Help!
Monday—5:30 PM
After Drake wakes up from his nap at the end of Chapter 14.
Drake had a strange dream. The best dreams were the literal ones because they made
the most sense. Like playing to a packed stadium. You didn't have to read into a book
of symbols to figure out what it meant. And Drake Parker step foot in a library? No way.
Well, there was something he was going to have to research, but that was for later. He
saw visions of a tire iron while he heard the loud sound of thunder. He had no idea on
what it could mean. Unless it was his subconscious mind symbolizing Torey's dark
childhood hence the dark rain and a person could use the tire iron in a harmful way. He
really wanted to push the mental image out of his mind.
"HEY!" Megan squirted Drake with her Super Soaker water pistol.
"M-Megan! Do you have to be so immature?"
"Yeah!"
Drake wiped his wet face with his hand
"What do you want?"
"Josh left a voice mail on my cell phone. He wants to talk to you."
"Well, I don't want to talk to him." Drake slid back down into his bed.
"He sounded upset."
"Good."
"Maybe, you should talk to him Drake?"
"Megan, whose side are you on?"
"I don't choose sides. You both can be Boobs."
"Whatever. What happened with Mom and Dad this weekend?"
"I don't know. Mom's making dinner and Dad's at work."
"So they didn't get back together?"
"I don't think so."
"Well, that just sucks."
"That's life, Drake." Megan replied as she left the room giving her brother one more
squirt in his pretty face.
"HEY!"
But she was already gone and Drake was too tired to chase her. He wiped his face with
his blanket.
He felt scummy. He needed to take a shower before dinner. Drake decided to see if he
had any voice mail on his cell phone.
"You have one message. It is new. To play your message press one."
"Thank you. Everything was so beautiful. The flowers. The song. You validate my very
existence Drake. For that and a million other reasons—I love you so much. I'll see you
after work."
Drake knew he couldn't erase her past hence the lyrics to the song he wrote, but if he
could make her feel just a little bit better then that's all that mattered.
No one ever said he validated their very existence before. Torey made him a better
man.
"If you would like to delete your message press three."
He just couldn't erase this message. Not now. Drake put his cell phone on his dresser
when he heard the sound of Josh's footsteps. Now he had to actually prove with his
actions and not his theory that Torey actually made him a better person.
"Drake!" Josh stumbled in the room as if he were drunk.
He looked terrible. Josh's hair was a mess and it looked like he hadn't slept in days.
"You have to help me! Please." He put his hands on Drake's shoulders.
Drake didn't really know what to say.
"What's wrong?"
Stubborn until the end Drake Parker was. He backed away so Josh would not be
touching him.
"I think I could've done that terrible thing."
"What terrible thing?"
Drake could really care less. He just wanted this conversation over with. He wasn't
ready to forgive and forget where Josh was concerned.
"That terrible thing to a girl."
"What were you about to do, Josh?" Drake cracked his knuckles.
"I wanted Mindy. I had to have Mindy. If her friends didn't stop me—I think I could've—
could've…done that terrible thing." Josh fell to his knees as he let himself breakdown
once more.
All of a sudden Drake cared. The images of Torey telling him not twenty four hours ago
about what her father did to her and this little weasel was admitting to him that he
could've raped Mindy Crenshaw if her friends didn't come to her aid? Is that what this
jerk was saying?
"You are sick!" Drake kicked Josh while he was already on the floor.
It would've been more painful had he been wearing shoes or better yet his boots.
"D-Drake," Josh coughed, "P-please help me!"
"I'll help you!" Drake picked Josh up from off the floor only to pound him into the wall.
"Don't you ever!"
"Drake! Stop!" Megan came in to see Drake punching Josh in the stomach and Josh
not fighting back.
Drake did stop. But it was not because his little sister told him told him to do so. Josh
slid down the wall sobbing. At that moment Megan did feel sorry for him and almost
guilty for all the practical jokes she ever played on him.
"Where are you going?" Megan asked when Drake put on his sneakers, put his jean
jacket on, and grabbed his keys off his desk.
"Out."
This was terrible, so much for taking a shower and having a barely tolerable minus Dad
family dinner and so much for being a better man.
"Are all right, Josh?"
"N-no."
Screw going to therapy Josh felt he should be living with his therapist twenty four/seven.
"Why was Drake beating you up?"
"Because I deserved it," Josh stood up, "Listen, I'm going to go to bed now. Tell Mom
I'm not hungry."
"Oh—okay."
Although she would never really admit it Megan hated that her family was falling apart.
With only her and Audrey at the dinner table it would be a case of 'why bother?' but
Megan wouldn't want her mother to eat alone. So she would do her best to act like a
"good little girl" while she thought of more ways to make neighbor boy cry because she
liked him.
Her second chance family was falling apart and even Megan and her super intelligent
young brain was too powerless to stop it.
"Is this register open?"
"Drake," Torey cracked open a wrapper full of dimes in the cash register slot, "What are
you doing here?"
"Buying a candy bar."
She could tell by the look in his eyes and scratch mark on his hand that something had
happened.
"No you're not, " She took the money out of her smock pocket, "It's on me."
"Is it your break yet, Torey?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll cover for you." said one of Torey's co-workers. A twenty-ish
brunette that had to support two little kids with no child support on a grocery clerk's
wages.
"It is now." And she would have taken her break anyway even if it weren't a scheduled
one.
They went into one of the back stockrooms for privacy.
Drake and Torey sat on some stacked pallets holding each other and kissing until he
found the courage to speak.
"Josh and I got into a fight today."
Torey could tell by the tone of his voice that it wasn't just a raised voice kind of fight and
the scratch mark on his left hand that she noticed earlier.
"What happened, Drake?"
He stood up. "He wanted my help. But it was hard to be receptive because I still don't
know if I want to forgive him…but that's not even what we fought over. He
almost---" Drake stopped.
"Why'd you stop?"
"Because I don't want to say words that make you think of your dad."
"It's okay, Drake. You don't have to walk on egg shells around me."
"Josh confided in me that he almost raped Mindy at Campland."
That announcement made Torey stand up as well.
"What?"
"I kind of lost control after he told me that. Because I thought of what you went through."
She hugged him. At that moment Drake was the one who needed the comforting.
"Josh is not my father. He doesn't have that evilness in him."
Torey kissed Drake softly on the lips.
"I don't know. People can snap."
"Yes. I just think Josh just suffered from a lapsed judgment. If he could relive the moment
again, I bet he wouldn't have tried going that far."
"You're too kind," Drake opened the chocolate candy bar, "Half?"
"No thanks. Drake, will you do me a favor?"
"Torey, you don't have to ask. What is it?"
"You aren't going to like it, but I hope that you will hear me out."
For a split second he almost thought the 'favor' was wanting to break up with him and
Drake Parker was never one to have those Josh-esque types of insecurities.
"I promise."
"Tonight rather than pick me up and stuff, I would really like you to use your time having a
heart to heart with Josh."
Torey was a wonderful woman with a selfless heart, but at the same time Drake didn't
want forgo their make out time just to talk to Josh. Hey, if he was going to be selfish, let
it be over wanting to make out with his girlfriend and not wanting to have an Oprah
moment with Josh.
"I don't know…"
"Right now, Josh is thinking he's some kind of monster. He needs reassurance that he's
not."
"But I don't know if I can ever forgive him for some of the things he did and the situation
with Mom and Dad that he caused."
"You two are not going to heal overnight. He needs to know that he's not some
degenerate."
"Why me?"
"Because when he was scared after what he thought he could do. It was you that he
wanted help from."
"Torey, I didn't mean to beat him up. It just sort of happened. I just thought of you---"
"It's all right, Drake…"
"Torey!" One her co-workers entered the room, "You better get back to your register.
The boss man is coming."
"I guess that's my cue to leave. I'll talk to Josh for you."
"And I'll have my cell phone with me so you can call me afterwards."
"Okay," he threw his candy bar wrapper away in the metal wastebasket. "At least I got to
eat my dinner."
"That candy bar was your dinner?"
"Yeah. Well, I don't want you to get into any trouble. So, I'll leave from the back door. I
love you, Torey."
They shared a small kiss by the swinging doors with the small square shaped windows.
"I love you too, Drake."
Torey knew that Drake couldn't stand the roller coaster style of relationship that he and
Josh were having even before this recent more serious tiff. Every time that they made
up something would happen again and Drake got sick of it and closed all the doors
marked Josh. Especially after he saved his life. Didn't Josh realize that Drake could
have left him for dead? When Walter and Audrey separated Drake not only made sure
the Josh doors were closed but also that they were filled with concrete where nothing
could penetrate them.
Sometimes no matter how hard people try some people are just not meant to be a part
of each other's lives.
Drake sat in his car for a good ten minutes before entering the house. He thought of the
promises he made like always being there and being his brother's keeper. Maybe one
shouldn't make such grand promises.
He took a deep breath as he closed his car door. This was going to be difficult. Drake
was dreading the long walk to Josh's room, his throat felt as if he ate shards of glass
when he saw Josh sitting at the kitchen table eating a small bowl of vanilla pudding.
"J-Josh," Drake went to the refridgerator for a bottled water, "I want to talk to you."
"Save it, Drake."
Now see. This was the kind of thing that pissed Drake off.
"Excuse me?"
"You are only talking to me because Torey probably made you."
"I'm not going to lie to you. Yes. My girlfriend suggested that we talk."
"If you don't want to talk to me on your own then I don't want to talk to you."
"And I'm supposed to reassure your mind? I'm not your therapist."
"No one asked you to be!" Josh got up and put his empty bowl in the sink.
"Screw you, Josh." Drake walked out of the kitchen.
Torey was going to be so disappointed in him. The truth was he was quite disappointed
in himself. He was going to lock himself in his room for some guitar playing therapy of
his own.
Sometimes no matter how hard people try some people are just not meant to be a
part of each other's lives.