AUTHOR'S NOTES: I hope you all are enjoying my little ficcie. I decided to rate it T because of the 'adult themes' expressed...I hope it's an okay rating. None of you people younger than 21 should be indulging in this kind of behavior! This is just to open your eyes. Drake will learn a lesson from his mistakes. Anyway, yeah, enjoy! R&R too.

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 still hanging out with his girlfriend at her friend's house, and he's getting into even more risky behavior. He ends up getting back in his house successfully, but well after midnight...and his parents are waiting there on the couch. What do Walter and Audrey have to say, and when will Drake decide it's time to draw the line?

Chapter Three – Risky Behavior

It was 10:30pm on a Friday night and Drake Parker was still at a party with his 20-year-old girlfriend Laura. He'd finished five cups of beer and was heading back to the keg for another after more encouragement from his new significant other. The beer wasn't bad and Drake's angst was almost gone because of the amount of beer that was in his system. He made a quick trip to the bathroom (his fifth in a row) before rejoining his girlfriend at the front of the house they'd made a temporary stop at.

Drake continued following his girlfriend around the house, shaking hands with some of her friends and watching others vomiting in scattered garbage cans full of blue and red cups. He looked at his own beer quizzically for a moment then took another swig, hoping and praying that this evil liquid wouldn't do that to him. He wasn't at the nauseated level of intoxication yet, but he could definitely tell he was getting drunk.

"Babe, maybe you should slow down."

"I'm fine, I'm fine."

"So I see. In the case, here." She pulled out a red and white rectangular box with the word 'Marlboro' stamped across the front.

"You're joking, right?" Drake asked as she handed him a white tube from the pack.

"Serious as a heart attack, Drake. Wow, a virgin smoker too, huh?"

"Yeah..."

"Yeah, well, we'll fix that. Come on, take it."

"Give me that," Drake said and took it from her.

Drake's heart was beating quite fast, but he ignored it. Laura lit the cigarette Drake had placed in his mouth and he inhaled deeply...and coughed. Hard. It was at this moment that a couple of sticks of dynamite went off inside Drake's head. He was finally beginning to see the mistakes he was making by getting involved with a girl as old as Laura. Laura had lit her own cigarette and was smoking it without difficulty. He looked at her, and then looked at himself. It wasn't easy to admit he'd failed with a female, but he definitely knew this time that his bluff would sooner or later be called, and it would be much easier on Laura to hear the truth out of Drake's own mouth.

As soon as his breathing returned to normal, he got rid of the beer cup he was holding and located Laura. She was still smoking, but she put the cigarette out when she spotted him. She smiled a smile full of nicotine and Drake couldn't help but be turned off by this – and he was rarely turned off by a girl as beautiful as Laura was. He observed his surroundings fleetingly and knew that what he was going to do at the end of the night was the right thing. Unfortunately, he still had to endure a night at The Viper Room, and not too long after Laura grabbed his arm and led him to an enormous blue Escalade that would take them there.

The night was relatively warm and the moon and stars were faintly visible in the Californian night sky. The Escalade pulled in front of the familiar bright lights and ear-splittingly loud music and Drake almost didn't move his feet to step out. He wouldn't have either, had Laura not had a circulation-cutting grip on his left wrist. Reluctantly he let himself be steered inside the club, hoping somehow that the night would go by fast. Hoping and praying doesn't help you much in circumstances like Drake's, however; he would simply have to dig himself out of the hole he was in.

He danced with Laura for a while, and she lit another cigarette. Just the idea that he got himself riveted in a crowd like this all of a sudden seemed quite ludicrous...even for a bad boy rock band lead-singer like himself. Drake might have gotten himself into some sticky situations, like the rock show Scottie's brother got them fake tickets for. But never had Drake gone as far as to actually smoke (however short and minute the smoking was) a cigarette. Even with the beer he drank, he knew it was erroneous to be where he was.

Not a moment too soon, the DJ in the DJ box played a slow song, which signaled the closing of The Viper Room and the end of the night. He felt as if he'd been waiting for that moment his entire life when he stopped dancing and headed toward the exit with Laura and a bottle of ice cold water (which felt good going down his esophagus). He caught Laura by the arm outside of the building and held her back for a quick word.

"Laura, we have to talk." The fatal five words of any relationship had hit Laura's ears.

"About what?"

"I...sort of have a confession to make."

"Go on."

"Well...I'm not exactly...who you think I am."

"And who do I think you are?"

"Some drinking, partying, smoking, 20-year-old guy."

"Who said that's who I thought you were?"

"Well, nobody, but...look, the point is, I have to confess. I'm just in high school, and I'm only sixteen; I've fooled girls into thinking I was older before, so I just...thought I could get away with it again."

"I knew you weren't twenty Drake. I must admit, I did think you were eighteen, but it looks like I was two years off."

"Then you'll understand when I say that I think we should go our separate ways. I'm really sorry, but,"

"Don't worry about it, Drake. I don't want you to get mixed up in stuff you're not ready for."

"Oh, good, well...I'm glad you're not mad."

"Come on, I'll take you home."

"Could you drop me off around the corner from my house, like where you picked me up?"

"Sure," Laura chuckled.

The ride back to Drake's house was silent. Drake felt bad for dismissing Laura like he had, but better about the choice he was making. His troubles, however, we not over just yet; it was well past midnight, and he was supposed to be in by then, as any normal sixteen-year-old would have to be. Drake pondered for a while how he was going to make it through the house and into his bed undetected. Josh probably wouldn't wake up, and brushing his teeth was out of the question; it'd wake up the whole house. Laura stopped her Beetle a block down from Drake's house so the car wouldn't be suspected of stopping at Drake's house, then he said one last (or so he thought) good-bye to Laura and walked down to his door and walked in.

Five minutes after he'd set foot inside the house, the living room and kitchen lights flipped on and Walter and Audrey Nichols were staring Drake dead in the eye, Josh and Megan on the living room couch hoping to witness the scolding Drake was about to receive. Drake simply looked both his mother and step-father in the eye, knowing that now there wasn't much of a way out of his situation. Josh had the same look on his face as his parents, and Megan was smirking at him.

"Mom, dad...I can explain."

"Please do that," Audrey spoke up, looking at him seriously.

"Well, see, here's the thing...I've been dating this...this girl..."

"Go on," Walter said.

"Her name is Laura and...she's twenty."

"Twenty years old?" Audrey said after a slight hesitation to register in her brain what her son had just said.

"Yeah, well...she wasn't that bad...until tonight. We went to her friend's house,"

"And how old is her friend?"

"I'm not sure, I didn't know her."

"I don't think I want to hear anymore of this part of the story. Just tell us where you've been all night." Megan's evil smile was getting wider.

"I was at the...The Viper Room. It's a club, eighteen and over."

"Might I ask how you got in?"

"Well...I sort of...had a fake ID." A short pause followed this to allow his parents to react without words.

"I'll admit it Drake, you've done some really idiotic things in your short history. But this, tonight has got to be the most idiotic."

"Could you please just tell me how long I'm grounded for so we can get this over with?"

"I know for a fact you are not talking back to me right now, Drake Parker," Audrey said fiercely.

"Sorry."

"Don't talk anymore. I really don't know what's gotten into you Drake, and I don't want to hear any more about what happened tonight. I want you to know how worried we were and how much trouble you're in. Unfortunately, we can't think of a harsher way to punish you than grounding and removing privileges. TV, video games, and the computer are definitely out of the question, and we'll take the fake ID. No more cell phone either," Audrey said and she ripped the cell phone from his pocket.

"The cell phone mom?"

"Yes, the cell phone, and I thought I told you not to talk anymore. You're grounded until we get over what you've done, and until you've had time to think about it."

"You gave us a scare tonight Drake, and I don't know how long it'll take for you to get our trust back."

"Yes sir."

"Now go to bed. You too Josh and Megan, and we'll talk more in the morning. Your father and I will figure out by then exactly how long you'll be grounded for."

Drake sighed another sigh, but it wasn't a happy and euphoric sigh as it was before, but a heavy-hearted and disappointed-in-himself sigh. He should've known he couldn't be the daredevil brother for long without consequences. He got a pair of pajamas out of his drawer when he got to his room and changed into them, happy to be home but still feeling bad about what he did that night (a first for Drake), most of which his parent's didn't know about.

He quickly brushed his teeth and climbed into his bed, not falling asleep right away. He did more thinking in one night than he had in his first three years of high school. Things didn't usually occupy his mind like this night and his recent ex-girlfriend did. He really screwed up this time, and it would take more time than he was willing to spend to fix. He woke up groggy and with a bad headache in the morning (well, 12:00 in the afternoon). He went to the bathroom and freshened up, preparing for the extra reprimand he was sure to get the moment he showed his face in the kitchen. Not to mention the sermon he was no doubt going to get from Josh and the taunting he'd have to endure from Megan. All in all, Drake was left with a strong sense of regret as his feet made contact with wood tile from the floor and his parents were waiting for him in the kitchen by a box of cereal.