Testing

"Mom said you had more of that tea up here," Morgan said to her brother. He looked up at her from his phone with a confused look.

"Tea?" he asked her.

"Yeah, the tea that she gave me downstairs. At first I thought it was gross, but it grew on me," Morgan explained, "She said you had some."

"Oh, the tea!" her brother said, clueing into what she was talking about. Why did he have to be so dense? Sometimes Morgan wished she was an only child. "I, um, am all out. I can get more, just not today."

"What's it called? Maybe I can pick it up at the store when I go."

"Forget about the tea," William said, waving his hand as if batting away a gnat. Why was he talking about tea? It was as if he was totally incapable of having a normal conversation. He was so weird. "I need to figure out if it worked."

"If what worked?"

William's phone beeped and he, very rudely, picked up his phone and looked at whatever had been texted to him. A creepy smile curled up the corners of his mouth. What was he looking at? Morgan cleared her throat.

"Oh, uh, yeah. So you, um, need to stand on one leg for thirty seconds," he told her, stating the obvious. As she balanced on her left foot, she marveled at his stupidity. He couldn't answer a straight question, but instead just made observations about what was plain to see.

"Damn," William said, staring at her with his creepy grin growing, "that's three."

Morgan wanted to ask about what that meant, but she knew that if she did, she'd lose count. She'd only been balancing for ten seconds, and since she had to count to thirty, the last thing she wanted to do was forget where she was. Besides, there was no way William would give her a straight answer. He was either evasive or obtuse. Either way, she knew she couldn't rely on him.

Her count hit thirty and she turned to go. She wasn't even sure why she had come into William's bedroom. Probably to balance on one leg, she figured, which was totally reasonable, but the less time she spent in there the better. If he was just going to make weird statements and not answer her questions, she might as well leave.

"No, wait. Stay here with me," William said, again saying something unnecessary. Why would Morgan want to leave his bedroom? He was, after all, her brother, and she loved him. It was so rare that she got a chance to hang out with him, she valued every moment they could spend together. She crossed the room and sat next to him on the bed, giving him a warm smile.

"I don't know why you're being so weird," Morgan said, trying to be kind.

"I'm not weird," William said, his smile disappearing, "don't call me that."

"Weird?" Morgan asked, staring at her brother, bewildered, "why would anyone call you that? You're the farthest thing from weird!" Secretly, Morgan had always looked up to William. He was just so cool! She wished the boys at school were more like him, but sadly they were all so immature compared to him. For a moment, Morgan tried to imagine a world where she would call her brother weird, or any other insult for that matter, and she couldn't do it. Of course she couldn't! William didn't deserve that kind of treatment! He deserved her respect, her admiration.

"Listen," she said, putting her right hand on top of his left hand, "I don't really know what's going on between us tonight, but if I've done something to make you upset, please forgive me."

William's smile returned, warming Morgan's heart. "All is forgiven," he said, giving her a brief light-headed moment of total absolution, as if every bad thing she had ever done in her life had been wiped clean, "Now, I guess you and I need to have a talk about how things are going to go from now on."