Disclaimer: I make no claim to own Drake & Josh, nor am I profiting from this written work in any way.
A/N: Hey guys!
So this is my first time entering anything on , so I'd really appreciate it if you could give me some feedback, whether that be positive or negative. And I know there are SOOOO many Josh Is Done stories, but I just adore them! So I apologize if this seems cliché or unoriginal, this idea just came to me one night and it wouldn't go away! And yeah, I did number this chapter in Spanish. Sue me!
Thanks!
~Effy
Josh was done with Drake, and that was his decision, but even he didn't expect such an apology coming from him, Drake, of all people. And the way he'd stormed from the Chemistry room, sobbing? Such a thing threw a curveball toward Josh, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to catch it.
And honestly, he had kind of hoped he could.
So why did Josh refuse Mr. Rolland when asked if he'd like to speak to his ex-or-maybe-not-brother? Was he afraid to hear what Drake had to say this time, or was he worried about what he, himself, was supposed to say in response to such a thing?
Whatever the reason, it hurt Drake to hear Josh answer "no" from outside the door, even if he admittedly expected this. And it truly crushed the last shred of hope he had that maybe this whole thing would blow over, though after these two weeks he'd mostly lost that dream as well. And so he did the only thing he could think of to do; he went home.
He didn't even make an attempt not to draw attention to himself—he just walked right in the front door and closed it loudly behind him, very glad that, by the looks of it, no one was home to see him soaking wet and crying.
He immediately went up to his room, desperate to change into something that wasn't cold and wet, and, once he'd done this, he curled up on the ping pong table and cried, just like he figured any person in his situation would do (provided that said person had a ping pong table).
After about an hour, the tears subsided, leaving Drake alone with only the shuddering, tearless sobs that escaped him as he lay with his head propped up by two ping pong balls and a paddle. And, feeling slightly bored regardless of all the pain he was feeling, he began watching how one of the small, orange balls bounced when he dropped them on the table.
And this is exactly how Megan found him hours and hours later when she came to return his guitar.
"Hey, here's your guitar back," Megan said to her brother, smiling satisfactorily. She just loved seeing him get all whipped up over things.
However, her smile faltered when Drake didn't freak out, leaving her to wonder what his problem was. "You're not even going to ask why I took your guitar?" she asked.
"Why?" Drake replied dully.
"I used it to kill a spider," Megan smiled widely again, and again Drake didn't care. "Why aren't you freaking out? It's no fun if you don't freak out!"
"I'm sorry," her brother said, his voice oozing the empty pain he was feeling. "Hey," he said, getting up from the table just as his sister started toward the door. "Wanna play some ping pong?" He held up a spare paddle and ball.
"No thanks," Megan said, smiling a little. "You really don't want to put a paddle in my hand."
Yes I do, Drake thought sadly, though he didn't speak the words aloud. Instead, he began hitting the orange ping pong balls across the table until it left him feeling emptier than before, then, he curled back up on the table, hugging Josh's usual paddle to his chest, and allowed himself to fall asleep.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
It was nearly dinnertime when Josh finally arrived home from hanging with Craig and Eric, and he went straight to his room when he did.
It'd been a long, tiring day, and after all the commotion in Chemistry class, he was beginning to seriously doubt if he'd made his decision to kick Drake out of his life purely off of good judgment, or if he'd been a little rash to decide this. He could see very well now that, while his life was admittedly 'better' without Drake, it was also uninteresting.
And he'd also never meant for his choice to affect anyone but himself, and Drake was more hurt than Josh had ever seen him before and he knew it was because of him.
So as soon as he reached home, he went straight up to their room at the end of the hall to apologize, his plan all set. However, when he arrived, there was a small complication that he knew would greatly affect this; Drake was asleep. Or at least Josh assumed he was—it was hard to be sure when he was trembling as badly as he was.
Josh approached his mostly-still figure, which was curled into a sort of ball, hugging a paddle used to play ping pong close to him. He saw that Drake's eyes were, in fact, closed and he was fast asleep, though not a very restful sleep, Josh wagered, as his shivers were more like quakes and his fear-filled face was a deathly pale.
Frowning, Josh started towards the bedroom door again, deciding that maybe this was a sign that he shouldn't apologize for what he did. Maybe I did the right thing after all… Josh thought, glancing one more time at the sleeping Drake before exiting.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, Josh was greeted with the scent of freshly cooked lasagna and garlic bread, making his empty stomach growl its need for food.
Entering the kitchen, Josh heard his mom speak his name to catch his attention.
"Josh, dinner's ready, would you mind fetching Drake?" Audrey asked, desperate for the tension between her boys to end. If forcing them to speak to each other was what needed to be done, then she'd do it. Even if she felt odd for doing so.
"No can do," Josh said, pouring himself a glass of soda for dinner. "He's asleep."
This caused Audrey's eyebrows to rise in mild surprise. Drake did enjoy sleep, but he always, always made sure he was awake for family dinner, no matter how much he obviously hated the 'family' part. Plus, their favorite show, Canadian Idol, was on that night, and the family never missed an episode.
"Well, can you go wake him, please?" Audrey asked her son, serving plates and bringing them out to the living room.
"I can try," Josh said, a little uneasy about the idea of waking Drake when he was in such a fragile state. However, their mother knew nothing of the row (and apology) in Chemistry earlier that day. Or at least he hoped she didn't.
So he started toward the stairs, climbing them once again and entering the room where his roommate was sleeping. He approached him semi-silently and gently tried to shake him awake, though all he earned was a quiet moan and a light slap in the face while Drake rolled over.
"Drake," Josh said, finding that the sound of his voice did wonders in the past, and hopefully would now.
Drake moaned again.
"Drake," Josh repeated. "Drake, it's time for dinner. You need to wake up now."
"No' 'ungry," Drake mumbled, hugging his paddle closer to his chest. "Go 'way…" Josh sighed, defeated as he headed downstairs to tell his mother that they wouldn't be joined by Drake tonight.
Audrey didn't take this news well, her eyebrows furrowing in suspicion. "It's not like Drake to miss both a meal and Canadian Idol…" she mused to herself, looking worried but reluctant to try and wake her son herself.
Josh nodded his agreement, admittedly worrying though he'd never let anyone know this.
"Oh well," Audrey sighed. "Can't really decided his appetite for him, now can we?"
And so they went on without him, not giving his loss of appetite or apathy a second thought.
~/.\~
Thanks for reading, and again, I would love some feeback!
~Effy
