BRAND OF BODHI (BOYXBOY)

EIGHT

Exiting Jasmine's room my eyes shift down the hall. I see a shadow out the corner of my eyes, and the sound of a door clicking down the hall catches my attention. I walk towards it. Reaching my hand up I tap lightly on Vester's door.

The boy opens it slightly, his head peeking out from the crack. I offer him my best smile.

I first met Vester when he was just a boy. It was always funny to see how quickly children grew up. My own nieces and nephews were always twice the size they had been the last time I saw them during the holidays.

Vester opens the door the rest of the way. He stands in his doorframe and my eyes follow his brown ones as he stares down the hall at his sister's door. He looks as bad as his mother. Thick brown hair is tossed and uncombed. And there are bags under his eyes. This was more than just a teenager pulling an all nighter to play a videogame or two.

"Can we talk?" I ask him and he shrugs his shoulders. "You're worried about Jasmine aren't you?"

Reaching out I ruffle his hair. Vester sighs but shakes my hand away. "I'm not worried," he protests, playing the big man. I watch his face for a moment. He tries to remain unfazed, but the lie is written all over his face in prominent lines of worry. Pushing fingers through my own hair I huff out a breath.

"I'm worried. I want to make sure nothing bad happens to Jasmine." I turn around so that I can lean against the wall outside of Vester's room. Coming the rest of the way out of his room he closes his door, copying my position, and leans against his door. He folds his arms over his chest.

"Are you going to find Jasmine?" Vester asks and I look over at him before sliding down the wall so that I can sit down on the floor.

"I'm going to do my damnest to," I admit. And I mean it with every bone in my body. "I might need your help though." My eyes shift up to see the surprise that is written on Vester's face. "What can you tell me about Jasmine's new boyfriend?"

"Mom liked him." Vester slides down the door to join me on the floor. Crossing his legs he starts to pull at the fibers on the carpet. "We only met him twice. I didn't really like him."

My eyebrow lifts slightly.

"Why?" I ask.

"I don't know." Vester shrugs again and I scoff at him. "He just was . . . phony, you know? Like he was all nice and everything but it seemed like he was trying too hard. Like it was all just an act." He gets this faraway look for a moment, and I try not to interrupt him. "He would say all the right things at the right time. Like me and Jasmine was getting into it over dinner one night he came over and he was just like not taking sides playing peacemaker. It was bullshit . . . sorry."

I shake my head. I didn't care if he swore. At least he was giving me something to work with.

"How was he with your sister?" I ask and Vester yanks on the carpet harder.

"Good, I guess," he says, his gaze locked with the carpet. "I mean, she never said they had a fight or anything. But . . . I mean, even though I'm just her annoying little brother, Jasmine used to talk to me, you know? After she met that guy she just shut down. Stopped doing everything she liked. She even stopped singing. She always liked singing too. . ." Vester sighs and I put my hand on top of his head. "It's like she became another person. Like I didn't know her anymore. Then she moved out and she really changed."

"Changed how?" I ask and Vester sighs again. I watch as he leans against the door. Shoving rough fingers into his hair he pulls on the strands for a moment before letting go.

"Like how she dressed; how she ate. She even changed how she talked. She started to use big words. Then she was always acting all Zen and saying all of this weird path to enlightenment shit. It was annoying. She just said it was 'cause I was too immature to understand she was trying to reach a higher plane."