In the rainy days that followed, Kai did not come to school and he did not answer his door when I knocked in the afternoons. He returned each day very late in the evenings, but always in a good mood. I could hear his humming and whistling on my side of the wall, a happy, mindless sort of noise that slowly subsided into deep sighs of contentment as he tossed in his bed.

It was an accident when I knocked my head against the wall one night. And it would have stayed an accident, but then, Kai knocked back.

“Are you okay?”

I had not realized how thin the walls between us were until that moment. “I’m fine. I hit my head against the wall.”

“I know. I heard.” He laughed, and he was laughing much harder than I had expected him to.

“You’re in an awfully good mood today,” I said.  

“I am in an awfully good mood today.” He sounded smug. “Aren’t you going to ask why?”

“Fine then,” I said, playing along. “Why are you in such a good mood?”

He knocked a funny little pattern on the wall, deliberately stretching out the moment. “Secret.”

“Great,” I said sarcastically. “I’m going to sleep now.”

“Aren’t you going to say good night?” He kept tapping the wall.

“Good night,” I said into my pillow.

“Yeah, good night.”

There was a moment of silence.

Then the tapping began again.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

“Why are you tapping the stupid wall?” I groaned, pushing my face deeper into my pillow.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Go do something.”

“I am.”

“Go do something productive.”

“Annoying you is always productive.”

“You’re a bimple.” I snapped, throwing my pillow at the wall.

He paused. “Did you just call me a bimple?”  

“Yes. It stands for Big Idiotic Meanie Pieface Lumpy Ew.”

“Give me a minute to applaud your sophistication,” he said, clapping slowly.

“I was four when I made that up. It worked really well on Kris. He cried all the time when I called him that.”

“Your brother is not a bimple.”

“Well, he was when he was nine.”

Kai took a moment to take in that information. A moment of quiet that was ruined when I closed my eyes and realized I couldn’t sleep either.

Tap.

Tap.

“Why are you tapping now?” he asked, amused. He rapped back lightly with the back of his hand.

“I can’t fall asleep either.” Thanks to you.

“Oh,” he said, sounding thoughtful. “Do you want to go somewhere then?”

“It’s eleven thirty,” I said. I looked at the clock. Closer to twelve, actually.

“It’s Friday.”

My stomach growled, and I could almost see him smirking on the other side.

“We could get some food. Delicious strawberry flavored food.”

A quick snack. A very quick snack.

“Fine.”