ALEX #8
I face him once more, fully aware that Axel might be either my half-brother or my cousin.
I’m incredibly tempted to talk to him, to say something, anything.
But what exactly could I even tell him? I have no concrete information or details about how we’re related.
In such a vague situation, how would he take it?
Probably not positively. As a guy from a billionaire family, he could easily see that kind of approach as some attempt to squeeze hush money out of him or stir up a scandal.
In the chess match, I win against him by a hair, becoming state champion again while he becomes runner-up.
It’s clear he isn’t stupid. He’s just a bit more cautious, and I’m more willing to take risks, which pays off. I know he studies genetics, following in the footsteps of his uncle, Blue Lowen.
So despite the strong temptation, I ultimately decide not to say anything to him beyond a polite exchange of congratulations and a courteous comment that, who knows, maybe next year he’ll take the title because he keeps getting better. He accepts it with a friendly nod.
But the meeting stirs a new strain of thought in my head, a strange longing that maybe I could somehow start digging for the truth about who my father is and work on making my loneliness a little less lonely.
Maybe he would be open to at least secretly meeting with me…
It would be awesome to have one person in this world to kinda… interact with.
Because I have nobody since Jared left.
But at the same time, fear grips me and blocks me from moving forward with the plan. As I struggle with the final decision of what to do, the situation around me suddenly changes.
Soon the end of my third year approaches, and something happens. Dereck breaks up with his boyfriend of several years and loudly complains to me that he’ll have to look for a new place to live, and apartments in the area are expensive.
In a moment of absolute stupidity, and still in this mood of making my loneliness a little less lonely, I offer that he can stay with me temporarily until he finds something permanent.
He accepts the offer with great enthusiasm, and soon that temporary stay… turns into something much longer.
Dereck is delighted by how close my house is to campus, how much he saves on commuting, and that the only costs are utilities because my house is mortgage-free, which suits him perfectly, of course.
But… this arrangement doesn’t fully suit me, as it turns out.
I realize what I wanted wasn’t an invasion of my space by some guy. I wanted something different, Bay, of course, and if not him, at least some… family connection. Some kinship.
And Dereck is not that. As I discover, I’ve grown used to a certain level of solitude, and also to the fact that I can walk around in just my boxers and don’t have to hide my dildo every time I leave my room.
On top of that, because Dereck still dabbles in music, he practices some pieces every evening like a robot, which is pretty irritating to me because, well, I’ll be blunt, he’s not Bay and his music just doesn’t do anything for me, I have no emotional investment in it.
There’s also something else that at first is very subtle. After the first few weeks of living together I notice that Dereck gravitates toward spending his evenings with me.
He suggests watching movies together, orders pizza for us to share, sometimes sits close to me, and over time sits even… closer. At first, I’m not sure if something is behind it, but whatever it is, it seems to grow very slowly.
There is, however, one upside to all this. Since Dereck now lives with me, my walks home from class are much safer because he often accompanies me.
But at the same time, as my responsibilities as a teaching assistant grow, I often have to stay late, and Dereck can’t always wait for me.
Still, I’ve noticed that whenever I do ask, he’ll wait even an hour after his own classes without complaining about the inconvenience.
For some reason, over time, I find myself asking less and less, because I don’t want to owe him too much.
Dereck is a beta with a bit of extra weight he never grew out of, probably thanks to his love of pizza. He wears thick glasses and his hair always looks slightly greasy no matter how often he washes it. He’s not my type at all, but he’s nice, and that’s something.
One day, around the middle of the semester, Professor Martin asks me to help him with one more class.
He teaches data science, which I normally don’t take since I’m majoring in pure mathematics with two minors in applied mathematics and applied physics, but in this one case, I agree, because once again, I’m that nice guy who tries not to say no to professors.
When I head to that class something specific happens. I notice that one of the students in that program, a pretty buff beta, keeps staring at me with surprising intensity. His crude face looks vaguely familiar, but it’s hard for me to place where I know him from.
While Professor Martin is explaining something to the students and showing examples on the board, I notice that his laptop is open to the attendance list.
My eyes slide over the names and one of them grabs my attention.
Kaleb Hanson.
Fuck. I swallow hard as a wave of heat washes over me.
Hanson!
One of them!
I already know who this guy is. In our previous high school, the one the Hansons attended, the alphas weren’t the only members of that family enrolled there.
There was also one omega and one beta from their family, but they weren’t held responsible for that offensive picture displayed during Bay’s performance, so they weren’t expelled.
The problem is, I also realize that Kaleb is the brother of Kit Hanson, the one who died when we were still in high school, the one whose car went over the cliff.
He changed a lot, which is why I had a hard time recognizing him.
He grew quite a bit, and many people in his family are on the bigger side, probably thanks to his gigantic grandfather’s genes, so even for a beta he’s almost close to a typical alpha height.
Unfortunately, I haven’t changed that much.
I’m certain Kaleb recognized me, and it sends an unpleasant shiver down my spine.
Will he tell his family?
Will he tell them he found Alex Strada? I try to comfort myself by thinking I’m nothing to them anymore, so many years have passed since that whole situation and his brother has been dead for a long time, and besides, I had nothing to do with his death.
I ignore the incident and move on after a few days, but Professor Martin asks for my help again, and I have to assist him.
The worst part, however, is what happens after that extra lecture.
When I leave the room, walking beside Professor Martin and helping him carry his things, I notice three figures standing by the building’s exit.
All share similar, crude faces.
One of them is Kaleb, and the other two are…
I freeze at the sight.
Rob and Vin!
Those bastards!
The sight makes my head spin. Why the hell would Kaleb tell those assholes he ran into me here? Kit, Kaleb, and Rob are brothers. Well, they were, since Kit is dead. Why the hell did they come here?
When I walk past them with Professor Martin at my side their eyes are fixed directly on me, intense and pervasive, and I’m on the verge of fainting.
Professor Martin keeps talking about some college matters, and I nod along, but my head is buzzing with anxiety, because why else would they show up here except because of me. Me! For fuck’s sake.
What now? Was this just their way of showing me that they see me, that they remember, that I’m not forgotten, or are they planning something more?
When I get home, Dereck is luckily already there, and I immediately tell him what happened, because he knew all of them too, even longer than I did, especially Kaleb, since he stayed at the old high school after we left.
Dereck makes a strange face and says,
"You know, I didn’t want to tell you this, but after you two left our high school, Kaleb spread a lot of ugly things about you and Bay.
He even once said his family believes you two are responsible for his brother’s and his cousins’ deaths.
His grandfather, Eugene, tried pushing for an investigation, but the police shut it down for lack of evidence. "
Hearing that, I go pale.
"What are you talking about, how could he say that publicly at school?"
Dereck bites his lip nervously, then speaks quietly.
"At one party I was at, Kaleb got really drunk and said something strange. He said that the three of them, the ones who died on that cliff, you know, including his brother, had planned revenge on Bay that day. The day they died. They drove out to carry it out."
I stare at him wide-eyed, not understanding any of this.
"I thought they just died on the cliff. A speeding accident. Bay never told me anything." My voice breaks a little. "Maybe they never made it? They just had this accident on the way there?" I mutter softly, praying that’s the truth.
Dereck looks unconvinced.
"Kaleb said they wanted to ram Bay with their car, and look how it ended. They’re the ones who went over the cliff.
Think about how that could’ve happened. I always wondered if maybe Bay just turned out to be a better driver than they were.
But if that’s the case, they might secretly believe he’s responsible.
Their grandfather apparently kept bragging that he’d find proof someday. "
Oh, how well I remember Eugene from the trial.
A massive purple alpha in his sixties, yet still powerful, because purple alphas age slower than everyone else.
They often reach a hundred while still looking and moving like men in their forties.
I remember he was a giant, seven feet six inches tall, with long salt-and-pepper hair.
He glared at us with pure hatred throughout the trial, which involved his four grandsons.