A/N: Hello everyone! So, I was going to wait and post this later in the week, but since I've started the next chapter already, I decided to go ahead and post it now :P
I had a discussion about horoscopes and zodiac signs with a close friend of mine which inspired this story! After a little research, I decided to focus on the Leo and Aeries signs!
I hope you all enjoy!
Kendall Knight stood in front of the mailbox, pinching a gold-edged card, his throat constricting with a rush of betrayal. Rain drummed over the card, making the ink of Jo's name run.
A year ago last January, she and Kendall were making snow angels right here in front of his two-story rental. His sister Katie and her boyfriend Ryder had joined them. They had laughed so hard he'd felt it in his gut for the rest of the day.
Out of nowhere, Jo slammed him with the truth. She would prefer to spend her life with someone else. Someone easier to live with. Ryder.
Kendall swallowed and closed his eyes on the memory, focusing on the rain slithering down the gaps of his jacket hood rather than the emptiness he felt. A right sad sack he was. Fuck.
He moved to the trashcan at the curb, lifted the freezing, wet lid, and then slammed it down again.
The card still lay clutched in his hand.
He couldn't bring himself to toss that damn embossed card away. Because… because… it was addressed to him and Katie.
Yeah. That was totally the reason.
He rolled his shoulders and tucked the card with the other two minor annoyances that had arrived with the mail. He splashed up the white stone path to the front door and let himself in.
"Katie?" He called over the ear splitting music.
He toed off his shoes and slid them into the shoe rack, making sure to tuck the laces away. "You're gonna want to hear this." He said as he hung his wet jacket.
"I'm in the living room."
Kendall rounded into the main room of their house. The previous tenants had knocked down a few walls, making a great room and open plan kitchen.
He found his sister in a pair of yoga pants and tank top, using one of the heavy wooden pillars that studded the space to stretch out her calves. She picked up her phone from the base of the pillar and spoke. The music pumping from the sound system faded.
"You smell like rain." She said as she turned in his direction and sniffed.
"I'm drenched. You didn't hear it pounding out there?"
"Thought it got a bit darker. But I wasn't sure."
Dragging her hand over their couch, she moved toward the kitchen.
It didn't look like she had to count every step. Didn't look like she had difficulty pulling a black mug from the white cabinets and filling it with water.
Didn't look like she was legally blind.
Water guzzled, Katie plunked herself onto the armchair. "What am I gonna want to hear?"
Kendall pulled out the mail from under his arm and set it on the coffee table. He flung himself onto the couch, tipped his head against the arm, and pinched his nose. "It came."
"It came?" Confusion edged Katie's voice, and then she breathed sharply. "It came." Tension-filled silence followed, then, "When is it?"
"It's the square card on the end closest to you. I was tempted to throw it out."
But he obviously had masochist tendencies, because some part of him wanted to suffer its contents.
Katie asked, "Are you doing the honors? Or do you want me to stick it under my magnifier?"
Kendall let out a soft chuckle before rolling onto his side and plucking the offending card from the table.
Scrawled in large, now bleeding cursive at the top of a soft gold-and-cream card were the stomach clenching words.
Save the Date.
Jo Taylor & Ryder Lynn
"Middle of May." His voice cracked and his throat felt like he had swallowed fire.
Katie made a choking sound, her eyes filmed over with tears.
Kendall tossed the card onto the coffee table and slid onto the armchair next to her. Her head cradled against his shoulder as he stroked a stray lock behind her ear. "Fuck 'em, right?"
"Not anymore." She said.
Kendall let out a raw laugh. "I guess you're right."
Ryder had been Katie's boyfriend for three years and Jo had been Kendall's girlfriend for two.
A week after the snow angels, they'd discovered the two had fallen out of love with them and in love with each other.
He thought he'd gotten over the pain.
Seeing them together last Halloween, a twinkly rock bedazzling her finger, was hard enough.
Now this invitation…
His stomach knotted.
"I really wish I could hate them." Katie said.
"Me too."
But they couldn't. Jo and Ryder hadn't snuck around or cheated on them. They hadn't done anything to intentionally hurt them. Bit by bit over all the weeknights, weekends, and holidays Kendall and Katie had them over, they'd become close. While Kendall had focused on other things, classes, hockey, rewriting papers, and Katie on her thesis proposal, Jo and Ryder had fallen in love.
They'd both cried when they confessed they had feelings for each other. And over and over they apologized. Which made it really hard to hate them.
Katie had been sitting on the armchair and Kendall had been stretched out on the couch flipping yogurt pretzels into his mouth like he didn't care. But he did.
He hadn't touched a yogurt covered pretzel since.
Nor had he found another girlfriend.
Flings, yes. He liked sex, but there had been no one he trusted or cared about enough to call his girlfriend. No one he thought would care for all of his flaws.
His sister hadn't re-entered the dating pool, either.
"What do say about ordering in tonight?" Kendall suggested. "We could get that sun-died tomato and chicken calzone you like, crank up some sappy music, and bitch until morning?"
Katie chuckled. "Sun-dried, Ken."
He knew that. Had known since the tender age of last year. He'd bought a jar and laughed at the misspelled label.
"Whatever." He kissed her forehead, climbed back onto the couch, and picked up the envelope from their mom. "The sun dried all those tomatoes dead. Sun-died makes a lot of sense."
Katie snickered. "Are you reading the rest of the mail?"
"Yep. Kick back and get ready to scoff. Mom sent us our yearly horoscope." Horoscope, singular, because he and Katie were both Leo's.
Kendall unfolded the page their mom had torn from her favorite astrology magazine and read it aloud. "It's a new year, Leo. Resolve to make big changes in your life and use your pride and stubbornness to see them through."
Kendall knew horoscopes were made-up crap meant to make you feel like life had a bigger purpose. Nevertheless, his neck prickled.
Easy to see how the horoscope might apply to him. Him and Katie both.
He cleared his throat and continued reading. "A new person will enter your life early in the year. Look past any moments of frustration they might bring and laugh, Leo. This could be the start of a thriving friendship."
"A roommate perhaps?" Katie said, tucking a leg under her. "Our first interview is Monday morning before classes, by the way."
"Before classes? I'm a hot mess in the mornings."
"That is very true." Katie said. "Stop giving me that face."
"How do you know what face I'm giving you?"
"I wasn't blind the first fifteen years. I know you." She grinned and waved a hand. "Go on, keep reading."
"If you feel overwhelmed during the early spring, take a deep breath and let someone close to you be the rock you lean on. Friendships may evolve in later spring, and you may receive news that will shock you, but fret not, this could be the news you need to hear! The heart and the head may not be in sync the first half of the year, Leo, and there's potential to overlook the obvious. Listen hard to the inner voice and if confused , talk it through with a loved one. Fear not rejection and heartbreak, Leo. Hold your head up high, be your glowing, fiery self, and the right people will gravitate to you, maybe even a soulmate among them."
At Katie's request, he reread the last paragraph.
She hummed thoughtfully, then leaned forward to the coffee table and felt for the save the date card.
Kendall frowned as his sister carefully made her way to the fridge and stuck the card to it. "What are you doing?"
"I think, this time, our horoscope might be right."
A hollow laugh left Kendall. "There was no warning for how screwed up our love lives turned out last year. Don't get your hopes up." Tsk. "Soulmate!"
"That's not the part I care about." She rolled her shoulders and lifted her chin. "We need to not fear rejection and heartbreak. We need to move on."
The edge of the horoscope crinkled in Kendall's grip.
"Go to their wedding? Dance and laugh and not care that they left us?"
"That's right." Katie said. "We'll take our own dates. It'll be great."
Kendall looked from the save the date card to the bottle of Zinfandel on top of the fridge. "I need a drink if we're going to talk about this."
XxX
"Okay, I'm in agreement. Let's move past this." Kendall said.
At the bottom of the Zinfandel bottle, and after two calzones and five mopey love songs, Kendall fished for his phone to change the music.
Katie laughed. "Let's."
But when he skipped the slow song, Katie used her phone to turn the music off. "Let's move past them."
"Isn't that what we're doing?" He asked.
"No, but we will. We are going to find each other dates for the wedding."
"Why don't we find our own dates?"
Katie let out a humourless chuckle. "Becuase we suck. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here, brother and sister, drowning our sorrows on a Friday night."
Okay, she had a point.
Kendall grabbed his laptop and logged onto Facebook.
Katie hiccupped, legs hanging over one arm of her armchair, shoulders resting on the other. "Who do you know that might be a match for me?"
Kendall had hundreds of 'friends,' people he'd met once or twice in passing. He made friends easily. Keeping them seemed to be the hard part.
He scrolled through the list of guys he really knew and winced when the total number came to three. Tyler, Carlos, and Logan.
That was sobering.
"So? Anyone?"
Kendall bit his lip. "I'm still looking."
He went back to Logan's wall and stared at the photos of the two couples. All smiles and flushed cheeks, Logan and Carlos flanked Jo and Ryder in front of snow-capped trees. The post revealed that they had gone for a weekend trip to Lake Erie.
Kendall eyed the empty wine bottle on the coffee table, then remembered the freezer in the kitchen might hold some vodka.
"What do you want in a guy anyway?" Kendall asked.
Logan's picture drew him back.
To think, just a year ago, Kendall would have been the one in this photos gazing at Jo.
"Honesty? Understanding." Katie said. "I want someone who doesn't make me feel blind. I want fun and I want to be swept off my feet."
The worst thing about breaking up was realizing his friends were in fact Jo and Ryder's friends too.
"Strength, too." Katie continued. "Physical and mental."
Kendall hummed his nod. "Strength, honesty, understanding. Got it."
He, Logan, and Carlos used to hang out all the time. Hang out at bars. Play hockey together.
"Also compassion. And blind loyalty." Katie laughed. "See what I did there?"
"You word-playing mastermind, you."
She felt for a cushion and whipped it in his direction. Kendall batted it away.
"There are too many guys here to choose from." He lied. "I'll need time to narrow it down."
"We have until May."
He hopped to Tyler's profile, the guy in one of his classes who he was helping. The first picture to pop out at him was taken five minutes ago. Tyler was dancing at a club with his girlfriend.
So… yeah.
No match there, either.
The thought of telling Katie he had no matches made heat claw up his neck.
Things in the friends department fucking sucked but that was going to change. Not because his horoscope said it would, but because he was going to make it change.
Finding Katie the perfect date just turned personal.
Done! This is more of a prologue, and the horoscope may or may not be playing a major part of the story ;)
So, Kendall and Katie are determined to move on from Jo and Ryder, and it seems like a mystery person will have a major impact on their lives soon! Any guesses on who that mystery person may be?
I'd love to hear your guesses as well as your thoughts on the chapter!
The next chapter will be up sometime this weekend, so until then!
-Epically Obsessed