Part 29: Lost Memories

"I've become invisible, haven't I?"

I turned. "Hey," I walked back down the stairs. "I thought you would be out working."

"I missed you, so I decided to stay home tonight." My brother flashed me a grin.

"That doesn't sound right." I examined his face. "Are you sure you're alright?"

He shrugged. "After introducing the only person in my life to someone else and then I end up ditched..." His eyebrows drew together. "I'm not really sure anymore."

I smiled. "Sometimes I wish I could tell you to get a girlfriend but I hate sharing." I sat down next to him. "No one ditched you. You told me to start going out and I'm just too good at following instructions."

"Good at following instructions?" He shifted so that he was seated facing me. "Will you follow anything I tell you?"

I averted my eyes. "Well..." Something didn't feel right with the afternoon's conversation.

I rubbed at my twitching eye glad to buy some time. Could Devyn by any chance have found out about Ash? Was he going to ask me to stop seeing him?

I turned to my brother. Would he really stop me from seeing my boyfriend?

Devyn nodded. "Will you?"

I blinked. Will I... Was he really asking...? No, he was asking about something else, wasn't he? He had to be. But what was he talking about? "Well... It depends." I gave a random answer hoping it was contextually incorrect.

"Depends on what?" Devyn asked and I simply stared at him. No way was I going to say anything more without knowing what we were talking about.

But was I beginning to be ill? How could I possibly forget what we were talking about in such a short period of time?

"Alright, let's say," He licked his lips. He was probably going to say something he was certain I wouldn't like. "You're knocking off early tomorrow. How about you spend the rest of the day at my office?"

"Huh?" I felt my eyes painfully widen.

"Hey, I'm always bored and I like staying with you but we don't really get coinciding free time." He said and when I said nothing, he looked away adding, "Plus, I just want to know how it feels to have you in the office with me. Always has been a dream of mine to have you there."

I laughed.

He turned to me.

"I'm sorry," I said trying to hold back laughter. "Just that you sound like a young adult in love begging his girlfriend to join him at work in order to ward off preying females."

A slow smile spread on his face. "Yeah, sounds great, doesn't it?"

I tilted my head at him. Was something wrong with my brother?

He visibly collected himself and removed the stupid smile from his face. "I mean, you read way too many books."

"You looked pleased just now." I told him.

"What pleased?" He rolled his eyes at me and looked away.

"Wait, are you sweating?" I leaned closer to make sure the glistering streaks that suddenly bordered his hairline were of sweat.

Devyn abruptly got to his feet. "What are you doing?"

"I was just... I make you nervous, don't I?" I jumped to my feet after him. "You're growing into a human with feelings, oh my gawd! "

"You're going crazy." Devyn started walking away and I ran after him.

Soon we were running up and down every flight of stairs in our home.

I later lost him and I started searching. I crept into the movie room and nearly had a fit when he jumped from behind the bubble seats. He grabbed me in mid-flight and we fell onto the floor with laughter.

I missed playing around with him that way.

A couple of moments later, we were lying still on the floor, his arms wrapped around me.

"This feels so natural." He whispered.

"Huh?"

"I miss holding you like this till you sleep." He voiced.

I frowned. "I don't remember you holding me like this before."

Devyn sucked in his breath. "When we were little."

"Still don't remember." I frowned. "My childhood memories are filled with you scaring me and chasing me from your room and locking me in the closet in mom's room whenever your friends were coming over."

"Really?" he seemed to think about it.

"You forgot. I can't believe you forgot you hated having a little sister." I tried breaking free from his embrace.

"Lie still." He whispered and I reluctantly obeyed. "I think I remember."

"You do?"

"Yes... no... not that. I remember that you once fell down the stairs and lost a fraction of your memory."

"Huh?"

"You don't remember?" Devyn gasped dramatically. "I can't believe... you forgot falling down the stairs? You cried about it for days!" He exclaimed.

"I... we didn't live in a house with stairs when I was a kid. We... we lived in a two-bedroom single floored house where you were the only one with your own room." I told him.

That much I was sure about. Our family was one of the poorest in our poverty-stricken neighborhood. We only started living better when a distant uncle passed away who had for some reason included my father in his will and left us a little potion f wealth.

But by then I was ten and my brother had already taken to living in the streets. I remembered how he had started showing up less and less and finally stopped showing up altogether. I had thought he had probably died and eaten by monsters and...

"I suddenly feel like he is the one that lost a fraction of his memory..." I murmured softly.

"Hey," Devyn nudged me. "You fell down the stairs at the mall and I never bullied you when we were young. I loved you a lot. It was just that one time when you fell down the stairs and I decided to tell you lies to fill up your lost memories..."

He sighed. "I thought it would be funny. But after I told you that I realized it wasn't funny. I'm sorry."

"Really?" I frowned. I honestly had no idea about falling down the stairs or going to any mall or my brother hugging me as a kid. I remembered almost everything about my childhood.

Did I really lose my memory before? But that couldn't be. Could it?