Fic: Lie To Me (4/?)
Title: Lie To Me [4/?]
Characters: Walter, Drake, Josh
Pairing: None
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Abuse, Cutting
Summary: Walter starts drinking and shows a totally different side of himself, but only Drake sees it.
A/N: Not my favorite one so far, but I feel it's needed in the story. And I'm just evil that way :)
Chapters:
One
Two
Three
Four
Drake was awoken by a tapping on his arm. Forcing his eye lids open, he rubbed his tired eyes awake. Glancing at the clock beside his bed, he was deeply annoyed to see that it was only four in the morning.
What the hell?
Drake then noticed his brother standing near his bed, his brow furrowed.
"May I help you?"
"What happened?" Josh asked, turning on the lamp beside Drake's bed.
Drake winced at the sudden light that hurt his eyes. Closing them, he thought about what Josh just asked. At first he didn't have a clue as to what his brother was talking about, but then Drake remembered. He didn't want to remember it, but the constant pain in his side awakened the memories.
"Oh, this? Yeah... well... I woke up like this. So I must have been sleepwalking..."
As if he's going to believe that.
"Sleepwalking...?"
"Sure, sleepwalking. Ever heard of it? It's when you walk...in your sleep..." Drake couldn't help the aggravation that leaked through his voice.
"You don't say!" Josh said in mock disbelief. "What's really going on?"
"Nothing, Josh. Just some things."
"What kind of things?"
"I just said nothing! So back off!" Josh was surprised at his brother's reaction, but didn't let it go.
"What's wrong with you? These last few days you've been acting weird, so 'fess up," Josh demanded, sitting beside Drake on the younger boy's bed.
"No, just leave it alone," Josh heard the faint desperation in his brother's voice, and knew something was wrong. "Would you please let me get some sleep? Tests are in a few hours, and I for one would like to be well rested," He snapped, turning off the lamp, and laying back down.
Josh stood up from the bed, lip curled. "You're right! Who cares if you look like you were just beaten to death! Certainly not I!" At that Josh jumped off the ladder, from Drake's bed, and stomped to his own. He didn't know what was going on, but he was going to get to the bottom of it. Nothing ever affected his brother, so something was clearly going on. Getting back into bed as well, Josh slowly fell into an uneasy sleep.
*****************************
Alarms suck. Especially when they wake you up, and you haven't gotten any sleep at all.
Drake Parker was an alarm hater. He'd much rather have his mom shriek his name from the bottom of the stairs than have that blasted beeping go off.
Grabbing his clothes, he slowly made his way to the bathroom. He decided to take another shower to wake himself up, and hopefully soothe away the multiple aches and pains.
Adjusting the fringe of hair across his forehead, Drake realized it was hopeless to try and hide the split lip, but at least this way he could hide the bloody gash across his eye. Much harder to explain to his mom than the lip.
After he'd gotten himself ready for school, he carefully walked down the stairs, mindful of his ribs, and went into the kitchen. Josh was sitting at the table, and glanced up when Drake entered. The two glared at each other until Audrey handed Drake a bowl of cereal.
Seating himself across from Josh, Drake ate his cereal silently.
"I'll take you two to school, we're already running later. Walter took Megan," Audrey offered, but Drake shook his head.
"That's alright, mom, I'll just ask Alec to drive me to sch-"
"Feel you're too good to sit in a car with me, now?" Josh asked bitterly.
"Yeah, I'm much too good to sit near someone as-" Drake didn't finish the sentence. He didn't want to. Josh was his brother, why were they arguing? Did they even have a reason or was it because Drake had been in a bad mood?
"Well? Go on, say it! You don't want to be near someone as what?" Josh questioned, anger brewing in his dark eyes.
"BOYS!" The two instantly turned away from each other.
"Drake, go call Alec before he leaves for school. Josh, come with me."
Drake walked over to the phone and dialed Alec's cell, while Josh followed his mom into the living room.
"Now, what's going on, Josh?" Audrey asked.
"I don't know! Drake's been acting...funny lately." Josh replied.
"Funny?"
"Yeah, he's been really moody lately."
"I'll talk with him, Josh. Just get in the car, I'll be there in a second," Audrey said, and walked back into the kitchen.
"He said he'll be here soon," Drake said as soon as she entered.
As Audrey sat across from her son, she really looked at him for the first time that morning. She saw things she hadn't seen before.
"Drake, did you and Josh get in a fight?" Drake's eyes widened and he looked away.
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, the split lip was a dead giveaway. What's going on? Did this happen last night when I heard you two upstairs? I knew it'd get too rough, you both are too old to be doing that!" She said voice raising slightly.
"Sorry," Drake mumbled, feeling guilty about bringing his brother into this now.
"No more, I'm going to talk to Josh before I drop him off, and then-" Drake's wide eyes halted her thoughts.
"Mom, no, we're fine. We already talked, he already apologized, it's done with. We're fine. You don't need to say anything," He said, with a slight plea in his tone.
There was a loud honk outside, and Drake stood up rather fast. Grabbing his book bag, Drake rushed to get out of the house.
"Hey man, what happened to you?" Alec's eyebrow raised high above his sunglasses, as he eyed Drake.
"Ran into a door," Drake mumbled.
"Must've been some door..."
Minutes later, an oddly quiet Audrey got into her car and drove Josh to school, unaware of the small drops of dried blood on her seat.
*****************************
That day at lunch, Drake sat alone.
He was overjoyed when he saw Josh looking for a table to sit at, but that joy was quickly demolished when he heard a guy behind him call Josh over.
As Josh walked by, he heard him mumble loud enough for only Drake to hear, "Wouldn't want to sit with the Great Drake, might embarrass him."
Sighing, Drake rested his head on top of his hands. Today was not turning out very good, maybe he should just tell Josh everything. Torn between choosing whether or not to tell Josh, the bell rang and Drake walked to class thankful that some of the pain in his side had vanished with the advil.
Drake noted that Josh made sure he sat a good distance away from Drake in social studies. This saddened him to no end. He didn't want to argue with Josh, maybe after school he could apologize to him.
The students all took their seats in front of their overturned examination papers. Mr. Tofty walked into the classroom, and seated himself at his desk glancing around the classroom.
"Turn over your papers," said Mr. Tofty, glancing at his watch. "You may begin. You have exactly one hour to finish your tests."
Drake stared fixedly at the first question. It was several seconds before it occurred to him that he had not taken in a word of it. Slowly, tortuously, he began to write an answer. For the next hour, all around Drake pencils were scratching paper like scurrying, burrowing rats.
Ten minutes before time was up, Drake turned his test over. Staring at the giant clock on the wall, he tapped his pencil on his desk over and over...and over again until he thought the big hand would never move again.
Suddenly, the bell rang, everyone in the room sighed in relief, either because they were annoyed by Drake’s persistent tapping, or because it was the last test of the day. Everyone made a mad rush to the door, but froze at the sound of Mr. Tofty's voice.
"Wait until I say you can leave! You will have your results by next Friday, now class is dismissed!" The teacher said in his usual cold voice.
The sound of talk in the halls was deafening. Drake grabbed his personal items from his locker and began walking to the front of the school waiting for Alec to find him. He wasn’t really paying attention so he ran straight into Josh, causing his brother to fall flat on his back. Drake extended his hand, but Josh pushed it away and stood up on his own. Picking up the few books that had fallen out of his bag, Josh pushed his way through the crowd of students.
When he glanced around, Drake saw Alec over in a corner waiting for him.
Alec was short for Alexander, an annoying nickname in the boy’s opinion. He had shoulder-length, but nicely kept, brown hair that fell across his face hiding his bright green eyes. Alec was roughly six feet tall, and looked more like a twenty year old in size, but his face still held the mischievous expression of a sixteen year old. He was not the teacher's favorite student for many reasons.
"Alec!" Drake yelled, causing every student in the hallway to look at him. Blushing, Drake lowered his head, and made his way through the crowd.
"Hey man, could you give me a ride?" Drake asked. Alec pushed his sunglasses back over his eyes, before nodding. Tossing his bag over his shoulder, Drake missed the unease in his friend's green eyes when the wind pushed back his bangs, revealing what had lay hidden beneath them.
*****************************
Drake collapsed onto his bed, once Alec had dropped him off. He was exhausted, to say the least. Drake wished the day would just end so he could just go to bed, then maybe when he woke up everything would be back to normal.
Suddenly he heard someone opening his bedroom door; he knew this was his chance to apologize to Josh. But it was not Josh who walked in. It was Audrey.
"Yeah, mom?" He asked.
"Josh has asked me to... temporarily move him into the guest bedroom," Audrey said after a moments silence.
Drake gasped, after all the fights between the two, neither had ever asked to move to another room. He must have hurt his brother more than he realized.
"You want to try telling me now that the argument between you two is over and done with?"
Argument? Oh, my lip.. Damn it I'm tired of all these lies! Everything's getting messed up!
"Just tell Josh to come here," Drake demanded, but immediately changed his tone when he received a stern look from his mother. "Please?" He added. Audrey sighed but nodded, and left the room.
Once Josh walked into the room, Drake jumped down from his bed.
"What do you mean you want to move out?" He asked exasperated.
"It means I don't want to stay here with you anymore. I'm tired of you not trusting me and lying to me! I'm tired of our petty arguments! So I'm leaving temporarily, which I think will help a great deal," Josh replied, acting like it was the most obvious solution in the world.
"I do trust you!"
"But you don't trust me enough not to lie to me," Josh retorted. Drake looked down, and Josh knew what he had said was true.
"Congratulations Drake Parker! You never wanted me to be your brother, well now I'm not so sure I want to be your brother!" And at that Josh slammed the door closed.
What a wonderful mess you've gotten yourself into this time.