Kai lay on his back, one arm behind his head, staring at the faint cracks in his ceiling.His room was dark except for the little strip of light sneaking in from the hallway.He should've been asleep by now.He wasn't even close.
His phone rested on his chest, still warm from their texts.
He replayed her messages in his mind — not the words exactly, but the tone.Velithra always sounded straightforward in person, but her texts… there was something softer there. Something she didn't let people see easily.
He liked that she let him see it.
Kai exhaled and ran a hand through his hair, annoyed at himself for smiling.
He didn't smile like this.Not for people.Definitely not at midnight, alone in his room, because of a girl texting him goodnight.
He picked up his phone again, tapping the screen even though there were no new messages.Her name glowed back at him, the last thing he saw before the chat closed:
Velithra:Goodnight, Kai.
He read it again.Then again.
It shouldn't matter this much.
He tossed the phone aside, then immediately pulled it back, as if it might disappear if he didn't keep it close.
"Get a grip," he muttered to himself.
But he didn't put it down.
Kai turned on his side, staring at the wall.He could still picture her from earlier — the way she looked in the fading sunlight, the tiny smile she tried to hide, the way her voice had gone quiet when she said she wouldn't disappear.
He'd believed her.That scared him more than anything.
He wasn't the type to trust easily.Not even a little.Nobody stuck around long enough for that.
But Velithra…He didn't know what she was doing, or why it was working, but she was slipping past defenses he'd sworn he wouldn't lower again.
He grabbed his pillow and shoved it under his arm, restless.
His phone buzzed suddenly.
Kai's heart jumped — stupidly fast — but it was only a random notification.Not her.
The sudden disappointment hit him harder than he expected.He turned off the notifications entirely and threw the phone onto the bed beside him, face-down.
Still…Even with his eyes shut, even with the house silent, even with the phone dark…
He could still hear her voice from earlier.He could still feel that warm, stupid thing lodged in his chest.
Before sleep finally took him, he whispered — almost as if admitting it out loud made it more real:
"…I'm really screwed, aren't I?"