AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hello all my readers & I'm sorry it took me so long to upload another chapter to this one. I haven't spent that much time writing fiction since I started at Michigan State last year. Anyway, yeah, I hope you guys enjoy my "Drake & Josh" fic!

DISCLAIMER: I don't know Drake Bell or Josh Peck, nor do I have any affiliation with the "Drake & Josh" TV show.

SUMMARY: Drake is flaunting his new girlfriend (yep, he and Laura are now boyfriend and girlfriend) all over the place. Josh has his own girlfriend, so it's not jealousy that's affecting him, it's concern. Laura is twenty and she's into a lot more (risky behavior) things than Drake is. Of course, Drake hasn't told Laura how old he is. Will Laura drag Drake into a hole that he can't dig himself out of?

Chapter Two – Girlfriend Woes

The sun was out once again on a boring school day afternoon at Belleview High. The one good thing about this day was that it was Friday, and everybody was loading up at their lockers and heading home, getting ready for the weekend. Josh Nichols had just kissed his new girlfriend Mindy goodbye-for-the-day at his locker when his step brother Drake Parker approached, talking on his cell phone to his brand new girlfriend.

"All right, I'll see you then. Bye babe," Drake said with a triumphant look on his face.

"Talking to your new girlfriend?"

"Yep," Drake sighed an elated sigh and put a hand on Josh's shoulder, "I'm telling ya Josh, it doesn't get any better than Laura."

"Uh huh..."

"Would you stop that? You act like I've never had a girlfriend before."

"I don't think you've ever had a 20-year-old black girl as a girlfriend."

"Will you relax? I don't need you lecturing me. Come on, we gotta go if we're getting a ride from Scott's brother."

Josh followed Drake out of the side doors of the school, he couldn't help thinking his brother had no idea what he was getting himself into. It wasn't Laura's race that troubled Josh, it was her age. There was a four-year age difference between Drake and his new girlfriend, and four years made a huge difference when it was sixteen and twenty. No matter how hard he tried, Josh couldn't fathom what was going through Drake's head. If anyone else knew, like Megan or their mom or dad, they'd go absolutely ballistic.

Drake has always been the daredevil brother, always willing to try new things, and was in love with getting into trouble. But dating a twenty-year-old black girl was definitely something Josh could consider out of Drake's league. He had a nasty habit of fooling his girlfriends, unfortunately with success. He fooled a girl named Michelle into thinking he was a genius and read lots of books, and he fooled another girl into thinking he was a college kid. Obviously with Laura, since he hadn't told her his real age, he felt he could do the same thing to get a hot girl. It was like Drake to manipulate girls (which never turned out good), but Josh felt that this was going a bit too far.

That evening, Josh was finishing his English essay that was due the following week while Drake was shoveling Cheetos into his face and playing his guitar at the loudest volume possible. Josh could normally tune out sounds around him to concentrate on his schoolwork, but Drake was annoying him more than he usually did lately and he'd finally pushed Josh's last button.

"Drake! Is it possible to tune that down just a little? I'm trying to write a paper."

"What was that that, Josh? I didn't quite hear you," Drake responded, smirking.

"Drake, I'm serious! I, unlike some people I know, care about the value of an education."

"Whatever." He gave in and turned his amplifier off.

"Where are you going?" Josh asked as Drake hopped off of his bed and put on his watch and a collared shirt.

"Out with Laura. We're going back to The Viper Room."

"You're seriously going back to that place?"

"Yes, I'm seriously going back to that place. I've still got the fake."

"You're gonna get caught eventually, you know that right? By the Bouncers and your girlfriend."

"I am not. And why are you always so negative? I'm just going to have some fun on a Friday night with my girlfriend."

"All right, but don't call me if you get in trouble."

"I won't."

Drake grabbed his wallet from his brown jacket pocket and headed out of their bedroom, closing the door behind him. Drake had a nasty gut feeling that he shouldn't be doing what he was about to do, but of course teenage boys of his age rarely obey these gut feelings, and yelling to his parents, "I'll be back around midnight!" he left the house and met his girlfriend around the corner in her lime green Volkswagen Beetle.

"Wow Drake, I didn't think you'd show."

"Are you kidding? I'm always ready to party," and he kissed her.

"Got everything?"

"Sure do."

"All right, let's go. We're not going straight to the club, though. We're gonna take a little detour."

"To where?" He sounded mildly inquisitive, but nervous and unsure at the same time.

"My friend Emily's house. She's got the alcohol over there, and I'm not clubbing sober tonight. It's too early now anyway."

"Too early?"

"Yeah, it's only 9:00."

"Uh huh..."

"What's wrong, never got drunk before?"

"Well, no..." finally Drake was taking an opportunity not to lie.

"Don't worry about it; Em's good at getting new-comers wasted."

Drake was finally beginning to understand that gut feeling. Unfortunately for him, it was a little too late to do anything about it. The uneasiness was apparent on his face as Laura maneuvered her car around the turns and down the streets and freeways that would take the new couple to her friend Emily's house. Although it was 60 degrees, Drake shivered slightly in the air-conditioned Beetle. He knew he was getting deeper and deeper as the night went on, and soon he'd be in over his head. This is a mistake I'll just have to learn from, Drake thought as Laura exited the freeway and took a turn down a brightly lit street.

Emily's house was a nice size, only a little larger than Drake's own house. The front lawn was illuminated slightly by a white light coming out of the front door, which was open. The lawn itself looked like it had been cut recently, but red and blue paper cups were scattered throughout it, and there was an enormous keg in the middle where people were filling and refilling their drinks.

"Awesome, she's got the keg." Drake gulped a little, but Laura only smiled and walked toward the open front door, pouring herself a beer on the way there. "Why aren't you drinking free beer?" she asked Drake behind her.

"Uh...well...I...don't much like the taste of beer," Drake lied.

"What? Drake, beer is like a natural taste for guys who drink, don't pull that one on me. If you're gonna get trashed for the first time, you should drink beer."

"All right." The apprehension was crystal clear in Drake's voice, but Laura dismissed it and greeted some of her other friends.

Drake headed back to the barrel-like keg that held the beer and located a stack of clean cups. He acted slowly, wondering whether he was really about to do this. Of course he would work hard to make sure no one (especially no one related to him, by blood or law) found out about what he was doing, but he still felt the apprehension flood inside of him like a hormone that his body wasn't getting rid of. He watched the bronze liquid fill the red cup he'd chosen and took a good hard look at his life and how many things he was able to get away with. This was a major step up and it might've been out of his league, but he decided to ascend the step anyway, and took a long swig of the beer in his cup.