Look After You

Chapter 6

He was scared. No. Alexander was down right terrified. And it wasn't from getting arrested. No, instead it was the punishments he would face if his dad was the one that had to come pick him up. Xander was hoping and praying it would be his mom that came to get him from the police station.

He had had a pretty good year so far. With it being late October, this was only the second time this year he wound up handcuffed and in a police station. All the other times this year when he had been vandalizing buildings, stealing from stores and smoking had gone uncaught which Xander was quite proud of. He considered himself to be pretty damn stealthy most of the time but this time he hadn't been.

Last year had probably been his worst. By this time last year he had already found himself in the hands of a police officer five times and one of those nights he had to sit in the office overnight since they usually called his parents' phone numbers. His mom hadn't answered but his dad went as far as telling them to keep him and hung up. It was a boring night and his wrists got sore fairly quickly since they had been handcuffed for so long and the skin around his wrist grew raw, red and irritated.

This time he was being stupid and had his back turned to the front counter as he shoved the bag of Cheetos into his backpack and the manager snuck up behind him. Before he could even consider making a run for it, he was seized by the back of his shirt and dragged to sit behind the counter. He would have ran if it wasn't for the gun he saw poking out from under the counter. In his neighborhood, there were plenty of wackos. And Xander wasn't sure if this guy was one of them or not, but if he was he would have easily pulled the trigger if he tried to run. Getting shot didn't sound like his idea of a fun night.

His foot tapped nervously on the tile floor and his wrists were starting to hurt from being cuffed behind his back. They had attempted to take them off but when Xander started to act out they went right back on.

"This is the last time I wanna see you in my station, kid," the police officer says. He was a tall, young man with a light stubble and dark eyes. "You got that?"

Xander rolls his eyes. "Save the speeches. I've already been here my fair share of times and you all say the same. Something about still being young and having time to change and I'll regret this in the future and blah blah blah," he says. "For once... be original."

Before he could get himself into even more trouble, Beckett arrived at the station. Luckily for the both of them he had a few buddies around the station and even though he wasn't Xander's legal guardian, they normally allowed him to take him home.

The police officer looks at him. "Are you here to take Alexander home?"

Beckett nods. "Yes, sir I am."

The officer nods and motions for Xander to rise. So he does and turns around so the officer could undo the cuffs. "Alright you're free to go, but remember what I said. I better not see you in here again."

Xander rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, let's go Beckett."

Beckett sighs and leads Xander out of the station. Once they passed the front doors he turns and looks at his younger brother. "This needs to stop," he says sternly and Xander frowns.

"What does?" He asks, folding his arms over his chest. He knew exactly what he meant but he didn't get why he had to stop if Beckett was the one that was selling drugs all around the neighborhoods.

"You know exactly what I mean so cut the crap. You wanna end up like dad?" He asks and waits for Xander to reply. But he denies to and remains silent. "Hey, listen to me." He grabs Xander's cheeks and moves his head up so they could hold eye contact. "Do you wanna end up like dad?" He repeats.