Ruin - By N.M. Martinez Page 0,29

his outline out. "You're pissed."

I should be. If this were a normal situation I probably would be. "No. I'm not."

He doesn't say anything and I make my way to the bedroom, trying not to accidentally hit my shin against the small table in the center of the room. I move too fast in my attempt to reach the far wall. My head spins and I reach out my hands for the bedroom doorjamb to have an anchor in the darkness, only the bedroom isn't dark. It's lit by soft moonlight shining through the window and lighting up the room a pale silvery blue. I step into the room without needing to hold onto anything and stop at the foot of the bed.

Brandon steps into the room and into the light too though he stays near the door. "It is pretty isn't it?"

I turn my head towards him slowly. Even with the light, my back was to the living room so there's no way he could have seen the look on my face and yet he's standing here echoing my thoughts. This seems to happen a lot more than chance and coincidence would predict. Under my sweatshirt, the hair on my arms stand up.

He takes another step in the room though he stays back with his hands in his pockets and his eyes towards the ground. "There is more I didn't tell you."

I swallow and wait. He shifts from one foot to the other and exhales again.

"I can read minds."

The sudden silence as he waits for me to process that thought frightens me and I have to reach forward and grab the metal rail of the bed. The cold metal against my hand spreads the goose bumps from my arms to the middle of my back between my shoulder blades. I hadn't thought to ask him directly about whether he had a power or not. I mean, isn't that just the sort of thing you'd know? Sort of like the way I knew just by looking at Angel that he probably has powers of some sort.

Brandon shifts again. "It's not intentional. I just pick up stray thoughts that rise above the rest. I can't shut them out. I've tried. I hear them no matter what even if I don't want to."

There really isn't much to say to that. I probably don't have to say anything because if the thought is strong enough he's probably picking it up already.

I lean more on the one hand resting on the slowly warming metal of the bed rail. "Why didn't you tell me?"

His words quietly slip into the dark, sliding into the space between us with so little effort. "You were barely holding it together as it was." Brandon shifts. I have a feeling that there's more he wants to say, so I wait. In a lower voice, he adds, "And maybe I wasn't ready."

It's such a normal, average thing. He speaks it softly, self consciously, like a boy admitting to a lie, sharing the truth even though he knows it will hurt. I can't just let it stay between us, leaving him out in the open, but I don't know what to say. Why wouldn't he have been ready? Doesn't he deal with this all the time?

Then I remember his words when I first got here and he told me everything. You don't like us, do you? He said it with a smirk as if he knew the answer. "Did you think I wouldn't like you if I knew?"

Brandon stays still, a shadow covering his face. "Do you?"

I take a deep breath, letting all the tension in my body gather, then I breathe it out. Once it's gone, a smile is free to make its way onto my lips, and I give him a nod before I realize he may not be looking at me. "Yes," I creak, swallowing a tear or two.

Brandon looks up, and though the shadows are still on his face, there's also a touch of moonlight outlining his smile. He takes one step closer, casually reaching out to rub the top of my head like any normal brother would. It seems that's enough. He doesn't say more on it. He just turns towards the door. "Probably time to go to sleep."

I lay down on the bed, and a moonbeam falls on my arm. The light reflects off my pale skin and I look like I'm glowing. For a while, I stare at the effect on my arm and the darker