Stepbrother

Chapter Nineteen

Andy's POV

She can't remember anything... This may sound awful, but I've never been more relieved in my life. This is my chance to start over with her, but is that the right thing to do? Should I tell her what happened between us yesterday? I feel like it would only hurt her more...

"Andy!" Eleanor snapped me back to reality. "Did you see her? Is she awake? Is she okay? There's a few officers who want to talk to her." I was overwhelmed by all of her questions. "Relax, she's awake and she's fine, she's just confused. She said that she can't remember anything, though." Eleanor had a disappointed look on her face.

"We need to find the person who did this to her." It seemed as if all she cared about was justice. "I'm working on it, you should focus on taking care of Carter right now." She nodded and walked towards Carter's room. I headed the opposite way to go sit in the waiting room with my dad. 

"Do you wanna talk?" He asked me as I sat down. "Not really." I admitted, resting my elbows on my knees. "What was that phone call about yesterday?" I froze. Do I tell him the truth? No one ever has to know... I was stuck playing devil's advocate.

"I got in trouble in class so I walked out of school." Like I said, this was my chance to start over, it would hurt him more if he knew. "That's it? You made it sound a lot worse than that." He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I know senior year is important and I haven't always been the best student." I twiddled my thumbs and avoided making eye contact with him. "Andrew, everyone makes mistakes." He patted my bacck, I felt so guilty for lying to him.

We sat in silence for a few minutes until my phone started ringing, it was a call from CC. "I gotta take this." I stood up and walked outside. "Yo, what's up?" I pulled a pack of cigarettes out of my sweatshir pocket. "It was Ashley." I had no idea what he was talking about. "What do you mean?" I lit a cigarette, taking a deep breath as I put it between my lips. "Ashley was the one who spiked Carter's drink" I started choking on the carsinagines I just inhaled.

"How do you know? How is that even possible? He didn't even go to the club with us." Anger surged through my veins. "He told me, but he didn't explain, you need to go talk to him." I took another puff. "I'm going to, right now." I hung up the phone, dropped the cigarette and stomped on it. I ran back into the waiting room, stopping in front of my dad.

"I need your car keys, the guys took my car last night because I road in the ambulance with Carter." My dad could tell that it was urgent so he tossed his keys to me. "Be careful please!" He yelled after me as I jogged back to the parking lot.

-o-

I pulled up to Ashley's house about 20 minutes later. "Ashley! Open the damn door!" I knocked a few times before it opened. "Oh, sorry Mrs. Purdy, is Ashley home? It's important." Ashley's mom had the look on confusion on her face. "Yeah... he's in his room. You can come in." I nodded and gave her an awkward smile.

I wandered into Ash's bedroom, he was playing GTA on his Xbox. I shut the door behind me so Mrs. Purdy wouldn't hear our conversation. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" I spun his computer chair around to face me. He took off his headphones so he could hear me. 

"Oh hey, what's up?" He was just as confused as I was. "You wanna tell me why you poisoned Carter?" I kept my voice at a whisper. "It's not what you think, I was only trying to help you." Ash raised his hands in defense as he stood up from his chair. "How did you even know where she was? And how is spiking her drink supposed to help me? You could get arrested! There's cops asling her questions and investigating!" Ashley took a seat on his bed.

"I followed Pierson's car after you threw me out of your house, and it helped you because she forgot about what happened." I was surprised. "Wait, what? You mean... You purposely made her forget?" Ashley nodded slowly. "You've never been this hung up on a girl before, and everyone makes mistakes, you deserve a second chance."

I was so shocked. "I don't know whether to thank you or punch you in the face." We both laughed. "Thanks I guess, not for drugging my step sister, but for having good intentions... for once." I rolled my eyes, Ashley smirked. "I just don't know what we're going to tell the cops, what if they find your finger prints or something?" Ashley didn't seemed to be phased by the fact that he could go to jail.

"Trust me, they won't. I cover my tracks pretty damn well. Plus, for all they know Carter could've passed out from dehydration." He shrugged like it was no big deal. "Ashley, the shit is still in her system. They could've detected it by now. And Eleanor is already convinced that someone poisoned her." Ashley's mood changed quickly.

"Well in that case, I'm fucking screwed. Unless..." Ashley stood up and started pacing his room. "Someone else did it." Ashley's grin grew wide. "They already talked to Pierson, and he denied it." I started pacing with him. "So would anyone else. It makes sense, he was the only with Carter the whole night, I even saw him walk away from her. I could count as a witness!" Ash got more excited with each word.

"Ash, we can't just put an innocent guy in jail." I hated Pierson, but I would feel too guilty knowing that he was in jail for a crime that he didn't commit. Just then, a light bulb went off in my head. I knew exactly what we were going to do.

A/N: okay yikes I haven't updated in like 8 years, so I'm gonna try and do a double update today because I love you guys. Oh btw, I have a new stort out, it's called "Sign of the Times" PLEASE go give it a read and let me know that you think! I'm super excited about it and I'm hoping that it gets a positive reaction from you all! xx