In the car, which they decided to use Tanner's, the interior is quiet, calm, and cooled by the low air humming from the dashboard vents.
The road outside shifts by steadily, buildings and trees sliding past with a kind of rhythm that usually lulls Kyle into silence, but today, he's barely present.
The soft buzz of his phone against his thigh slices through the stillness. He doesn't reach for it immediately.
His gaze remains half-lidded, watching the outside throw the closed dark window.
Posture relaxed, , but distant as the car rolls on.
But when he finally takes his phone front the trousers pocket and looks down at it, his focus sharpens in an instant.
The moment his eyes land on the screen, something in his chest catches.
Ashen.
An involuntary smile creeps across his face. It starts small, just a twitch at the corner of his lips, but it grows before he even realizes it, tugging softly upward until the expression settles on his face like it has nowhere else to go.
