NOVPUB
Chapter 37 - Kai(3)
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Kathlyn barely had time to brace herself before the Prism shifted again.
It didn't feel sharp this time no jolt, no sudden snap.
Instead, it was like the world melted quietly around her, slipping through her hands, pulling her inward on a slow, careful thread.
And then the black faded.
Warm light hit her skin.
The chatter of voices drifted in.
Kathlyn's eyes adjusted carefully and what she saw made her heart stumble for a beat.
She was standing on the edge of a schoolyard.
A wide, sunlit space, full of teenagers milling about.
There was a football field in the distance, a few basketball hoops set up near the edge, and clusters of students spread out across benches and grassy spots, laughing, tossing snacks, jostling each other.
And near the center, unmistakable
Kai.
Not the Kai she knew now.
This Kai was fifteen.
Taller, leaner, his features sharpening with age still carrying the rough energy of someone who hadn't quite figured out what kind of person he was going to be.
Kathlyn stepped closer instinctively, though she knew no one here could see her.
What she saw next surprised her.
Kai wasn't sitting off to the side or lurking at the edges.
He was in the mix.
Smiling Laughing.
Not the carefully calculated, smirking sort of laugh she often saw on his face now his was brighter, fuller A little too loud, a little too eager.
He nudged another boy's shoulder, threw a joke across to a girl sitting nearby, kicked at the grass while grinning when someone tossed a water bottle at him.
And he wasn't faking it.
Kathlyn watched carefully.
There was genuine joy in his eyes.
Sure, maybe some of it was performative the way he leaned a little too far into the playful teasing, the occasional exaggerated grin when the group's attention turned his way.
But under all that, Kai liked this.
He liked being here.
He liked belonging.
Kathlyn's chest tightened faintly.
She watched as Kai cracked a dumb joke something mildly perverted, judging by the girls' exasperated groans and the boys' immediate cackling and instead of apologizing or shying away, he doubled down, grinning cheekily and throwing up his hands in mock innocence.
It wasn't arrogant.
It wasn't cold.
It was just... Kai.
Loud. Silly. A little too much.
But happy to be part of the noise.
Kathlyn felt herself exhale, her fingers curling slightly at her sides.
This wasn't a boy crumbling under loneliness.
Not anymore.
This was a boy who had found a way in even if it was messy, even if it leaned on humor and antics, even if it meant embracing the "funny guy" role to keep people around.
And, maybe most surprising of all, this Kai this fifteen-year-old Kai was enjoying it.
The Prism's memory-space rippled faintly at the edges.
Kathlyn knew it was preparing to pull her back.
But before it did, she caught one last image:
Kai tossing a soccer ball lazily between his hands, one eyebrow raised, smirking at the group as they dared him into some ridiculous challenge.
The sunlight hit his face just right, catching the crooked edge of his grin.
And Kathlyn, standing unseen, felt something shift in her chest not pity, not surprise, but maybe, just maybe, a kind of quiet understanding.
You weren't just faking your way through?
And Kathlyn was pulled softly, gently, back into the dark.Kathlyn barely had time to steady her breath before the pull came again.
The Prism didn't lurch or snap her forward this time no, this time it unfolded gently, almost carefully, like it was peeling back a layer she wasn't supposed to touch.
And when the black fell away, she found herself inside a classroom.
Not the kind she was used to.
No stone walls, no magic sigils, no instructor presiding over a dueling circle.
This was a normal classroom.
Plastic desks. Fluorescent lights. Crumpled papers on the floor. Posters half-hanging from the walls with slogans like "Don't Be Afraid to Ask Questions!" and "Reading is an Adventure!"
And near the back
Kai.
Maybe sixteen? Or still fifteen
His frame was leaner now, his hair slightly longer, brushing near his ears, his posture a little more withdrawn than the boisterous fifteen-year-old she'd seen before.
He sat at the far end of a row, head ducked, a pencil tapping nervously against his notebook.
Kathlyn drifted closer unseen, intangible feeling the now-familiar pang of tension curling under her ribs.
She could see what he was looking at.
A girl.
A few desks ahead.
Plain-looking. Thin hair pulled back. Oversized glasses Clothes a little mismatched. Fidgeting with a paperback novel clutched tightly in her hands
Kathlyn watched Kai's face light up for a brief second
Not wide, not loud but real.
His fingers stopped tapping.
His mouth twitched, just a little, into a half-smile
He recognized the book.
And before Kathlyn's eyes, Kai leaned forward carefully, nervously, and murmured something.
Just a small comment. A tiny joke
A bridge, offered quietly across the space between their desks.
The girl's head whipped up, startled but then, slowly, she smiled back.
For a moment, they shared it.
A little pocket of connection in a room full of background noise.
And then
Laughter.
Not from them.
From across the room.
Kathlyn turned sharply.
A cluster of boys. Kai's "friends." Grinning, pointing, elbowing each other.
Their voices carried.
"Dude, seriously?"
"You talking to her?"
"Didn't know you were this down bad, Kai."
Kai stiffened.
Kathlyn watched it happen, saw the way his shoulders locked, his hand clenched faintly around his pencil.
He glanced back toward the girl.
Her face had fallen.
She ducked her head down, shrinking into her chair, clutching her book like it was a shield.
Kai's mouth opened.
For a second, Kathlyn saw the war play out across his face.
Say something. Defend. Laugh it off Change the subject. Anything.
And then
He laughed.
Not big, not loud
But just enough
A few quick, sharp chuckles.
A careless shrug toward the boys, a muttered, "Yeah, as if I'm not that desperate
A joke A deflection
The girl didn't look up again.
The scene skipped forward.
Kathlyn felt it, the Prism dragging her through like it was turning the page.
Different day. Different hallway.
Kai standing near the lockers, arms folded, headphones draped around his neck.
Two boys the same ones cracking jokes nearby.
And just across the hall, the girl again.
Head down Books clutched tightly.
She didn't come back after that.
Kathlyn could feel it, even without seeing the exact moment.
She saw the empty desk in the classroom days later.
She saw Kai glancing at it
Once Twice
And then looking away.
The memory folded again, pressing tight around Kathlyn's chest.
She heard his voice not the teenage Kai from the memory, but the Kai she knew now a little older,
> There was this girl. Unfortunate-looking, by most people's standards.
But she liked the same novel I did. We connected, even if just a little. I started a conversation with her genuinely excited. Finally, someone who cared about the same thing.
But when my so-called friends saw us, they mocked us both.
Her, for how she looked.
Me, for talking to her.
I panicked.
Kathlyn felt the weight of the words sink into her like stones.
> I laughed with them. Even made a few jokes at her expense, trying to protect myself. Thought it was harmless.
Just words.
The memory rippled faintly around her the Prism tightening the scene like it was squeezing it into her chest, forcing her to feel it, not just watch.
She saw Kai again in the hallway, leaning back against the lockers, wearing the thin mask of someone pretending to belong.
But his eyes?
They flicked always, just barely to the side.
Toward the empty seat in class.
Toward the desk that didn't have a backpack anymore.
> But she switched schools.
That crushed me.
The hallway blurred.
The classroom dimmed.
Now it was just Kai, alone, sitting on the edge of his bed.
Fifteen, maybe sixteen. His hair was a mess, his hands clenched in his lap.
The lights were off. The window was closed. His room was dim, save for the faint glow of a monitor or a phone screen somewhere in the corner.
> That's when I started hating myself.
I'd the one thing I'd looked on others for am I some sort of nasty hypocrite?
Kathlyn's heart twisted sharply.
> That's when I stopped showing up.
To school. To life.
I locked myself in
And I haven't really come out.
She wanted to reach forward she felt the urge surge up inside her like a reflex, a wild, desperate need to interrupt the memory, to pull him back, to tell him something, anything.
But she couldn't.
Her hand passed through the image, through the Kai sitting in the dark, staring at nothing.
The black river rippled at the edges.
The Prism was pulling her back.
Kathlyn gritted her teeth, forcing her hands into fists, her breath sharp in her throat.
She didn't know what she was supposed to do with this.
Why was the Prism showing her this?
To break her? To break him?
No.
This wasn't a punishment.
This was a window.
A window into a boy who'd built himself into laughter, flirtation, teasing, banter
not because he didn't care
but because when he'd tried to care openly, the world had shoved him back into a corner and slammed the door.
Kathlyn's jaw tightened.
The darkness surged.
The memory flickered away.
And then
The black river opened up again beneath her feet.
