Chapter 3

Drake closed his phone and stared straight ahead. He knew who would be in the car next to his, and he wasn't sure if he was really ready to face her. Minutes crawled by as Drake stared at the sand dune that blocked his view of the beach not looking up until he heard the engine of Molly's car go silent. He waited for the sound of a car door closing, but was only met with silence. Finally Drake turned his head towards the other car and saw Molly sitting there in the same stiff pose he knew he had been in only seconds before. He stared at her for a moment watching her shoulders rise and fall as she struggled to keep her breathing even, then, sucking in a deep breath of his own, Drake climbed out of the car. When he stood Drake found that his knees were weak and his feet unsteady and bowed his head in shame when he was forced to lean back against his car to keep from falling. He hadn't realized just how much the day had taken out of him, but now, when he needed it most, he felt his strength abandon him.

Several deep breaths later Drake managed to step away from his car and slowly walk around to Molly's driver's side window. She did not turn to face him, nor did she acknowledge his presence, and after a brief internal debate Drake tapped quietly on the glass.

It was well after midnight hen Drake cut the engine and quietly rolled his car up the driveway. The house was dark and Drake was glad that Josh hadn't waited up for him. When he turned his key in the front door the sound of the tumblers echoed loudly in the darkness. Once inside Drake ducked into the kitchen and grabbed a Moca Cola before heading up to his room. The landing was just as quiet as the rest of the house. Megan's door was closed, but the door to the room that Drake shared with his step-brother was slightly ajar. Drake couldn't' help smiling. Josh had developed this habit a year or two earlier, leaving the door cracked open whenever they looked after their little sister. He said it was so he could hear her if anything happened, but Josh was such a sound sleeper that Megan could scream for an hour and he would never hear it. Drake on the other hand hear d everything.

Shaking his head Drake slipped into his room. The moonlight coming through the open window turned everything a ghostly silver and Drake paused for a moment beside his brother's bed. Josh lay on his stomach, his face buried in his pillow, one arm thrown above his head. His blankets were in their usual tangle around his knees. Josh would know what to do, he always did, once he got passed the shock and disappointment, but Drake wasn't quite ready to talking about it yet. Quietly he left the side of Josh's bed and made his way to the foot of his own. Against the wall near the platform that held his bed were three guitars. His favorite Les Paul's shinny red surface reflected the moonlight, beside it was a Fender Stratocaster with a shimmering blue finish, and finally, tucked into the corner was an old acoustic. The varnish no longer shone, and there was obvious wear in spots, but Drake had never considered throwing it out, or even having it refinished. The beat up old guitar had been the last present from his father before Joe had disappeared from his life. Drake picked up the guitar by the neck using his palm to mute the strings, then slung the soft leather strap over his should and left the room closing the door tightly behind him.

Megan woke when she heard a light thump outside her window. Like her brother she was a light sleeper and the quiet sound was all it took to have her sitting up in bed. She watched her open window intently, he hand resting on a remote that would give any intruder a nasty shock, but she relaxed when she was a familiar shadow pass by. There was a quiet scrapping noise followed by the muted hum of guitar strings as Drake settled himself on the roof above her window. She listened as he began to play, and the tune was vaguely familiar. She knew it was a new song and that he had been working on it a few days ago. It was a slow song, a balled, and Megan closed her eyes, listening, when her brother began to sing.

"…and in the end

are you stronger?

Do you no longer

need to recover…?"

His voice cracked and broke, but his playing never faltered. Megan climbed out of her bed, shrugging on a pale purple robe, and moved to the white antique rocking chair that sat beside the window as her brother moved onto another song. It was a song she had never heard before. After a few bars she realized that he was still writing this one, his strumming slowing at each cord change as he decided what note to play next. Even in it's rough form Megan could tell that this song would be a lullaby, and she rocked in time in the old white chair.

A short time later, after Drake had made it through a full verse and most of what seemed to be a bridge, the music stopped. Megan stopped rocking and listened, waiting to see if he would start again. A minute or two later the music began again, and this song Megan knew well. She leaned back in her chair, rocking slowly, and felt her eyes grow heavy as her brother began to sing once again.

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise…"

She knew that their mother used to sing this song for her brother when he had been little, and that he had sung t for Megan when she was just a baby. She remembered her mother telling her that there had been times when the only way she would stop crying as a baby was when her brother would play this particular song for her. Megan never heard the song end, and her chair had ceased its slow rocking somewhere during the second verse. She never heard her brother climb down the ladder, never saw him peak in her window. Megan slept soundly as images of blackbirds flying through a moonlit night filled her dreams. In the background she heard a guitar being gently strummed, and over it all was the quiet sound of muffled weeping.

Drake felt marginally better when he put the ladder away and slipped back into the kitchen through the back door. He was been playing his way through troubles on that roof top since he had been old enough to climb up there, at first just writing lyrics, then later on adding music to them. He remembered being thirteen and sitting on that roof clutching the second hand guitar his father had given him the same day that his mother had told him that Joe wouldn't be visiting anymore. He had sat up there the night Walter and Josh had moved in, and the night after his grandfather's funeral. Usually Drake felt much better by the time he climbed down, but he still had a heavy feeling in his chest, and knew that this problem just might be too big for even his guitar to conquer.

Earlier that night he had sat on the beach with Molly for hours just talking. They had talked about what they would do, how they would tell their parents. They talked about their fears and how they knew that they weren't ready for this. Drake had never had a conversation as honest as this one with anyone, not even Josh. He had admitted how scared he was, and how ashamed. He apologized over and over again for running out of the movie theater, and Molly told him repeatedly that there was nothing to forgive, that she understood. He tried to blame himself, telling her that he should have been more careful, but Molly had taken his face in her hands and told him that they were in this together, that they shared the blame equally. With her sitting there, holding him, Drake had began to believe that he could really do this, but the moment he had climbed back into his car, alone, the fears and panic had come crashing back down on him.

Drake slipped back into his room, put his guitar away and changed into his pajamas. He crawled into bed and stared up at the ceiling. He was exhausted, but afraid to close his eyes, afraid of what his subconscious mind would show him. Eventually his eyes closed and his mind began to wander. As he fell asleep he had a comforting thought.

"It might not be tonight

Tomorrow or the next day

But everything is gonna be ok…"

That would make a great song, Drake thought to himself, and this drifted into sleep.