Well well, what do we have here? It looks like another update!

Drake was driving, with no particular destination in mind. He just needed time to think, something that he seemed to be doing a lot recently.

The old Drake would have been pissed off that Mindy had practically refused to help and had blamed everything on him, but that was the old Drake. Now, instead of being mad, he felt wretched. After all, what did "closest friend in a long time" mean to the old Drake? Just words to be heard, and forgotten.

After Mindy had stormed away from the Galleria plaza, Drake had stayed sitting on that bench for about 15 minutes. He spent most of the time waiting for her to come back around the corner so they could sort this out.

But she hadn't.

He'd had no idea that he'd hurt her as badly as she'd made him see. He and Jessica had been together, so he hadn't actually given it any thought. He'd figured that Mindy would be fine.

But those 15 minutes of waiting and thought had brought the harsh reality to him, and showed him how much he had screwed up.

"Closest friend? Yeah right, Drake," he murmured under his breath, mad at himself.

If all the time he'd spent with Mindy had taught him anything, it was that he couldn't just block out how other people felt anymore, especially her. After all, he knew that she didn't exactly have a lot of people close to her, and that she struggled with the idea of being alone.

He also knew that she wasn't the same person that she was a few years ago. The Mindy of a few years ago was arrogant, cold, snide, and very anti-social.

But now, a few years after the whole mess with the car in the classroom and the institution, she'd definitely changed for the better, and Drake had seen that. She had told him that she wasn't the same person she had been back then, and he didn't have to be a genius to agree with her.

The Mindy that he knew now, the girl he had been spending so much time with in the last few months, was an intelligent, sweet person who had been made to suffer alone in the storm that was her life for several years.

Drake caught himself for a moment. "Shit," he muttered, "Am I really thinking all this?"

He pulled into a parking space, and took out his phone, remembering something she had said back at the plaza. He opened his message inbox, and his heart sank. He saw 9, maybe 10 unread messages from Mindy from over the course of the month. A couple of them were along the lines of "what's up?" and casual conversation starters, but as he went through more of them, he saw them become progressively more serious.

The latest of those unread messages was dated from about a week ago. If it had been possible for Drake to feel any worse than he already did, it definitely happened when he read it.

Why are you doing this Drake? You haven't spoken to me in weeks. If you didn't want us to be friends anymore, you could have said so to my face instead of ignoring me this whole month! But I get the point. If you want to cut me off and leave me hanging after everything, fine. It hurts me, but why should that bother you? You're Drake Parker, after all! Just don't ask me to fix you again when your relationship bombs. –Mindy

Long, maybe, but it made the point clear to him all the same. And of course, it had ended up being yet another message from her that he hadn't responded to.

Drake knew it might just be too late, and it might just be like trying to put a Band-Aid over the much bigger problem, but he sent her a message of his own anyway. He put his phone down, and leaned back, looking out the window as cars sped past him.

He sat motionless for several minutes, when his phone went off, interrupting his thoughts. He read her message and re-read it, making sure he understood her reply. He fired off a reply of his own and put his phone back down, a little nervous now. He hadn't actually thought she would respond. He expected her to just ignore him, like he had done to her for so long.

He restarted his car and drove. He had no idea how this was going to end up working out, but at least he knew where he had to go.

So, the finer points. You'll notice certain aspects of this chapter mirror those of the last one (driving and thinking, etc.). I didn't think actually about it when I was writing the chapter; it just happened to come together like that.

I am prepared for unending criticism regarding Drake's character, and how he's more "with it", but that was my intention with his character from the outset of writing this story; to unearth a deeper part of him, and bring it to the forefront. Obviously, as we're seeing now, he's struggling (somewhat) with how much he has changed. But that's ultimately not what the story is about, either. As corny as it sounds, the main concept of this story is the friendship between two people who have been personally fractured.

Anyway, last chapter next up! Compared to all the installments so far, it's fairly big, shaping at around 1.8k words. At the moment, it's looking like a Sunday update, so we'll see how I go. Reviews and the like are appreciated.