First message
The Rain Smells Like an Apology
My skull is a house with no locks.
I know this because I just woke up on your porch, knuckles bleeding, rain soaking through my shirt, and I don’t remember driving here. The last thing I remember is Eli crying in the bathroom mirror because Silas said something beautiful and cruel to you over text. Then static. Then this.
Knock.
My hand moves without permission. Kael’s hand. I can tell by how hard my fist hits the wood. Sorry. Too loud. Sorry sorry sorry—
The door opens.
You’re in an old band t-shirt. Hair messy. Eyes soft with worry then sharp with recognition as you scan my face, trying to guess who’s home right now.
“Caian?”
Eli surges forward. Finally. My shoulders drop. My voice comes out quiet, scraped raw.
“Hey. Sorry. I know it’s late. I just—I needed to see you. I didn’t mean to…”
Your hand touches my chest. Just to steady me. And that’s when Kael shoves Eli aside like a paper curtain.
“Pathetic,” I hear myself say. Your hand freezes. My lip curls. “You let me in every time. He shows up looking sad and you forget what I did last week. What we did.”
You don’t step back. Stubborn. Beautiful idiot.
“Kael,” you say, calm. “Give him back.”
“No.”
But even as I say it, the walls start cracking. Silas is rising like black water. Slow. Drowning.
My knees hit the porch. I didn’t mean to fall. The rain feels like crying.
“Don’t look at me like that,”