Wow, I totally intended to post this a while ago. It's been almost a year and half since I posted Josh's point of view and only now just finished writing it. I don't know why, but I struggled writing Drake's point-of-view. This is what it ended up being, but I'm still not entirely happy with it.
When I stepped out of the power shower, I didn't think I could possibly feel any worse than I did at that moment. I was instantly proven wrong when I looked across the room at Josh and saw that he was smirking. It hurt to know that even though these last two weeks had been hell for me, he was still mad and not budging on that fact.
Mr. Roland tried to get me to sit back down as I stumbled towards the door, but I refused. I was on the verge of a mental breakdown and I didn't want the class to see it happen. I thought about Josh and how he hadn't been listening to me since before the incident two weeks ago. He hadn't even given me a chance to apologize to him, not really anyway.
My hand rested on the door handle for a second before I turned around to face Josh. I suddenly didn't care about the class anymore; I needed Josh to listen to me before I completely snapped.
"Josh!" I screamed. He was going to listen to me whether he liked it or not.
"What?" he responded bitterly, the look on his face anything but kind.
"I'm sorry!" I said, frustrated. Sure, I had said those worse more time than I can count, but until now, I had never actually meant them.
"Well…" Josh started to interrupt, but I wouldn't let him. I needed to get this out before I changed my mind.
"No, just let me finish, alright?" I half-begged. He needed to hear this, "I was wrong, okay? I was wrong!" The words sounded weird coming from me. That was probably because I had never admitted to being wrong before.
"What so you mean?" he asked, genuinely confused. This was understandable though. Like I said, I had never admitted to being wrong before now.
I took a breath before continuing, "I need you more than you need me. I need you way more than you need me, alright? I'm sorry. I'm sorry I made you late for your exam, and I'm sorry I ran over your bike, and I'm sorry I'm probably the worst brother in the world and you're way better off without me, ya know? I just need you to understand that I… I-I just… I'm sorry, Josh. I'm sorry." I quickly left the room with tears stinging my eyes. I hoped that Josh would understand that my apology was real; that I wasn't just saying that stuff so he would talk to me again.
I leaned against the wall a few feet away from the door and I could hear Mr. Roland's muffled voice talking to Josh, asking him if he wanted to come talk to me.
I was crushed, but not at all surprised when Josh said no. If the point hadn't been made before, I definitely heard it loud and clear now. Josh hated me. He hated me and he would continue to hate me until one or both of us moved out.
I pushed off the wall and walked numbly towards the front doors of the school still dripping wet. I didn't want to be here anymore. Actually, I wouldn't have complained if I suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth altogether.
The journey home seemed much longer than normal, but I felt slightly relieved when I walked through the front door.
Although no one was home, the millions of thoughts running through my head made it seem louder than ever. I kicked off my shoes before heading upstairs to my room. I quickly changed out of my still-slightly-wet clothes and into pajamas before crawling under the covers of my bed, part of me hoping I would disappear altogether.
A while later, I found myself holding a ping-pong paddle, debating whether or not to set up the table to play by myself. Instead, I settled for curling up on it, wishing Josh would forgive me, but knowing he probably never would.
Megan came in holding my guitar that, until now, I hadn't known was missing. I thanked her for bringing it back and asked her why she took it when she prompted me to.
"I used it to kill a spider!" she said cheerily. Honestly, I couldn't bring myself to care.
Megan then yelled at me for not freaking out, claiming that it was no fun messing with me if I wasn't going to freak out. I didn't see the point in freaking out, and it was then that I realized that this fight with Josh was having a bigger effect than our fights normally did.
She started to leave the room, but I stopped her, asking her if she wanted to play ping-pong. I needed something to distract me from this current situation. She declined saying it was best if she didn't have a paddle in her hands. Looking back, I agree.
I could faintly hear Megan yelling at someone down the hall as I hit one of the ping-pong balls and watched it bounce across the table. Josh came into the room a few minutes later and I guessed that he had been of the receiving end of the angry Megan.
"Josh…" I started to apologize again, but he stopped me, challenging me to a game.
I was surprised, but I wasn't going to turn it down. The game was intense, but in the end I won. I still have a sneaking suspicion that he let me win that game, but that's not the point.
I apologized again and he listened to me patiently. When I started rambling he stopped me. I half expected him to get up and leave the room saying he was still mad at me. To my surprise however, he told me that he had forgiven me back in the classroom and that he was sorry for making my life miserable.
The conversation continued on for a few minutes longer, both of us admitting that this week hadn't been the greatest for either of us, even if it was easier for Josh. We ended up playing another game of ping-pong that lasted until we were called for dinner. You could see the relief in our parents' eyes when the two of us came into the room smiling instead of glaring at each other. The grin on Megan's face however, was a little frightening.
Like I said, I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I decided to stop fighting with it and just be happy before I completely lost the point of the story. Let me know what you think!