Author's Note: So I have a confession to make you guys. I'm loving writing this story. This fic is my baby at the moment, I'm proud of it, so to hear that other people like it too? Makes my day. Seriously, I love each and every review I've gotten. Thank you all.

A Drake Chapter. Josh is trying to distance himself, Drake can't figure out why. Oh and Mindy shows up.

Disclaimer: If I owned them? This show would be on the air, pretty much forever. Not mine.

For Megan, who reads over my Chapters for me at 3am and answers my paranoid questions about them.


Josh is building houses of cards again. He's making them in all shapes and designs, taking one down and erecting another and it's driving Drake crazy. Not the card houses themselves, but the fact that Josh won't tell him what's wrong. Josh only builds cards houses when something is really bothering him. At least ten different houses have shown up in the past day, a new one every time Drake walks in the door, he hasn't seen Josh build this many since the weeks between Columbia's early acceptance deadline and the day Josh's letter arrived. At least then Drake had known what was going on. Now every time he asks Josh about them, Josh changes the subject or comes up with some really bad lie. Drake is getting a little worried. He tries again on Saturday morning when he wakes up to find Josh pulling out the deck of cards yet again.

"Seriously dude, what's up with the cards?" he asks sitting up in bed and looking down at Josh.

"Cards? I don't have cards. What cards?" Josh says lamely.

"Dude, there's a deck in your hand."

"I was going to do a magic trick!"

"You've been building card houses for the last day. Are you seriously not going to tell me why?" Drake asks, raising his eyebrows.

"All part of a magic trick!"

"You're the worst liar ever."

"No see there's this trick and what I do is-" Josh starts to ramble, and Drake rolls his eyes and cuts him off,

"You build houses of cards when you're upset."

"I- not always."

"Yeah you do. You build card houses when you're upset, and you're a terrible liar. Give it up. Just tell me what's bugging you."

"There's nothing bugging me!" Josh says and he really is a terrible liar, he always had been. Drake can't remember Josh ever trying to lie to him before-it's making him worse than usual. He can't figure it out, Josh always talks to him when something is bugging him. Even if it's something Drake can't possibly help with, like chemistry homework or SAT scores, Josh always tells him, unless-

"You're not mad at me are you?" Drake asks, suddenly worried.

"No!" Josh says quickly, turning red, "why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know. But you're being all weird." Drake says

"I am not."

"Yeah. You are. Weirder than usual."

"We should go eat breakfast. You need energy for your show tonight." Josh says and Drake glares at him. This is seriously weird. He wants to push it further, but Josh has a point, he is hungry. He climbs down from bed and shakes out his hair,

"Do we have pancakes?" he asks.

"I could make you some." Josh offers grinning a little, and it makes Drake feel a bit better.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"Sure." Josh says standing up.

"Extra sugar in the batter?" Drake asks throwing an arm around Josh's shoulder.

"Just the way you like them." Josh says. He's smiling for real now, and Drake grins back. Whatever is bugging Josh, maybe he can figure it out later, after a shower and some pancakes.

----------

Josh doesn't just make pancakes. By the time Drake makes it downstairs half and hour later Josh has whipped up pancakes, eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice. Drake beams,

"Eggs too?" he says, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"And orange juice. It's a big day." Josh says, humming one of Drake's songs as he stacks pancakes on their plates.

"Awesome." Drake says, "this? Is why you're the best manager ever."

"Because I feed you?" Josh asks, putting a plate down in front of Drake and then sitting down across from him.

"Yeah pretty much," Drake says grinning and pouring syrup on his pancakes.

"How can you even taste them under all that syrup?" Josh asks raising an eyebrow.

"It's better this way. You should try it." Drake says, waving a forkful of syrup drenched pancakes in Josh's face.

"Stop that!" Josh says pushing the fork away, "one day your teeth are just going to like fall out of your mouth with all the sugar you eat. "

"Yeah maybe. If I wasn't Drake. But I am, and I happen to have a perfect smile." Drake says, smiling to illustrate his point.

"Uh. Huh." Josh says, glancing down at his own breakfast.

"Besides, you said I needed energy for my gig. Sugar gives you energy."

"Actually all the energy you get from that syrup will be long gone by the time you go on stage tonight what you need is-" Josh starts, ready to ramble, and Drake cuts him off.

"Yeah Yeah." He says, swirling his pancakes in even more syrup and popping them into his mouth grinning. "So you're coming to rehearsal with me later right?" He asks.

"Uh. Actually. I was just planning to meet you up there." Josh says, suddenly looking nervous.

"What? Why?"

"I kinda made plans for this afternoon." Josh says, staring at the table.

"But you're my manager! You love show day rehearsals!" Drake protests.

"You don't need me there. I'll be at the show."

"Yeah but I like it when you're at the rehearsals." Drake says truthfully. He wishes Josh would stop staring at the table and at least look at him while he's bailing. It would make it easier to be pissed.

"Why?" Josh asks. He sounds small and faraway, and this is weird again.

"Because I like to know what you think."

"You know I think you're awesome."

"Yeah but dude we added stuff. I switched around some lyrics and I added this guitar break and-"

"I'm sure it's great."

"You haven't heard it!"

"I'll hear it tonight. I told you, I made plans for this afternoon." Josh says, still looking at the table.

"Doing what?" Drake snaps.

"I told Thornton I'd meet him for coffee." Josh mutters, his voice so slow Drake almost can't hear him.

"You're blowing me off for Thornton?"

"I'm not blowing you off," Josh says, finally looking up.

"Yeah. You are."

"I'm still coming to your show. I'm just skipping the rehearsal. Which I've done before. A bunch of times."

"Yeah do to homework or go to work, not to hang out with Thornton."

"Once I went to see a movie with Craig and Eric!"

"You've seen Thornton like a thousand times this week!"

"I saw him once!"

"Yeah but you were on the phone with him last night!" Drake points out

"So?"

"So I don't understand why you have to spend like every second with him!"

"I don't. It's just coffee." Josh says but he still sounds guilty, "I spend every second with you." he adds softly.

"What? Dude you're not making any sense!" Drake says, putting his fork down so he can focus on fighting with Josh.

"You're the one who is all freaked out because I'm doing something I've done a million times before."

"This is our summer to hang out and chill and you're hanging out with Thornton!"

"It's one Saturday afternoon!" Josh defends, actually looking annoyed for the first time all morning.

"You've been weird since Thursday night!" Drake accuses, narrowing his eyes.

"I have not!"

"Yeah. You have! You're being weird and you're building card houses and you're hanging out with Thornton and I don't like it!" Drake spits.

"I'm just getting coffee Drake." Josh says using his slow 'I'm being patient with you Drake' tone, and Drake's blood boils.

"Don't do that." He hisses, "You're not just getting coffee. You're bailing on me."

"I'm not-" Josh starts but Drake cuts him off.

"You are. It's like you're...avoiding me."

"Why would I be avoiding you?" Josh asks.

"I don't know! But you are! You're avoiding me and hanging out with Thornton!"

"Will you drop the Thornton thing?"

"Will you just tell me what the hell is going on with you?" Drake counters.

"Nothing is going on." Josh says, and Drake stands up, he can't take this anymore.

"Whatever." He says glaring at Josh. He shoves his chair into the table and grabs the car keys off the kitchen counter.

"Drake-" Josh starts but he shuts up when Drake glares at him again.

"I'm out of here. I guess I'll see you later. Unless you decided to take a vacation with Thornton or something. Whatever." He says, heading for the front door.

"Drake come on, you know I'll be at your show." Josh calls after him, sounding upset.

"Oooh are you fighting? Did I miss it?" Megan says, coming down the stairs.

"Ask Josh. Maybe he'll talk to you." Drake spits, glaring at her.

"Oooh you are fighting!" Megan squeals. "Are those pancakes?" She asks, sitting down in Drake's chair. Drake glares at both of them one last time: Megan helping herself to his breakfast and looking back and forth at their faces, grinning, and Josh looking all red faced and kind of helpless- before he walks out the front door, slamming it for effect.

He storms to his car and slams that door too. He drives off as fast as he can, normally driving fast with music blaring makes him feel better- it's not helping today. He's been driving for about five minutes when he realizes that not only does he not have to be at rehearsal for at least another hour, but he's walked out on his breakfast, and he's starving. He makes a sharp U-turn and heads for the nearest McDonalds. It's crowded when he pulls in, and all the menu options sound like complete crap compared to Josh's pancakes. He curses under his breath and orders a greasy something and a large coffee before turning around to hunt down a semi-quiet table. He doesn't see one of course, but he does see Mindy Crenshaw, also by herself, standing at the condiment counter. He seriously considers just leaving, crawling into his room through the window, and hiding in bed all day but then a large family gets up, leaving a corner table free. Drake makes a bee-line for it. He's pouring creamer into his coffee when Mindy walks over.

"Drake." She says, nodding her head and sitting down across from him.

"Can I help you?" He says, glaring at her.

"So were you planning on ignoring me?" She asks, unwrapping her breakfast.

"Pretty much."

"Why?"

"Because I hate you." He says, "and you hate me."

"Is that any reason we can't have breakfast together?" she asks, smirking a little.

"Um. Yes?" Drake says.

"So... Josh isn't with you?"

"No." He says. He's even more annoyed with this morning now, because normally he'd love the chance to taunt Mindy, to maybe make up some lies about Josh dating all sorts of girls in the past two weeks, but he just can't enjoy it now. Not when he's fighting with Josh.

"Oh. So how he is?" She asks awkwardly.

"I have no idea." Drake says bitterly.

"What?"

"He's avoiding me. So I don't know how he is."

"How can he avoid you? You live in the same room." Mindy says.

"I don't know. But he is! He's like blowing me off."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Thursday night." Drake says, and Mindy smirks again.

"So you're upset because he's been avoiding you for a day?" She asks, sounding amused.

"And he's been hanging out with that Thornton guy!"

"Oh. So you're mad because he's been avoiding you for a day and hanging out with another guy?" Mindy asks, still sounding amused.

"Um. Yeah?" Drake says, "Why is that funny?"

"Did I say it was funny?"

"You sounded like you thought it was." He accuses. She rolls her eyes.

"It's not funny." she says, "A little ironic maybe but-"

"What?"

"Oh I'm sorry, should I use smaller words?" She says, smirking yet again.

"Actually it would be great if you could use no words at all. Just stop talking."

"I would, but I have a point to make."

"Shocking."

"Just shut up and listen. I'm sure he's just as upset as you are."

"No he's not. He's hanging out with Thornton he's not-" Drake starts

"Trust me he is," she says, cutting him off, "he's always upset when you're upset. He's always thinking about you. I'm sure if he's avoiding you, he's got a really good reason and he won't be able to keep it up for long. You're way too important to him." She finishes.

"He didn't speak to me for a week once" Drake says, wincing at the memory.

"And it nearly killed him." Mindy says.

"How do you know?"

"Because he told me."

"How can you sit there acting like you're some kind of Josh expert? You broke up with him. Remember?" Drake asks.

"Do you know why I broke up with him Drake?" She asks, sighing.

"Well I did. But Josh told me I was wrong."

"What?"

"Never mind." He says, glaring at her again, "are you still trying to make a point?"

"Yes. Look, I broke up with him because I'll never be as important to him as you are."

"What?"

"It's not that I wanted to take your place or anything. You're his best friend, lord knows why, but you are. I know being his girlfriend isn't the same, and if I was just second I wouldn't care- but I'm not even a close second. He picks you instantly. It's never even a hard choice for him," she continues.

"So you were jealous of...me?" Drake says, trying to make sense of her rambling.

"Kinda. Do you know how often he talks about you? Do you know that when you call he drops everything, and he actually lights up? Do you know you're always the first person he tells things? No matter what they are? I had to call him to find out if he got into Columbia or not. You were there when he opened the envelope."

"We live in the same house."

"You're missing the point." Mindy says, glaring at him again.

"I just don't understand what you being jealous of me has to do with anything." He says truthfully.

"Don't you think it's weird that I always felt like I had to compete with you?" She asks.

"You're a weird girl."

"And you're impossible. Just-listen, I'm sure whatever is wrong with him you two will be snuggled on a couch together by the end of the day."

"We don't snuggle." Drake says.

"Sure you don't." Mindy says, rolling her eyes. She stands up, "I should go. I'd ask you to tell Josh I asked about him. But I'm sure you won't."

"I might."

"You won't"

"Yeah probably not."

"I know. See you around Drake." She says, nodding crisply at him as she throws out the contents of her tray.

"See ya." he echoes, watching her walk out of the restaurant. He takes a huge gulp of his coffee, glaring at the now empty seat across from him. She's made him feel weirdly guilty about her and Josh's breakup, which is stupid. It's not his fault, and he's still not sure what her point actually was, but it's all left him with an uncomfortable droopy feeling in his stomach. A feeling that seems to come along with Josh thoughts a lot lately. He takes a final sip of coffee and pulls his phone out of his pocket.

"Hey," he says to Josh's voicemail, "Dude I'm sorry I just left earlier. I just hate feeling like you're mad at me. So...you are coming later right? I need you there man. So just, call me later ok?" He pauses, "Oh. I ran into Mindy. She asked about you." He finishes. Then he hangs up, stands up and heads to rehearsal.