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

A/N: Drake's road of paranoia ends here. A few hints are dropped. Enjoy the chapter and please review when you've finished reading.

Chapter Ten: The Roses Were Pink

Drake never thought he'd feel this way, but he hated Valentine's Day this year. It wasn't the fact that he didn't have a girlfriend, but part of it was the fact that it was in a week, and he didn't even have a date. It wasn't even that he didn't want one. He did, but he only wanted it to be with one certain person. And that one certain person was talking about doing the one thing he didn't want to know that she was doing with her boyfriend. Drake knew nothing could have happened because David came to San Diego over Christmas break and that when they were together, Christine's mom had always been very close by since she was teaching this year and had her break as well. Drake had a feeling, though, that Valentine's Day would be the day it happened between those two. He paced his bedroom. He barely heard Josh walk in the room.

"What are you doing?" Josh asked.

"I don't know," Drake replied. "I just keep thinking about Christine and David."

"Oh, you mean how they're considering having sex?"

"Yes," Drake responded, a bit irritated.

"I don't see why you're so unhappy with this. I mean, you care about Christine. It's a beautiful thing. Two people in love, moving as one. It's the most wonderful feeling in the world to be with the person you love like that. Don't you want that for her?"

"...and you know this how?" Drake asked, giving Josh an odd look.

"Ummmm..."

"OH MY GOD!"

"Look, Drake..."

"OH MY GOD!"

"Drake..."

"I don't want to hear anymore!"

"But..."

"LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!" Drake sang with his fingers in his ears.

"So much for maturity," Josh commented.

"So much for my brother keeping the things I really don't need to here about him and his girlfriend doing to himself."

"Drake," Josh said. "Let's be serious. I really think you need to get over Christine. If you're not going to tell her how you feel..."

"I tried that already! It didn't work! What do I do now?"

"I don't know," Josh sighed. "I really don't know."

Drake woke up the morning after Valentine's Day. A chill went down his spine. It had to be done. Drake buried his face in his pillow and groaned. He could never be with her now. David had to be sweet and appealing and smart...Drake sighed. It was time to start moving on.
Drake sat at a table at the Premiere trying to find girls. For some reason, his old methods just weren't working for him now. Rating them by their hotness didn't appeal to him. He stood up and left. Josh stood at the counter watching him. He shook his head. Christine walked by and looked at Josh.

"What's the matter with Drake?" Christine asked. Josh could tell she was very concerned. He remembered wanting to tell her about Drake's feelings. Maybe he should. Then this could all finally come to an end. But what if Christine didn't care about Drake that way? Josh hated to admit it, but she probably had slept with David the previous night.

"Maybe you should go talk to him," Josh said. Yes, that had to be the best thing she could do.

Drake sat at his house waiting for Christine. She had called and had given him the "We need to talk" bit. What was she going to say? Had she found out about how he felt about her somehow and she was going to tell him it would never happen because she'd already been with a real man? Drake shook his head. He had to get rid of those thoughts. The doorbell rang, and Drake jumped. He opened the door and let Christine inside.

"What did you want to talk about?" Drake asked.

"I want to know what's wrong with you," Christine replied. Maybe that sounded a little harsh, but something was wrong with him. She knew that.

"Oh, not this again," Drake said. "Didn't we get into a fight because of this last time?"

"Yes, but I know something's wrong. You're acting weird."

"I can't be hiding a surprise from anyone like my mom or Megan? Something has to be wrong?"

"If you were hiding a surprise for your mom or Megan, you would't freak out about it outside of your house unless you saw them when you were taking care of that surprise."

"Okay, good point." Drake sat down on the couch. Looking at her actually hurt. Ever since he woke up that morning it felt like a knife had been run through his heart, and looking at her made it feel like it was being pushed deeper in. He couldn't have her. It was unbearable.

"Drake, why won't you talk to me?" Christine pleaded, sitting down next to him.

"What do you mean? We're talking."

"You don't answer me. I know something's bothering you, but I don't know what it is because you're too stubborn to tell me."

"And you're too feisty to back off."

"Exactly."

"I know you hide things too though," Drake said. "So don't act like it's a big deal that I'm keeping something from you."

"What? You know about practically everything that's bothered me for the past year."

"Hmm. Did you ever think to tell me you wanted to discuss what happened when I got upset with you? Does David know how you feel about him? How you're in love with him?"

"What are you talking about?" Christine asked.

"Oh, come on, in your diary, you...uh..." Damn. He really shouldn't have said that.

"You read my diary?" she asked angrily.

"I'm sorry. It kind of just fell open," Drake replied.

"Just fell open?"

"Yes."

"You didn't have to read it!"

"I know, but you should really keep a lock on there."

"Lock? It's me and my mom, Drake. Who's going to read it? Wait, apparently you. How can I trust you now?"

"I didn't mean to read it. I swear. It just fell open and I noticed my name, and you mentioned David and how you were thinking of...uh..."

"Thinking of...oh no, Drake! That's my business. My personal business. What gives you the right to read that?"

"Why would you want to sleep with him?"

"Because...I care about him, and he cares about me."

"I do too," Drake replied softly.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm sorry. That is your business. I shouldn't have read it. Maybe I felt over-protective when I saw that." Hopefully she'd buy that. It sounded better than, "Yeah, I read your diary because I saw my name and freaked out about you writing about David since I'm really jealous that you're with him and not me, and after I read it, I've been too paranoid to properly function." Yeah, somehow he didn't see that going over very well.

"Overprotective?"

"We've been friends for a long time. I guess I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I see," she replied. "That's my place, you know? You got into my personal space."

"I know, and I'm sorry. Really, if I hadn't...never mind."

"What?"

"It's nothing."

"That's all you read?" she asked.

"Yeah, nothing else, don't worry. I didn't read about any of your other declarations of love to David."

"I see." She paused for a moment. "We didn't do anything."

"What? I thought by Valentine's..."

"I thought Valentine's Day would be it too, but he brought me pink roses."

Pink roses? What did that have to do with anything?

"Drake, do you know why I wanted to be friends with you in the first place?" Christine asked suddenly.

"Why?" he asked. The question surprised him. It had come out of nowhere.

"I had a crush on you."

"What?"

"I did."

"We were in preschool."

"I know, but you were cute."

"Hey, were cute? Aren't I still?"

"Yeah, you are," she replied, smiling.

"You're shy toward everyone else, wouldn't you be more shy around someone you had a crush on?"

"Well, maybe," she responded. "But you were easy to talk to, even if you thought I had cooties."

"Can we not talk about that?" Drake asked. He knew he was never going to hear the end of it, as long as he lived.

"Fine, but you'll hear about it again," Christine said, smiling.

"I don't doubt it," Drake replied. "Am I forgiven for this whole diary fiasco?"

Christine looked at Drake and sighed.

"Yes, Drake," she said. "You are. Just don't let it ever happen again."

"Okay, gotcha." Drake stopped.

"What?"

"I can't believe you had a crush on me."

"Is it really that weird for you?"

"Well, no. I just didn't expect you to ever say that."

"I didn't think I'd ever tell you. There's a lot of things I haven't told you as well. I might not even ever tell you some of those things."

"I know," Drake said. "I'm the same way. There's always the little things, isn't there?"

A/N: Okay, okay, I know I promised Walter in this story. He is coming up soon, don't worry. Well, the title of the next chapter is "Dad." Gee, wonder what that's about. :P Yes, I am finally pulling Walter into the story. Oh, and there's three chapters to go.