Richview College: The Demons We Hid.

~22~

Damini.

Oluwafemi Andrews would be the death of me.

The fact that he was a talkative was one.. and the fact that he was completely dominating in the fashion aspect was another. I wondered if that was why he never seemed to have a steady girlfriend. I wondered if he was gay.

I could see that he was different today though. Despite him laughing at almost everything I uttered he seemed weird. His knuckles were white and his hands were shaking as they buttoned my shirt. His bloodshot eyes did not seem steady and I wondered if he had trouble sleeping.

But I did not want to ask him. He would not most likely tell me and then he would try to change the subject and he would end up talking a lot. So I just decided to drop it.

It was just four in the evening and it was a bit early to be dressing up for the Spring Dance but we were going to have dinner with father for the first time in months. Mother liked us to be spiffy and made up any time we saw father and I just hated the whole process. Family dinners was meant to be a regular thing. Not something that happens once in a blue moon. I let out a small sigh.

"Bruh, what's wrong with you?" Femi piqued up. "You thinking about Hayley?"

I glared at him, pretending I was annoyed. To be honest, I had gotten used to him calling Harmony different names. And I knew Femi enough to know that he was doing it purposely to spite me.

"No. I'm just thinking, is all." Now that he had mentioned Harmony, sort of, her freckled face floated in my mind and I smiled.

"You sure you're not thinking about her? This one that you're smiling like this?"

"Back off Femi!" I snapped at him.

He let go out my shirt as he pushed me a little with his two hands but I did not budge. He pushed me again harder but I still did not move. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You too dey quick para. Any small thing yaff vex..!" He muttered as he moved away, taking a look around my room.

To be honest, I felt bad. Femi usually kept up with my bad temper and mood swings but today seemed different. Come to think of it he had been acting weird for a while.

"My bad," I mumbled as I placed a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong with you anyways? You've been acting weird."

A spark of fear and uncertainty flashed in his eyes and I was worried about him. He was still my little brother and I cared about him no matter how annoying he could be.

"You can talk to me, aburo." I said, putting my hands on his shoulder once more.

Femi looked as if he was about to cry now as his bottom lip trembled and his eyes filled with tears. Okay, something was definitely wrong. Femi never cried.

"Femi!" I called out to him more loudly. "What happened? Is it Emily?" Emily was the girl he was getting "cozy" with at the moment. But I knew that was not the case. He did not seem like he was obsessed with Emily. He seemed like he was using her for sex. No matter how sickening the thought was, I knew my brother.

He shook his head as he seemed to snap out of his trance and he gave me a small smile and he moved closer to the door,"I'm fine, Damini. Just school stuff."