CHAPTER 4

It's been seven months since Drake gotten Hannah. At first, he disliked having to wake up all the time for the child. In fact, he used to dislike all the hard work she was. He soon grew to love her. In fact, she's now the best "mistake" that's ever happen to Drake Parker, and he'll do anything to spoil his daughter.

It's been six months since Drake got the best job that's ever happen to him. He was offered a record deal from none other than Spin City records. After seeing his music in a commercial, they finally decided to give him a record deal. He was offered the same deal by the same record company back in high school, but was forced to decline by his parents. Apparently, they weren't so fond of his wanting to leave school before the senior year, and made him finish the last year of high school, and during that time, Spin City forgot.

In four months time, the best celebration happened. His album went Platinum. His album. It went straight to number one in less than two weeks.

Three months ago, he finally bought the best apartment his money could buy. It wasn't anything too fancy, nothing that could be on MTV CRIBS, but it was pretty bigWith three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, and rooftop balcony, it was defiantly a house he could be proud of. The best thing was that it was in LA, and was close to home. It was just enough distance so that he could visit his mom and Walter when he needed to, but far enough to be on his own.

Two months ago, Hannah started becoming more "independent." She could sit up by herself, and could grasp some objects. Her favorite being a teddy bear her "Uncle Joshie" got her for Christmas. And of course, she could communicate her favorite way: whining and screaming.

Three weeks ago, Josh came out to Drake. That was a real shocker to everyone. Not very much to Drake, but it shocked a lot of other people. Drake knew Josh liked girls, but he wasn't obsessed with them. He barely liked liked them. The only girl he ever liked liked was Mindy, and in Drake's eyes, she wasn't even a girl.

A week ago, Drake's manager announced he was to go on tour. As exciting as that was, Drake was more so worried about how he was going to handle Hannah. Rocking all night didn't leave much time for baby handling during the day.

A day ago, his manager suggested he hire some sort of sitter/nanny to take care of Hannah while he did his "thing" at night. The main problem with that, was that not many people were capable to work for nine weeks straight, living on a bus.

So thats why Drake was more than happy when Josh called telling him he was going to be home over the summer and was going to need a summer job.

"Hey Drake." Drake could practically see Josh's goofy grin on the other end of the phone. "What's happenin'?"

"Nothing really. About to go on tour in about two weeks. How come?"

"Do you know if there's any Chemistry internships in San Diego? I need a job this summer, and since I'm not working for the Premiere I decided to try and get an internship to try and see if I really want to pursue Chemistry as a career. I most likely would like a teaching internship, but since it's the summer and not many teachers teach in the summer-Drake, are you paying attention?" Josh asked. He could hear some munching over the phone and the drumming of fingers.

"Oh, oh Yeah. I'm listening."

"Then what did I say?"

"Something about peanuts? Oh, wait it was bleaching chicken pee. Seriously man, if you want to do that as a career then go ahead. After all it's your-" Drake paused for a moment as his great idea popped into his mind. "Say Josh, I know a job that's perfect for you. It pays well and has great traveling service."

"Is it an internship at Sea World?" Drake could hear the excitement rise in Josh's voice. He almost hated bursting Josh's bubble. Almost.

"No. Better." Drake smirked.

"Is it an internship with-" Josh choked out the last word with too much excitement "Oprah?"

Drake shook his head, even though Josh couldn't see. What does bleaching chicken pee have to do with Oprah anyway?

"How would you like to make two hundred dollars a day, every day, for nine weeks?"

"Doing what?" Last time Drake randomly volunteered him for a job, it was something like scraping elephant poop at the zoo.

Drake grinned, although Josh couldn't see it. He was waiting for him to ask. "Watching Hannah for nine weeks. All you have to do is baby sit her during concerts and stuff. You get to come on the road, and go on tour with me."

"Drake, as fun as that sounds, I really need to focus on my career. I really need an internship so it'll look good on my resume, and I can get a good job after college."

Drake knew this was going to happen. "There'll be churros, and those really big shrimp."

"Ch-churros? Shr-Shrimp?" Drake snickered hearing Josh trying to "run off his desires" but eventually caved. "Drake, I'll do it."

"Excellent." Drake grinned. "See you next week." Drake hung up the phone.


One week, four suitcases, a diaper bag, and a half packed tour bus later, Drake,Hannah, and Drake's annoying assistant Frank, waited for Josh's plane to arrive.

Drake was sprawled out across the plastic chairs watching plane after plane take off and land. He didn't know exactly what flight Josh was on; all he knew is that Josh's plane was to be here in about twenty minutes. A long twenty minutes. Waiting for Josh's stupid plane was so boring. Drake didn't have anything to entertain himself with, and Hannah was sleeping, and Frank was staring at Drake, waiting for him to need something, even as simple as a tissue.

"Frank," Drake said in a monotoned voice,"go get me a hot dog--with mustard."

"Yes sir!" Frank saluted Drake and scampered down the lobby looking for a hot dog stand. Drake knew the closest one was at the other end of the lobby area, and Frank would willingly actually go to the other end of the lobby for something as simple as a hot dog.

With Frank gone, Drake could finally this opportunity as a chance for a quick rest. After all, on tour who knows how much sleep he'll get? The next minute, Drake was already dozed off.

"Drake? Dra-ake" Josh hissed into his sleeping brother's ear.

"Huh? Wha?" Drake yawned, coming face to face with Josh, and some strange girl. He rubbed his eyes, and quickly turned on his Drake Parker charm. "Why hello there-"

"Melinda." Josh finished for Drake. "But be careful she's not going to-"

Drake ignored the last part and flashed a sly grin. "Melinda. You know, if I weren't here, you'd be the hottest one in here."

Melinda didn't even try to smile. "Cute, real cute. You must be Drake, I presume?"

"You presume right then. Can I get you anything?"

"No. I'm looking for someone-wait I think I see 'em"

"Your boyfriend?" Drake's voice went flat.

"No-oh there she is." Melinda gave a squeal, as a the other girl pulled her into a hug and a kiss.

"Bye Jake. Joshie!" She pulled Josh into a hug, and smiled " see you next year, and have a great summer!" She grabbed her girlfriend as the two went off giggling and talking as Drake heard Melinda say " Isn't he like, the sweetest gay boy you'll ever meet?"

Drake looked down embarrassed and muttered " It's Drake." It always annoyed him how people always mistakes his name as 'Jake.' It's not like his name was hard to remember either.

Drake eyed his brother who was trying to not laugh, and muttered angry "Don't tell me-"

Josh just grinned, "Lesbian."

Drake scowled and stuck out his tongue at his brother. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know, and Josh just had to laugh and make a fool out of Drake. Drake sat quietly staring at his chair in embarrassment. After all, it startled him that gorgeous girls could be lesbians. In fact, it was a frightening thought that girls in general could not like him. Except Mindy, but she doesn't count.

Josh watched Drake sit and take in all what just happened. It was a rather amusing sight to see the Drake Parker turned down by a girl. Josh tried to hold back the rest of his laughter, and tried his best to be polite to Drake. Of course, Drake could never live this down, and Josh made sure to note to himself to write this down in his live journal so he couldn't ever forget this moment.

After ten minutes of watching Drake sulk, Josh had enough of the awkward silence, and broke the ice with a comment that was sure to please Drake.

"Wow. She's getting big;she's a lot bigger than when I last saw her. Drake, she's beginning to look so much like you."

Drake perked up at the comment and beamed with delight. It always made his insides all happy and melt-like when people told him how much Hannah looked like him. It always made him feel proud when he was told that she'd be continuing the 'Parker Charm.'

Frank arrived an hour later with the hot dogs, and he, Josh, and Hannah, all got back into the car to drive to Drake's apartment. It was pretty late, well not midnight late, but late enough too be past Hannah's bedtime. For Drake, that just meant more time to hang with Josh.

Drake put Hannah down, and heard Frank leave, and went to the living room. For a while now he's been dying to ask Josh some questions, that were-well, extremely uncomfortable over the phone. Drake Parker, didn't do uncomfortable phone calls.

"Hey Josh, what's it like not liking girls? Like, how do you not like girls?"

Josh couldn't believe what Drake was asking. Well, maybe he could believe what Drake was asking. After all, it was Drake,and Drake had a tendency to ask stupid questions at some of the random times.

"I dunno," Josh gave Drake an unsure shrug. "Like, I like girls, it's just I don't like them like you do. Like, I don't think I would ever go as far with a girl like you did. Does that make any sense?"

"I guess it does." Drake didn't really care what Josh's answer was. "Do girls like it?"

Josh stared puzzled at Drake for a moment. Sometimes, his advanced calculus homework was easier to figure out than what went on in Drake's mind. Sometimes however, Drake's questions were so stupid a squirrel could answer them, and sometimes, it seemed that rocks had more intelligence than Drake.

Josh figured out the question after thinking it over for a minute. "Do girls like me being gay?" Josh felt awkward saying that out loud. It was completely different when he said it at school, or around some of his classmates.

"Yeah that."

"They certainly don't mind it. Like, I think I've had more invites by girls since I've been out, than since, well, ever. Like, they now always ask me to go to the mall with them or something."

"Really?" Drake asked, as Josh nodded. If Drake knew that back in high school, then he would of tired that whole "bi-curious" thing years ago. Way before that happened.

"Yeah. The jock-like guys sometimes avoid you and stuff, but you have a lot of girl friends, and even some guy friends. And everyone in the LBGT club thing is really supportive of you, and sometimes, it can even be used like a date club."

"So like, how do you know if you're gay or whatever?" That was pondering Drake for the last oh, five minutes or so. Would have been longer, but Drake was being to concentrated on Josh's uneven facial features.

"You just do. It's hard to explain...Why are you interested in my sexuality so much?"

Drake ignored the question, and picked at a thread on his bed. This was becoming one of the most embarrassing conversations he's ever had. Even including that talk Walter gave him years ago, trying to "bond" with Drake. Apparently the "always wear a condom" talk should never be given by Walter when he's holding a banana and grapefruit.

The two shifted from side to side, and were extremely uncomfortable with the awkward silence. Josh examined the dark blue colored carpet, as Drake kept staring at Josh's cantaloupe sized head, resting on top of a tooth pick The only noises to be heard were the occasional squeak from the bed, and the vibrating of the refrigerator.

Drake couldn't handle the silence anymore. It was like this awkward torture, that seemed like a plot Megan used to pull on him and Josh. Most of all, Drake couldn't handle the fact that Josh told him everything, and he kept the biggest secret from Josh—of all people.

"Hey Josh?" Drake couldn't believe he was even talking. Suddenly the words he's speaking doesn't even feel like his words, but like someone else's.

"Yeah?" Josh was surprised by the weakness of Drake's voice.

Drake barely let out what would be considered barely above a whisper."Amy was my first"

Josh didn't really understand. "First what?"

Drake let out a breath. "Amy was the first girl I had sex with."

Josh didn't see any problem with this. " So you lost your virginity to Amy. Drake, there's no reason to feel guilty about loosing your virginity to the girl who gave you your daughter."

"No. Josh, Amy was the first girl I had sex with."

"Drake, we've been through this." Josh paused, Wait a minute. Drake said first girl "Drake?"

"Yeah?"

"First girl?"

The color drained from Drake's face. "Yeah. See, remember my 18th birthday?"

Josh nodded. How could one forget? It was one insane, drunken day. He left at the legal curfew and went back home, but Drake, he was out partying all night. Josh always wondered why Drake came home at one in the afternoon the day after his party, and his clothes were all backwards, with his hair extremely messier than usual.

"Yeah..."

"Well, see-" Drake's voice got weaker as he smushed the words together into a big jumbled mess. "MeandTrevoritwasanaccident,we were drunk and-"

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Drake, explain slowly and carefully."

Drake felt every inch of confidence drain from his body, as he explained to Josh what happened. "Well at the end we had too much, and Trevor, he was drunk, and we,me,him, I swear! It wasn't my fault! We were drunk and-"

"Woah, Drake. Calm down." Josh said soothing Drake. "You were drunk. It's all right. Everyone has a bad drunken experience."

"No! It wasn't like that." Drake said defensively, going in to an uneasy tone of voice. " It wasn't bad." Drake felt ashamed of admitting this. " I liked it. And because of that, I haven't had a proper date with a girl in years! This one's ear's too large, that one's got a head shaped like a watermelon, that one's eye's are too round, this one's nose is too big. It's like I can find every flaw on every girl! It's like, girls have suddenly can't be perfect anymore. Because of that I haven't kissed a girl in over a year!"

"Then how did you and Amy-"

"Trevor's 21st birthday party, we got drunk."

"Oh. Drake, does this mean that you're-"

"I guess so. Or halfway or something."

"...Oh"

"...Yeah."

Another awkward silence, that was Josh's turn to break.

"Well, it's been a long day, what with the plane ride, and stuff."

Drake agreed. "Yeah, and Hannah's kept me up the past three nights with her screaming and stuff."

Josh tried to think of something else to say. Something, anything that wouldn't turn the situation as awkward as it is now. Josh said the only words that could come to his mind, but Drake interrupted him.

"Well, we leave kind of early tomorrow.."

Josh nodded in agreement. "Well, good night Drake."

"Night Josh."

The two boys went to their separate rooms, as the conversation they just had replayed over and over in Drake's mind.