The story of my life. (Derek hale)

Chapter 6.

Derek had started spending time with Cora, his sister, and her boyfriend, Carl. Carls mate Steve had been there one day and him and Derek had started talking. There was nothing in it for Derek, he hadn't found Steve attractive in the slightest, and his rather larger figure had intimidated Derek, but he did enjoy Steve's company. They exchanged past relationship details and spent practically every moment with each other. It was a really nice friendship, Steve picked Derek and the boys up every morning and took them to school, he had a son himself, Tyrone, but he was with his mother.

Cora, Carl, Steve and Derek were inseparable, they spent their days playing pranks on one another, going for drives and just generally having fun. Steve had asked Derek out but Derek had refused, saying it wouldn't work and that he's not ready but after a month of persistence, Derek finally opened up. He was sat next to Steve one day, at Cora and carls house, Steve had held Derek's hand but Derek hadn't pulled away. Cora and Carl sat watching them out of the corner of their eyes, internally jumping for joy, they'd both had a word on Steve's behalf and it seemed to them that their hard work paid off. Derek had spent a solid month with this guy, knew all about his past, his ex wife and his child, he was very kind and he'd do anything for Derek, Cody and logan. It was a friendship he'd wanted, and it turned into a relationship like he'd wanted. They spent the next week in Steve's bed, when they didn't have the kids anyways.

Derek was happy and everyone commented on 'the glint in his eye.' Steve had Tyrone for the week as his mum had gone abroad, Derek hadn't batted an eyelid at the fact that Steve took her to the airport, he was however, very annoyed at the fact that he'd laid in bed with Derek all day, texting her. He picked her up from the airport too which Derek hadn't minded. Steve told him the day after that she'd asked him if they were making a mistake moving on, the alarm bells started ringing then. she'd had a go at him because he'd had Tyrone around Derek and the weekend after she'd got back they decided to go into the nearest big city together, Derek didn't find out until they'd already got there. Steve had been ignoring his texts, finally replying telling him where they were. And that was now the set pattern, Steve and his ex were together everyday from then on with the excuse that they were Christmas shopping and taking Tyrone out etc etc.

Derek went to see Steve one night, his lights were on in the living room, the bedroom curtains closed and no one answered the door. Derek had tried to ring him but got no answer, Derek went away feeling sick. He'd had one happy week at least. He'd just arrived back home when Steve finally text him saying he'd caught a taxi to a mates house and he was drunk and staying there. Carl, who also knew this mate of Steve's had text him, asking if Steve was ok because he was being weird with us all, he'd gotten a reply *i haven't seen Steve for 6 months, he owes me money too* Derek's stomach dropped and he confronted Steve about this. The new excuse was that he was round at a mates doing drugs, he hadn't told Derek because he knew Derek didn't like drugs. 'This is just like being with kate' Derek had thought.

Derek's son Cody, who was in year 1, had been put in class with year 2's, which had made Derek proud as he'd been told that the reason for that was because Cody was mature enough to handle being with the older kids. Tyrone, who'd been in a different school due to learning difficulties, was integrating into a mainstream school, into Cody's school, into Cody's class. With Steve spending everyday with his ex, was now taking Tyrone to school with her, which Derek could understand, what he couldn't understand was why Steve was taking her home after school when she lived, literally, a two minute walk from that school. In Derek's head, Steve should have been leaving school with Derek. Once Tyrone was in class, he had no reason to be with his ex. His ex was loving all of this, naturally and she rubbed it in whenever she could, laughing and joking whenever Derek was near. They eventually split up and Derek started to go his seperate way. Christmas Eve came and it brought a text from Steve pretty much confessing his undying love, deep down Steve knew it was a lie, he knew that now that his ex wasn't winning a game over Derek that she was no longer interested in Steve, that Steve was now lonely and needed Derek, but Derek wanted to be loved so he allowed himself to believe it. And they got back together again.

When his ex had caught wind of it, her games started up again. Derek had heard stuff about both Steve and his ex but he'd put it down to play ground gossip. Everytime he'd say something to Steve, he'd get the Tyrone excuse thrown in his face, so he'd tried to end it again, Steve had told him that they should stay seeing each other but take it slow 'build a strong foundation for a relationship' as he'd put it. They had a meeting at Tyrone's school one morning, just to make sure everything was set for his integration, Derek had text Steve 2 hours after the meeting to see if it had gone ok but he got nothing back. He left him to it though, not wanting to push him too far. He was walking to school to pick the boys up and walking to school meant walking passed Steve's street, and as he was he saw Steve pulling out of the junction, with his ex in the car. They'd been at Steve's place all day. Again, when asked, Tyrone was the excuse. Derek had walked away after that, he'd started moving on with his life. He'd realised that after all those years, after everything he'd been through, he was a strong person. He'd once thought he was nothing, that he was worth nothing and that was why he kept himself to himself, he kept brooding. But he realised he was now at a point were he'd just shrug things off and just get on with his life, he'd only ever had the boys and that was enough for him.

Steve was soon texting him again though, and when Derek had invited him around for a cup of coffee and a chat, Steve was there like a shot, complaining that his ex had woken him up one night crying and she'd ended up going around to his in the middle of night as she'd found out that her ex had cheated on her. Derek had thought about karma at the time but he didn't speak it. Steve wasn't happy though because not long after she did that, she'd let her ex back in. It was clear to Derek that Steve was still in love with his ex and he was hurting because he'd realised she didn't feel the same way. They'd planned a trip away for the weekend with Tyrone though so he had to go through with that, when he got back he told Derek how much he'd hated being there with her. That from then on out, the only time they'd contact each other was if it was about Tyrone.

Derek had been walking the boys to Danny's house from school one day, and Steve's ex, walking the same way, had stopped him, she'd told Derek that Steve had been at hers the night he'd said he was at his mates. Derek shrugged it off but something inside him died, a last shred of hope maybe, he felt as if he was going down the same path he had with Kate. Steve had denied it though and Derek just put it away in the 'things to forget' box in the back of his head. It's not like they were together anyways. Steve had finally gotten a job by this point so his ex couldn't get to Derek by using Tyrone as an excuse. Things calmed down after that and she got herself a new boyfriend. With Steve no longer on the scene, she kept her head down at school. For once, Derek was enjoying himself, she wasn't so big without Steve.

Derek logged in to Facebook one day, and out of the blue, he received a text from Chris. A part of Derek wanted to just delete it, but the biggest part of him was curious.
*hey up stranger, how you doing? Just thought I'd let you know that I'm moving down south, you should be happy now.*
*Is this Kate?*
*no it's  Chris, send me your number and I'll ring you.*
Turns out it was Chris and they soon were chatting like they used to. Steve had also started texting Derek again and he'd told Steve about Chris straight away. Steve had always said that he doesn't do jealousy but he was showing evident jealousy now. Chris was now just a friend, the man Derek once loved had been forgotten, although, that didn't stop him from trying. Steve and Derek grew closer and closer again but they'd decided to just keep it as sex and see where it went. And for a while this worked, there was no expectations and nothing could hurt him.

He was at Danny's house, and as they ate their dinner, Derek's phone rang, it was Steve, so he picked it up and said hello, but he was talking to someone else, his ex, on the work phone. So much for not talking unless it was about Tyrone. Derek listened in for half an hour, unable to stop himself, his world crushing once again. How many times would he fall for this. At least one more as when Derek had told him he was done and didn't text back at all, Steve had panicked, begging for him back. Derek gave him an ultimatum, him or his ex and warned him that if if happened again it would be the last time. And things did seem different this time, they even went Facebook official which Steve said he'd never do, and he'd hardly ever talked to his ex either. Derek was sure that this was finally his time.