Chapter Eight: Dizzy

Author's Note: I'm so sorry about the hiatus. I don't really have much of an excuse to give you guys. I did accidentally uninstall my Microsoft word, but after that, I was just dry and had a little writer's block, but I'm back now! I'm so sorry!

His face bruised from crashing drunkenly into three sets of bushes and onto the street several times, Drake swaggered and swayed up his driveway, tossing his bicycle on his lawn, the chain broken. He tripped over his feet on his way up to the steps and smashed his hand against the doorbell. There was no way, he was going to be able to figure out how to use the doorknob in the state he was in and he knew that for a fact.

He'd finished the whole bottle white rum on his way home, always saving it from the demise that would come if it smashed against the concrete. He spilt a little on the collar of his shirt causing him to reek of the drink, also the smell of his breath could make small children run and roses wilt.

"What in the world?" Audrey Parker- Nichols opened the door in her pajamas and a pink terry cloth robe. She'd been sleeping since it was nearly one in the morning. She looked out her door and saw nothing until she felt her son's hand grab her bare foot while he was trying to crawl inside. "Drake Parker, you've got some major explaining to do!" Audrey was no stranger to being a teenager, she was never the angel child of her own family, so she could tell with one look and sniff that her son was plain and simply: drunk.

She reached down and lifted Drake onto his feet by yanking his arms upwards. She slammed the door behind him, but as soon as she turned around to give him a lecture, he was back on the ground.

"Where's Josh, huh?" Drake hiccupped, the look of anger still alive in his brown eyes. "We're going to…tussle." He mocked his step-brother by using one of his popular words. Drake attempted to climb onto his feet and hold his fists up in front of his face to fight, but he just tripped backwards and crashed against the wall.

"What is all this racket all about?" In only his boxers and nothing else, Walter emerged from his bedroom and into the light of the hallway. "What the hell?" He noticed Drake out cold against the wall and Audrey, who stood pale and at a loss for words.

"Is he drunk?" Walter asked, throwing his arms open.

"What do you think?" Audrey frowned and shook her head. "Let's get him upstairs." She moved towards her son to help him up to his bedroom, but Walter held her back, grabbing her shoulder lightly.

"No, leave him here."

"Walter." She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to voice his reason. Drake's eyes began to flutter back open.

"Hey Walter, bud." A stupid smile broke onto his face, crooked and chapped. He tried waving at his step dad, but it didn't get come through. "Oh, put a shirt on man." Drake gagged a little and he wasn't sure if it was the alcohol swashing around in his body or the sight of Walter in his underwear. Before, anybody could react, Drake's mouth was wide open and burning white rum came up with sticky bits of what could be marshmallows and some 

bits and chunks of hot dogs he and Pem had grabbed from a vendor in the park earlier. Drake had never had a steel stomach and at most parties where he'd get plastered, he'd end up over a toilet or the curb puking everything out, tonight was no different. All his vomit rolled down his shirt and on his jeans a little. The remains were left on the floor and Walter's bare feet.

"Oops." He cupped his mouth with one hand and started to pass out again, his soggy puke stained hand in his cherished head of hair.

The commotion from downstairs woke up both Megan and Josh, who usually had no problem sleeping soundly.

"Gross!" Megan said when she noticed Josh had stepped right in a tiny pool of Drake's vomit. "What's with the boob?" Megan had been sheltered from seeing Drake drunk before and she had no memories of seeing other people sick from alcohol, except for on the television.

"Megan, go back to bed." Audrey attempted to take charge of both her family and the situation. "Walter, will you take Drake to the bathroom? Try to get him undressed." She voiced a list of demands. "Josh, go grab paper towels and a mop, we're going to clean this up."

"I'm on it." Josh made a quick dash into the kitchen, worried about his brother, but also used to seeing Drake this way. Usually, Drake had no problem making a drunken entrance up into their bedroom and it was up to Josh to look after him all on his own.

"This sucks." Bummed out that she had to miss all the action, Megan stomped upstairs, stepping on the bottom of her fleece pajama pants.

Walter picked up Drake and helped him walk into the bathroom by holding him against his chest and basically tossing him over the toilet, his face smashing against the seat, drool pouring from his lips the same way it hung out of a dog's mouth on scorching summer afternoons.

"Drake, what is this all about?" Walter huffed while trying to pull his dirty shirt off of him. Drake was already sweating out the rest of the alcohol, his chest all sticky and clammy. "Huh? Drunk on Wendsday night? You've got school tomorrow, an exam!"

"It's Josh's fault." Drake murmured, his lips attached to the toilet seat.

"How?"

"He kisses Pem."

"What?" Walter didn't comprehend.

"Josh kiss kiss Pem." Words were not Drake's strong suit in general, but the booze made it much tougher for him to string a sentence together.

XXX

"Josh," On her knees, wiping up some puke residue from her wooden floor, Audrey tried to get to the bottom of everything. "Drake said something about fighting with you. Did you guys get in an argument or something?"

"No." Josh, who was concentrating on mopping, didn't know what that could've been all about.



"He was at Pem's tonight and he came home, all drunk, saying he wants to tussle with you or something." She looked up, blowing a strand of hair of out of her exhausted eyes.

"Oh." Josh's voice dropped, wondering if, maybe, Pem had told Drake, even when they'd agreed to wait until after their exams were through.

"Do you know something I should?" Audrey climbed onto her feet and walked into the kitchen to throw out the paper towel. "Josh, tell me." She stood in the doorway of the kitchen and waited for Josh to let everything out. He always had a better grip on honesty then his brother did.

"I don't know if this is what it's about, but, Pem and I, we've kind of been…"

"What?" Audrey wanted answers.

"I mean, it hasn't been long, just a couple weeks, but, we've been…"

"Josh, do you need to have the talk?" She tightened her eyes and stepped closer to him, rubbing one of his arms.

"No! No!" He jumped back almost slipping on the spot he'd just mopped. "We're just seeing each other, dating, I don't know, we're not doing that, no, no!" He waved his hands in front of his face wildly and tried to assure Audrey. "We're not, I swear."

"Okay, well, that's comforting to hear." Audrey let out a sigh of exasperation and wandered to her living room to flop down and relax on the couch. Slowly, following her, Josh did the same, right beside his step-mom. "There's no rush, Josh, and if you and Pem ever decide to, I can…we can talk, if you want."

"Wow, I think this surpasses uncomfortable." Josh thought maybe he'd hurl.

"Josh, you do know Pem is Drake's best friend? They've been practically linked since daycare."

"I know. Trust me; if I could control this, it wouldn't be happening."

"Drake is probably just hurt, if he knows, and if he doesn't know, you can't hide it from him. As his brother and best friend, you guys owe it to him to tell him."

"We were going to after exams."

"Good luck on yours tomorrow, by the way." She nudged him in the ribs and rolled her eyes. "How about we deal with this tomorrow?"

"That sounds good."

"Goodnight, hon." Audrey gave Josh a goodnight kiss and headed off to the washroom to free Walter from drunk Drake duty. Sluggishly, Josh made his way back upstairs and into his bed.

XXX

"How you feelin', baby?" Audrey sat on the edge of her bathtub, rubbing her son's head with a damp towel. "Do you think there's much more left?" She watched him flush the toilet and the last of what had been sitting in the pit of his stomach. Drake just shook his head and ached. "Is this about Pem?" She asked, sweetly.



Drake looked up and into his mom's caring eyes for a moment, surprised by her knowledge, and then just bowed his head down on her knee. He really wished he had left the bottle of white rum at Pem's house.

"We'll talk tomorrow."

XXX

Another thing Pem and Josh had in common was a mutual love for half days. Thanks to exams, once you'd finished writing yours, you could head home with the assumption that you would spend the rest of the afternoon studying for your next one.

Josh walked straight out of school after finishing up his second last exam, all the was left was History on Friday, and he didn't mind History, as far as he could tell it was going to be a breeze. However, he wasn't sure how he had done on that exam, he was sleep-deprived and concerned about his brother, who hung over and sore, didn't say a word or even glance at his brother all morning. Drake took the car to school without telling Josh, leaving him to catch the public transit.

Pem sat behind the wheel of her Malibu; she had finished her last exam on Tuesday and had already begun her summer break. She was dressed in her favorite thick strapped tank top that read "Stressed backwards spells Desserts" in big bubble letters and a pair of grey sweatpant like shorts. She'd spent the morning helping out at her mom's daycare and jogged around her neighborhood before going to surprise Josh at school.

As soon as she spotted him entering the parking lot, she honked at him. He jumped out of his skin and lost balance, leaving him to tumble down on the cement and squeal in fear.

"Josh!" She shouted while jumping out from behind the wheel and crouching down next to him. "Are you alright? I'm sorry; I was trying to surprise you."

"Well, you were successful." He groaned.

"I'm sorry." She picked him up with the help of her hand and then dusted a little dirt of his pant leg. "I thought I could give you a ride home after your exam and we could talk."

"About last night?"

"Yeah, I didn't know if Drake had told you." She walked back to her car door and noticed that Josh walked right past. "Josh."

"He's my brother, Pem; I can't believe I've been lying to him."

"Hey, he's my best friend; this is hard for me, too!" She called over the hood of her car.

"Is that why you told him last night? You were so against it before. You wanted to talk it over more and think. You wanted to wait!"

"He found out on his own."

"How?"

"He went through my text messages, okay? I didn't want to make things weird between you guys. I didn't ask for this!"



"Okay, okay," Josh walked right over to her and wrapped her up inside his arms. She was visibly upset and he hated arguing anyways. "He came home plastered last night." Josh told her as soon as they pulled apart.

"Is he okay? I guess, your parents are pissed."

"Yeah." Josh slid into the passenger seat and seat belted himself in, safely. "Drake won't even talk to me."

"Yeah, " Pem put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking spot, looking behind her the whole time. "He was really angry when he left my house. He said he didn't even know who I was anymore, that I was punishing him."

"Pem, I wish things were different." Josh told her.

"I don't." She said very honestly, surprising Josh again. His eyes widened and he watched her, hoping she'd carry on with a reason why. "I mean, yeah, Drake is my best friend and I don't want to hurt him ever, but I've had a lot of fun with this last little while and I wouldn't take that back just to please Drake or make things easier."

"I guess so." Drake rolled down his window to let in a little more cool air.

"Anything worth having is worth fighting for." Pem quoted something she'd heard her oldest brother say before about football season.

"You're right." Josh leaned in and kissed her, sweetly, as they waited for an opening to drive onto the road.

Drake had parked in the other parking lot and was crossing the street on his way to it, since he'd just been released out of his exam. He had a big baggy shirt on and a thin pair of sweatpants on. His body was sore and completely hangover, he was groggy and just wanted to be comfortable, he didn't care at all about fashion today. He had a pair of white wayfer's on over his eyes and one book in his hand, slapping against his thigh as he walked. He was going to wave to the Chevy Malibu for stopping and letting him pass, but when he focused in on the kissing couple behind the windshield, a pang of anger kicked his gut.

"Get a room!" He kicked the front of Pem's car and hollered.

Josh and Pem immediately pulled apart and stared at their laps, ashamed and feeling very sympathetic towards Drake. Pem thought she was going to cry until she felt Josh's hand squeeze her bare knee.

"Let's grab some ice cream before you take me home, how about?"

"Okay." Meekly, she agreed and drove away from Belleview High.

XXX

The two brothers ignored one another for the rest of the afternoon. Drake took refuge up in the bedroom, playing guitar more than studying and stewing in his anger and hangover. Josh, on the other hand, spread his work all over the dining room table and took to studying like a fish to water, absorbing all the information he could and quizzing himself without mercy.



It wasn't until his parents came home and needed the dining room table for dinner that Josh had to wander upstairs and study on top of his bed.

He had every intention of just ignoring Drake, letting him deal with whatever he was feeling on his own, but the noise of his wailing guitar was making it really difficult for Josh to concentrate on his task.

"Drake, could you turn it down a bit?" He asked over the noise, but Drake just took that as his invitation to break into a noisy guitar solo, moving the volume dial louder.

"Come on, man, you should be studying, too." Josh tried again, but Drake didn't acknowledge him or his request.

Josh grabbed his squishiest pillow and wrapped it over his head, pushing it against his ears to try and drown out the sound around him. He read over his textbook, the same sentence over and over again until he just couldn't take it. He marched in a straight line right behind his brother and grabbed the neck of his guitar in his hand, pulling it out of Drake's grip.

"Fuck off, man!" Drake turned around and pushed his hand into his brother's shoulder.

"Drake, just say it, you hate me, whatever, but for the love of God, turn your music off!" Josh couldn't believe how identical he sounded to his father.

"I will."

"Thank you." Josh handed the guitar back and turned around, happy that he got what he wanted.

"If you stop seeing Pem."

On his heels, he spun around and was ready to rebut. He looked Drake in the eyes and dropped his mouth to say something, but that's when he realized how serious Drake was and for the first time, Josh stood his ground.

"No."

"Then the music stays on." Drake went back to strumming, but Josh grabbed it again.

"Really? Are you going to make me choose? Is it really you or Pem? I can't have both."

"Yeah, you go with her we are no longer brothers."

Josh didn't need to take a moment, he knew what his decision was and even though, he wished he could have both Pem and Drake, his head and heart were screaming and he knew which one was right.

"Then, I choose Pem."

Drake's heart sank, but he made sure Josh couldn't tell at all. Instead, he just turned up his amp and let his guitar do all the talking.

XXXX

Oh, why can't we all just get along?

Don't lose hope, I've got the next chapter ready and I have many ideas a-brewin'.



Reviews, long ones, especially, are super appreciated.

Dizzy – Jimmy Eat World