Organized Mess

What the hell was that?

I've known the girl my entire life. When have I ever gotten tongue tied around here? Never.

I guess we started having trouble when Vlad, Delaina and I met Michael and Daniel. Michael was the only boy at my table at school, and it didn't take us long to start hanging out. I brought him home one day, and Vlad and Delaina, both in the second grade, were waiting for me, and they didn't expect me to bring a buddy. But I had, and there was nothing to be done about it. Delaina had always been very...fond...of Michael. I didn't know why that had bothered me even as a kid, but it did, enough that I stopped speaking to Michael as frequently. It didn't stop him from going out of his way to run into Vlad, and by association, Delaina, "accidentally" at every opportunity. So Vlad's okay with him, and Delaina grew up staring at him. Even when he got that asinine mohawk. Dyed it blue once. That was terrible. And Daniel had always been hard to understand. He wasn't Michael's brother, really, but they were about as close.

Now Delaina's with that bastard.

Vlad was always one for the analyzing, especially after that psychologist came to our junior high school. He tried attributing my jealousy (I had no problem admitting it) to mutual feelings for each other. I dismissed this theory, mainly because it involved Delaina liking me. To me, that's impossible.

I remember Vlad as a kid. He always hung with Delaina, to the point where kids in his grade gave him issues because he hung out with cooties (kids are idiots). But Delaina and I always had this weird understanding with each other. I used to be able to calm her down by just looking at her. She used to be able to know what I was thinking from the way I moved and walked. Vlad always teased us about being the third wheel. And he sort of was, considering he had the ability to see into our heads, so we never told him things. Delaina did, but I considered it a waste of time to tell him when he could just read my mind.

He was the third wheel, until that day when I felt a new psychic presence moving into our street three days before the moving van actually pulled up. I never actually got a real manifest power, all I had was a lie detector in my head and psychic and spiritual GPS. Sensitivity. Way to screw me over, psychic gods.

Anyway, Vlad was just finished healing over the blow Yasmine had given him a year ago, both to his heart and his head, considering she fooled him and disguised her mind to her purposes. It took him a while to realize he wouldn't fall for that again. We spent three days trying to figure out how we would get this new person, or thing, on our side. As it got closer, Vlad was even able to get a few thoughts from it, revealing it was both a person and female. We found out that she lived with her sister, had a biting wit, and liked retro technology. When the van actually pulled up, I got Vlad to go meet her with the time tested welcome basket. My idea really. Underneath the innocent enough exterior of fresh baked cookies and fruitcake (our mom likes making fruitcake) lay a small device that measures the psychic ability of whoever is holding it. Delaina and I watched from our window down the block, holding the tracker. It glowed with the sea green color that came up whenever Vlad held the basket, showing that he was above average when it came to ability. We watched him ring the doorbell, and watched the door open. We didn't see the exchange, but we knew from knowing Vlad for so long that he'd been floored by her. Absolutely floored. She looked pleased with what she saw as well, actually. We saw him hand the basket over, stare at each other, and saw him leave and her close the door. The basket's tracker nearly exploded scarlet as Vlad walked back through our doorway. She jumped off the measurements.

From then on, we knew Vlad was not only over Yasmine the blonde bitch, we knew he could love again, ten times as much.

If only I were as lucky.

I sit there for a few minutes, trying to forget my freezeup. What the hell did I do that for?

I decide to pay a visit to Vlad and ask once I notice that Delaina has left the room. I never saw him leave, he's gotta be in there. Hopefully he's decent, although this has to be true. He never even touched Yasmine, and he thought he loved her, and she was all but begging him to take her.

I walk to Delaina, Lily, Anna, and Cameo's room, trying to figure out how to ask my little brother for advice. God, I hate doing that. But he alone knows more than Delaina about matters of the heart. And I can't go to Delaina now, can I?

I open the door, to find Vlad, half asleep (he looked wide awake, but I know my brother), an arm around Cameo, who looks like she's been through hell. She's gripping Vlad like she doesn't want him to leave her, and she looks like she's sleeping fitfully, like she's having a really bad dream. I would be too, if I found out I had an extra soul buzzing around inside me.

I jump slightly when Cameo jerks violently in her sleep, semi waking up Vlad. He looks up at me. I smile. This is amusing.

"I wasn't sleeping." Vlad protests.
"Stop trying to lie to a lie detector, Vladdie. You never win."
"That's not fair, Alex." He looks like he's trying very hard not to move. I observe this. He knows I am.

"She's been through hell. And back. She came in here to get away from everyone. She called me in here too to ask me about what you saw a few days ago."
"Vlad, im your brother. I've had girlfriends. I know what I saw. You kissed her. Say that." I love when I irritate him.
He rolls his eyes. "Shut up."

"So what happened bro? The whole safehouse has been talking about you two. I want the story." I laugh at his previous reaction. And his next one. He blushes. I've never seen him blush in my life.
"We're...officially together. As of...ten minutes ago." He looks at the digital clock next to the sofa that they're sitting on.
"How do you feel? Its commitment, to say that you're with someone." I know him and his ability to get serious fast.
"Since when is ten minutes commitment, Alex?" he says. He looks down at the clearly troubled sleeping Cameo. "Not like it was hard or anything. I really like her, ghosts and all." He falls silent. "You think she's okay?"

"I don't know." I honestly didn't. Cameo was an anomaly in every sense.

We look down at her, concern building. She hadn't been sleeping well since she traveled back into the past the way she did. For her to be sleeping this deeply...something wasn't right.

Five seconds later, Vlad was nearly panicking. Damn him. I wanted him to think she was just having a bad dream. Watching someone go through something like this had to be hard. Especially when we had no idea what was in her head.

Suddenly, she starts shaking.