"Hey."

The whisper awakens him; upon rolling over, he discovers it's 2:45 in the morning, Krystal is awake, and it is cold. He tries to gain some consciousness from her eyes, but she's looking at the ceiling. 

"Do you remember the time you bought me two little cactus pots for my seventeenth birthday?"

Kai smiles faintly. "Yeah, because you bloody asked for them."

"I named one Severus. Do you remember? Remember when I told you I named inanimate objects because they felt a little closer to me when I did? It was almost as weird as that time you scoured every flower shop on the coast looking for peonies because I mentioned once that they were my favourite. Or that time I told you I liked sushi and you took me to my favourite sushi place every day after school for the entire week. Remember that?"

The space between Kai's brows creases, but it's too late.

"Do you remember that time we almost crashed your car, but I wasn't supposed to be out, so we told no one about it? And the next morning when I saw you, you smiled like nothing happened."

He opens his mouth to stop her, to say something, anything, but she trainwrecks right through him.

"Not like a pretend smile like, hey let's pretend it didn't happen, but like a 'nothing really ever happened' smile." She's crying now, crying mercilessly and her eyes are on him, two solid holes of blank fire. "That's when I knew you were never going to change. Not then, and not ever."

Kai doesn't realise she has left the room until the door slams in her absence. 

It is cold.

*** 

Watching Harry Potter late at night sounds romantic when you throw a prom invite into the mix, and several close-seated hugs that smell vaguely of hastily sprayed Armani. Not that she would have distinguished it - fancy perfumes were never in her interest cards. 

It becomes not so romantic, though, when you end up in front of her mother, asking for her permission to take her daughter to prom.

Kai breaks a sweat as Krystal stands on the side, close enough to hear the exchange and far enough to let him know that he is alone in this endeavour.

"No," her mother says, and even as her lips part into a smile, Kai feels like this isn't a joke.

"She's kidding," Krystal assures him. "She's just trying to scare you."

He laughs, but inside he thinks that he has been terrified from the start.

***

"You know, I think that's a really bad choice. Purple? Really?"

Krystal presses her lips together until they're one great big smack of a line. "Kai, you asked to talk about this. You asked what colour my dress is - or will be, at least. This is dark red. Not purple. Matching, like you wanted."

"Ugh."

"It was your idea to match," she reminds him. "I'm glad you think so highly of your opinions."

"Do you really have to be like that all the time?" he demands, switching gears in his argument. 

"Do you really have to raise your voice when an argument isn't going along on your terms?" Krystal counters. "You know, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while now."

"What, that I should stop complaining about my tie colour choices because you've got it so much harder as a girl, picking out a dress and whatnot?"

Krystal's pinched mouth smiles severely; insincerely. "That, yes, but also, Kai... This isn't going to work. You and me at prom will be a disaster. I think you know that."

His face freezes, unfinished in reaction, like an abandoned sculpture in progress. "What?"

"I'm cancelling our formal date," she says simply. 

"Wh- is it because you want to go with someone else?" Kai splutters.

"No." In her mind, Krystal can think of at least two people she could potentially go with instead of him, but her answer is as honest as it is plain - there really is no one else, no definite lined up replacement who pushed for this move.

"I don't get it." Kai stares and stares.

She stares back, shaking her head. A little chuckle passes through her lips, but if their highlights were the colour red, then this sound would be blue. "You don't get it." Krystal stands. "This whole time... You don't ever listen to me, do you?"

***

If there's one thing she learnt that summer, it was that brown wallpaper absorbs heat quite well, especially when you're pressed up against it, side by side with someone you've known your whole life - that is, lost in conversations that take you to different places, different times. You only notice later that the wallpaper burns on the drive home.

"So what have you been doing? Do you like it here?"

"Just swimming and stuff in this new pool." Kai shrugs his narrow shoulders. "And I suppose. Still not home, but I've been here three months, what can you expect?"

Krystal nods sympathetically. "Man, it's been so long since I last saw you! Can't believe one of my preschool friends is so close by now."

"Yeah, it's crazy..." His voice is distant. 

"Are you alright?"

Kai nods, a little unconvincing. "I don't know how to feel about this place."

"Maybe you'll change your mind."

***

"So you're sure about this? You're sure you won't change your mind?"

"I'm sure, Kai." She looks at him with those clear eyes of hers. 

"You have a scar above your eyebrow," he comments offhandedly, frowning as if it shouldn't be there. "Also, you said yesterday that I don't listen to you."

Krystal swats his hand away, as it unconsciously inches towards the scar. "Yes." 

"Yes to what?" Kai's eyes refocus.

"Yes to everything," Krystal huffs, losing her patience. "Yes, I'm sure about not going to prom with you; yes, I have a scar; and yes, you don't listen to me. If you did, none of the things I just mentioned would be a problem."

***

The sky is blue.
How funny is that?
The sky is blue, and it doesn't matter.

What matters is that when she wears white, the reflections of the water bounce right off it, and she glows. She doesn't smile often, but God - when she does, it's contagious.

When she smiles at you, you want it all for yourself.

Problem is, he's never known whether it ever was all for him. The trouble with girls who like mysteries is that they become mazes and their secrets have secrets. 

***

A/N (22/11/15): truth be told, I don't know what I'm doing, but I know that this had to be written. Sorry if the formatting is ugly, I wrote it all on my phone.