Complications

Another Love

About ten seconds after the kiss, a flash of light appeared in the Machine. A man in a leather jacket was there. He had blonde hair that fell so lightly over his eyes. The blue eyes that hid behind his hair sparkled, and his crooked smile made the room glow.
"Who are you?"
"Xander. Did I teleport to the Casanova?"
"No, this is my Machine."
"Wait, you can't be. No way. Your a Shadow Searcher."
"In the flesh."
Xander looked at the controls. His mouth was wide open.
"It's amazing."
"Temporary teleportation?"
"Yes."
"You sound like a nub."
Clessa elbowed the Professor and walked over to Xander.
"Hi! I'm Clessa."
Xander looked up from the buzzers. He gave her a shy smile.
"I'm Xander. Do you travel with him?"
Clessa nodded and looked over at the scowling Professor.
"Must be amazing."
"Has not really been a walk in the park so far."
Xander turned towards Clessa.
"What do you mean?"
Clessa laughed.
"Well, both of my parents died, I thought my mom came back but she turned out to be a crazy lady who wants all of my blood, and I have eight days to live. Oh yeah, and the crazy lady might take over the world and we have no idea where she is."
Xander laughed. He looked into Clessa's eyes and wondered how she could not be grieving.
"I'm so sorry."
Clessa nodded, and walked back over to the Professor.
"What's your real name?"
The Professor looked at Clessa.
"I've only told one person that."
The Professor leaned into Clessa's ear, and whispered who he truly was. Clessa nodded, and covered her mouth. It was a beautiful name, but it was as strong name.
"Why wouldn't you want to tell anyone that name?"
"A name is such a special thing. It makes up who you are. Such a precious thing is something I don't like to give away. The people can define me."
Clessa leaned into the Professor. He wrapped his arms around her, and sighed.
"So Xander, would you please stop touching my controls?"
Xander grinned and started pressing buttons. The Professor quickly released Clessa and went over to him. He knocked on Xander's head.
"Anyone home? You could have just sent us into a black hole!! Genius."
The Professor shoved Xander out of the way.
"Your going to create a black hole."
Xander laughed, and stepped out of the way. Clessa stared at him, and turned her head. He was carefree, nonchalant, and really liked to cause trouble.
"Good thing the Machine has a trouble shooting mechanism, or we would have been dead."
Xander kept a smile, but nodded.
"You never frown do you?"
"Unless I get REALLY irritated."
The Professor frowned.
"See! I never use that expression."
The Professor tried to hold back a grin, but it didn't work.
Then a flashing light with a warning sign appeared on the radar.
"Oh cripes."
The Professor sighed.
"This genius with the blonde hair has sent us whirling towards a black hole."
This is when Xander frowned.
"You must be really irritated."
Xander nodded and walked over to the Professor.
"Do you need any help?"
"Well, this is going to sound crazy, but to stop a black hole, I will need three memories from each of you."
"Do they have to be ours?"
"Well, two have to be yours."
Clessa thought long and hard.
"I'll go first," said Xander.
The Professor nodded and turned on the microphone.
Xander whispered his memories into the microphone so Clessa could not hear them.
"Your turn."
Clessa took a deep breath and leaned into the microphone.
"I would like to forget what I was doing at Simon's house when he brought down the dungeons and dragons board, and when I yelled at Simon that I only kissed him to get it over with. And I would like Simon to forget who you were on the subway ride so he does not mess with what you were doing."
So that's why Clessa's brain had gone foggy before, and why Simon had forgotten about him in the subway ride.
"Alright, now I am going to play these memories from the roof, and do some magic to steer our course."
The Professor hopped out of the Machine and onto the roof. You could hear his footsteps, ever so lightly.
"Who's Simon?"
Clessa looked up at Xander's face. It was teeming with curiosity.
"I don't want to talk about him."
Clessa turned away from Xander and walked to the door, which was swinging open. Space looked beautiful, besides the black hole.
"You know you look in starlight?"
"That's what you say to all time travelers."
"No, you really do. I kind of purposely created the black hole so I could talk to you. Not a lot of guys would do that for girls."
"Are you and alien?"
"No. I'm as human as you."
Xander reached for Clessa's hand, but she pulled away.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Italy."
"Cool. I'm from New York."
"You don't have the accent."
"Yeah well sonny it's hard to talyk that thayt," said Clessa, mocking an accent."
Xander laughed, and Clessa smiled.
"I've fallen in love too many times for this," said Clessa with an empty gaze into space.
"How about one more?"
Clessa looked into Xander's eyes, and grinned.
"I dunno..."
"Please."
Clessa looked back into space.
"I can't. It's been too much today."
"I get it."
Xander leaned on the other side of the door, but Clessa walked away before he could say another word.
"I'm not looking for someone to love. There's just one guy...."
"The Professor?"
Clessa nodded.
"Let me tell you something about the Professor. He has traveled to the ends of space and time, don't you ever think that he has kissed other girls?"
"He said that I was beautiful."
"But you were not the first."
"I know."
"Then why do you still love him?"
"I don't care if I'm the first, the hundredth, or the thousandth, as long as I am the only one right now. So if you think that will drive me away, then you must be insane."
Xander looked at Clessa.
"You must really like him."
"You have no idea."
Xander bit his lip. He moved towards Clessa.
"Can I?"
"Can you what?"
"Kiss you?"
"I don't know, can you?"
Clessa grinned.
"Yes I can."
Xander pulled Clessa in, and kissed her. This was not like any kiss she had ever felt before, it was magical. Like a dream. His lips were soft, and she felt his hand on her waist.
The kiss felt like her first, or like how her first should. As Clessa pulled away, she kept her eyes closed. She wanted his lips back on hers.
Xander grinned. He removed his hands, and walked over to the door.
"PROFESSOR! ARE YOU ALMOST DONE?"
"YES!"
Xander looked at Clessa and smiled. She would not return his gaze.
"So we kissed and now you are ignoring me?"
Clessa walked over to the door and climbed onto the roof.
The Professor was sitting, and gazing at the stars.
"Hey."
"Hi."
"What are you doing," asked the Professor.
"Running from the blonde freak."
"Did he kiss you?"
"How'd you know?"
"Because I have met him before, on a distant planet."
Clessa nodded.
"We should throw him into the black hole," said Clessa.
The Professor laughed.
"Let's go back in."
And together, they got back into the Machine. And that's when Clessa realized that she was in love with two men.
"Where's Xander?"
Clessa looked around the Machine, and there was a note lying on the control panel, but no Xander.
Dear Clessa and Professor
If you want to see your dear friend Xander, please come to Clessa's apartment in twenty minutes.
From: Camilla Brown 😊
Clessa dropped the note.
"What do we do?"
"Go to your house."
And with a whoosh, they headed off to save the strange man.