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It's raining.
Kai can feel the water drip down his back, and he shivers. He thinks he shivers. Maybe. The ringing in his ears is too loud to tell.
There's a flash of lightning, Kai can hear thunder. Or maybe that's the echo of the door, slamming shut in his face.
The water gets colder. It's raining harder now.
He's gonna get sick.
Maybe if he stays out there long enough, he'll die. Maybe if he stays in the rain he'll get pneumonia and die in front of the gate and they'll open the door in the morning and regret it.
They probably won't. But the thought is nice.
The thought keeps him warm, as water soaks him through. Even his socks are wet. His shirt sticks to his skin in a way that makes him squirm and his Nintendo pajamas pants are ruined.
He can't move.
.
His phone! His phone is in his pocket and it can't get wet, so he rushes under a tree and pulls it out and presses the little phone icon on the screen.
Who to call.
Should he call someone?
He can see his call history, Vanessa, then Adam, then Mira. Vanessa can't help, she's got shitty parents too. He cannot face Adam right now, not with the way he is.
Mira.
He hesitates.
He can't call, he can't just ask her for help like that. His parents are gonna open the gate any second now, and they'll let him back in, and he'll have to call Mira and tell her he was overreacting.
Any second now, his mom will come running out, sobbing. His dad will yell at her to quit being angry and let him back in with a shrug of apology.
He just has to wait.
So he does.
He waits, and waits, and waits. His legs start to hurt. He's been standing too long, and they're aching. He shifts, leaning against the tree, and winces at the feeling of the bark against his back. Can he get splinters through his shirt? He doesn't want to. He won't be able to pick them off his back. He leans away, before he remembers he's wearing his binder, and maybe it'll keep the splinters out.
His legs won't stop aching. It's annoying. He just has to wait a little longer.
Any second now.
The light from his parents bedroom window clicks off, and with it, Kai's hope.
Another crash of thunder has his finger slipping, and before he knows it, she's picked up.
Mira's voice crackles through the speaker. It's tinny.
"Kai? What's up?"
"Nothing!" He says, voice cracking. God, he sounds anxious. He really is a dick for worrying her like this. The rain beats down against the tree, and he huddles against the bark.
"So why- wait." Kai can hear her frown. "Are you....outside?"
The rain gets stronger. The wind whistles past his ears.
"No," he feebly replies.
"You are outside! Kai, what the hell? It's storming out! You should be at home!"
Shit.
He chuckles before he can stop himself. "I wanna be," he says.
Mira pauses. "What?"
"Sorry, I-I didn't mean to call you. Goodnight."
"Kai, if you hang up on me, so help me god you'll wish you got struck by lightening."
"....okay." Kai huddles even closer under the tree, trying to keep his phone dry. He's already soaked to the bone, but his phone needs to be okay.
"Where are you?"
"I-" his voice trembles horribly, he winces. He clears his throat. "I'm outside my house. Under a tree."
"I'm on my way," Mira says, and he can hear her call for her dad. He can't hear the conversation, but both people sound worried. Guilt wells up in his chest.
"Kai, can you stay on the line with me?" Mira asks. She's using the voice she keeps reserved for stray cats. Kai nods, before remembering she can't see him, so he murmers assent.
He's expecting hard questions, questions like, 'why are you outside? what's with the bruise? why are you wearing Nintendo merch?'. Instead, Mira asks him about Mario Kart.
It's an oddly pleasant conversation, though he can tell she's trying to keep him calm. It's like she's waving a treat in front of a dog so he sits still for his shots.
Within ten minutes, Mira's dad's car pulls up, and Mira sprints out, grabbing Kai and pulling him inside of it, into the warmth and safety. She looks a little horrified.
The Nintendo pajamas must be that awful.
She wraps him up in a big, fluffy blanket, and now that he's out of the storm, his ears ringing is enough to give him a headache. His eyes slowly droop while Mira has a conversation in hushed whispers with her dad.
When he opens his eyes again, they're in Mira's garage. She pulls him out of the car carefully, and her mouth moves, like she's asking him something, but he doesn't register it because it doesn't reach his ears until a minute later. His eyes are trained firmly on the ground. He will not trip.
Mira holds his arm as he shuffles inside.
They set him up on the couch, and Kai spots Miles shooting a worried look in their direction before sprinting off to his room. There's a cup being pushed into his hands.
Mira's other dad smiles at him. "It's hot chocolate," he says.
Kai takes a mechanical sip. It's delicious. He feels nauseous.
*******
Mira hands him a dry shirt and pair of pants, and he changes as quickly as possible, because if he doesn't he'll think about the fact that he's wearing their clothes and taking their hot chocolate and kicking up all his bullshit for them to deal with.
The clothes are blissfully warm.
He collapses onto the sleeping bag at the foot of Mira's bed. He's about to pass out when she shakes him by the shoulder.
"Kai? I need to check your temperature."
He sluggishly sits up and lets her stick the thermometer in his armpit, before she checks it and frowns.
"It's 38°C."
Kai blinks. "Is that good or bad?"
"It's exactly on the fence," Mira sighs. "Have you had dinner?"
He nods. Mira pauses. She looks conflicted. Kai braces himself for it, but the question makes him flinch a little regardless-
"Why do you have a bruise, Kai?"
"I don't wanna talk about it," he snaps, then immediately feels guilty. "Sorry- I just-"
"It's okay," Mira soothes. "You don't have to tell me. I just wanted to make sure you're okay."
Kai nods. He wraps his arms around himself, left hand on right shoulder, like he read about in an Instagram post a while ago. It really does feel like another person.
Mira smiles at him. "I'm gonna go shower. Are you gonna go to bed?"
Kai nods again, and Mira leaves and he is alone.
The door closes shut behind her, and he's fairly certain the walls aren't very thin. He allows himself a tiny sob, and that's his mistake, because one leads to two which leads to hiccuping several sobs in a row, and now tears are running down his face and so is snot and he's trying really really hard to be quiet. Tears are going past too quick for him to choke them down and he hates the feeling, mouth covered by his hands, skin sticky with salt.
Thankfully, no one comes into the room. He crawls into the sleeping bag, curls up in the fetal position, and silently cries himself to sleep.
*******
The next morning, Kai will shuffle home, head hung low, and Davis will tell him with a pitying look that his parents have left for San Francisco, that they won't be back for a while, and he will feel relief, then guilt.
He does not have to deal with them, but he also drove them away. He whines so much about being alone, yet he knows it's all his fault.
The next morning, Kai will go into his room and find no bloodstains for him to clean up. He will bake cookies and play video games and he will try his level best to forget.
He will fail, but that's okay. He's used to it.
The next morning, Kai will text Mira an apology for intruding, and she will yell at him over text for thinking he was intruding. He will ask her not to tell the others about the incident and she will hesitantly agree.
Kai will catch a cold from being out in the rain, and he will be bedridden. He will recover, alone. He will return to school and brag about playing video games the whole time.
For now, he sleeps. His dreams are weird, but they always are.