Halfway Across the Sky
((Post-series fic - Drake/Mindy pre-resolved sexual tension, past Josh/Mindy - Rating: K+; Words: 999))
Beyond all rhyme and reason, she goes home with him. It's weird to be back in the Parker-Nichols house when Josh isn't there and even weirder to be upstairs in the bedroom he shared with Drake. She'd never spent much time in the room, even when she and Josh were dating. Once they'd rounded second base, it was as if he were afraid. He just wasn't comfortable with the idea of having "intimate relations" in a room he shared; he'd always mumble something about "respect" and "sanctity." Mindy had been concerned that he was just making excuses until it turned out that he was completely comfortable in her bedroom.
But that was their senior year of high school and the following summer. Then a final amicable break-up because the distance would be too great and Mindy had read up on the statistics concerning both high school sweethearts and long-distance relationships of college freshmen and presented them to Josh. If they wanted, they could get back together after graduate school. Josh starts dating a girl in his dorm just before fall break and Mindy is too focused on her studies to care about her love life, let alone Josh's.
They hang out over winter break and she's surprised to discover that she doesn't feel the slightest shred of jealousy or longing when Josh talks about his new girlfriend. She sees Drake once, when he stumbles down the stairs and into the kitchen for breakfast one afternoon. She and Josh are laughing about something when Drake's eyes land on her as he's exiting the kitchen and he gets a odd look on his face, like he's baffled, then he shuffles back into the kitchen. She figures that it's probably too early for his brain to formulate some insipid insult about her new haircut.
Mindy relaxes when classes resume; she still studies diligently but she's making time to cement the friendships that formed in the fall. She starts dating again, nothing serious. Spring Break finds her back home. It's been years since she felt the real sense of freedom from being single. She knows that she's pretty, she's not conceited about it, but she had always been so wrapped up in Josh that she never noticed before when other guys were noticing her.
Now, all she does is notice and she notices Drake noticing her one night when she's chatting with Eric and Craig at some random party. Drake's looking at her like for the life of him he cannot figure out why she would give the time of day to either of them.
She's warily eyeing the bottles of alcohol sitting on the drink table in front of her when Drake appears next to her, pulling a beer out of a cooler on the floor. "You drink?" he asks, sounding surprised.
"I do a lot of things that I'm sure would tarnish your oh so high opinion of me," she says drily, settling for a beer herself.
"You look good."
She looks dumbfounded. She's waiting for the world to go careening off its orbit and into the Sun. It doesn't matter that he's been practically leering at her, she never thought he'd say anything nice to her. "Did you just pay me a compliment?"
"Beer goggles," he says with a shrug.
That's more like it.
Mindy lets the comment roll right off her back. "Where's your date? Surely she's missing you by now."
"Don't have one."
Her tone is full of mocking, "The illustrious Drake Parker is without a date? I may need to mark this on my calendar."
"Ha ha. I'm cleaning up my act; the execs at Spin City weren't too happy when that Drake Daters Anonymous website was created."
Mindy snickers. "Browsing that site was the best stress relief when I was studying for finals last semester."
"That's great," he says sarcastically.
"Oh, whatever, Drake, you had that coming. You should've known better than to continue serial dating once you got famous."
"Hey, I can't help it if girls have always found me highly desirable. And they should. I'm a hot musician; I play guitar."
"How can you stand to be so humble?" Mindy asks flatly.
Drake smirks at her, lifting the bottle to his lips. "Part of my charm."
He's taking all of her mocking and sarcasm in good stride and it's throwing Mindy a little. It's like he finally switched on his brain and he's starting to grow up. And he keeps looking at her like he's undressing her with his eyes and as disturbing as that is, she kind of likes it and that is even more disturbing.
Their conversation turns to her classes and he asks if she's seeing anyone and she knows where he's trying to steer this conversation, where he's trying to steer her. She finishes her beer several minutes after he's finished his and she starts peeling the label.
"You wanna get out of here?"
She should say no, she should not allow herself to become a notch on his bedpost. But she's been anticipating this and she feels like she'd be letting herself down if she said no.
"Sure."
She expects one of them to pounce on the other when he shuts the bedroom door and locks it behind them but neither of them do. Their movements are stilted and Drake sets the six-pack he pulled from the fridge onto the coffee table and they both settle down on the sofa. He twists the top off one of the bottles and hands it to Mindy. Even though they both know why they're there, they're still self-conscious and nervous, wondering if the other is having second thoughts. One of them has to make the first move.
Mindy watches, dismayed, as Drake chugs his beer. She scoffs, "You need to be drunk to kiss me?"
He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand as he sets the empty bottle down. He angles his body towards her. "I'm not drunk."
*** Finis ***