My Brother's Keeper

Chapter Nine

Zach smiled at me as I sat across from him. We had agreed to meet up at a pizza parlor not too far from Jermaine's house. And in case you were wondering, no, Jermaine isn't with me. He said he had something to take care of. So, I was on my own. But I had set up my phone so I could record our conversation, like the great detective I was.

"You look beautiful like always." Zach said interrupting the silence between us. I looked up from the menu and smiled weakly.

"Thanks." I looked back down at the menu and tried to decide what type of pizza I wanted. This pizza parlor isn't one of those, order at the counter, type pizza parlors. No, we had waiters bring our food to us and they have other foods besides pizza. There is pasta, chicken, and dessert. I'll admit, this was the nicest pizza parlor I have ever been to.

"So, what have you been up to this past couple of years?" Zach asked. I bit my lip and looked up at him.

"Uh, going to school, going to work. You know, the usual."

"That's nice. How's Danny?" I looked out the window.

"Uh, he's good. For the most part. He's in prison for something he didn't do. So there's that." I looked back over at him. He looked like he was about to say something, but he quickly looked down at his phone. I rolled my eyes.

"Hello, my name is Bianca. I am your server today. Can I start you off with anything?" the waitress asked as she walked up to the table.

"Uh, can I have a lemonade? Please?" I asked.

"I'll have a Coke or Pepsi. Whatever y'all have." Zach mumbled. Bianca nodded and walked away. Zach and I sat in silence for a little while longer. But again, he interrupted the silence. "I'm sorry about your brother. Danny is a good person. You and I know that. But good people sometimes do bad things." I scoffed.

"If you and I know that Danny is a good person, why are you believing the bullshit? A good person doesn't murder someone."

"Well, Danny did."

"He didn't murder that girl."

"And what makes you think that?"

"I know it because I know my brother more than anyone else on this planet!" I semi-shouted. "Did you know Danny cried when Mufasa died in the Lion King? Did you know that till this day, he still cries when he watches it?"

"No."

"Did you know that when we were younger, anytime we'd fight, he'd never hit me back because he didn't want to hurt me?"

"No."

"So tell me, what makes my brother kill someone if he's just this sweet sensitive kid?" Zach stared at me silently. "Especially, if he loved this girl."

"Love makes us do crazy things." he mumbled. I rolled my eyes. I started to stand up but Zach grabbed my hand. "Please, sit down. You need to hear what I'd seen and heard." I sat back down and crossed my arms. Bianca had come back and put our drinks on the table. I could tell that she was ogling at Zach.

"What are you two getting today?" she asked staring at Zach. Zach looked at me.

"Pepperoni fine?" he asked. I shrugged. "One large pepperoni pizza and a side of mozzarella sticks." Bianca nodded and walked off. Zach and I stared at each other silently for a while. I sighed and decided I was going to break this uncomfortable silence.

"Uh, are you going to tell me what you saw or are you going to stare at me all day?"

"A couple of weeks before Vanessa was killed, they got into an argument about a girl or something like that. And it got real bad, Vanessa was in Danny's face and Danny looked so mad, if his skin wasn't a dark shade, he would've been red." I sighed. "Vanessa slapped Danny, hard. He turned to look at her and pinned her against the wall. I thought he was going to hurt her. We had to pull him off of her. Both of them were shouting at each other. Calling each other names and saying they would kill the other one. They didn't talk for a week."

"Ok, what's your point?"

"I think that if we didn't stop them that day, he would've killed her then." I stared at him. "Then the night of the party, they were arguing then. But this time, it was about money. Danny had started dealing drugs an-."

"Woah, woah, woah, woah... woah. Danny did what?"

"He was selling during the time he was supposed to be working at the factory, remember?" I closed my eyes and sighed. "He worked at the factory, but just not as much as he had told y'all. He worked at the factory every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He sold drugs the rest of the time. If not while on the clock." I opened my eyes and looked at Zach. He was staring at me intensely. "Not what you had in mind when you were trying to find out stories about your brother, huh?"

"Do you think he did it?" I asked quietly. He sighed.

"In my honest opinion and with all the things I know about your brother now," he took a deep breath. "I don't know. Sometimes I believed that he did it, but other times, it seems like, it's too much for him to do. I mean, stabbing the girl 45 times, seems like a lot." Bianca walked back to our table with our pizza and mozzarella sticks. Zach grabbed two pieces of pizza and like four of the mozzarella sticks. I watched as he bit into the pizza. He looked at me and frowned. "You not gonna eat?"

"I uh, lost my appetite." I lied. "I'll just take some back home with me and eat it later."