Kyle had been staring off into space more and more every day. Sometimes he’d just stare out a window and sigh at random times. During lunch, he’d stare at something on the other side of the cafeteria and forget to eat until the last couple of minutes and stuff everything in his mouth.

I never really minded, though that was because he would still act like himself in the dorms. 

However, lately, he had begun staring off at the dorms too. He would stare and smile or frown at nothing in particular. He’d chuckle at random times, and murmur to himself on weird occasions.  I decided that it was getting too weird to bear with and confronted him about it.

We had just gotten home from school and Kyle had gone straight to his room. I followed him and went into his room before he could close the door.

He turned to me confused. ¨What’s wrong?¨ he asked.

I looked at him in the eyes ¨I should be the one asking you that¨

“What do you mean?” he laughed lightly. “I’m fine. You must be imagining things.” he turned around to place his bag on the bed. 

“Kyle don’t try to avoid the topic, things have been weird with you and you know it,” I moved closer to him.

“It’s really nothing Jez, let it go.” He was using my nickname, and he only used my nickname when he was trying to convince me to do something, comforting me,  or was sad himself.

“I’m worried though. Remember what we talked about, how we established that we were family?” he nodded so I continued “Then act like it and trust me enough to tell me what’s wrong.” I was whining a bit, but I was genuinely concerned about what was on his mind.

Kyle looked at me, eyes apologetic. 

“I’m sorry Jez… it’s just, agh I don’t even know what’s going on myself.” He looked down at his hands. “You know, we haven’t lived that long but I already feel like I’m going through a midlife crisis.” he chuckled.

“I don’t really know how to begin to explain this…” he said while looking out his window. “Lately I’ve been ‘developing’ feelings that hadn’t been there before.” he plumped on his bed while patting a spot next to him indicating he wanted me to sit with him. 

“I don’t really know where they came from but it’s not recent. It’s just that lately I’ve been feeling them more strongly.” He covered his face with his hands. “You know that feeling you get when something strange is happenin