Disclaimer: All Drake & Josh characters copyright their proper owners. I just wrote this.

Chapter Eleven: Drake, Not Ford

Drake walked through the door of the house. He closed it quietly. He just wanted to get his stuff upstairs and get something to eat before his parents caught him.

"Drake?" said Audrey.

Drake sighed. He should have known he wouldn't get away with it. He glanced in his mom's direction. She didn't look upset, but she didn't look happy either.

"How long am I grounded?" Drake asked.

"Did you talk to him?" Audrey asked, ignoring Drake's question.

"Yes," Drake replied.

"Did you get the answers you were hoping for?"

"Not the ones I wanted to hear, but I got answers," Drake stated. He made his way to the living room and sat down on the couch.

"What happened?" Audrey continued to question.

"He seems to regret it, but he also seemed to be making up excuses. He'd blame you or say it was too hard."

"I see," Audrey said. "Did you two gain any kind of relationship back?"

"No," Drake replied. "It doesn't really bother me either. He got married again and had a son. Bobby. He appears to have completely moved on."

"I'm sorry, Drake."

"No, it's okay. I know that I don't want to be like him that way. I don't want to run away from anything, which means there's something I have to do soon." He wasn't going to run from his feelings anymore. Christine was going to know how he felt about her, even though he saw the potential of this ruining their friendship if she didn't feel the same way.

"I'm glad you found something in this." Audrey stood. "Now what in the world were you thinking flying to New York all by yourself?" she began to scold. "You could have been killed. Someone could have kidnapped you. I hate to think what would have happened. Don't you ever do something like this again!" She began to head to the kitchen.

"So how long am I grounded?" Drake asked again, this time quite certain he'd receive an answer.

"You're not," Audrey replied, as she turned from him. After everything Ford's put you through, you've been punished enough.

Drake got upstairs and was met by Josh. Josh didn't ask about it. He figured Drake wouldn't want to talk about it. However, Drake didn't care what Ford did anymore. It didn't matter. He should focus on the people who loved him. His mom, Megan, Josh, and Walter—his dad. And Christine, at least he hoped. He knew she loved him as a friend, but he didn't know about any other way.

"You're not going to ask me about how awesome New York is?" Drake asked Josh. Josh looked puzzled at Drake's comment.

"Well, you really weren't there that long," Josh replied.

"No, I didn't really see much, but you're acting like I'll bite your head off if you ask me about it."

"You would be willing to talk about it?"

"I don't care Josh. He's not my dad anymore, Walter is. It was very clear when I talked to him yesterday that he regrets what he's done, but he doesn't feel as much remorse as he should. Who walks out on their family anyway? No, he's not 'Dad' anymore."

"Wow. You've grown up a lot these past couple months," Josh said.

"I guess you can't stay a kid forever. Of course, it's definitely not as easy as everyone else thinks."

"No way. Hey, you want to go get some pizza? My treat."

"How do I say no to that?"

"Cool," Josh responded. He grabbed his wallet, and the two guys headed out the door. Josh hoped these changes in Drake were for the better. He hoped he'd take a bit more responsibility to the people he cared about now. He also hoped he'd finally say something to Christine. The idea of Drake not trying to get a date with a girl he really liked was weird for Josh.

"What do you mean you're not grounded?" Josh asked between bites of pizza.

"I'm not," Drake replied. "Mom said I wasn't."

"Dude, how does that work?"

"I guess it's just because of what I found out. I hate what he's done to shut me out, but I guess this is life now, and I have to deal with it."

"So what do you plan on dealing with?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if I recall, the past few weeks you've been wrestling with your feelings toward a good friend of yours."

"Josh..." Drake began. He didn't like to be bothered about this. He knew what he had to do, but he was really nervous about doing it in the first place. Josh wasn't helping by bugging him about it.

"Sorry. I just think you should talk to her."

"I am going to talk to her."

"You are? That's great."

"I just worry..."

"You? Worried about talking to a girl?"

"Well, what if she doesn't feel the same way? She wanted to date someone else before, why would that have changed?"

"Drake, just talk to her. You care about her. Don't let her go."

"You're right. I just made her promises I want to keep."

"That sounds familiar. Except you don't normally keep promises to the other girls."

"She's not going to be just another girl. They all shouldn't have been 'just another girl' either. I did it because I was scared. Though, I did grow to like them a lot, which is obvious."

"Oh, yeah. Ironically enough, the first girl you ever hung out with had cooties."

"Okay, I never should have told you that."

"Too late. Man, I should spread that one. 'Drake Parker Experiences Case of Cootiephobia.' There's a headline."

"Cootiephobia?" Drake asked, laughing.

"Yeah," Josh replied. "Maybe the school newspaper will take that. Hmm...you'd lose your fanclub. That might not be the best idea. Unless you're ready to leave that behind," Josh said. He recalled Tori. Drake dated her and dumped her because he was scared of commitment. Drake found he really liked her and, after a mess, got back together with her. Then he broke up with her again because "things got boring," as Drake had put it.

Drake sat a moment and reflected. Yes, if he went through with what he wanted to say to Christine, there would be no more seeing other girls. It would mean committing to someone for a long time. Drake decided that Christine was worth all that, especially after everything she'd done for him. There were times in his childhood when he thought he couldn't be happy, but she played with him and made him feel wanted. She was also the one who put the idea in his head to go to New York in the first place. Besides, Drake wasn't Ford.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

Author's Note: I had to throw in a little brotherly bonding. Everyone loves that. Yes, one chapter left. Now, you won't know who Christine was telling Drake she liked before until part two...because I'm evil that way. However, Drake is going to pick Christine up from the airport. You'll see how that goes tomorrow. There is going to be a delay between this and part two. Part two isn't complete yet. I'm still playing around with ideas for it. I do have chapters written, but it's no where near ready to be posted. One more chapter of this part to go.