room and kitchen was one great room, and the rest was through a hall.

I heard giggles from the next room as Ray woke Ty up. It made me miss Luana. I had loved her, but she hadn’t really known. Now she was marrying Ethan, and I was alone. But I was glad that Luana was happy. I mean how couldn’t I be? She was with the one she wanted to be with.

Ray and Ty came out of her room – he often slept in hers – and joined me in the kitchen.

“Morning,” Ty nodded to me and walked passed me and strategically swiped my coffee from the counter behind me. “What should we do today?” He went over to the toaster and threw a couple of pieces of toast in.

“Well, I have to get back to work at 4:30. But until then we could go shopping, I need some new shoes for the wedding.” She looked at me and smiled sheepishly. They knew that I had loved her.

“So are you the maid of honor or something?” Ty asked.

“No, Addy is. I am just a bride’s maid.”

“What the hell is the difference?” Ty asked around a bite of toast.

“Ugh, men.” She rolled her eyes and walked to the fridge and grabbed a grapefruit. I just sat there and listen to them banter back and forth about weddings. Ty thought they were pointless, and Ray argued that they weren’t.

“Why should people get married? What is the difference between loving each other, and loving each other with a ring on their finger?” Ty said.

“It’s called the commitment; it’s the promise that they will never leave each other.” Ray said.

“It’s called an affair. It happens everyday.”

“Why are you such a pessimist? That isn’t the point.” Ray said with an irritated voice.
“Whatever,” He got up and – for once – put his plate in the sink. “I have to shower before we go.”

He walked out and went into the bathroom. Once click of the bathroom door was heard, Ray was over to me in a moment.

“Oh my God, I am so sorry that I brought that up. I didn’t know what I was thinking. I blame lack of sleep, these hours are difficult – “

“It’s fine,” I cut her off. “I am…over it I guess you could call it. It doesn’t matter. I am happy she is happy.”

“Okay…” she walked out of the room and turned on the T.V.

I made more toast and poured myself another coffee. After I ate I did the dishes and went and got dressed.

“Orian, are you ready to go?” Ray tapped on my door once. “We’re ready.”

“Yeah be there in a minute.” I tried not to let her hear the lump in my throat. I was trying not to cry.

I had lied to her. I wasn’t over Luana at all. I was absolutely still in love with her.

And now she was getting married.

[--Kyle--]

--Xian's POV--

"Luana!" Ray screamed and giggled when she came running threw the door. "I missed you!"

I thought it was funny seeing how they just saw each other a few weeks ago when Luana went and personally told them that Ethan and her were getting married. I shrugged and said hello to Ty, and Orian. They had changed a lot sense I last had seen them. They didn't talk funny anymore either.

"Ray!" Addy came running down the hall and jumped into her arms. "I missed you so much!" Although Addy was now a junior in highschool. Her body and age had finally fit together a little better. So now instead of being around 14 in an 11 year old body, she was now 16 in a more suitable 14 year old body. But she still had her little girl moments, dragging Ray to go see her new room, Luana following.

"So, Xian, it's nice to see you guys again. Congradulations Ethan." Orian shook Ethan's hand. It was weird, it was very business like. Not in the usual friend way. But I only noticed for a second, Ty was already lifting Ethan in a ginormous bear hug. They were so much a like it was scary sometimes, same with Orian and I.

"How's it going?" Ty asked, on his way with his arms open.

I stratigically placed my hand in his. "Good." Ty seemed to still find his hug in there. "Orian." I nodded to him. He nodded back. Very similar.

"Hey do you guys want anything to drink?" Ethan pulled out the I'll-be-the-host card, and I let him play it. I wasn't good at it. I didn't even think of drinks. We were all so calm and grown up like. It made me think of how crazy and sparatic it was living back with Valkyrie, crisis after crisis happening.

While Ethan was entertaining Orian and Ty, I went on into my room. I was definetly not a fan of talking and small talk. Was I being rude by just leaving? Probably. Was I smart by getting out of the situation? Definetly.

My room was small. It was very narrow, but to compinsate for that was the balcony. It was long, and reached all the way over to Luana and Ethan's room, so I shared it with them, but I was the only one that went out there. There was also a bathroom but it was small, didn't even have a shower. I had to use Addy's when I needed one.

I sat out on the balcony and watched the sun get closer to the top of the building across the street, slowly going down on the otherr side, casting a long shadow across the street and over to our building, thankfully sheilding my eyes from the blazing light.

It wasn't raining, which was not a first. Seattle weather wasn't as horrible as the television made you think. Yeah, it did rain randomly sometimes, but it wasn't all the time.

My thoughts were interupted by a tiny knock on the glass door behind me. I turned to see Orian's smiling face.

"Hey, come on out." He opened the door and I slid another chair over for him.

"Sorry, I knocked on your room door, but you didn't answered so..."

"Its okay. Sit down." He sat, and stared out at the sun setting behind the building as I was before he had come.

"So, what have you been up to?" he asked. Oh here we go with the small talk, I thought.

"Umm, well. Nothing really. A lot of this." I gestured to me sitting. "I am thinking about going to college. Maybe be a doctor. But I don't know."

"Wow, that's great." He seemes way too enthused, almost overdoing it a little. "What college?"

"I don't know. Havn't looked at any." Acually I have, but I was kinda hoping for a new topic. Going to school again wasn't really intteresting me. "Doctor" is something I just said, it popped into my head. I had never even though about it before. But I was now.

"So. I know that we haven't really known eachother long, and barely even that. We haven't seen each other in two years." He paused and swallowed. "But I have to tell you something."

"Okay, what is it?"

"I love..." For a second I thought he was gonna say 'you'. Not that I cared who he loved, male or female, I just didn't want to go through the whole "Sorry, I just don't feel the same" thing; that would have been a way more difficult conversation that just small talk. But then he said "Luana."

My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe it. I thought that I had been the most schocked I had ever been - even considering what we all went through two years before - but then he said.

"Will you help me break them up before the wedding?"