Chapter 9

Marie and Dove watched me as I hurriedly got dressed. Dove pointed out where my socks had ended up. Marie gave me a sniff by the bathroom door.

“You definitely smell like sex, but I don’t know if he’ll be able to smell both his sisters on you,” she said.

“Right...” I looked longingly at the shower. I could hear Kitty excitedly running down the stairs. I zipped up and stepped square into Marie’s hand. “What now? Oh god, you want a turn?”

“Wow, way to make a girl feel pretty,” Marie said.

“Her too?!” Dove asked in a harsh whisper. She was zipping up a hoodie over her bare tits. She was probably commando under her emergency shorts as well. Her mind was a slow turn once again. I glared at her, not even reaching for her mind, unsure of how it turned against Marie’s nine. Dove grimaced. Her mind rolled up to a four.

“Good,” I said.

“Anyway, what I wanted was you to throw this in the trash behind you,” Marie turned my hand over and placed her yogurt cup in my hand. She cleaned off her spoon with her mouth and saluted with it.

“Right,” I said, watching her ass leave. I tossed the cup, and gave myself a once over in the mirror.

I half expected to see me look cold, pale, and skeletal. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. I looked eager and healthy. I rushed out of the bathroom. Dove was in the kitchen, getting her own yogurt. Marie was on the staircase. I followed her down, it was a small corridor to the basement, I couldn’t pass her until the bottom.

“Jordan!” Kitty was bouncing on both knees on the couch. Fox slumped miserably. “I was just telling Fox that we finally got together!”

“I think he figured it out,” I said.

“I didn’t know about Dove,” he countered. I staggered to a stop at the corner of the couch. “Girls, can I talk to my best friend alone?”

“Oh my god, no!” Kitty squealed. “I am so happy you introduced us and--”

Marie grabbed Kitty by the hips, dragging her away from the couch.

“Give the boys a minute,” Marie said.

“Fuck...” Kitty crossed her arms, and rolled backwards over the arm of the couch, clubbing Marie with her shoulders. I rushed over and backed up Marie to keep the pair of them from ending up in a heap on the hardwood.

“Kitty, go!”

“I didn’t even tell you about his superpowers yet!” Kitty said.

“Maybe he should get to tell his friend about his superpowers,” Marie said.

“Oh,” Kitty hopped up, brains spinning at very different speeds, “I never thought of that.”

It made her miserable for me to take the reveal from her. Or maybe she just felt guilty for stealing it. She felt bad. I smiled.

“We’ll be right upstairs in the kitchen.” Kitty burst out of Marie’s hands. I smiled at Marie, her eyes were brown.

“No contacts? Do you really need glasses or do you just like the color change?” I asked.

“She needs glasses,” Fox said.

“Yes I do, indeterminate blob number 4.”

“Oh,” I said. She picked my hands off her waist and headed for the stairs. There was an extra swing in her hips. I forcibly ignored it.

“I have no idea how to handle this,” Fox said. “Kitty is completely nuts.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” I said.

He did not look at me. Somehow, I knew to shut up.

He took a long deep breath.

“She seems happy. She even said you made Dove happy,” he said, pulling his hair.

“I didn’t expect to have you walk in on us,” I said. “I came over to see Kitty. I seriously didn’t know she liked me until we met at Pizza Corner. I didn’t think things would go this, uh...”

“Good for you?”

“In a word? Good works,” I said, frowning. “Though I think well is the right--”

“Shut the fuck up...” he said, groaning. He threw his blond hair back from his face and turned his face to me. “Dove too? Lynsey? Vickie? Did you mention anyone else?”

He popped an elbow up on the back of the couch and looked upstairs.

“I think Marie was giving you the eye,” he said. “I know you literally came over here when I asked you not to. You wouldn’t steal my girlfriend?”

“No,” I said, sharply.

“I sucked at having friends,” Fox said. “Physics major, I have to be a total nerd.”

“Really? I met a few of your classmates and not all of them are total--”

I shut up.

“Dude, Marie is perfect,” he said. “I love Kitty and Dove. You gotta work with me here. What’s going on? Why does Kitty think it’s a superpower?”

I took a moment. I think that short breath of time was torture for Fox. I could perceive he had a mind. There might’ve been spin, but maybe it was like what Marie had just said: indeterminate blob number 5. I shook my head.

“I’ve been feeling capable since I recovered from Kitty’s cookies,” I said.

“Oh my god,” he fell back. “This is some near death thing? Now you got to live like it’s your last? You’re going to hurt so many girls.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to hurt Kitty though,” I said. “She seems indestructible.”

“She’s incredibly fragile.” Fox shook his head. “Even with Dove there, it might seem like ... Kitty thinks you are her true love. In her mind, you’re gonna get married, have a dozen babies, and die together under a beautiful sunset in your 90s. Anything less is going to be catastrophic.”

“But, she liked ... Dove...” I sighed. “A sex talk about your sister seems weird.”

“It’s much worse for me,” Fox said. “You know, Dad texted me that you were here with her?”

“What?”

“Yeah, he said ‘Your sister’s got her man. Jordan’s a good guy, finally.’” He showed me his phone.

“Finally?” I thought I was first.

“You’re not her first crush,” Fox said. “But ... You are her first guy ... Boyfriend?”

“Is there an answer besides ‘yes’ that you want to hear?”

“If it’s no,” Fox said. “I hope you’re ending it. Rip it off like a band-aid.”

I looked back to the stairs. “It’s not that simple.”

“Lynsey? You have to decide between them?” Jordan said.

“There’s more to it,” I said. “I can sort of push their brains. I think I really have superpowers.”

“If you’ve got X-ray vision, every girl we know is gonna get breast cancer,” he said. We both needed the joke.

“Listen, the girls, because I can’t hide it from them...”

“Girls?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Kitty, Lynsey, Dove. Vickie?”

“Yeah, and Ira, Avril, and Paula.”

“I don’t know Ira and Avril,” he said.

“And Marie.”

“Why does she know? What does she know?”

“If you stop interrupting, I could fucking tell you,” I said, growling out the words. I stopped myself from apologizing. “I need a friend for a moment.”

“So do I,” Fox said. “Prove yourself.”

“Right,” I took a deep breath. “When I ate those cookies, I was wrecked. Vickie, I think it was Vickie, wanted to get me into an ambulance but I insisted on sleeping it off. Maybe it was Marie.”

“She got you to Gerard, she didn’t go in with you,” Fox said.

“Right, night’s a mess in my mind,” I said. “Anyway, sweat out buckets. Stomach pains. Worst night of my life. And then I wake up. Still dizzy, but better. And I can literally feel brains around me.”

“Feel brains?”

“The girls claim it’s their hearts, but hearts just pump blood. This is like their feelings and wants and stuff. Brain stuff.”

“You’re a romantic,” Fox scoffed.

“You too, huh? Anyway, think of a brain as like a bunch of plates spinning on the top of a stick.”

He looked at me impatiently.

“Right, so each brain is like these spinning plates, and they mostly go together, but they can tilt, away from me or towards me and some brains go clockwise and some go counter clockwise. I even have like a speed thing for them. One to ... I haven’t seen a twenty-one yet and it doesn’t feel safe if the brain goes above a fifteen.”

“And what?”

“Well, I know when a girl’s excited or interested in me. 100%.”

“That’s a pretty awesome superpower,” he said. “But how do the girls know?”

“If I speed them up, yeah.”

“Speeding them up ... You can increase a girl’s interest in you?”

“That’s what I’m saying, yeah,” I said. “I didn’t know what I was doing when I woke up with Lynsey, but I’m getting the hang of it now.”

“You woke up with Lynsey?”

“I woke up and Lynsey came by my room to check on me,” I said. “I didn’t have sex with her for about an hour or so after that.”

“And you used this power on my sister?”

“I didn’t have to!”

He stared at me flatly.

“Dove? Um, yeah, totally.”

“Jesus.”

“Dude, they like it! They act all tingly when I get in there and do it to them! It’s a trip!”

“Still seems sketchy,” he said. “Marie knows?”

“I kinda jumpstarted her everytime she looked at you over at Pizza Corner,” I said.

“Oh my god! I remember seeing her face change!” He slumped into the couch. “Oh my god ... You’re not just full of shit!”

“Dude, psychic powers are real!”

“And all it took to prove them was for my sister to get a crush on a guy and bake for him?” Fox laughed. I laughed. We both sounded pretty sarcastic when we started. A few minutes later, unable to stop, we were cackling madly. I was bending over, gasping for breath. He clubbed the heel of his foot into the coffee table.

“You boys feeling better?” Kitty came down with glasses of pop. Marie carried a plate of cookies.

“They’re Oreos, you’re not gonna die,” Kitty said.

Fox looked at Marie. “Kitty? You saved those special cookies, right?”

I flinched and grabbed my stomach at even the thought of them. I turned green. Kitty frowned and put the glasses down on the table. Marie kept the plate of cookies and ate one in front of us.

“You OK?” Marie asked, chewing loudly.

“I don’t know,” I said. I wiped sweat from my brow. “I really don’t want to see or smell those again.”

Kitty’s mind jarred down, both of them, she ran off.

“Fuck!” Fox leaped off the couch and chased his sister.

“If you’re into cookies,” Marie said, watching Fox ascend the stairs four at a time and somehow not keep up with Kitty. Marie put the plate down and straddled my lap. I flashed my eyes to the stairs.

“He’s already fucked up about Kitty,” I hissed at her. “Keep it quiet until we both get back to the dorms.”

Her mind was humming at a warm ten. She’d have sucked my dick right then and there. I didn’t need the power to know that.

“Warn me when you’re gonna be around,” she said, getting off of my lap and falling down on my side. “I don’t want to be wearing contacts next time.”