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The soft sound of padded feet against carpet finds Brianna nudging her bedroom door open with the outstretched toe of a fuzzy-socked foot.
“Sup, kiddo,” she says, before the door can even begin to lean back on its rickety hinges. When it finally does, her brother stands in the doorway, pillow clutched close to his chest.
“How did you know it was me?” he asks, glaring suspiciously up at Brianna with eyes that are just as suspiciously pink.
“Superpowers!” she replies, kind of deciding on a whim. Ryan’s nose scrunches up cutely in the way that it does whenever she helps him with homework that he gets halfway. Maybe it was the wrong thing to say, though, because it’s very late past his bedtime and Brianna is pretty sure she knows why he’s here. Not that he’s going to admit it.
Yawning, Brianna tosses her iPod onto her bed and texts Emily that she’s g2g.
rents home early?
nope, guess again
… your brother
the one and only xD
lol ttyl say hi for me
“Guess what, Emily says hi,” Brianna says to Ryan, who has settled down, tucked over himself on the worn beanbag in the brightest corner of her room.
“Who’s that?” he asks, wrinkling his nose again.
“My friend that moved to Cali,” Brianna says. “From summer camp, uh, three years ago.”
As Ryan pouts in consideration, Brianna bites back a smile.
“Does she have superpowers, too?”
“Dunno, d’you want her to?”
Ryan shrugs. “Don't care. And,” he adds a moment later, looking almost the same as he does when he’s figured out the last step of a hard math problem, “I know that you don’t either, Bri. I’m not a kid anymore!”
He says it with so much conviction that Brianna feels like a freaking T-Rex. Ryan honest to god believed she had superpowers literally less than a year ago!
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry, Mister Ryan James Leonard McCarthy, sir.”
“Hey!” Ryan squawks, turning red at the ears, and launches his pillow at Brianna’s face with more force than she thought a kid of his size could manage. It’s just a soft bundle of fluff, though, and she catches it easily: Good, progress. Sure enough, Ryan’s eyes widen as he sees her arms around his pillow, and he crosses his own arms around his chest as he pouts deeply.
“Gimme that back.”
“Nope! You’re the one who threw it at me!” Brianna sticks out her tongue. Ryan whines.
“Big kids don’t whine, Ry.”
“But you’re being mean!” Ryan’s cheeks are tinged with light pink in the way they always become before he starts to cry, and Brianna feels kind of sorry. Still, she decides, she isn’t going to give in this easily.
“Okay,” she says, “Then let’s make a deal.”
“What deal?” Ryan glares at her again, but the pink has receded from his cheeks to leave behind a pale dusting of freckles.
“What ‘bout this? You tell me why you’re up, and I’ll give your pillow back.”
“That isn’t fair! I won’t get to ask why you’re up!
Brianna just grins, waving her little brother’s pillow like a matador would a cape before falling back on it. It smells like baby shampoo and chocolate toothpaste. It’s been ages since Brianna brushed her own teeth with anything other than the plain kind. Maybe she’ll try his tomorrow.
“Ugh!” Ryan says.
Brianna’s room falls silent save for the sound of their breaths. The house breathes hot air alongside them. Its old ducts creak and groan as vents exhale warm currents that stir piles of pages littered across Brianna’s desk: homework hidden under paper planes; photographs of the both of them, taken on her new digital camera and printed out at the library. Brianna’s gotta put those up on her walls before she loses track of time again.
After a while, Ryan sighs in defeat. “The bed, okay? … My bed is evil.”
Brianna rolls onto her stomach to muffle a giggle in his pillow.
“Beds can’t be evil, Ry. They’re, well, furniture.” Brianna aims a kick at the post of her own bed. The wood complains with a loud thump, but nothing else happens. “See? It can’t do anything.”
“Well, mine is evil!” exclaims Ryan. “I pinky swear!” A dark flush creeps up Ryan’s cheeks again. This time, Brianna really does feel sorry. She walks over to Ryan even though he seems to have forgotten about their deal, and places the pillow in his lap before gently ruffling his hair. Then, she plops herself down on the floor beside him.
“Feel like telling me what the bed did, kiddo?”
“It gave me bad dreams." As Ryan sidles closer, chin wobbling, Brianna pulls him in for a hug.
“That’s a very mean bed, Ry," she whispers.
Ryan nods solemnly. "Uh-huh."
“Well, if you say we can take it down,” says Brianna with a conspiratorial waggle of her eyebrows, “I’ve got my sword ready in my closet.”
The sword, they both know, is a lime green pool noodle covered with splatters of flaky paint primer. Ryan bites his lip, scrunching his nose. He cradles his pillow to his chest and pets it softly.
“But I used my shield strike on you just now. It won’t recharge in time.”
Brianna hums, scrunching her nose, too, while she pretends to think super hard.
“Lemme see... Alright, Ry, then I guess there’s no way around it! How about we catch some sleep in my room? Just for tonight, whaddaya say?”
Her little brother's only reply is a dry sob as he flings his arms tightly around her waist. But, Brianna supposes with a smile, maybe that's answer enough, after all.