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nearness pushed Brady’s sway further and further out the left side of my body, like the burn of sunlight chasing away the fog.
    It was that insult that pushed Brady over the edge.
    With an inhuman growl, Brady threw himself at Trace, glistening teeth bared and deadly.  He went straight for Trace’s neck. 
    If it weren’t for Trace’s lightning fast reflexes, Brady would’ve torn his throat out.  But as it was, Trace managed to get his arms up in front of him, wedging them between his body and Brady’s, giving him the ability to hold Brady and his snapping jaws at bay. 
    My heart stuttered to a stop and then restarted at a breakneck pace.  A surge of adrenaline seemed to purge my body of any influence other than my own, as if it cleansed my cells of all things foreign.  It was that feeling of being back in control, of being just me rather than a lightning rod for either Brady’s or Trace’s dominance, that gave me the courage and the determination to step up. 
    I knew that if I didn’t do something, I would have to stand there and watch Trace and Brady tear each other apart.  So it was with near-panic suffusing every muscle in my body that I stepped forward, somehow managing to insert myself between the wrestling bodies of my brother and his best friend. 
    At first, the contact appeared to invigorate both of them, vicious snarling and frantic grappling breaking out from every direction it seemed.  But then, when a blast of determined irritation worked its way up from my gut to explode through my palms, I laid a hand against each of their chests and I pushed with all my might, an unfamiliar, guttural sound erupting from my lips as I strained.  Instantly, I felt them calm.  I felt it in my soul as much as I felt it against my flesh, as if the animosity simply drained away.
    Once more, I pushed at the two chests threatening to crush me and, obediently, they separated to give me room to breathe.  When they did, I was free to inhale, which I did as quickly as I could.  With fresh air filling my lungs, I looked up into their faces. It was then that I noticed with no small amount of shock that they both looked exactly as they had every day of their lives up until those few moments before.  They had both returned to normal.
    It was Brady who seemed to snap out of his stupor first.  With a shake of his head and a look of confused disgust on his face, he looked from me to Trace and back again.
    “ What is going on?”
    There was a pregnant period of silence before I could speak, a silence during which all eyes were focused on me.
    “Something has happened to the three of us,” I answered.
    “Well duh,” Brady snapped sarcastically.  “Thank you for stating the obvious.  Care to tell me something I don’t know?”
    Brady’s tone was a testament to his level of upset.  He was the consummate prankster slash jokester slash happy-go-lucky kind of guy.  He rarely ever got hateful like that.  Obviously, tonight was an exception.
    “Um, it’s kind of obvious.  Didn’t you see him?” I asked, jacking my thumb over my shoulder in Trace’s direction.
    Brady just looked at me as though he had no clue what I was talking about.
    “See him what?  Sneak into your room in the middle of the night?  Try to kiss you against your will?  Stab his best friend in the back by hitting on his sister?  Yeah, I saw that,” Brady said, finishing his thought through tightly gritted teeth.  It was readily apparent that he was getting himself all worked up again.
    “No, I meant the way he looked.  Couldn’t you see him change?”
    “Change?  Change what?  From my best friend into a total douche?  Yeah, I saw that, too.”
    “All right, Brady,” Trace said, the warning clear in his tone.  “Cool it before you end up making me mad.”
    “Don’t you tell me wh—”
    “Enough!” I shouted, thoroughly surprising Brady if the look on his face was any indication.  When I glanced at Trace, his face was