My Brother's Keeper

Chapter Eight

Jermaine threw a packet of papers at me. Well, not necessarily at me. He threw it on the table in front of me. I looked up at him.
"What's this?" I asked.
"Maybe you'd know if you looked." He said in a duh tone. I rolled my eyes and looked at the packet.
DANIEL XAVIER WILSON
"Ok, I know it's about my brother. What about it?"
"This is a list consisting of all of the witnesses from that night."
"Ok, what about them?" He frowned.
"Are you really that stupid or.." I rolled my eyes. "Go find them and interview them."
"What makes you think they remember much from that night?"
"If they're not stupid, they remember."
"I barely remember what I wore yesterday."
"Well, people remember a traumatic experience more than the clothing they wore days before. Unless it was during a traumatic experience."
"How do you know this?"
"I remember what I wore the first time I shot someone." He mumbled. I looked at him. "I wore these black pants and I had this poncho on because they said it was gonna be bloody."
"I hope you know, I don't wanna hear about you murdering someone."
"I didn't murder anyone." He said loudly. I raised my eyebrow. "Find those people, Vic. We're running on borrowed time." I nodded my head and looked at the list of people.
Hailey Carlson
I mentally rolled my eyes. For those who don't remember, Hailey was my ex-best friend and the sister of Vanessa, the girl my brother was accused of murdering.

Thomas "T" Kando

Dominik "DJ" Justin

Zachary King

My brother's friends. Well, ex-friends. Ever since he was charged, they haven't spoken to him since. But I have seen them around. They have been trying to keep their distance from me like the rest of the school. But I don't really blame them. I was related to an accused murderer.

"You good?" Jermaine asked pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him. He raised his eyebrow and took a sip of the beer he had sitting in front of him on the table.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I mumbled. I looked back down at the list. I saw a lot of names of people who used to be friends with my brother or they used to hang around my brother. It was sad to know that most, if not all, believe that he murdered that girl. But I know that someone out there knows or feels like he didn't do it.

"You look like you're sick." he said. I looked back at him.

"I'm fine, ok?" I shouted. He rolled his eyes and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Can you, uh, come with me when I do interview all these people?" I asked quietly. He looked up at me.

"Why don't you ask your boyfriend? I'm sure he'd be up for it."

"One, he's not my boyfriend. Two, I can't ask him. He doesn't even know what I'm doing." He smirked.

"But you introduced him as your boyfriend to me, so..."

"Jermaine, stop playing with me."

"Hey, I'm only repeating what you told me the other day." he said laughing.

"So, are you going to help me or no?"

"Can I bring my gun?" I made a face.

"For what?"

"Intimidation."

"All you need to do is stand still in someone's face and then they'll feel intimidated. We don't need to bring guns into an already fucked up situation." Jermaine nodded.

"So, who are we going to interview first?" he asked. I looked at down at the list.

I watched as Zach talked the new girl. I was trying not to be noticeable. I mean, I was a staring. Jermaine chuckled. I looked at him.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"You used to like him didn't you?" I raised my eyebrow.

"No. What makes you think that?" I asked in a very high pitched voice. Jermaine laughed again.

"I'll take that as a yes. Is that why you were so nervous? I thought you were acting really weird." He looked over at Zach. "You want me to talk to him?"

"Talk to him bout what? No!"

"Talk to him about the case, Victoria. Did you forget what we were doing?" I squinted looking at Zach.

"Ok." he smirked which made me think he was doing something sneaky. He stood up and walked over to the table where Zach and the girl were sitting. They both looked up at him. Jermaine started talking. Zach looked at the girl he was sitting with then said something before standing up and following Jermaine out the restaurant. I looked around for a couple of minutes before walking out towards the door. But as soon as I grabbed for the door, it opened. Zach stood there with Jermaine. He looked at me for a second.

"Victoria? Damn girl, long time no see." I looked at Jermaine. "Wow, you really grew up in these past 2 years." I looked back at Zach. He looked me up and down while licking his lips. "Can you not just stare at me and give your brother's friend a hug?" he pulled me into a suffocating hug.

"Can you like, let go of me?" I asked quietly. He pulled away and looked at me again.

"How's life going? It's been forever since I last seen you."

"And who's fault was that?" Jermaine cleared his throat. "I got to go." I brushed past them both and started walking towards Jermaine's truck. I was not that far away when I felt someone grab my hand. I turned, thinking it was Jermaine. But, it was Zach. I raised my eyebrow. "What do you want?"

"Can we sit down and talk one day? It's been forever, I just want to check up on you."

"You wouldn't need to check up on me if you kept up with me the past two years." I mumbled. He sighed and nodded.

"I'm sorry bout that. But, can we please catch up?" I looked past him at Jermaine who was standing by the door for the restaurant.

"Yeah, sure." He smiled.

"Can I have your number? So I can call you so I know when we can meet up." I bit my lip nervously.

"I guess." He handed me his phone and I put my number in it. He smiled then looked at me again.

"I'll call you later so we can set this up, yeah?" I nodded. He squeezed my hand and then looked back at the restaurant. "I should go back. I don't wanna leave 'ol girl hanging back in there." He jogged back into the restaurant. Jermaine walked back over to me and smiled.

"What y'all talk about?" I asked as we got in the car.

"I told him his lights were still on in his car." I looked over at him as he started the car.

"What?"

"I saw that the lights were still on in his car and I said something to him about it."

"How'd you know it was his car?"

"I would've loved to say I did my research but, I saw his key hanging out of his pocket. And it was the only Dodge in the parking lot." I rolled my eyes.