Rivals {Ninjago AU}

Chapter 20

***(Nya's POV)***

I finish the closing sentence I'm working on for yet another one of Scott's article edits. Although he didn't swamp me with edits this weekend like he did earlier this week, it's still annoying that he's giving me busy work. I don't think he's even read the article samples I wrote.

I roll my eyes and close my computer. Surely there's something better to do on a Sunday afternoon than try to please my grumpy editor.

I steal a glance at my phone. Skylor texted earlier and said she'd be back sometime this afternoon. She also asked if she could come hang out afterward. I figure she probably needs to talk out what happened this weekend at Yvette's.

I'm also wondering if Kai's tried to call her since. I've been avoiding him as much as I can all weekend, but occasionally I pass by him in the hallway and have to make awkward eye contact or avert my eyes altogether.

Whatever he told Skylor, he hasn't wanted a sister since at least the beginning of high school, if not earlier. I don't care that he was embarrassed for his friends to know about me, and I don't even care that he didn't tell them. I care that he pretended to himself that I didn't exist, and every time he couldn't pretend that, he made my life awful.

As if my thoughts somehow conjured him from his evil lair, I look up from my spot on the couch to see him walking through the living room. He stops when he sees me, then contorts his face in some expression of pain and grunts, "Hi." And then he walks out of the living room.

Indignation rises in me. What does he want?

I pull my throw off my lap and pad out of the living room after him. "What do you need, Kai?" I call.

He stops, then turns slowly. "Nothing." He continues his trek to the front door.

"Then why'd you talk to me?" I ask blatantly, planting my hands on my waist.

He sighs and slips on his shoes. "Because...I wanted to?"

I blink. "You wanted to?"

He nods, his back to me. "Yeah."

I lift an eyebrow. "Seriously, Kai, what is it you want?"

"I already said I didn't want anything. I was just being nice or whatever." He opens his door and heads out into the afternoon sunshine.

I sigh. "But you aren't nice, Kai - at least not to me. What do you need? Homework help? Cover with Mom and Dad for breaking curfew?"

He shakes his head and walks toward his car.

I frown. "Kai, I don't like being around you just as much as you don't like being around me, but gaslighting me into thinking you're just being kind isn't going to get us anywhere. Tell me what you want, and I'll see what -"

"I'm going to go hang out with some friends," he says abruptly, opening his car door. "Tell Mom and Dad I'll be back around seven." He gets in, starts his car, and drives off.

All the while, I stand confused in the doorway.

He's been unusually quiet the past few weeks. Then he stayed the night with the Garmadons on Friday and spent pretty much the rest of yesterday with them. He came back in no better mood than he was before he left.

And then I heard him on the phone with a therapist's office earlier today. Not that I always eavesdrop, but his behavior is kind of psyching me out. It's not like I particularly care about Kai, but he's starting to worry me just a little.

I don't want him to be depressed. I just don't want him in my life either.

I walk back to my spot on the couch and grab my phone again. I don't log onto my social media all that often, but I have nothing better to do, so I pull it open.