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

Chapter Three: A New Promise

Drake faced Christine, feeling confident and ready to tell her all his heart held. It was now or never.

"Christine," he said, looking into her eyes. "I know we've been friends for years, but there's something you need to know. You're more than a friend to me. I really care about you. I've fallen for you. I love you."

Christine didn't respond. She just sat there staring at him as though he wasn't there.

"What do you take me for?" she finally asked. "You're too late. I have David now, and you've become too much like him for me to even consider caring about you that way."

Her voice was cold. Drake felt his heart shatter. She stood up and began to walk away.

"No!" Drake called. "Christine! Christine, don't go! I love you!"

Drake suddenly felt his body being violently shaken. He opened his eyes to find himself lying in bed and Josh firmly holding his shoulders.

"Are you okay?" Josh asked, concerned. "You were calling out 'No!' in your sleep."

"I was?" Drake asked. "I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

"Are you sure?" Josh asked.

"Yeah," Drake responded. "I'm great." He jumped off of his bed. "I'm going to go grab some breakfast since I'm up. See you in a little while." Drake grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom before going downstairs to the kitchen.

Josh's gaze followed Drake out the door. He sighed. He hadn't wanted to tell Drake, but he'd also heard him call out Christine's name. He hoped that Melissa would take his mind off of her, or he'd get smart and tell Melissa he wasn't ready for a relationship right now. Josh shook his head. There were his hopes. Drake and Melissa hadn't even gone out yet. They could hate each other. Josh didn't know what to do because he had not only heard Drake call Christine's name, but he'd also heard his confession of love. Josh wasn't sure how to deal with that. He hoped Drake would come around soon. He also hoped Drake knew that Josh was there for him.

Drake stared into the bathroom mirror. For once, he hated what he saw. He saw the look Ford had given him when Drake first saw him again. It made him look a lot like Ford. He didn't want to be like him at all. And where had the words, "I love you" come from? He cared about her, yes. He'd fallen for her, yes. But love? Did he really? No, he couldn't. They didn't even have that kind of relationship. However, Josh had warned him yesterday that Drake vowed he would keep his promises to her and that he swore he didn't want to be Ford. How much was his popularity worth?

Drake quickly dressed and headed downstairs. He walked by the vase of yellow roses his mom had put out the previous night. It wasn't such a bad idea.

Drake sat in the English classroom, anxiously waiting for Christine to arrive. He wanted her to show up before anyone else. He just hoped she got to school early enough. He glanced up and sighed as she walked into the room.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello," she responded. She was holding two yellow roses.

"I guess you found what was in your locker."

"Yeah," she replied. "Drake, do you honestly expect that flowers are going to make me feel better about yesterday?"

"If I told you I was being a jackass will that make it any better?"

"That helps, a little, but you're still in hot water."

"I'm sorry, okay? I really shouldn't have said that. Would it help if I told you I didn't like saying it?"

"Only if it's true."

"Well, it is," Drake replied.

"If you didn't like saying it, why did you?"

"Because," he began, sitting down on the top of his desk, "it's hard trying to stay popular and everything. I try to look a certain way to people, and it's not always valued by everyone who sees it. I'm sorry. I'll leave you out of it next time."

"Okay," she replied. "You're forgiven, but Drake, if you have to act a certain way that you rather wouldn't to be friends with some people, are they really your friends?"

"You sound like Josh."

"He's right," Christine replied. "By the way, that new Jon Heder movie opens this weekend. Want to go?"

"Sure," Drake replied.

"Saturday?" she asked.

"I can't."

"Why not?" she questioned.

"I have a date that night," he responded. Christine looked a bit surprised. She also had a different look to her face, but Drake couldn't quite place it. Was it disappointment?

"Oh, well that's great," she replied. "Friday night or Sunday afternoon then?"

"Sunday afternoon is fine," Drake said. "So, your boyfriend's not going to get jealous because I gave you flowers, is he?"

"Well, hopefully he'll understand that yellow roses are friendship. I'm wondering how you knew that."

"I did."

"I've known you since preschool. You're not the type who would know."

"Okay, my mom told me yesterday."

"Uh huh. That sounds about right," she replied. "It's funny. Yellow roses speak friendship, but a single red one means 'I love you.'" She paused. There was a bit of longing in her eyes. Drake didn't notice this, though. "How'd you get them in my locker anyway?"

"Megan."

The rest of the class began to enter the room. Christine slid into her seat in front of Drake. He was glad he patched things up between them. He hopped off the top of his desk and into his chair. Josh walked into the room and glanced over at Drake. He hoped he'd done something to get Christine on his good side again. He stopped worrying when later during class, she turned around to hand Drake their paper assignment and gave him a smile.

Saturday came quickly, and Drake wasn't sure how he felt about that day. What if he couldn't keep his mind off of Christine? He paused in the lobby of the Premiere. He had to keep his mind off of her. It was for the best. He managed to do pretty well at school. If he was looking at another pretty girl, it should be easier.

Melissa walked up behind him and touched his shoulder. He turned around. She was slightly shorter than he was and had hair that was almost black with brown eyes. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and they went to sit down at a table.

"So," Melissa began, "you're a musician?"

"Yeah," Drake replied. "I'm in a band. We might get a record deal soon, but we'll see where that goes."

"Oh, that sounds great."

"Yeah. We're going to give it a shot."

"And you play guitar. Hmm. All the guys at Lincoln are into the football team. If you're not on a sports team, you're not cool."

"Well, you're cool at Belleview if you play sports, but there's other ways to get popular."

"I see. It's nice to meet guys who aren't so pumped over chasing a ball around in the grass and are actually sensitive enough to write music and things like that."

"Thanks," Drake replied. Actually, this was going pretty well. That was how most of the conversations started. "You're in a band?" Not that Drake wasn't proud of it, but sometimes after that, it was all they wanted to talk about. As much as he loved talking about his music, he did like talking about other things as well. It was nice to see it move a little toward how annoying the popularity contests at some schools were.

Melissa's phone suddenly rang.

"Hold on," she said. She picked it up and laughed at whoever called her. "I told you not to call me today," she giggled. "Okay. Mmm hmm. Bye." She hung up and shook her head. "That was my friend John. My best friend actually."

"Oh," Drake replied.

"Oh, don't worry. He's gay," she continued.

"Interesting because one of my best friends is a girl, and she's not." Drake wondered how Melissa would take this news.

"You're different from what I heard about you," Melissa said. "You're very nice and haven't tried to make any moves. Your best friend is a girl. I've always heard you liked them and went out with them and never gave them a second thought after you dumped them."

"Well," Drake said. He had to be honest. "I used to do that. I've been meaning to change that."

"Really? Why?"

"Things just came up and I don't want to act that way anymore."

"Oh."

"My best friend being a girl doesn't bother you, does it?"

"No. As long as you're not harboring any lovesick feelings for her," she giggled. Drake smiled weakly. His hope was to lose those feelings for Christine.

"It's just I do hang out with her often, so if this went anywhere, I wouldn't want you to be upset by it." He didn't love Christine. No matter what his crazy dreams thought.

"Doesn't bother me at all," she replied.

Drake smiled. Maybe this would work out after all.

Drake and Christine walked out of the movie they had just seen. Once again, Jon Heder did not disappoint them.

"I swear, that guy's great," Drake said. "He even made the chick flick good for me."

"Just Like Heaven? Oh, yes. Good movie," Christine said. "That was great though."

"Yep." They headed toward a table and sat down.

"So, how'd it go with Melissa yesterday?" Christine asked.

"Okay," Drake replied.

"Are you going to see her again?"

"Yeah. She was pretty cool."

Christine paused for a moment. She looked down at her hands then back up at Drake.

"This might seem like an odd question considering we're both dating right now, but if I don't have a date and you don't have a date come prom time, would you go with me?"

"Ah, well, you've got David, wouldn't...?"

"Well, what if David and I broke up or he couldn't be there? I just want to make sure I have a date for prom, and I figure this way, you'd be secure too. Not that you wouldn't have a date, but you know."

"I guess so," Drake replied. "Okay. If I don't have a date to prom, and you don't have a date to prom, we'll go together. Promise."

A/N: Oh, darn Alison, you guessed what I was going to do. :P But anyway everyone, pay attention to what Christine said about the rose colors. They'll come up later. And please review. I have no idea what you think if you don't review.