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Aaron was missing.
What was annoying was that Andrew had to find out from that damned cheerleader that his brother hadn't been replying to her texts since lunchtime yesterday.
Andrew had almost slammed the door in her face when she came and knocked on his dorm room. He was halfway there before she blurted out. "Aaron’s missing."
He stopped the door's progress and his hand tightened on the doorknob until it creaked under his grasp. He narrowed his eyes at the girl, "when." It was a question but he said it more like a statement. Andrew wouldn't walk away without an answer, and she wouldn't walk away with a tongue if she kept anything back.
He saw the brunette flinch at his question. Good, it was probably her fault Aaron has gone MIA, he thought. He pushed the door, slamming against the opposite wall with a satisfying crash . Andrew had barely taken half a step before the cheerleader started babbling.
"We were invited to a party with some guys from the chem lab but I couldn't go because it was Marissa's birthday, but I said Aaron could still go because Marissa's party was gonna be like a girls’ night y'know? Like he was welcome to stay but I knew he'd rather be at the chem party so I wasn't going to force him!" Jesus, did this girl ever take a breath. " I didn't see his text until a couple hours after he sent it, he wanted to be picked up from the frat house Dave lives in because they'd started taking drugs and he'd had too much to drink to trust himself--" She cut herself off with a squeak as Andrew fisted his hands into her collar and pushed her against the wall.
"Details" Andrew ground out. It felt like he was physically pushing the words between the gaps in his teeth but he needed to know.
He saw the cheerleader's throat bob as she gulped.
Andrew felt—more than saw—Neil creep beside them. Probably getting ready to meddle that menace . Before he could say anything, Nicky burst through his dorm door and into the hall "I'm ready, Kate, I've packed a blanket and a bottle of water for when we find him--" His cousin's speech came to a halt, Andrew assumed it was because he finally looked up. He heard Nicky sigh, "come on Andrew we don't have time for this! I've got the guys' address loaded on my phone, let’s go!"
Nicky was getting brave. Or maybe the worry for Aaron overrode the fear of Andrew and his knives.
It only took a split second to decide that finding his brother was more important than shaking the details out of his stupid girlfriend. Especially if she'd already told Nicky. His fists tightened in the girl's collar before dropping her and turning to his dorm to grab his keys and some shoes. By this point, all of the Foxes (and some of the other people on the floor) had moved towards the commotion. Even Kevin had taken his headphones off and stopped watching his stupid exy match.
Andrew shoved his feet into some sneakers before pointing one finger at where Kevin was sitting on the couch. "Stay."
He could see Neil had already put some shoes on and was waiting in the hall. When Andrew slammed their door shut, his boyfriend nothing spoke up.
"I'll take Matt and head to court and see if he wound up there." It was said softly, but Andrew felt the weight of the statement. Neil and Aaron never got on, but here Neil was, going out to help him search anyway. He gave the redhead a small nod before storming down the hall leaving Nicky and her to scramble after him. He heard Neil giving orders to the others before the door to the stairwell slammed behind the small group, leaving the clatter of their feet on the steps the only sound.
The frat house was a dead end.
At first, the guy who opened the door thought Andrew was Aaron which was a Big Mistake. A knife to the throat soon sorted that out. Questioning this guy seemed to be going nowhere and Andrew was moments away from walking out of there or, preferably, tearing the place down.
Almost everyone in the room jumped when a faint buzzing broke the silence.
Turning towards the sound, he saw the cheerleader with her phone at her ear, pulling Aaron's phone from between the couch cushions. Her face paled, and she turned the screen so Andrew and Nicky could see the photo on the phone's caller ID, confirming that it was Aaron’s.
"Dude, I swear I didn't know that was there--" Andrew tossed the guy aside. Ripping the house apart seemed to be the only option.
He forced himself to speak more than one word at a time. "Nicky, upstairs. You," he pointed at Katelyn, "outside." Thankfully the two nodded and started their search.
Andrew ignored the guy who lived here and started pulling open doors around the ground floor. From experience when Aaron used to get high, he would find the smallest hole to crawl into. Andrew had just finished looking in the lower kitchen cabinets when the cheerleader came back in from the garden out of breath and still looking distressed. "He's not out there, I checked everywhere."
Worry and Anger raged a war in his head as he ripped the cupboard under the stairs open, he felt it should have pulled off the hinges and flown across the room with how much emotion was bleeding out from his hands. As it was, the hinges just groaned in protest, mimicking the groan let out by the man that was hidden inside.
Curled into a ball and pale as a ghost was Aaron Michael Minyard.
Aaron jerked awake as the sound and light invaded his hiding space. Andrew heard his brother groan and saw him curl tighter into a ball. Reaching out his hands, Andrew roughly pulled his twin to his feet.
An empty bottle of vodka clattered to the ground as it was dislodged from the folds of Aaron's clothes.
On instinct, it seemed, his brother grabbed onto the wrists that were holding him up, without realising who was on the other end of the wrists. Andrew watched as Aaron peeled a crusty eye open the barest amount to see who had disturbed him. "An...drew?"
Andrew’s fist tightened in his brother's collar, a parallel that would have made him laugh out loud if he was still medicated.
His hands shook as he forced himself to talk. "What did you take."
Nicky clattered down the stairs and skidded to a stop when he saw that Andrew had Aaron in his grips. "Aaron!"
The blond winced at Nicky's shout, letting himself be distracted by their cousin instead of focusing on Andrew's question.
Andrew untangled one of his hands from his brother's collar to click in his face, successfully getting Aaron’s attention (and another flinch) in return.
"I didn't... I didn't take anything."
" Liar ."
"I didn't!" Aaron winced, then continued in a quieter voice. "I didn't… not drugs anyway."
Nicky spoke up then, walking towards the twins with his palms out like he was trying to calm a wild animal. "Why were you in the closet then, Aaron?"
Closet, ha .
He was glad Nicky had talked. Words were difficult as it was, with the fiery rage and worry he felt in his bones he found it even harder to force them out.
"Closet...?" Aarons face had screwed up in thought. Andrew took this moment to properly look at his brother's condition, almost breathing a sigh of relief as he realised that the blond's skin wasn't in the clammy state it had been during past 'come downs'.
Just a hangover then.
Andrew dropped his twin into Nicky's waiting hands and let the two brunettes fawn over him.
"Car." Was the only word he said, before stalking out of the frat house towards the Maserati. He had a cigarette out and lit before he reached the vehicle and sat on the warm hood.
Nicky was sure to get the story out of Aaron, and Andrew would get the details out of Nicky.
The cheerleader could get fucked.
At least he knew his brother was safe now.