Growing Attached To My Competition ✔️

Chapter 27 - Busted

It was now the middle of the night and Brody was once again asleep next to Adrian in his bed. Adrian was glad that Brody seemed to be able to get a lot of needed rest to recover, the sooner the better.

Adrian's throat felt dry knowing that the man in bed beside him was so openly vulnerable to him, he had never seen Brody like he has been today and now Adrian was overwhelmingly concerned for his wellbeing.

For someone who had to hold things back when he was in care, Brody was still doing it to preserve his relationships with others. He did it so there wasn't a need for dependency and to rely on other people. Brody had always been an independent person so this was all new territory for Brody, to actively seek help and comfort in others.

Adrian gently caressed the side of Brody's face, emotions welling up inside him as he looked deeply at Brody.

Adrian quietly left the bed to grab a glass of water, trying his best to not disturb Brody as he needed to hydrate himself.

Tiptoeing towards the kitchen, Adrian swallowed down a glass of water before aiming to go back to Brody. On his way back, a door opened with Ashley standing on the other side.

"Adrian?" Ashley groggily asked. "I didn't even know you were still here, what are you doing?"

Adrian was like a deer caught in headlights. "I, umm, thought it was a good idea to stick around and make sure Brody was alright for the night." Adrian had technically told the truth, just not the specific reason that neither of the pair wanted to Brody to sleep alone tonight.

Ashley peered over to the living room and saw how the couch was uninhabited, no spare pillows or blankets or anything that suggested he was staying on the couch.

Trying his best to reason with everything as he watched Ashley's gaze drift to the couch. "Brody said the couch would be too uncomfortable, considering I was doing him a favour and all."

Ashley noticed Adrian's attire. "And that's why you're walking around the hallway in just your underwear?"

Adrian's eyes popped out of his head as he looked down and saw that all of his skin was on show, in front of Ashley. Doing his best attempt to cover himself up, Adrian tried to laugh it off.

"I'm just going to ignore all of this." Ashley gestured at the lack of clothes, which at the same time Adrian quietly rushed to grab a random t-shirt from Brody's room before going back to Ashley.

"You decided to stay the night for Brody?"

Adrian scratched the back of his neck as he didn't expect the night to turn into an interrogation. "Yeah I thought it would be better for me to stay the night, you know how Brody always puts on a brave front and everything. I thought I should stay with him, just in case he needs anything."

Surely enough Ashley seemed to accept that. "Well I think it's so nice for someone to care for Brody so much like that, like you do." Adrian was humble to accept that as he agreed, he did care for Brody so much like that. "Brody is really lucky to have someone like you in his life."

"I'm just doing what any good friend of Brody's should do." Adrian politely told her.

Ashley was quick to quip back with a counter argument. "Brody has lots of friends, but not all of them are staying with him in the middle of the night to check if he needs anything or not, especially after everything that has happened to him in the last 24 hours."

Adrian felt that he was caught out on that, he was sure that he didn't want to leave Brody alone just yet, the earlier panic event highlighted that.