CHAPTER THREE
"ONE LAST DAY"
It was at least an hour before Drake and Josh managed to pry apart the metal cuffs with their Dad's pliers and by this time, Drake was so tired about thinking about the incident that he didn't even care to discuss the matter with his parents.
"What would be the use? Megan would win like she always does, anyway."
Drake told his brother this but Josh seemed determined to tell their parents.
"Josh," Drake argued: "They'll just think we made it up to get her in trouble. And then instead of grounded for a week, it'll be grounded for a month! Ya' want that?"
"No! But that won't happen! I'll just—"
"Josh! You're missing you're show!" Audrey called upstairs.
Josh gasped: "OPRAH!" and ran quicker than lightning out of the room.
Drake looked up just in time to see his brother streak out into the hall, and as he massaged his sore wrist, he heard Josh squeal: "Opppppppraaaah!" as he ran down the steps to their family room.
For once, Drake actually was happy Oprah was on, giving him an excuse to get out of the argument with his brother.
- -
Drake got on the internet for a little while, but once he finally signed on to instant messenger after 15 minutes, he saw that Anita wasn't on, and for some odd reason he quickly lost interest in the computer.
He got dressed in jeans and a black and blue colored tee shirt and went directly downstairs to relieve his growling stomach with a little snack. Other than playing the guitar, eating junk food was one his very favorite past-times.
Reaching the doorway to the kitchen, he slid inside the room with his socks, across the wood floor and he yanked the cabinet open.
"Ahhh… candy. You remain fairer still…"
Grabbing the sweets and cramming them down his throat, his mother exclaimed from the other room: "Candy or breakfast?!"
Drake bit into a gummy worm as he snorted: "Mom, you sound like a Reese's puffs cereal commercial." He was trying to change the subject, apparently.
"Mister PARKER." She yelled into the room.
Drake snatched up a bag of chocolate chips off of the counter and ran from the kitchen, to his room, so he wouldn't get killed for eating so much sugar.
"But sugar is just so…" Drake paused his thought long enough to toss a few chips into his mouth as he ran up the stairs, searching for the right description and finally settling on: "Good."
- -
Drake was extra glad that last night, after the Megan incident, his mother had decided to let he and Josh go to the Kathy McGin concert. She had said she was only letting them go because their friends had spent money on their tickets for them, but perhaps in her heart she felt a little sympathy for the two and felt like letting them go anyway. But to him, it was "so awesome", because as much as being grounded on a Teacher Work Day on Friday sucked, it would have been way worse if he'd have had to miss Kathy McGin and Anita on the same day.
Upstairs and once in he and his brother's room, the boy found Josh seated at the desk, writing on lined paper.
"What happened? Is Op-rah over?" Drake teased, walking a few steps toward him and grinning.
"…Yes." Josh glared back, prepared for mockery and slightly irritated at his brother's constant ridicule of his TV idol.
"Oh, that's right. You wouldn't move from in front of that tv when Op'ie was on, even if the house caught on fire."
"Well, it comes on again in two hours and I'm defiantly gonn'a be watchi—OPIE?!"
"Yeah." the brunette laughed, looking over at the papers on the desk that his brother seemed so obsessed with and ignoring the previous topic of conversation: "Hey, dude, what the heck are ya' doing?"
Josh looked over with a sarcastic gaze, as his step-brother shoveled chocolate into his mouth.
"It's called 'homework', but then again of course, who would expect you to know what that is?"
"Hah." Drake scowled at his hazel eyed counterpart, walking back across the large room and sitting down on the plushy soft couch.
"Ahhh… Good chocolate, good couch, good TV," he said, trying to turn it on: "Good… reflection?"
The tv did nothing and he was staring at his own mirror image in the black screen. He pushed the button on the remote over and over but it simply wouldn't come on.
It couldn't be the batteries in the remote-- he had just changed them last week.
"Great. …Josh, what did ya' do to the tv?"
"Gahh, why blame me?!" Josh asked, setting down the pencil he'd been writing with and with an irritated look, getting up and walking to the television set.
"Try hitting it." Drake suggested.
"That ain't gonn'a help!" came the reply.
Drake paused and then with sincere thought in his tone, he said: "Well then, if it was a girl, I'd just--"
"That's with girls! I draw the line at kissin' a tv set!!" Josh exclaimed, throwing his arms out and shaking his head.
"Whatever." he said back, rolling his eyes as the raven haired boy turned and began to scrounge around the back of the TV.
"Oh my gosh!"
"What?" Drake asked, looking up.
"Man, the power-cord is like cut in half back here!"
"No, seriously?-! I bet that evil little monster Megan did it!" he exclaimed, jumping over to look at it himself.
"Yeah just for a change state the obvious, why don't cha?" Josh retorted in sarcasm.
"Why is Megan so obsessed with screwing up our TV?" Drake said, ignoring his remark and sighing.
"I have no idea. … I guess, just because—" looking at each other they spoke at the same time with a nod: "She's just evil."
"Well, guess who's going to have to pay for another power cord out of his own pocket on account of Megan again?" with a look of indignance in his brown eyes, he paused and then added comic a raise of his hand.
"But we can't go out and buy one until next week—we're grounded, remember?"
"Aww no. An entire week without TV?" Drake muttered.
"A week without—" Josh paused, to gasp: "Oprah?!"
The other teenager rolled his eyes and picked up the cut TV power-cord, throwing it toward him and walking back to his bed.
Suddenly the phone was ringing.
Josh picked up as Drake leaned over to snatch his guitar up from the ledge.
"Hello?" Josh said into the phone, then listening carefully: "…Huh? Oh, sure, he's right here." Turning to his step-brother, Josh said: "For you!" before throwing the hand-held receiver at him.
"Uh, hello?" Drake asked, catching the telephone and holding it up to his ear.
"Heyy, Drakester, this is Scottie. How ya' doin', boy?" the wiry voice came over the wire.
"Oh, hey Scott. I'm fine. What'd ya' call me for?"
"Well, I was kind'a wonderin' if you were gonn'a come with the rest of us to the Brew Note to hang out tonight. If ya' need a ride, Trevor says to tell you he'll like pick you up!"
"Aww, man. Yeah, um, about that… I'm real sorry but I can't come." with a sigh, he spoke the words.
"What?-! Why not? It's Friday night, dude! A.k.a. party-time!" Scottie exclaimed.
"Well, actually, I'm kind of err… grounded. Till next week."
He heard a deep gasp and a murmur of something to somebody else in the background.
Suddenly Trevor's voice rang into the phone: "YOU'RE COMING TO KATHY MCGIN TOMORROW! Oh, dude, please say you are!"
Drake laughed and answered; "Yeah. Don't worry, I'm coming—my Mom said me and Josh could go to that, atleast. But is it okay if Anita Prescott joins the group? I planned to meet up with her there."
Trevor answered: "Sure, no prob'! I'm glad ya'll made up—it was like torture watchin' you two all mad. But anyway, I'm happy you're coming, buddy! That'd suck if you had to miss your chance to see Kate McGin. Well, that's all Scott called about. See ya' tomorrow Drake!"
"BYE BUBBLES!!" Scottie screamed into the telephone as Trevor hung it up.
Drake laughed at the random strangeness of his friends as he tossed the hung-up phone back to his brother, who had been listening intently the whole time.
"Scottie is so…" Josh began.
A moment of silence passed and then both of them said: "Weird." with a little laugh.
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The day passed quickly for Drake, because he spent most of it on the computer, chatting on instant messenger with Anita. As hour after hour of talking to her passed, the warm feeling inside of him grew more and more clear. He had never had this exact kind of feeling about a girl before. He didn't know how to gauge it because he'd never really felt like this. But all he wanted to do was talk to her, hour after hour.
Josh kept nagging him to get off and finally, after about 8 hours straight, he did. But only because he was hungry and it was time for dinner. The dinner was good, because since the candy fiasco, he hadn't had anything. But for talking to Anita, he'd even sacrifice his junk food for a few hours.
Not long after a late dinner at 8:30, Drake signed back on to instant messenger. But (with much disappointment) he saw that Anita had signed off, so after playing a little guitar and laying out his clothes for the concert the next afternoon, he hit the sack.
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The last thing from Drake's mind the next afternoon was the computer. He was going to see Nita!! Yet he was panicked.
It was one in the afternoon. He couldn't believe he had slept late. The concert was at 2 and he was sure he was going to be late.
He jumped in the shower and within fifteen minutes, he was out and getting dressed. His hair was sopping wet and since he was having a rather bad hair day, it took twenty minutes to dry and comb. He was self-conscious the whole time and was sure that his head looked like a porcupine.
He grabbed his camera and put on his shoes, glancing at the clock. It was 1:45. He gasped and grabbed Josh, dragging him toward the garage and shoving him into the car and in to the driver's seat.
- -
Josh drove along the road quickly.
"Aww, man, hurry UP!" Drake pleaded loudly; "I'm gonn'a be late!"
"Well it's kind'a your own fault…"
"That doesn't make me LESS LATE!"
"I know, I know already!" the light eyed of the two responded.
"…Look, Josh, we have to be inside there in like under five minutes!!"
"I heard ya'." Josh muttered, getting slightly nervous.
"No, seriously, I have to meet Anita there in… now FOUR minutes! Quit the slow poking and—"
"Man, could you please stop?! I just passed a red light! Do you want me to get stopped by a highway patrol?" he exclaimed, brushing back his black hair quickly.
"Maybe if ya'd hurry up a little I'd stop! I mean, come on, you're going like twenty miles an hour!" Drake complained.
"I'm going fifty-five!" Josh defended himself.
"Oh, yeah. I'm sure THAT'S gonn'a get us there on time." his brother scoffed.
"Fine, then!" Josh exclaimed, kicking it up to sixty-five miles an hour.
"…And that's supposed to be fast? That's just a laugh! I'd hate to see how slow you go when you're 70 years old." Drake continued to pick at his patience, being highly annoyed.
"I'm not going slow!" Josh yelled.
"If I was driving, we would have been their like five minutes ago!"
"If you were driving, we'd be in heaven like five minutes ago." Josh's retort had only made Drake more riled and he made his insults even more cutting.
"You have got to be the slowest driver ever! I should have just asked Trevor to take me."
Josh felt the remark slash at his feelings and he flared up in an angry voice: "Look, I didn't have to take you! And I'm NOT driving slow! I could drive just as well as Trevor could!"
"Hah." Drake's voice emitted a tiny, sarcastic chuckle.
This angered Josh so much that clutching the steering-wheel; he dug the gas pedal into the floor, taking off down the road faster than light, with a huge squeal from the tires.
Drake's facial expression molded from a hatred-filled annoyance to a sudden burst of fear.
The scenery flew past them at an alarming rate and they were going so fast that Drake didn't even see the speed limit sign buzz past, alongside the flying car.
Josh had determined anger scrawled across his features as he pressed the pedal even harder.
Drake suddenly realized he was scared. They were going faster than ever, now. He didn't dare look at the speedometer, for he knew that it'd only make it worse. He'd never been in a car going this fast before in his life and he prayed he would never be, again.
He turned again to look out the window, as Josh began to turn a corner and he gasped when he saw that the light was still bright red.
Josh began to squeal the tires in a sharp turn. "Josh, please…" he heard his brother's quiet, frightened voice manage. But that was all he heard.
Suddenly, the car began to spin out of control. Josh grabbed the wheel in a steel grip and shoveled the brake into the floor-board, desperately, but it was no use, now. The car spun around and around and toward the on-coming traffic. Josh's heart nearly stopped beating as everything slurred by his window and in front of him.
Then, he looked over at his brother just in time to see a car coming right at the right front corner of the vehicle. With a crash, suddenly everything was over.
