The courtyard of Grendale High was alive with its usual morning energy — students laughing in groups, birds perched along the power lines, the faint hum of music playing from someone's speaker across the lawn. Sylan sat on a stone bench under a jacaranda tree, half-listening, half-present.
Beside him sat Ely, a girl with messy curls and bright, curious eyes. She laughed easily and touched his arm when she talked, always leaning in a little too close. It made people think they were already in love when they had only gone on one date which was initiated by her.
"You're zoning out again," she said with a playful nudge, her tone light but her gaze steady. "Are you alright ".
Sylan blinked and shook his head. "Just tired."
She smiled and let it go. She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Will you be coming with me and my friends to the pool party?Everyone in school is gonna be there".
"Yeah," he said quickly. "Yeah, definitely."
Ely beamed and reached into her bag, pulling out a pair of matching bracelets — thin leather bands, almost identical. She held one out to him, eyes glimmering. "I made these. For us."
Sylan stared at it.
Something twisted inside his chest.
It was too familiar — the same way Kant had once handed him a bracelet in the back of the library, grinning awkwardly, saying, "It's dumb, I know. But now you always have something that's mine."
That bracelet was still tucked in his drawer, hidden beneath socks and half-finished letters.
"Here" Ely said, her hand still outstretched.
He hesitated, then took it and slipped it onto his wrist. "Thanks. It's nice."
Her smile was full of so much radiance that it always reminded Sylan of Kant and he wondered if that was the whole point of being with Ely; to still see a piece of similarity of Kant by his side.
She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder like they'd been doing this for years. And for a moment, it felt... okay. Quiet. Like maybe this was what moving on was supposed to look like.
But even then, in the laughter of their conversations and the warmth of a new relationship, Kant's name still echoed somewhere in the back of his mind. Like an unfinished sentence.