Chapter 23
While I did love having Andrew live with me and Dedrick, things have been getting a bit stressful lately. They both had a temper at times and now that their parents had been trying to get in contact with them, they had both been getting angry at the tiniest things.
A day couldn't even pass with one of them yelling about something. Most of the time, they would yell at each other about something that shouldn't even be argued about.
And I was trying my best not to yell at the both of them to just shut up because knowing them, that would make things worse.
So I just had to suffer and listen to all the yelling and also quite frequent door slamming.
Not today, though. Andrew had been gone for quite some time, assuringly at work, but I was starting to worry. Andrew's shifts are never longer than eight hours and he had been gone for a lot longer.
"Do you know where Andrew is?" I asked Dedrick, who was lying lazily on the couch.
"Why would I?"
"Uh, because he's your brother."
"And he's a twenty year old who could take care of himself."
I sat down beside him on the couch. "I get that you're mad about your parents trying to get involved in your life again but can you not take it out on your brother? You two have been getting so mad at each other when really, he's the only one that knows exactly how you feel about it."
Dedrick hesitated before sighing. "I know, I know. I don't mean to take it out on him. I just... I can't handle the fact that my parents, who left when Andrew was a baby, think it's just okay to waltz back into our lives like nothing happened. They never bothered to contact us. Not on our birthdays, Christmas, any day."
"Do you think they'll ever stop trying to contact you two when they realize you really don't want anything to do with them?" I asked.
"I don't know," Dedrick said. "I hope so but... I just don't know."
I really hoped Dedrick's parents would eventually leave him and Andrew alone, especially when the two of them had been making it very evident they wanted nothing to do with their parents. Things were only going to get worse if their parents kept this up.
My cell phone suddenly rang so I grabbed it from off the coffee table, looking at the caller ID. I didn't recognize the number but I answered the call anyway. "Hello?"
"Hi, is this Alya?" asked the unrecognizable voice on the other line.
"Yeah," I said. "Who's this?"
"Dean," he said. "Andrew's boyfriend. He asked me to call you because there's... a bit of a situation happening."
"What? Is he okay?" I asked.
"For the most part, yes," Dean said. "He just... sort of got into trouble. With the cops. And he needs bail money. And he doesn't want his brother to know."
"Why not?" I asked. "I can't just not tell Dedrick that his younger brother got arrested?"
Of course, Dedrick was listening in on my part of the conversation so that caught his full attention? "What?" he asked. "Andrew got arrested? Are you serious?"
I swatted my hand in his direction, silently telling him to be quiet. "We'll be there shortly."
"Okay..." Dean said. "Just... Don't get mad at him. Please."
"I won't," I said. "And I'll make sure Dedrick won't. Thanks for calling me."
After Dean and I hung up, Dedrick asked, "You'll make sure I won't what?"
"Get mad at Andrew," I said as I stood up from the couch, walking over to the front door so I could get ready to head out.
"Are you serious?" Dedrick asked, standing up and walking over as well. "How could you expect me not to get mad at Andrew for getting arrested?"
"Remind me, who out of the two of you was in prison twice?" I asked.
Dedrick was silent for a bit before saying, "That's different."
"It really isn't," I said. "We don't know the full story of why he was arrested. The least you could do is try your best not to get mad at him and listen to what he has to say about it. Even if he was arrested because of something he did where he should have known better, you still shouldn't get mad at him."
Dedrick knew I was right so he didn't reply. He always did that when he knew I was right. But that still didn't mean he wasn't going to get mad at Andrew. I had a feeling he still would, even if I just pointed out that Dedrick was in prison twice.
We left our house and went to the police station. When we got inside, I saw a guy standing at the front desk, trying to talk to the person there. "Andrew wasn't the one who initiated it so can you please release him?" the guy asked. So this must be Dean.
"Sorry," the person behind the desk said. "He can't get out without a bail."
Dedrick walked to the front desk to deal with Andrew's bail and soon after, a police after led Andrew over to us. And Andrew had a lot of cuts and bruises all over his body. "What the hell happened?" Dedrick asked.
Andrew didn't reply to Dedrick. Instead, he looked at Dean. "I thought I told you to call Alya."
"I did," Dean said. "She told Dedrick anyway."
"And it's a good thing she did," Dedrick said. "Look, I'm not mad at you. Yet. But you need to tell us what happened."
"I... got into a fight," Andrew said. "But I swear, I didn't initiate it. Kind of."
"Kind of?" Dedrick asked. "What do you mean 'kind of'?"
"It's a long story," Andrew said. "I just want to go home and rest."
"Okay," Dedrick said. "Okay, fine. But we will talk about this tomorrow."
"Yeah, sure," Andrew said.
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I'm sorry this is such a short update after a long time without me updating :( I wanted to make it longer but I'm feeling sick and just need to go to bed.
I promise the next update will be longer.
but at least we got to meet dean this chapter woo
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Dedrick | Protector 1.5
Romance*this can be read as a stand alone. You do not need to read the other books to understand it* *cover made by Lunagust* Dedrick Burke wants to turn his life around. He has had enough of trying to get revenge on people who crossed him. The only...
