Palm Read, Friend Dead

The neon sign blinked PSYCHIC READINGS in that sketchy way that made your parents nervous but made you and your best friends feel like you were discovering the secrets of the universe. Or at least like you were discovering why Kai was ghosting everyone in the group chat for three days straight.

"Your palm says you're about to lose someone important," the psychic lady said, leaning over her crystal ball with way too much drama. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "A friend."

You stared at your hand, tracing the life line like it was a cheat code for everything that was about to go wrong. Because yeah, obviously. The universe decided to communicate through sketchy carnival psychics now.

"No offense," you said, "but that's literally the oldest scam in the book. 'You're going to lose a friend' could mean anything. Like, maybe Kai's just going through something. Maybe they're just being a zombie because they haven't slept in three days from studying for midterms."

But then you caught Kai's reflection in the crystal ball — standing right behind you, phone in hand, that weirdly blank expression that meant they'd been doomscrolling through everyone else's perfect lives while carefully curating their own feed of aesthetic coffee shop photos and vibes that screamed "I'm fine" in the same way your ex's "we should talk" texts screamed "I'm about to ruin your weekend."

"The cards don't lie," the psychic said, like that was supposed to help.

You paid five dollars and walked out into the sticky summer heat with Kai trailing three steps behind, because that's how it had been lately — Kai in their own world, you in yours, this weird gap growing like nobody wanted to acknowledge it first.

"So," you said, trying to sound casual instead of like your stomach was doing that thing it did when you overthought everything. "You gonna tell me what's actually going on, or am I supposed to keep guessing?"

Kai sighed, and when they finally looked at you, their eyes were red-rimmed and tired and honestly? You felt like a jerk for assuming it was about you.

"My cousin's in the hospital," Kai said quietly. "And I've been trying to hold it together because I didn't want to bring everyone down, but I'm just... I'm exhausted. I feel like a zombie going through the motions."

Oh.

Oh.

"Why didn't you say anything?" you asked, and then realized how dumb that sounded because obviously, why would they? When had any of you ever made it safe to just be messy and scared instead of constantly trying to look like you had everything figured out?

"I don't know," Kai said, rubbing their palms together like they were trying to start a fire. "I guess I thought I had to be the one who's okay. The strong one."

"You don't have to be anything," you said, and it came out softer than you meant. "We're literally supposed to be friends. That's kind of the whole point."

Kai laughed, this tiny relieved sound, and somehow you were both sitting on the curb sharing overpriced carnival food and waiting for the world to make sense again.

"You know," Kai said, wiping chocolate off their face, "that psychic was right about one thing."

"What's that?"

"I was losing a friend," Kai said. "But I think I just found them back again."

You rolled your eyes but you were grinning too, because okay, yeah. That was cheesy as hell. But sometimes cheesy was exactly what you needed.