(BL)Alpha Made
Chapter 153: The shame from a childhood friend

Chapter 153: The shame from a childhood friend

It wasn’t as scary as he worried it was going to be, especially since he had a familiar face in Richard. His full name was Dr. Richard Gates, and he hadn’t attended the same school that Andrew had when he’d gone off to university the first time. Instead, he stayed a bit closer to his family, and Andrew had remained acquainted with his family up until his Mom passed away.

They had been neighbours. Often, Andrew would have gone over to the Gates house when he’d gotten home from school and his Mom wasn’t home yet as a child. His Mom and his Dad were betas, and Richard was also one. His sister, however, was an alpha.

She was one of the first positive interactions Andrew had had with alphas as a kid, coming from the family background that he did. She was significantly older than Richard and Andrew, and had treated Andrew like a kid brother up until his Mom died.

Andrew was the one who had dropped all contact. Occasionally wishing a Happy Holidays when he remembered. He was glad to find out that Richard had completed his schooling and that he was doing well for himself.

Another thing that had helped him as a kid was that he and Richard had grown up giant together. They had been two big kids for betas and had often been mistaken as alphas together. They both had glasses, they both had busy parents, and they both stood out. The main difference between them was that Richard came from a two parent household filled with love.

Andrew would never disparage his Mom by saying that their home wasn’t filled with love. It was. It was just a different kind. Andrew had no idea what having two parents would be like before he had gotten to know Richard’s family. It was filled with love, and laughter, and his parents being adorable and cute together.

It was part of the reason why Andrew had drifted from them once his Mom had passed. He knew in the back of his mind that this wasn’t the case, but he was too deep in his grief to fully rationalise with himself at the time. But there was a part of himself that felt like a burden to them once his Mom had passed.

It turned out that Andrew probably felt like a burden to everyone once his Mom had passed. Especially since he now knew that Kim and Jenny had been waiting in the wings to comfort him, and he was sure that there were probably others who had been waiting as well. It was too late to dwell on it, and Andrew wasn’t one to try to dwell on bad emotions.

Now it was time to focus on the fact that they had reunited. At least, he hoped that Richard would have the same intention.

"You sly dog." Richard started as soon as he thought Maxwell was far enough away. Andrew blinked, surprised as Richard came over and smacked his shoulder, a grin on his face. "You’re back and dating a Beckett. Wild. How long have you been back in town?" Andrew flushed in embarrassment.

"Uh, well, a while." Andrew muttered and Richard raised an eyebrow.

"A while? And you didn’t reach out?" Andrew winced. He glanced around the office they were in, trying to avoid his gaze. "Andy! My parents are going to be pissed to hear that." Andrew winced again.

"I’m sorry. I just...I felt bad reaching out after finishing school and I kept telling myself I would and then...never did." Andrew finished lamely, and Richard tightened his grip on Andrew’s shoulder. Andrew finally looked up at Richard and found that he wasn’t angry in the slightest.

In fact, he was looking at Andrew as if he had anticipated his response.

"Yeah. Rose said that was why you hadn’t contacted me. She also said that you probably had some stupid idea in your head, and from the way you are looking away from me like a puppy who has been beaten, I’m going to say that she’s right." Andrew laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ugh, well, Rose is rarely wrong." Andrew muttered and Richard laughed.

"Yeah, that hasn’t changed. She’s married now. Been married for about two years. We sent you an invitation to our last known location for you, but clearly you didn’t get it." Ouch. That hurt. Andrew had really messed up. Even if he hadn’t reached out to them, missing a wedding was a completely different thing.

"Oh shoot. I’m sorry." Andrew apologised and Richard laughed.

"It’s all good. You just can’t weasel your way out of a dinner once you’re fine to be around others. You can even bring Mr. Beckett. My parents will have a heart attack knowing that they would be making dinner for not only my Boss, but your partner, but you know Mom. She’d be bragging about it for years." Andrew felt his shoulders relax as Richard smiled at him warmly.

Thank god Richard wasn’t angry at him. Andrew wasn’t sure how he would handle that on his first day back to work.

"I’m sure Max would love to eat a home cooked meal. He’ll be even more excited once he learns that it was your Mom who taught me how to cook." Richard grinned.

"Awe. Have you been cooking for him, Andy?" He asked and Andrew laughed.

"How do you think I won him over? It certainly wasn’t my dashing looks." Richard stared at Andrew, and didn’t participate as Andrew laughed.

"Alright, if that’s what you say. I’ll wait till our Christmas party to work up the nerve to ask the man himself." Richard muttered. "Either way, I should introduce you to the department. No doubt Mr. Beckett has told you what we do here, but I’ll run you through everything once more. Here, we work on human based trials. We’re the back end. While we have a front end department that works with the people in person, we calculate everything on the back end, tweak formulas as needed, that kind of thing. We’re a small department, but we’re very important." Richard told him with great pride.

Andrew could tell that they were quite important. For a company like Maxwell’s this was a big deal. They must have a crazy algorithm that sorted everything for there only to be three, now four people on a team for a company that was so consumer based. Especially for a pharmaceutical company.

"Are we just human trials? Or are we a fraction of that department?" Andrew asked and Richard gave him a knowing smile.

"We are a fraction of the human testing department. We are in charge of alpha based issues. The omega department is huge, since that is our main focus, but with societal acceptance growing of flaws with alphas, the purchasing of our products have increased." Richard told him with a smile. "Speaking of, did you grow taller?" Richard asked and Andrew didn’t know what to say.

Awkward once more, Andrew cleared his throat, his grip tightening on the papers in his hand and the back of his neck.

"Well...my father’s traits finally caught up with me." Andrew admitted. "I...manifested about two months ago, give or take." Andrew told him and Richard’s eyes went wide. "A true alpha." It felt like admitting to a crime when it came to speaking to Richard about it. Richard, however, seemed surprised, and then excited.

"No way! We finally have an alpha on staff?" Richard exclaimed, and one of the girls beside him covered her mouth, staring at Andrew in a way that made his skin crawl.

"Do we have a human test subject in our own department? That was so kind of Mr. Beckett!" She exclaimed, her brown eyes sparkling as she stared up at Andrew.

"So soon? Should you be around others? Wait! Wait wait wait! Why would Mr. Beckett trust you with us? I know us better than anyone else. You’re going to be a living test subject down here. He should have put you to use somewhere else!" Richard went from pure excitement straight into worry.

Andrew, who had been nervous, anxious, and had felt bad over his behaviour couldn’t help the laughter leave his body. His whole body shook as he laughed.

"It’s probably because I am a test subject for one of the products. Max was worried that I was going to be sensitive, since it usually happens, or more often happens with true alphas who manifest late. Thankfully, I didn’t come out more sensitive, but I’m on one of the medications that he’s working on for pheromone suppression. I’m still sensitive, just not classified as such." Andrew shrugged. "I’ve been a beta for so long, it’s hard getting used to other scents." Andrew admitted, before he chuckled. "He probably assumed that once you found out that I was already testing something, you’d back off." Andrew told him and Richard seemed intrigued.

"Oh thank god. He’s right, of course. It’s good to know that we have someone testing it. I assume he’s probably going to want you to test everything as a true alpha once you adjust." Andrew shrugged.

"I’m unsure. We haven’t discussed it, and it was my Doctor who really suggested it. Max would have kept me in the house otherwise." Andrew joked, but Richard’s expression seemed serious.

"Honestly, I should be more surprised that you manifested, but I’m not. I think it would be more interesting to look into why you manifested late. True alpha traits are hard to ignore. I would bet you’re probably on the older side. I’d put good money down on your stubbornness." Andrew just smiled, knowing he couldn’t tell Richard about what had happened to him.

Richard would not take it well. Hell, not many had. Even Maxwell hadn’t taken it well, nor had Andrew.

"It hasn’t been said, but I’m not going to deny it. I just really didn’t want to be like my father." Andrew told him, and Richard nodded sagely.

"Yeah. I remember that asshole pulling up in that damn white limo every once in a while. Disgusting. Ugh, and he always wore the worst perfume." Andrew couldn’t help the smile that touched his lips. Richard smiled at him. "It’s fine Andy. I don’t care if you’re a beta or not anymore. Just make sure that if you have any issues, you let us know as soon as possible, alright? It’s not like we aren’t a company that focuses on adaptability." Richard’s words were soft, welcoming, and Andrew let out a deep sigh.

"Thanks Richard." Andrew said and Richard grinned at him, adjusting his glasses.

"Hey, what are friends for?"