Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (14 page)

“Yeah, movie stars get laid all the
time!”

“I don’t believe you’ve moved on,
Brand, you are still seeking your father’s approval.”

“What?”

“You continue to seduce girls by
getting what you want. You want your father to be proud of your
sexual triumphs, you want him to say, ‘like father, like son’, or
‘that’s my boy’ so you continually chase after girls, like your
father.”

He threw his arms in the air. “What,
are you a shrink now? What am I supposed to do? Stop chasing girls?
It’s what comes natural to me and it would be a shame to
stop.”

“Don’t you find it strange that you
chose your major based on the amount of sex you’ll get from
it?”

“Hey, I’m a guy!”

“No one is arguing that you aren’t. I
just find it interesting that one of your biggest issues with your
dad is being played out in your day to day life. Aren’t there more
important things in your life, Brand?”

“I’m not like my Dad! He abandoned my
mom when she needed him most. I would never do that. What kind of a
man would cheat on his pregnant wife? The day I was making out with
Suz and my mom came in and interrupted us, I took Suz home and then
came back and talked with my mother. She of course didn’t know I
knew about the affair because she had no idea she’d told me;
imagine her surprise when I sprung it on her.”

Suz appeared in the still opened
doorway where she was clearly eavesdropping and confronted Brand.
“You liar, your mother never came into the room!”

Brand looked at me and asked, “Should
I continue to protect her or should I let this play
out?”

“Protect me from what?”

“Suz, I’m your half brother. Your
mother and my father had an affair.”

“You’re nothing but a son-of-a-bitch
liar! I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”

Brand looked at me. “Should I
repeat?”

“Nope,” I said, “she needs to hear
this.” I’m not entirely sure if I was making that decision based on
what the future would hold for her or whether or not it was just my
own mind wanting Suz to know the truth to get her to lay off her
attentions to Brand.

“What are you talking
about?”

“We are half brother and sister, Suz.
I found out and put a halt to our relationship rather than tell
you.”

“My mother never cheated on my father.
You’re lying.”

“Come on, Suz, he’s telling the
truth.” I tried to help Brand.

“You’re both trying to screw with my
head, you both hate me and want me to hurt.”

I couldn’t let that hurtful
comment slide by without a rebuttal. “Are you saying
you
never screwed with
anyone, Suz?”

“What?”

I continued, “You’d never purposefully
hurt anyone and then live a lie for years? There’s a phrase that
says, ‘Takes one to know one’. You are only suspecting Brand is
lying because you’re so good at it yourself.”

“I don’t—”

“I know you set the firework in middle
school, Suz. I know you only became my friend out of guilt and it’s
been one huge lie for you to continue doing it. You were so
relieved when you saw me hugging Brand at Cedar Point and you used
that moment to justify finally breaking off our
friendship.”

Suz’s face lost all color and her
voice dropped to a whisper. “How… when… I never told anyone
that.”

Uh-oh
. My face must have shown my thoughts because Brand said,
“It’s not too late, Calli.”

Suz’s face lit up with anger. “Wait!
Your mom must have spoken to my therapist; it’s the only way you
could have figured that out. That’s a breach of patient/doctor
confidentiality. I could sue your mom.”

“You could sue your own therapist, but
not my mom.”

“I’ve always hated you,
Calli. You get everything you ask for, you never have to struggle
for money, or clothes, and everything always works out for
you.
You
ended up
with Brand instead of
me
.”

Brand jumped up from his
seated position. “Haven’t you been listening? You are my sister,
Suz. Can you say
incest
?”

“I don’t believe you. My mother would
never cheat on my father.”

“We are not a couple, Suz. We’re just
friends.”

“It’s still more than what I ended up
with! Alright… well, what about the fact that Brand said his mom
came in while we were making out? That never happened. We kissed
and then he stopped and took me home. He’s lying.”

“Alright, Brand, fix this.” I said
realizing this had gone too far.

Brand looked at me with a resigned
expression. “Can’t undo it now. It’s been too long. Suz, there’s
something I need to tell you.”

“Brand?” I wasn’t certain what he was
about to tell her.

“Suz, I have an ability that I use on
people, mainly girls,”

“Brand!”

He winked at me with his head turned
so Suz couldn’t see. “I’m a hypnotist, Suz.”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. I am able to get people to
do and say what I want and I’m able to mess with their memories to
cover up what we’ve done. In fact, the day my mom came in and
caught us making out, you told me about the firework in the
bathroom and being Calli’s fake friend. As soon as you told me you
immediately regretted it so I made sure to help you forget you’d
ever said it.”

Now I knew he was lying; but I
appreciated his intent to give plausibility to a different avenue
that I could have learned about her secret. It would take the heat
off her therapist and my mom.

“I’m not buying this, Brand. No one
has that kind of control over someone else’s thoughts.”

“What about the hypnotist at the
school assembly in high school? Are you saying the kids were faking
it? I don’t know about you but Arnold Hoffman seemed to be telling
the truth when he said he didn’t remember picking his nose in front
of everyone, yet we all saw him do it. Why couldn’t I be able to
help you forget certain aspects of your memory? What you need to
ask yourself is, was it so wrong of me to want to protect you from
the pain of it all?”

“It can’t be true, Brand.”

“Believe what you will, but that is
the reason I turned my back on you, and believe me, no one wishes
it wasn’t true more than me.”

“Really?”

“Hell yes. If it wasn’t true, I’d be
with you right now. Why don’t you talk to your parents about it?
When you do, tell them that you think you might be pregnant and
that I’m the father. That will get them to fess up real
quick.”

Suz frowned. “What if my parents’
story doesn’t match your mom’s story?”

“Then you come and find me. For now,
give me a hug and try to believe I only want your happiness and
it’s why I did what I did.” Brand and Suz hugged with Brand holding
the hug a little longer than Suz, and then she left.

After he sat back down, he ran his
fingers through his hair and exhaled loudly.

“Brand, do you really feel that way
about Suz?”

“What do you think?”

“I’m not sure what to
think.”

“I think you nailed it on the head
when you said I’m just like my dad. I guess learning of his affair
affected me more than I thought and I went on a binge of a ‘what
does it matter?’ kind of thinking.”

“Perhaps you were trying to fill the
empty space inside with much needed love and praise. I’ve noticed
you need everyone to like you and that you can’t stand it when
someone doesn’t. I’d say that goes back to your need for your
father’s approval too.”

“Yeah, well I haven’t accomplished
much. My world is still rocked every time Suz comes near
me.”

“I’m sorry, Brand. I didn’t know or I
wouldn’t have lit into her just now. But, thanks by the way, for
covering for me.”

“Yeah, you know, she went on and on
about the lies and the lying, and yet she’s been lied to her whole
life, as have I. It’s not very fun to find out everything you
thought to be real really isn’t.”

If he had any idea how completely I
understood him, he’d be shocked. “I stand corrected, Brand, on when
you should or shouldn’t use your powers. You have a reliable gut
instinct and quick wit; I’ll have to trust you when you decide to
repeat.”

He threw his head back and laughed.
“You have no idea how many lines I tried in order to come up with
the hypnotist line. In fact, Suz threw that at me on one of my
tries.”

Three bleached blonde, excessively
endowed girls bounced in the doorway. “Brand, do you want to hide
out in our room?”

Brand looked at me and smiled exposing
his dimples. I had to admit, his looks had matured in the last
year. He was much more handsome than in high school and I could see
what the girls were excited about. Plus, he owned his confidence,
at least on the outside. I’d just seen his inner self-loathing side
and I must say it really changed my image of him—for the
better.

“Thanks ladies, but no, I must face my
mistakes.”

The three let out a collective sigh
and put their hands on their chests, as if they needed to draw any
further attention to that region, and then bounced down the
hall.

“Calli, are you going to come and
watch?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

Chapter 9 - Freedom to
Choose

A few hours later we left the building
and climbed into my car. The river dunes were located out of town
and were a popular place for indie-band concerts because of the
‘stadium seating’ and acoustics. It was also a perfect location for
college benders or the occasional ‘fight’ because of its secluded
atmosphere. However, those kinds of events usually took place in
the summer months, not the end of November. We hadn’t been hit yet
with a substantial amount of snow and what had fallen had melted
with the rain that followed.

When we pulled up to the parking area
we were both surprised by the amount of vehicles. I cast a glance
over to Brand. “How many guys did you tick-off?” He didn’t
answer.

We exited my car and walked toward the
edge of the dune overlooking the river below and found roughly
two-hundred people gathered for the carnage. We began our descent
through the damp sand and as we neared the bottom I noticed the
large group of guys waiting for Brand.

“How many different Fraternities did
you offend, Brand?”

“Oh damn.” Brand muttered under his
breath.

I followed his line of sight and found
Suz along with her group of friends huddled together in their
matching fur-trimmed parkas. I quickly read Suz’s mind to find out
if she was here to see him go down or to watch him kick ass. She
was here to watch him kick ass and she’d apparently told all her
friends about his fighting skills… and they’d told all their
friends, and so on and so forth. I touched on a few other minds and
found they were here because of what they’d heard about
Brand.

“I can’t believe you are more upset
with her presence verses the thirty guys waiting for you down
there.”

He grunted something inaudible in
return.

“I’m going to stay up here. I know I
don’t need to wish you luck, Brand, but good luck.”

He winked at me. “Piece of
cake.”

He continued down to the bottom of the
dune along the bank of the river and I sat down on the damp sand in
a spot that gave me a good view of Brand and most of the onlookers.
Suz shot some nasty daggers my way causing me to turn my head and
that’s when I saw him.

Freedom stood by the edge of the river
with his arms folded across his chest wearing his sunglasses and
long leather duster/trench coat. I wasn’t sure if I should
communicate with him or not, of course, if I waited long enough
he’d probably talk to me, like last time. However, I wasn’t sure if
he’d seen me yet.

My attention was brought
back to Brand who was being circled by the many buff college
guys.
Sheez, Brand, you never do anything
half-way do you?
I thought to myself. The
boys were yelling insults and curse words at Brand who looked
positively bored. I recognized one of the boys to be Travis from
the Mixer a few months back. I remembered he was an unaltered and
suddenly my mind filled with the realization that at least
two-thirds of these angry guys were unaltered.

Why was there such a
concentration of people
without
powers about to fight Brand unless… my eyes shot
over to Freedom. I tried to read his mind but only found a strange
blackness. His blocking ability was really good. A few of the boys
glanced over at Freedom, who nodded back, and then they attacked
Brand.

I was afraid for Brand initially, but
within five seconds it was clear that Brand could hold his own and
had already taken down three boys. I wondered how many repeats
Brand had to do; I was certain it was many. A couple more boys
dropped to their knees, vomiting up their lunches due to Brand’s
signature moves. As more boys went down, it was easier to see
exactly what he was doing. He really was a flawless fighter landing
perfect hits and punches disabling his foes with one or two hits.
The whole crowd gasped when Brand successfully eagle-clawed one
unfortunate soul who fell to his knees in agony.