Adopted by Andrew Lincoln

22

Ashley's POV

Andy ended up letting Derek stay which we were both grateful for. Andy said as long as he didn't cause trouble he'd let him stay with us, which was more than our father had done for him in his whole life.

I'm in the guest room, which is where I was sitting on the bed watching him unpack what little things he had. Just like how I was when I first moved here.

I huff, and slump in my position. Chandler was downstairs watching tv and respecting our privacy. Chandlers a good guy, I wonder if he's still dating Brianna.

"Whatcha thinking about sis" Derek says. "Kinda lost you for a sec" he says.

"Oh it's nothing. Im glad I finally get to know you now" I say with a smile.

"Yea, do you think you could show me around the neighborhood, and possibly the town?" He asks with creased eyebrows.

"Of course. Chandler knows it better than I do, so if you want he could come with us" I tell him  looking to see if he was up for it.

His green eyes move around the room before he looks back at me "I'd like that, maybe we could be...friends?" He says unsure.

"I'm sure he'd like that" I reassure him. "Oh and grab a sweater it's getting late" I tell him.

"Oh," he says with sad eyes.

"What?" I ask.

"I don't have many things and my sweater has lots of holes. It's kind of embarrassing" he says rubbing the back of his neck.

I hear the door open and Andy steps in. "Derek, I know you've both have had it hard, so I want you to take this and go get yourself some nice clothes" he invades our conversation by handing out to Derek 5, $20 bills.

"Sir, I couldn't" Derek says waving his hands in front of the money.

"Seriously, take it. If you don't I'll make you take it" Andy says once again holding the money out.

"Thank you, sir" Derek says smiling appreciatively at Andy.

Andy shakes it off and tells him "Call me Andrew, or Andy which ever you prefer" he says.

"Oh Andy, we were going to show Derek around since he'll be staying here" I tell him.

"Okay just don't be out past 11" he says walking out of the room.

"Let's go get you a sweater and then we can show you where everything is" I say, going into my room quickly grabbing a grey sweater and throwing it on and going downstairs.

"Chan, do you want to go through the neighborhood and then to town to show Derek around?" I ask the fluffy haired boy.

He continues to watch a basketball game on tv and I wonder if he even heard what I said. "Chandler!" I yell.

He shakes his head coming back to reality "huh?"

"Come on were showing Derek around" I tell him. He grabs his sweater before all three of us head out the door.

It's not too cold, but it's not warm either. I'm still thinking about if Chandler has a girlfriend still. Why am I thinking about this? Do I like Chandler, no I couldn't, maybe.

"Hey Chan, are you still dating that girl?" I ask casually bumping his arm.

I watch as he sighs and I instantly regret asking. "No, she um ended it. The relationship wasn't going anywhere, but I still cared about her you know? She found someone new" he says with a sad smile.

"Oh, sorry about that" I give him a friendly side hug.

"So Derek this is the neighborhood. It's pretty small, but there's a...park, over there" I say pointing to the open area where the swing sets are visible.

Derek nods his head. He's been really quiet since we've started walking, maybe something's wrong.

"So what have you been up to man?" Chandler breaks the silence as we start walking in the town.

"Um, just trying to get by...I never really had a permanent place to stay" Derek says deadpan.

"Oh" Chandler says and I can sense the tension.

"Well that doesn't matter anymore because you have us" I say with a cheery smile.

Derek laughs and agrees with me "You're right"

We go into a target and let Derek pick out some sweaters he liked and then we walked around town.

We showed him where the Walgreens was, and the schools. My favorite part was showing him the frozen yogurt shop. Even though it's sad to think that it was the place when Zack asked me to be his girlfriend it was still one of my favorite spots.

We ended up walking Chandler home and then Derek walked us home. It was a little past 11, but I hoped Andy wouldn't mind.

Silently we open the door only to have it creak really loud. Instantly I hear loud and staggered footsteps running to the top of the stairs.

I look up the brown steps to see a half asleep Andy, his curly hair off to one side, and he looked like a zombie. How ironic.

"Wha-what're you guys doing, go to bed" he says before walking back to his room with his baggy sweatpants dragging on the floor.

Derek and I walked upstairs and said our good nights and I fell asleep hoping that he'd feel more comfortable soon.