Psychoburners

Part 22: Apart

June 5th, 2016, Los Angeles, California

- I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.
    Michael kissed Evelyn and all the guests (John,Sean, Emily, Amy with little Jimmy and a small part of Evelyn's family) clappedloudly with joy, shouting "congratulations" and other wishes. Michaeland Evelyn turned towards the guests and smiled, holding hands and waving ateveryone. Sean (who, as a best man, was next to Michael along with John)whistled loudly and shouted:
- WOO-OO-OO-OO! MY BIG COUSIN IS MARRIED! HECK YEAH!
    John chuckled and shouted "YEAH!"along with Sean. Michael rolled his eyes at his best men, but he couldn't notchuckle with both his best friend and his cousin.

June 6th, 2016, John's house

    John woke up, feeling like he had been sleepingfor centuries. Emily was sleeping next to him, peacefully yet so heavily, thatnot even all the canons of all the wars could wake her up. He rubbed histemples, reminiscing everything that happened the day before.
    The wedding reception had taken place at Michaeland Evelyn's house. They had both agreed not to make it a big deal, since thereweren't many guests anyway, so there was no point in using a large event room.Every wedding guest attended and after hours of toasts, dancing and singing(mostly from Sean), everyone left in five in the morning, except John, Emilyand Sean. (Amy couldn't stay for long, mostly because of Jimmy, so she left earlyafter she saluted Michael and Evelyn.) Then, Michael and Evelyn changedclothes, took their luggage (which were ready from the previous day), salutedtheir friends and left to catch the morning flight to the Caribbean Islands,their honeymoon destination.

    John's stomach rumbled, returning him to reality and making him realize he was hungry. He grabbed his glasses and wore them, gathering enough courage to get up. He did, stretching himself, and looked at Emily, who was still asleep. He poked her to wake up, but all she did was to cover herself with the sheets, like a snail hiding into its shell. John sighed and decided to leave her alone and try again when he actually had something cooked. He headed to the kitchen, leaving his girlfriend asleep.
    After 15 minutes, he had made spaghetti carbonara with the remaining pasta he found on the fridge, bacon and sour cream. Just on time, he felt Emily hugging him from behind, whispering:
- Good morning, blue boy...
    John chuckled, turned around and kissed her nose.
- It's actually afternoon, so good afternoon!
    Emily giggled and pulled away from John, exclaiming:
- Details! It's not like we could wake up in the morning today!
- That's true, I never said the opposite.
- What a wedding, huh?
- Yeah, it was fantastic.
- I never expected Evelyn to have so many uncles, aunts and cousins! Did you?
- As a kid who never had uncles, aunts and cousins, no, I didn't!
    John served Emily and himself the pasta he made,sharing it half by half, and they ate quietly, thinking about how the day aheadof them could go.
- ...
- ...
- You know, we could tell Amy and Sean the idea of all of us hanging out together today, since we got this day free.
- Because then you will go on the Stand-UpComedian Tour, Sean will also go on a world-wide tour, and Amy will take Jimmyto see his dad and then back to her parental house in Omaha.
    Emily sighed.
- Yeah... Pretty much. Are you sure you will be okay on your own?
- Don't worry about me, Emily. I will be fine; I have Toothless to keep me company. Plus, Amy and Jimmy will return sooner than the rest of you anyway, so I won't be alone for TOO long!
- And one of our stops in the tour will be LA itself, so I'll get to see you before I leave again. Okay?
- Okay...
- Good!
    Emily, pleased with John's assurance that he would be okay, kissed his cheek and got back to eating. John smiled at her and returned to his own lunch as well.

    Like always, he didn't like it when Emily wasleaving for a long time. He didn't know why, but the fact that she would visithim sooner didn't excite him as much as it should. What he cared about the mostwas Michael's absence and how much he wished that one month to go by quickly sothat he could see his best friend again...
    What he couldn't imagine, though, was that somewhere inside him, a new feeling about Michael was getting stronger and stronger...