Lies That Bind (on hold temporarily)

Chapter Thirty Six

T Y L E R

"Hey," Alec says as he answers the door to the Cooper house in nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs. His face is red and he's sweaty. If I didn't know any better I'd think he just finished a workout. But knowing what I do, I have a pretty good idea of what really made him sweat.

"Can I come in?"

"Yeah, yeah. Of course." He steps back, holding the door open for me.

"Thanks."

"Yeah." He closes the door behind me and I can tell he doesn't know what to say.

And frankly, neither do I. My dad was as much of a father to him as he was to me.

"I'm sorry," we say at the same time.

We share a sad laugh before he claps me on the shoulder and pulls me in for a hug.

Death is strange. It rocks your world in an instant, changing everything you know. It brings sadness, and guilt, and a seemingly endless pit of despair.

But it also brings people together.

It's no secret that my friendship with Alec is non-existent now.

At one point in our lives, we were inseparable. He was my best friend. My brother. The person I turned to with all my problems. The only one who knew what was truly going on inside my head.

But he betrayed my trust when he started messing around with Sara. I couldn't understand how he could do that to me. I had begged my parents to give him a place to stay so he didn't get shipped off to Portland to live with his birth mother's psycho sister.

And they agreed. They treated him every bit like a son.

They knew we were the only family Alec had. They cared for Alec just as much as I did. So when we had our big falling out my dad gave me so much shit for letting a girl come between us.

Alec and I avoided each other at home for months until graduation. He barely made it across the stage to get his diploma before his bags were packed and he was off and running.

My parents were devastated when they came home to find his things missing. He up and left without so much as a goodbye.

It gutted them. And, even though I didn't want to admit it, it gutted me, too. I worried about him, though I'd never tell him that.

A couple months into my freshman year of college my dad let it slip that he was in contact with Alec. As much as it hurt to know that he was talking to him behind my back, I was happy that Alec had someone to go to if he needed help.

Because no matter how much I hated him, no matter how many nights I spent wishing I had never met him in the first place, he would always be a part of my family.

His relationship with my dad had always been better than my own. My dad understood Alec in a way that I didn't. Both were dealt a really fucking shitty hand in life when it came to family.

So Graham Mason couldn't in good conscience let Alec slip through the cracks.

I found out a couple weeks ago that my parents legally adopted him when we were seventeen. Alec never spoke of it and neither did they. He never changed his last name. He never called my parents mom and dad. But he had a rightful place in our family.

And in a time like this, family is what matters most. So fuck the past. Fuck being mad at him for something that doesn't even fucking matter in the grand scheme of things.