Once in their car heading home, Josh appeared to be his friendly, jolly, old self, acting as if his outburst at lunch had not happened. Audrey was relieved, but still worried. She also felt helpless. Unlike her natural-born children, Josh, until recently, would come to her with his problems.

"Josh, you said just talking about your feelings was okay, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, then … will you please think about making an appointment with Dr. Stein, you know, the psychologist."

"Oh, yeah … he did so much good for Drake," Josh sarcastically replied.

"Drake got nothing out of seeing Dr. Stein because Drake didn't want to get anything out of it … and treated like a joke … that's why I won't try to force you."

"I'll think about it," Josh replied, having no intention of seeing Dr. Stein or any other headshrinker.


When Audrey and Josh arrived back home, Josh quickly excused himself to the guest bedroom. Audrey's first thought was to call Walter at work and tell him about her lunch with Josh. However, Audrey quickly decided to try to get her mind off Josh's problems for while before the rest of the family returned home and lied down on the living room couch to read a trashy novel she had recently purchased.

A couple of hours later, Drake barreled through the front door, startling Audrey. Drake was clearly surprised to see that Audrey was home.

"Mom … what are you doing home this early? Is something wrong?"

"I took the day off today to spend some alone time with Josh … he's been so down lately."

Drake just shook his head in disbelief and simply responded, "Oh," as he headed up to his room, slamming the bedroom door behind him.

DRAKE POV:

Why is my mother babying Josh so much? She's so god damn sensitive to Josh's feelings and Josh's problems. What about me, huh? Once again Josh has fucked me over, and she can't see that I'm a wreck. Fuck, she probably wishes Josh was really her kid and that I was the stepson - or maybe not even around anymore. After all, I'm the fuck-up. Well, at least I'm not a raper ... uh, rapist ... whatever.

I need to just get the fuck out of here. They'll get over it pretty quickly. Let's see:

Megan: that mean little bitch; she won't miss me for a minute.

Mom: she'll cry and be upset for a while, but soon she'll be relieved I'm no longer her problem.

Walter: he'll act all sad for Mom, but he'll secretly be glad because he blames me for getting his kid in trouble all the time. I know he'd blame for what Josh has done to me.

And Josh: like I care, he only liked me because I'm hot, you know. He was always looking down on me and making fun of me for being stupid and shit. Why couldn't I see that earlier? I should have. But I guess I was too stupid.

Man, I need a plan, and I need to scrape up some cash. And then no one will have Drake Parker to shit on anymore.


While Drake was deciding that he needed to come up with a plan, Josh was developing a plan on his own.

"Yes, Mama, my last day of school is only about 10 days away. Right after, I will be on my way to you." Josh then started to cry as he continued, "You're the only person who still loves me despite what I have done ... no, they don't know yet, but they'll all hate me when they find out ... oh, they're going to find out ... Drake's going to tell ... I just know it. As soon as my last class is over, I'm going to go say goodbye to Grammy and then get the hell out of California. Oh, I got to go, Audrey's calling."