Frozen Lashes

Kyle was shaken back to awareness by a knocking on his bedroom door.

"Dinner is ready, brobro!"

He sat there for a second, unsure as to why he had zoned out, before once again remembering the concept of chicken pot pie.

With his hopes high for the meal, he wandered downstairs, only to see that there was no chicken pot pie.

With a smile on his face, he sat down and waited to eat the no-longer-frozen pizza his mother had prepared.

He grabbed the cheese when his sister snatched it from his hands with a laugh.

"Haha you nerd! Keep up next time!"

Kyle patiently waited for her to finish adding the cheese to her pizza when she paused, staring at him.

He stared back.

After a second, she sprinkled the cheese on her slice and passed it back to him.

Kyle shook the parmesan container before snapping the lid shut.

He leaned back against his chair, waiting for his mother to join them so they could eat.

As she sat down, Kyle and Hannah both dug in, tearing into their food like starved wolves.

"Kyle."

Kyle looked up at his mother. "Yeah?"

"Elbows off the table. Now."

Kyle blinked. "Okay."

He resumed eating.

Hannah looked over at him once again with a strange look on her face. She opened her mouth, as if to speak, but said nothing.

The rest of dinner passed uneventfully.

~~~~

Kai was watching Kyle throughout the entire meal with slight concern. Something about the way he interacted with the whole situation just felt… off.

'Peculiar.'

Perhaps his presence was causing more to change than he had previously assumed.

But that was something to explore at a later date. Right now, Kai wanted to mess around with Kyle's mind a bit more, and test some theories.

Kyle was getting up to get another slice, so Kai quickly formed a bed from the clouds.

Kyle changed course, leaving his plate by the sink.

"Hey, I'm feeling pretty tired. I might just go to bed."

Kai couldn't care less about the sentiments and concerns expressed by Kyle's family, but they seemed to bring Kyle some comfort and joy as he headed to bed.

As Kyle reached his room, Kai stopped focusing on holding the imaginary bed intact. Instead, he tried to shift it into words.

<look up>

~~~~

Kyle entered his bedroom and looked up.

He was getting into bed when suddenly he felt like he should make it again.

After making his bed, he suddenly realized a nice hot shower sounded nice.

He dug around his room for some PJ's, just to make the experience extra luxurious, before hopping in. For some reason, a meme came to mind.

Next thing Kyle knew, he was pretending to be a wet rhino during the first rain in years in the african savannah.

~~~~

Kai didn't know why he did what he did, but boy was he glad he did. Watching humans do dumb things was just… amusing.

Unfortunately, Kai couldn't think of any other memes to get Kyle to act out, so after a thorough cleansing, they headed to bed.

~~~~

Becca was staring at Kyle's instagram page, practically shaking with rage.

She didn't know why she was so angry, but she did know that it was all Kyle's fault. If Kyle went away, she would feel better. She had to!

She had tried everything to calm herself, from meditation to a bubble bath, from trying to sleep it off to getting up for a midnight run.

'Why is that boy getting to me!? And why now? I'm the one who broke up with him! Why do I even care!?'

The winter night air bit at her skin, but it felt as if it were only carrying away some of the endless burning rage inside her heart.

She ran laps and laps around her block, long past when her hands had gone numb.

Only when she felt her eyelids begin to stick together as she blinked did she head inside.

She popped in her earbuds, blasting Metallica in an attempt to tune out her thoughts. Only then was she finally able to find sleep.