It Wasnt My Fault (DNF)

Part 2: Chapter 28

George pov (present time)

I stared in awe at the boy in front of me, studying the features that were defined with his early manhood, his eyes still shining with a worry underlying his happiness.

"George?" He spoke in the same way I'd heard him speak all those years ago when he saved me from heatstroke.

"Y-ye- how the fuck are you here?" I ask, incredulous.

To my knowledge, the location of me and my brother's location was disclosed to no one other than us two.

We'd taken extensive measures to ensure no one could find us.

If Astro could find it, could my parents?

I was still 16, if they found me, they would legally be able to take me back into their custody.

A voice broke me from my thoughts that were spiraling out of control quicker than I could collect them.

"K-Ken told me the location before he d-died." His eyes were downcast now, the naturally joyful light blue turning grey and cold with the words he uttered.

My facial expression hardened, and I gazed at him with an almost tantalizing hate.

"He wouldn't have told anyone that. Why are you here?" I spit, my question coming out in an onslaught of well-rehearsed words I'd spoken many times before to people I'd met with a similar disdain.

Astro's eyes flitted up, meeting mine hopefullly, pleadingly. "But he did tell me..."

"He wouldn't have told you if you weren't important." I say, a finality to my voice, the meaning of my words harsh and bitter.

Astro looked hurt. "I was important to him. I was important, I-"

I interrupt him, the tiredness making my patience fall short. His hesitance was boring me, the sadness that laced his voice sounding all too much like those who had tried to shove their fake pity into my arms.

"Then who were you to him?" I ask, rolling my eyes, ready to be met with more lies.

"I'm..." he winced, the words that began confident becoming painful on his tongue. "I was his-"

"Who's this?" Once again, my thoughts and conversation were cut short by yet another voice rising to be included in the ruckus.

It was Dream.

My face immediately softened despite my attempts to try and school it into a neutral glare.

I roll my eyes at Astro a final time, walking inside and motioning for him to follow, offering Clay a small smile when my back turned to the man outside the door.

We commenced in the living room, my boyfriend sitting beside me as Astro sat slumped in an armchair across from us.

I leaned back into Dream's chest, feeling his arms immediately pull me into an embrace.

"Who are you?" the blonde demanded, a protectiveness lacing his voice as he spoke.

I smile softly at that.

Clay knew that my location had to remain a secret.

Just like my brother before me, my last name and location remained a truth I kept close to my chest.

And I was glad that Dream understood without understanding the reason.

We kept so much from each other, but still found a way through our love to trust one another completely.

Maybe one day, when I was no longer under the threat of my parents, I could tell my boyfriend all of my secrets, unleash my past into his knowledge so that we could carry the heavy weight that was its burden on the both of our shoulders combined.

Until then, this is how it had to be.

And it killed me.

Astro looked up at the two of us, smiling at the sight of our entangled limbs before beginning to speak.

"George's brother sent me here to look after him. Ke-" he paused, closing his eyes for a moment, observing memories that seemed to be invisible to the uncovered eye, before speaking once more.

"K-Ken wanted me to take care of him. His words to me were, 'find George and take care of him as I did. Youre the only one I trust.'" The man in front of me looked on the verge of tears.

It had me wondering more that i had before what he was to my brother, what he saw in Ken.

The hint of infatuation in his smile seemed all too familiar.

The glimmer of longing in the darker hues of the blue that were his irises and love in his gaze as he peered off into the distance was far too reminiscent.

It was how Ken looked every time he'd gotten off from work.

My older brother had always had a faraway look in his eye after a long shift, a mist that clouded his focus as I attempted to call it to me, but a smile that told me that work wasnt horrendous enough to be the cause of it.

It had to have been someone he was with at work.

That was another thing Ken had always done.

He never let me know names of people close to him outside our home.

If he had a douchebag for a boss, I wouldn't have known.

If he's gotten into a fight, it would have been lost to my knowledge.

If he had a boyfriend, he would have made sure I knew nothing about it.

And so, sitting here, in the arms of my own, I wondered if my older brother, as alike an asshole as he was, had a significant other.

All of a sudden, as I studied the man in front of me, previously lost to my memory, I wondered if he shared the same bond with my brother that I shared with Clay.

And if so, how long? How long had they been together before I was told? Before Ken died?

As these thoughts enveloped my mind and we all settled into a ponderous silence, my peripheral vision caught a glimmer of mist, growing and being drenched in color until it formed the figure of my brother.

The devil of secrets.

He looked around the room, scrutinizing everything as he always did before his gaze rested on all of us.

Looking at Astro, a large grin formed on Ken's face, and for the first time since I was met with the ghost, his forever dead eyes sparked with life that seemed to alight within his soul once more.

This chapter was sorta shit, tbh. I only like the end, but the beginning, to me at least, is trash.

I hope you guys, at least, enjoyed.

I have posted 3 chapters now today, over 7,000 words for you fuckers. You're welcome.

Dont forget that you're all pinché great, and I care about all of you.

Much luv 🫶

1111 words