Lost Bird

8

8

As James made her way into her lecture hall, she realised how stuck she had been this morning in thinking of the past. Must just be one of those reflective days. She giggled to herself.

It's the little things that would remind her of her Raven. A certain song would come on her playlist and she would think of him. Somebody would talk about Spongebob or speak with a European accent. It didn't matter which accent they spoke with, she would think of him.

She met a couple of guys last year, after she had first enrolled, who reminded her of her Raven. They were both big guys, neither had a Russian accent but one was Greek and spoke with an accent. His name was Silas and he and his friend North would speak Greek to each other constantly.

They didn't know she could understand them and that's how she found out they were Academy and brothers on the same team. They shared a few classes with her, and she always snuck around to be close to them.

About halfway through their first semester James thinks they realised she was always around and were worried that she was interested in them in a romantic sort of way. Silas had tried to let her down gently by explaining that neither of them were available and were both in a very happy and healthy relationship. James thinks she shocked him when she started laughing uncontrollably. It took James a bit, but she finally explained that they just reminded her of a friend hers she had lost years before, because he was European, and she missed his accent.

She apologised for making them uncomfortable and promised to leave them alone. As she got up to leave, they both called out to her and asked her to come back. North was the first to say something after she sat down.

     "I feel like an ass." He said "It's my fault Silas talked to you about this. He had assured me you weren't that kind of girl, but I have had such bad experiences with girls just not caring that I am in a relationship and I love our girl more than anything."

James picked up on the "our" girl reference but chose not to ask questions. She knew from the extensive research she had done into the academy and talking with Link that Polyandry was a common occurrence. It didn't bother her a bit. She completely understood why they chose to do that. She could see herself easily loving more than one person.

Even though she had never been on a date before or even kissed a boy, she knew that it would be easy to love more than one person if you were in the right situation. She apologised again and made it very clear that, while she thought they were both nice guys, she had no intentions toward them but friendship.

Since that day she could count them as close to friends as she had. She had even met their family and girlfriend, Sang. She knew that their family consisted of nine guys and Sang. She wasn't sure how she wrangled them all or was able to keep up with a few of them, like Luke and Dr. Sean, but she admired their love, and she told her that after they had had a talk about their relationship.

Sang was also on team find-James-love. It flattered her that such an incredible girl would care at all about a lost cause like James, but she explained how she had already lost the love of her life and no matter how much she wanted to move on she couldn't do that to him or their time together. Sang had asked her a very good question after that.

"What if you find him and he hasn't waited for you like you have for him?" She had already thought about that before, so she answered without hesitation. "I would never begrudge him any happiness. If he has been with other girls or had other relationships all I can hope is that they made him happy. There are no exceptions to my love. Would it be different if we were actually together? Of course. But until I can be with him again, until I can be good enough to be part of his life, I would never stop him from loving or living. He might not even remember me or hold me to the same memories I have of our time together. That really doesn't lessen how important he was to me. So, no matter what happens, if I ever get to see him again, I will just be happy to have had my time with him."