Thirteen Summers

fifty-two

THIRTEEN SUMMERS

Kai shut his bedroom door harder than he meant to.

The sound cracked through the quiet hallway, sharp and brittle, and for a moment he stood there with his hand still on the knob, chest tight, jaw locked.

He hadn't yelled when he told Cameron. He hadn't thrown anything.

He hadn't done any of the things people expected from him when he was angry.

That almost made it worse.

His room felt too small tonight. Posters he'd had for years seemed childish now, the corners curling away from the walls.

He dropped onto the edge of his bed and leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands knotted together so tightly his knuckles ached.

Josie.

Thinking of her didn't come as a single image but a rush of fragments, disordered and relentless.

The way she hesitated before speaking, like she was checking herself for permission.

The careful precision she carried, every movement measured, every choice weighed as if the wrong one might cost her something she couldn't afford to lose.

Her quiet pride when she did something right.

The way her confidence appeared in flashes, bright and genuine before she tucked it away again.

And beneath all of that, something fragile he hadn't wanted to name.

Making herself sick.

The sentence felt invasive, like it had no right existing in the same space as her.

Like it was an intruder that had crept in while no one was watching and made itself at home.

Anger surged first, hot and unfiltered.

At the world.

At their mother-dead seven months now, still managing to leave wreckage behind.

At Ella, who'd gotten her hopes up just to leave her in the lurch.

At himself, because how the hell had he missed this?

His mind betrayed him then, dragging him backward.

To when she'd first moved in.

He saw himself standing in doorways with crossed arms, sighing too loudly, rolling his eyes when she took too long to answer questions.

Mocking her routines. Calling her weird like it was funny.

Acting like her need for quiet and predictability was an inconvenience instead of a survival instinct.

He'd thought teasing would toughen her up.

Thought pushing her would force her to adapt.

All it had done was teach her to shrink.

And now this.