smiling critters

chapter 39 - seeing things

Kai woke up to mom telling him to start getting ready for school. he stood up and got dressed before going downstairs and eating breakfast before getting on the bus and listening to music as he blankly stared out the window, thinking about the woman he saw at the museum and how she mysteriously disappeared after he looked away. he didn't know who she was and she clearly wasn't scared of him, so why did she teleport away? was that Neil's mom? it couldn't've been, Neil said she died when he was a kitten, so was he just going crazy for no reason? what the fuck is happening? he took out a piece of scratch paper and a pencil and started to sketch her out, albeit poorly since the only time he ever drawn anything was when he was bored in class. he drew her from the front and back, her braids, her blue floral dress, and her silvering features to the best of his abilities with just a pencil and once he was done, started writing down what he thought was going on with her until the bus stopped and he had to get off. as he was heading to his locker, he saw Dylan looking at the floor, he looked lonely. where's Neil?

"hey! what's poppin'?!" he grinned as he ran up and wrapped an arm over Dylan's shoulders.

"oh, good morning! nothing much, just not in the best mood," he weakly smiled back.

"you? In a bad mood?! then your day must've started off like shit."

"eh, sorta. my mom ended up having to go into work early so I ate breakfast alone, then I couldn't find Neil when I got school, so I don't really have anyone to talk to, but you're here now, and hey, if mom had to go into work early that means she'll be home early, so I can see her tonight!"

"yeesh, that does kinda sound like a shit morning. Anything I can do to make it better?"

"walk with me to class?"

"Kay."

they walked to Dylan's class and talked about random stuff until they had to separate and Kai had to walk to class on his own, leaving him with the thoughts about that woman. was he seeing a ghost or was he hallucinating? it was hard to tell, at least if he only saw her once. He went to his next class but couldn't focus on what the teacher was talking about for the life of him, he was just focused on the museum lady. He decided to write out what happened to hopefully get a better idea of what her deal was.

"Hey, dude, are you paying attention?!" one of his friends outside the main group was shaking him as hard as they could.

"Oh, hi. Is something happening?" he asked, a little dazed.

"Yea, class is over. It has been for like 2 minutes and you're just sitting here like a homeless person wanting drugs!"

"Oh shit, thanks dude," he breathed as he gathered up his stuff and left class with his friend, spotting neil latched onto dylan as he walked to class like their fur was glued together. He called them a name in his head as he passed by to his next class, which he tried his best to pay attention in, same with the next class, and before he knew it, he was free to go to lunch. He got to the library and hollie was already there with bryson and camila while they were doing their own thing as he went and sat beside them.

"Wazzaa!" he shouted as he sat down.

"Wazzaa!" hollie shouted back, much to bryson and camila's annoyance.

"Can you two please keep it at conversation volume? It's a little disruptive," the african elephant asked politely.

"Yea, sure man, sorry," kai nodded before pulling out his lunch and starting to eat as he took out the paper he was writing about the woman on and kept pondering what could be her deal.

"Ooh, what'cha writin'? Porn?" hollie exclaimed as she snatched the paper away from him and tried to read his chicken scratch (pun intended), to no avail.

"Take a penmanship class," she huffed before handing the paper back to him.

"No, because it keep peeping toms like you from snooping on my work."

"It also keeps teachers from being able to grade your work. Also believe me hollie, we're working on it," bryson injected himself into the conversation as he helped camila with her work. Eventually, penny, bobby, neil and dylan came over, still clinging to each other. The second the couple sat down, neil had fallen asleep.

"Is he ok?" kai asked, staring at the feline as he purred on dylan's chest while he sat awkwardly so his boyfriend would be comfortable.

"Apparently he was busy catching up on schoolwork all night and got to bed at like 4AM, so he ended up oversleeping and now he's really tired, so i'm letting him sleep on me while i eat," dylan told the hyline rooster, who hummed and went back to doing his own thing.

"You guys are so sweet to each other!" bobby cooed as she ate. They all ate and talked and kai was enjoying his time with his friends before he saw someone sitting at one of the empty tables behind them watching neil and dylan. It was that woman from the museum! She was wearing the same dress and had her hair done up in the same way as before and was blankly staring at the back of neil's head lovingly, but there was also something he didn't notice before, a necklace with a ring around it. He couldn't see it too well from where he was sitting, but it looked like a wedding ring. Why wasn't it around her finger if it was a wedding ring?

"faggots!" someone shouted behind kai, he whipped his head around to see simon glaring at neil and dylan. The group proceeded to yell and jeer back at him as he argued back, hollie was even making a tomato throwing motion at him until he gave up, leaving kai to look back at the woman, who had once again disappeared, leaving kai confused. this was the second time he's seen that woman only for something to break his gaze from her and she'd be gone when he looked back.

dylan POV

Dylan looked confused and glanced behind him before looking back at Kai.

"is there something behind me? what are you looking at?" he asked, completely baffled.

"oh nothing, I just thought i saw something," Kai hesitated.

Dylan gave him a look before shifting his attention to Neil. "y'know, kneading me doesn't convince me that you're as bone tired as you said you were. as much as i appreciate it, I'd appreciate it if you ate, ok?"

"I am tired, I just can't sleep for some reason."

"ok, how about you eat two things out of your lunch and you can go back to laying on me afterwards, ok?"

Neil nodded and opened up his lunch box and slowly ate his food and went back to laying on Dylan, kneading his thigh and purring. Dylan wagged his tail as he soaked in the love he was getting from his boyfriend as he slowly stopped kneading and eventually went limp, falling asleep. he continued to eat, being as still as he could so as to not wake the sleeping feline on top of him. he was lucky they had a long lunch, or else Neil probably wouldn't have too much napping time.

"how often does Neil fall asleep on you that you can stay that still while he's on you?" Hollie asked.

"a lot, I kinda got used to it after a while," Dylan shrugged back. After a while, lunch ended and dylan woke neil up to go to his next class. Before he knew it, the day was over and h was on the bus chatting with hollie about the trip to the park they were planning. They dropped their bags off at dylan's house before going to the playground and already seeing bryson and penny there.

"Hey guys!" dylan exclaimed as he ran up to his friends and they greeted him back. Eventually, after everyone else got there, neil showed up with- his dad... dylan felt that pang of jealousy he was all too familiar with. Why did he insist on bringing his dad to all their meet-ups? He'd be less jealous, if at all, if he just bailed out on them, but when andy was with him? It made dylan's blood boil- what the fuck is he snorting?! He caught himself mid thought, wondering why he was getting so jealous. It was his dad for fucks sake! Of course he'd want to spend time with him. Dylan kew if his dad ever randomly came back he'd wanna spend a lot of time with him.

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