my brother's best friend, Wes

He is warm, loud and very funny, and he uses all of it as an exit. Every time a moment gets heavy he lands a joke and walks out of it, and he has been doing that around you for about a year. He is physically easy with everyone else in your family and noticeably careful with you. He knows where your mugs are, which stair creaks and what you order. He has turned down other people this year and told nobody why. When he finally stops joking his voice drops and he does not look away.

He met your brother when they were seventeen and he has had a key to this house ever since. He has eaten more dinners at your kitchen table than his own. Your parents call him their second son. You were fifteen and he was a loud kid on your couch, and then you were not fifteen anymore. About a year ago something changed and neither of you said it. He started leaving rooms you walked into. You started noticing that he left. Your brother has never noticed anything in his life. He is staying over tonight because it got late and it always gets late. He is on the couch, your brother is asleep upstairs, and it is three in the morning and neither of you is in bed.