Chapter 11

Chapter 11

~Grayson~

After dropping Poppy at her house, I drove straight to mine. I was not in the mood to do anything after what happened. Poppy found out about what happened two years ago and I did not want her knowing quite yet.

Then there was what she told me. She was assaulted by Belle's brother and was blamed for it. I swear, if I ever see that Ben's face again, I was going to personally send him to the hospital.

"Grayson, there you are," Dad said when I walked inside. "Your sister called. She doesn't know your cell number and she wants to talk to you."

I nodded as I went upstairs to my room for some privacy. Honestly, I loved talking to my sister, Gale. She was twenty-two and was in university. She was always there to support me, especially since Dad always looked down at me.

I dialled Gale's number and held my cell phone up to my ear. "Hello?" she answered shortly after.

"Gale, hi," I said.

Gale gasped. "Is that my little brother, Grayson? I haven't talked to you in so long since someone clearly doesn't love me anymore to call me more often. So, how's my little brother?!"

"Honestly?" I asked. "Not good."

"Why not?" Gale asked.

I hesitated, despite calling my sister solely because I needed to talk to her and get er advice. Her advice might not always be the best, but it was the only one I could take at times. She was the only family member I trusted. "Well... Dedrick was released from prison," I began. "And he wasn't happy to see me. At all. Which isn't that surprising, even though what happened was his stupid ass's fault."

"Really?" Gale asked. "How did you run into him?"

"It's a long story," I said. "It was more of him, Devon, Devon's girlfriend, and his friend chasing my car down and blocking off the road."

"Did they do anything?"

I sighed. "No. Not really. All Dedrick told me that he was going to find my weakness and use it against me."

"Do you even have a weakness?" Gale asked. "Before I left, you were quite the snot. Wait. Don't tell me they're going to figure out that you're obsessed with bacon and they're going to buy all the bacon from all the stores nearby."

"This isn't funny, Gale. They're dangerous."

"Dangerously stupid. Dedrick is probably on probation right now. He'll be sent down for a long time if he messes with you. Seriously, you can be such an idiot at times."

I narrowed my eyes at nothing in particular. "At least I'm not a jerk who keeps stealing my brother's friends."

"Graeme is still up to that?" Gale asked. "Man, he needs a kick somewhere. I'll possibly do that the next time I visit."

"Please do," I muttered. I was so tired of Graeme always dating my girl friends. Every single one of them fell for his charm and didn't want to be near me after they broke up because I reminded them too much of Graeme. Every damn time. At it's so fucking gross that he's twenty. Nobody seems to bat an eye that he's going for underage girls. He's smart not to do anything sexual with them until they're legal, but wanting to date them is still gross. Nobody sees it.

"Now to get back on topic," Gale said. "You don't have a weakness, do you? Nothing he can use against you if they somehow decide to be stupid enough to go for you?"

I winced. For the longest of time, I didn't have one. My family could easily protect themselves if Dedrick went after them, and I could care less if my car was damaged since Dad paid for it. But now?

"Well," I said slowly. "It's complicated."

"Complicated?" Gale asked. "So, you do have a weakness?"

"Kind of, yeah," I said. "I wouldn't call her a weakness, but... If Dedrick, or anyone, ever hurts her..."

"Whoa, her?!" Gale interrupted. "Do you finally have a girlfriend or something?"

"No, she's not my girlfriend," I snapped. "She's my friend and I can't imagine her getting hurt. Devon's girlfriend already hates her as it is. If they find out she's my weakness, then they will be more than happy to hurt her to get to me."

"Oh, Grayson," Gale sighed. "I told you not to get too close to anybody until it was figured out."

I sighed and rubbed my head. "I know. I just forgot about Dedrick since he was in prison. And I didn't mean for it to happen. Devon was bothering her one day in detention, so I defended her. Then we became friends. That's it."

"Well, there's only one solution," Gale said. "You need to make sure they don't find out that this girl is your weakness. And to do that, you're going to have to ignore her."

Me? Ignore Poppy? Right after she told me about her past? "Gale, I can't do that."

"Do you want to see her get hurt?" Gale asked. "It's either ignore her to keep her out of your dispute with Dedrick or have him find out she's your weakness and get injured, if not killed."

I didn't want to, but I knew I had to. Gale was right. "Fine. I'll ignore her."

"Good," Gale said. "I'm not sure how long you'll have to do it for, but it's just until everything is settled. It can be weeks, months."

"Let's just hope Dedrick somehow gets arrested again," I muttered. "Or Devon. Or both."

"Grayson, I got to go now," Gale said. "I'll be coming down for a visit next weekend and I'll help you figure things out."

"Okay," I said. "Bye." Once I hung up, I groaned. Once again, I was going to lose yet another one of my friends. But it was the only way to keep Poppy safe.

I guess I was going to have to ignore my Flower. This was going to be hell.