3am.
The faint glow of the TV woke Drake up at this ungodly hour of the night. He rolled over to his side, adjusting the pillow over his head to drown out its annoying glow, keeping him up when he should be fitfully sleeping. Band practice was longer than usual today and Drake really needed the sleep for his upcoming gig tomorrow night. It was at the new club opening up downtown, and after hearing Drake perform for two minutes, the manager gladly hired him for Friday night's grand premiere.
After a minute of lying on his back, trying to fall back into rest he tossed the pillow to his side in defeat and let out a low groan of frustration. Drake knew it was no use, once he was awake he hardly ever fell back to sleep. He sat up in bed, pushed the tangled covers off of him and stumbled down to the ladder. He landed heavy on the wood and peered over at the sofa, making out the shape of his brother sitting there silently. Drake rolled his eyes, what could possibly be on TV that his brother needed to watch at three AM? His feet thumped on the floor as he trudged his way over to the couch, stopping right in front of Josh who was curled up with a plaid blanket over him. He looked up at Drake, clearly annoyed.
"Can I help you?" Josh said to Drake, slightly irritated that he was blocking the TV, which was playing a re-run of Oprah, who knew they aired re-runs this early in the morning. Certainly not Drake. He grabbed the remote from Josh's lap and switched off the TV. "Hey I was watching th-"He started to protest, but was cut-off by his step-brother.
"Go to Sleep." Drake stated as he began to make his way back towards his comfy loft bed, happy that he solved the problem. He didn't even take two steps when he heard the TV being turned back on and Oprah announcing her new favorite book of the month. "Joshhhhhh" Drake groaned, turning back around to face him. He should have known, obviously it wouldn't be that easy. "This is the third night you've kept me awake, and I'm getting sick of this. Why aren't you in bed, like every other normal person?"
"Can't sleep." Josh simply stated, not taking his eyes off of his program. The light from the television set illuminated his face, which was set in a strange expression. Drake couldn't quite tell what it was, but he thought he saw worry in Josh's eyes, just for a second though.
"Well try." Drake said grumpily. Josh rolled his eyes and turned the TV up louder. Drake saw this was going nowhere and slumped down on the couch next to him, staring at his face, which was glued to Oprah. Determined to make Josh go to bed he kept staring, knowing that it had to bother him sooner or later. After a couple minutes Josh turned to him, giving him an aggravated look.
"No one said you had to stay up with me…" He muttered and turned back to his show. Drake sighed, and shifted to get more comfortable on the couch.
"Ok Josh, what's up with you?" Drake asked, putting his feet up on the coffee table in front of them. He figured this would be a while.
"What do you mean what's up with me." Josh mumbled still not looking at Drake.
"C'mon, even Megan can tell your being weird this week. Well, weird-er then you normally are, I guess you could say…" Drake slightly chuckled, but Josh could tell there was concern hidden there.
"I'm fine. No need to make a big deal over someone watching Oprah at three in the morning." Josh said blatantly. He tried to act as if he had no idea to what Drake was going on about.
"Yea, but you've also been building card houses, like nine in the past week." Drake said. "And you only do that when something's bothering you, am I right?" He smirked, knowing he was on to something. The last time he saw Josh make a card house was when they both thought Walter was cheating on their mom, a stressful week for both of them.
"So? Maybe I just felt like building a card house, nothing against that last time I checked. " Josh said defensively. He was shocked that his brother even noticed. With Drake's average twenty dates a week and all the time he spent with his band, he wasn't one to notice things that didn't concern him directly. Drake knew him better then he thought.
"Tell me." Drake said in a sing-song voice.
"Tell you what?" Josh asked, ignoring the issue.
"What's bothering you." Drake said slightly annoyed. He was fed up of Josh acting so secluded lately. Josh told him almost everything, what made it so different this time?
"I don't know, just-"Josh started, but thought better of it. "Never mind, nothing." He then focused his attention back to the show, tuning his brother out.
"Um, that doesn't sound like nothing to me. Sounds like something." Drake said leaning back against the pillows on the couch. "I've got all night Josh, now that I'm awake, again." A few seconds of silence passed between them.
"Wow, that Oprah, what will she do next?" Josh said admiringly, staring at the TV as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. Drake couldn't take it.
"Josh!" Drake snapped, about to hit him with a pillow if he didn't talk soon.
"What!" Josh said back, mimicking Drake's tone. Drake just glared at him.
He sighed into the hand he was leaning on. "Okay fine." Josh said retiring his act, he wasn't fooling anyone anyways. "I've just been thinking." Drake waited for him to go on. Josh didn't.
"About?" Drake asked, exasperated at the one word answers he was receiving from his brother.
"You do realize that were graduating High School soon, right?" Josh asked Drake, who seemed to be growing tired again.
"Yeah, we have two weeks left of school." Drake responded, stifling a yawn, thinking he would spend most of tomorrow in Mrs. Hafers class sleeping face down on his desk at the back of the room. He didn't see how school was relevant to Josh's weird behavior, but he listened anyways.
"Which means this is the last summer that we're both going to be living in this house, after that, everything's going to change." Josh explained. He began to talk faster and more frantic. "You're going to be working on your record with Spencity and I'm moving out of state for college, and who knows when we'll be able to come home to visit. At best we'll end up seeing each other and the family on holidays, if it's convenient."
Realization dawned on Drake as he listened to Josh's words. He never really thought what life would be like after High School. Well, that was a lie. He had indeed thought about it, a lot actually, but it was only about his dreams of a record deal and how awesome it would be to finally have his own place. He never considered how much his life would change without Megan, Mom, Walter and of course Josh, who had grown to be his best friend. Drake didn't say anything for a while, probably because he didn't know what to say. Josh was right. When August comes to an end, the life they were used to would pretty much be over. It seemed so surreal, the thought of not sharing a room with Josh, not playing ping pong for hours at a time while drinking Mocha Cola and avoiding Megan's constant pranks, that even though he would never admit it, were kind of entertaining, sometimes. Five years ago, the thought of having a step-brother was ridiculous. Drake didn't need a step-brother, he was fine with the way things were and no goofy kid who was obsessed with magic tricks and Oprah was going to change that.
Now Drake couldn't picture those days again, and he really didn't want to. He was happy with the way things are, now. What would he do when September came?
They sat in an awkward silence, neither speaking because no matter what they said, they couldn't change the fact that things were going to be different, whether they liked It or not.
Josh broke the silence with a heavy sigh. "I've been trying to not let it get to me, but with graduation getting closer, it's been kind of hard to ignore." He pushed the blanket off of him; somehow the room had become warmer, uncomfortable.
"Well, I mean, we still have this summer right? We can hangout all the time, take road trips to L.A., anything we want to do. Summers a whole three months, that's a long time" Drake said, talking rather fast and not believing a word of what he was saying. Josh nodded along, wanting to believe that all of this was true.
"Yeah, you're right. We'll make it work." Josh said half-heartedly. He gave Drake a pathetic half smile, which to him looked more like a grimace. Drake let out a breath of air that he wasn't aware he was holding up until now.
"Look, we just have to make the best of it and I bet it won't be that bad and there's always phone calls, don't forget that and Oh, I don't know" Drake gave up trying to be optimistic. There wasn't any use. He stared down at the floor, studied the infinite grains of wood.
Josh spoke next, trying to lighten the mood. "Drake, just promise me, we're going to make this the best summer we've ever had. No fighting over stupid stuff like we normally do, just good times from here on out."
"Yea, I promise. That sounds like a plan" Drake said, and smiled.
"But promise me this, when fall does come and, you know…" He trailed off sadly. "We'll always find a way to stay in touch, even if we don't share a room anymore."
"Deal" Josh said automatically, feeling better about the whole situation. He grabbed the remote and turned off Oprah, making their room seem darker then it ever has. They sat there, unable to move, paralyzed by thought. The soft sound of Walter's snoring echoed into their room, breaking the quiet.
Drake laughed and sat up from the couch. "I never thought I'd be happy to hear Walter snoring."
"Yeah, I'm so used to it; I hardly ever notice it anymore." Josh said, in a better mood already.
"That's because your snoring drowns it out, trust me." Drake muttered.
"Ha-ha." Josh said un-amused, but then he laughed lightly. He was glad that maybe, things could be looking up for them.
Drake smiled. "Well, if we're done here, then I'm going back to sleep. Thank god tomorrow's Friday, I can't take anymore of Mrs. Hafer and her reminding me how I'm her "favorite" person in the world." He laughed bitterly.
"Yeah, me too, I don't want to be exhausted for school tomorrow. Plus, I have to make up those Chemistry notes that I borrowed from Eric, Oh and we have a quiz in Calculus. I'm so going to ace it, I studied all this week." Josh said excitedly. Drake looked at him like he was delusional.
"Dude, you really have issues, I swear no one enjoys school as much you do." He said, shuffling to get up from the sofa.
"No, I'm just dedicated. Unlike a lazy somebody who lies around all day drinking dr. fizz and strumming out random notes on a guitar." Josh teased, also getting up from the couch. He started to make his way back to his bed on the other side of the room.
"Hey, they're not "random notes". They're songs that'll make me famous someday soon, and that's dedication. You just wait and see Josh." Drake said, defending all the hard work he puts into his band.
"I don't doubt it." Josh said sincerely. He knew his brother would make it big some day; there was no question of it.
Josh tugged the covers back, climbing into his bed. He glanced at his alarm clock on the nightstand. He squinted to see the glowing red light. The digital numbers read out 4:30 AM. Had they really been talking for that long? Time seemed to be moving faster and faster lately, and he wished he could just rewind it, go back to the days when things were a little simpler. Josh lied down onto the soft sheets; he hadn't realized how tired he actually was. In a matter of seconds, he felt his thoughts becoming blurry, signaling he was almost asleep.
On the other side of the room, Drake climbed back up his ladder, the metal cool on his feet. He grabbed the pillow that had somehow fallen off his bed from earlier, and put it back into place. He curled up underneath his tangled mess of blankets and lied there, just staring across the room, the light struggling from underneath their bedroom door his focus. Somehow he didn't feel as tired as before. His mind was buzzing with words he felt it was too late to comprehend, but a last minute thought came to him. It was too important to just ignore. He opened his mouth to voice it, but as soon as he did, Josh's snoring cut him off. Drake shrugged it off, promising he would tell Josh tomorrow. Soon enough, he was asleep, and this time Oprah would not disturb him.
Come tomorrow morning, Drake didn't remember what was so important the night before. All he knew was, everything was going to work out. It just had to.