D&J - Gratified Affair - 02/?
Gratified Affair
drake & josh. drake/mindy, josh/ofc. chapter two. 2933 words. general.
Summary: Their dislike for each other runs deep, but Mindy and Drake find the only way to get what they want is if they work together.
prologue / chap. 01
The classroom hummed with the kind of sluggish energy that was normal after lunch period was over. Students were restless and wanted to go home, but they still had to endure a few more hours of class before the final bell was rung. Mrs. Hafer took one look at her rambunctious students and swallowed the last of her extra-strength Tylenol pills as the bell rang shrill for class to start.
“All right class, calm down,” Mrs. Hafer said as she got up from her desk. “Today I want to discuss a project -”
In the silence that had settled in the room, the opening of the door sounded a lot louder then it should have. Everyone turned their heads to see Drake stroll in casually as the door shut noisily behind him. Mrs. Hafer let out a sigh as he noisily made his way to his desk.
“So nice of you to join us Mr. Parker,” she told him, a familiar ice glazing over her words as she spoke to him. “Might I ask why you came to class late this time?”
“Forgot my yo-yo,” Drake replied innocently, holding up the sparkly blue toy for all to see. Mrs. Hafer found herself speechless, as often was the case in her least favorite student’s presence. Rubbing her temples, she decided it was best to press on.
“As I was saying class, I have a project for you that we’ll be working on for the rest of the semester. It counts as 25% of your final grade, so it’s very important that you pay attention.”
“And that’s my cue for naptime,” Drake muttered to Josh, who was seated in the desk across the aisle. Josh, always the good student, had given up a long time ago on figuring out how to make his step-brother follow in his ace footsteps.
“You know, maybe Mrs. Hafer wouldn’t hate you so much if you actually, oh I don’t know, paid attention once in awhile?”
“Way overrated man,” Drake whispered back. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and slid down in the uncomfortable metal chair, attempting to achieve some form of rest. He closed his eyes as he half-paid attention to whatever was going on - the birds chirping, the way Eric’s pencil tapped rhythmically behind him, Mrs. Hafer droning on as usual.
“You may choose your own author to research and you will create a five minute presentation for the class due one month from now,” Mrs. Hafer announced as she paced in the front of the room. “A ten page paper will go along with that presentation detailing the author’s life and using the critical analysis we’ve learned in class in interpreting their work. Does anybody have any questions?”
--
The bell rang and kids spilled out into the hallway from various classrooms, eager that the school day was almost winding down to an end. Drake followed Josh out of the oppressive classroom and yawned loudly, irritated that his nap didn’t refresh him as he thought it would. He continued to follow Josh all the way to his locker and Drake leaned against the wall and yawned again as he watched Josh twist the combination lock.
“So man, what’d I miss?”
“Only the biggest project this semester,” Josh informed him, trading in one tattered textbook for another. Funny how the school could afford to fix a hole due to Mindy’s photon cannon but textbooks that had been updated in the last five years or so were cut from the budget. He sighed as he closed his locker and passed Drake the notebook he’d used to take notes on Mrs. Hafer’s project. “It’s all in there dude. I don’t know what you’re going to do this time; it’s not like you can skate by on this project. Mrs. Hafer seemed pretty serious.”
“Yeah, yeah Mrs. Hafer is serious about a lot of things,” Drake responded, looking flippantly over Josh’s neat scrawl on the paper. “Besides, she just needs…hey Sarah!” Drake smiled brightly at the petite brunette who breezed by, clearly slowing down in hopes of him noticing her. “We’re still on for Saturday, right?”
“I’m counting on it!” Sarah replied, giving him a tiny wave as she disappeared around the corner. Drake stood for a moment, still staring at where his date had been until he felt a whap on the back of his head.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“You have the attention span of a fruit fly, you know that?” Josh said in an exasperated tone. He was a little tired of Drake always starting sentences until some pretty girl walked by and stole his attention. Many conversations had gone on to an unfortunate death because of this annoying habit.
“No, a fruit fly actually has to think before moving on,” Mindy joined in, sidling up to Josh while holding her books on her side. “Hey Josh. Mr. Roland wanted me to give this to you; he said you left it in the lab after your class this morning.” She passed him a blue lab exam book and Josh breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing it.
“Thanks Mindy, I didn’t even know it was missing!” Josh eagerly stuffed the book into his backpack.
Mindy casually gave Drake a once over while he looked at her, a scowl fixed on his face. “What’s the matter, still trying to think of a comeback?”
“Brown-noser.”
“Underachiever.”
“Wicked witch.”
“Incompetent goofball!”
“Hey, I am very competent at being a goofball!” Drake said indignantly, adjusting the backpack strap on his shoulder. He flicked his head to move the hair out of his eyes and he saw Mindy looking back at him like a cat that had finally caught her mouse.
“As always Drake, you manage to get my point all on your own,” she said coolly, giving him a smirk. “See you at Science Club Josh.” Mindy sauntered off, leaving the boys alone as the warning bell went off for the next class to begin.
“Man, why does she always get the last word?” Drake asked redundantly, scrunching his nose in disapproval. He fell into step beside Josh as they made their way to their next class. “I’m so glad you guys broke up when you did; I can’t stand that girl.”
--
The rest of the week followed slowly after that day, as though it were crawling toward the weekend. But finally, finally Friday had come and Drake’s contagious energy had even rubbed off on Josh a little. On Wednesday, Drake had managed to convince the other boy to grow some nerve and give Gavin’s sister a call and Josh was still reeling in the fantastic yes he’d received upon nervously asking Lisa for a date.
Now it was Friday night and Josh was standing in the mirror, frowning. He’d changed his shirt at least three times but he still didn’t feel right. Looking down at his feet, he was wearing one loafer and one sneaker and couldn’t make up his mind still when he heard the bedroom bang open.
“Hey Drake, which shoe -” Josh started, but he turned his head and saw it was Megan making her way down the stairs. She plopped down comfortably on the couch and used the remote to turn the television on. “You’re not Drake.”
“No; Boob Number 2 is chatting up his date on the phone downstairs,” Megan replied as Josh made his way down the stairs as well. “Now quiet, it’s TV time.”
“Hang on, maybe I could use your help,” Josh said, grabbing the remote and muting the sound on the television. She glared at him and he had a feeling he would pay for that later. “Which shoe looks better - the loafer or the sneaker?”
“Well that all depends,” Megan started, giving him a once-over. “You’re not wearing that shirt, are you?” Her face lit up with a smile of satisfaction as Josh groaned and made his way back up the stairs toward his bureau, already in disarray from previous clothing choices. She settled back into the couch and un-muted the TV, eager to watch her show and annoy Josh at the same time.
Drake ambled into the room a few minutes later to see Megan zoned in on the TV while Josh was working himself into an almost blind panic while he searched the dresser drawers and threw various shirts on to his bed.
“Josh, what happened to all your clothes?” Drake asked, and then began to remember the importance of the night. “Ohhhh, it’s your big date with Gavin’s sister, right?”
“Ya think?!” Josh said, his voice tinged with sarcasm and mild hysteria. “I just need a shirt! One shirt! Why is this so hard?”
“Josh, calm down,” Drake said, taking the opportunity to sit on a square of his brother’s bed that wasn’t covered in clothing. “You’re making a way bigger deal out of this than you need to.” Josh turned to face Drake and realized that surprisingly, his brother was making sense for once.
“Maybe you’re right.”
“No, I am right,” Drake pointed out, propping himself on his elbows as he took a look at Josh’s outfit. “That shirt? Really?”
In a flash, the boys were a tangle of limbs as Josh pounced on Drake and the two began to wrestle. Screaming, yelling, pinching, slapping - everything was fair game as Josh worked out his frustration and Drake just tried to shield his face from any damage before his own date that night. Their fighting would’ve continued on, but the two boys immediately stopped when they heard a shrill, piercing noise.
“Yo boobs!” Megan exclaimed as a whistle on a pink plaid lanyard swung from her tiny hand. “Do I have to come over and separate you two?”
“Dude, when did she get a whistle?” Josh whispered as they quickly separated from each other, eager to avoid whatever punishment their evil little sister had in mind for them. Drake shrugged and shook his head as he idly began looking through some of the shirts on the large bed.
“Here, wear this one,” Drake suggested, throwing a dark blue long sleeved shirt at his chest. He glanced over at the clock next to his bed on the loft and widened his eyes when he saw the time. “Hey man, I gotta get going. You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Josh replied, pushing his head through the neck hole of his fourth shirt of the night. “Wait, you’re not gonna change? You wore that to school.”
“Yeah, but I’m Drake,” the other boy reminded him and Josh rolled his eyes as Drake made his way toward the door. “See you guys later.”
Josh took one last glance at himself in the mirror and finally deemed himself acceptable for his date. The butterflies in his stomach were fluttering at full force by this point and he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to eat at the restaurant that he and Lisa had planned on. Giving his hair a final swipe with a hairbrush, Josh made his way toward the door too.
“Bye Megs.”
“Bye boob.”
When Josh left, the room was filled only with the sounds of the television, but it didn’t take long before Megan heard him enter the room again, sighing.
“You know, you could’ve reminded me about the shoes.”
Megan turned and grinned at her flustered step-brother, who kicked off the loafer and began to look for his other sneaker under the bed.
“Yeah, but it’s more fun for me this way.”
--
The night was balmy with an occasional cool breeze as Josh and Lisa began their stroll along the boardwalk not far from B.F. Wang's. Dinner had gone as smooth as Josh could've hoped for; he did manage to spill soy sauce, but it spread quickly over the plastic table and not on anybody's clothes, thank goodness. Lisa had even laughed, charmed at how he had been so bashful and clumsy about the incident. As Josh had cleaned up the mess, he felt the tension release in his tightened shoulder muscles and he was able to enjoy dinner a little bit more thoroughly. What was even better was that Lisa seemed to be enjoying herself too.
The sun was sinking low into the ocean as it stained the sky with vivid pinks and deep oranges. The two of them fell into a steady pattern with their echoing footsteps and a quiet settled over them as they heard the ocean lap up against the damp sand.
"So tell me about your family," Lisa was saying, turning her brown eyes on him. "What are they like?"
"Well...my parents got divorced when I was really little," Josh began, his gaze flickering from her to the ocean and back again. "Then in ninth grade, my dad married my step-mom and she turned out to be completely amazing. That Cinderella story can be pretty misleading, let me tell you." Lisa smiled and waited for him to continue as he breathed in the salty air. "When they got married, Mom already had two kids; Drake, who's my age, and Megan who is only a few years younger."
"Like presto - instant family," Lisa nodded understandingly. "Was that hard? Coming together like that?"
"It was at first. Drake was...is one of the most popular kids at our school and I was just a nerdy kid who liked magic tricks," Josh said, grinning as he realized how far they had come since those early days. "But now...well, we've got each other's backs. Best friends, brothers; whatever you wanna call it, we're there for each other.”
"Oh, that's sweet," Lisa replied, using her finger to twist around a piece of her long, dark chestnut colored hair. "I wish Gavin and I were like that, but we're complete opposites."
"Yeah...you two are a little different from each other," Josh said, only slightly lying through his teeth. Lisa laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"That's an understatement! If I remember right, your mouth dropped wide open when I told you at The Premiere how I knew Gavin," Lisa teased, giggling as she did so. He smiled at her laughter and nodded in agreement.
"All right, I'll admit to being pretty surprised," Josh told her. He bravely slipped his palm into her tiny one and squeezed lightly. "But you know, I think most of my surprise was just carrying over from such a pretty girl like you sticking around to talk to me."
"Ooh, smooth Josh, very smooth," she said, raising her eyebrows as she eyed him up and down. Their arms brushed against one another as they continued to walk, hand in hand. "I bet you sweet talk girls like this all the time."
Josh had to blush at the thought of him being anything near a ladies' man. Certainly over the years if a person who knew Josh and had to describe him, the idea that he was good with girls would almost indefinitely never cross anyone's mind.
"No, no, no," Josh replied, his cheeks tinged with a pink that rivaled the quickly darkening sky. "I had a great teacher, but I'm not very good at this sort of thing." Memories of Drake's "cool lessons" gone awry floated in his head until he saw a visible shiver run down Lisa's arm. "Oh, here Lisa, take my jacket."
Before she could even think to politely protest his offer, Josh's cozy jean jacket slid over her arms and she was grateful for the instant warmth. She looked up into his shining blue eyes and his dimpled grin as she took his soft hand back into her own.
"Not very good, eh?" Lisa asked with only a slight touch of sarcasm. She squeezed tighter and rested her head on his warm forearm. "I think you're doing better than you think."
--
Drake was feeling pretty good about himself the next morning. The date he’d been on the night before with Sarah had gone extremely well and he was supposed to see her later that afternoon. The thought made him hum a song to himself as he sauntered down the hallway and into his bedroom. He had just gotten out of the shower and was in the process of pulling a green t-shirt over his head when the doorbell rang. Josh was in the bathroom now, but Drake figured someone else would get the door. He took his sweet time putting on his favorite pair of faded blue jeans and the doorbell rang once more. Realizing that he and Josh must’ve been the only ones home, Drake took off to the staircase and reached the door upon the fourth ring of the doorbell.
The door swung open and Drake’s face immediately fell when he saw who was on the other side. “Oh. It’s just you.”
“I’d say that you have the manners of a monkey, but that’d be rude to them,” Mindy replied, tightening her grip on the shoulder strap of her backpack. Her look of irritation matched his as Drake rolled his eyes.
“Josh is in the bathroom,” Drake told her and walked away from the door, as if that was a roundabout way of inviting her in. Mindy sighed and followed him, gently closing the door behind her.
“Actually, I’m not here to see Josh.”
“Then what are you here for?”
Mindy paused and pushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear, hesitant in her answer. But she let the words fall out of her mouth as fast as she could.
“I’m here to see you.”
--
chapter 03 | uneasiness
drake & josh. drake/mindy, josh/ofc. chapter two. 2933 words. general.
Summary: Their dislike for each other runs deep, but Mindy and Drake find the only way to get what they want is if they work together.
prologue / chap. 01
The classroom hummed with the kind of sluggish energy that was normal after lunch period was over. Students were restless and wanted to go home, but they still had to endure a few more hours of class before the final bell was rung. Mrs. Hafer took one look at her rambunctious students and swallowed the last of her extra-strength Tylenol pills as the bell rang shrill for class to start.
“All right class, calm down,” Mrs. Hafer said as she got up from her desk. “Today I want to discuss a project -”
In the silence that had settled in the room, the opening of the door sounded a lot louder then it should have. Everyone turned their heads to see Drake stroll in casually as the door shut noisily behind him. Mrs. Hafer let out a sigh as he noisily made his way to his desk.
“So nice of you to join us Mr. Parker,” she told him, a familiar ice glazing over her words as she spoke to him. “Might I ask why you came to class late this time?”
“Forgot my yo-yo,” Drake replied innocently, holding up the sparkly blue toy for all to see. Mrs. Hafer found herself speechless, as often was the case in her least favorite student’s presence. Rubbing her temples, she decided it was best to press on.
“As I was saying class, I have a project for you that we’ll be working on for the rest of the semester. It counts as 25% of your final grade, so it’s very important that you pay attention.”
“And that’s my cue for naptime,” Drake muttered to Josh, who was seated in the desk across the aisle. Josh, always the good student, had given up a long time ago on figuring out how to make his step-brother follow in his ace footsteps.
“You know, maybe Mrs. Hafer wouldn’t hate you so much if you actually, oh I don’t know, paid attention once in awhile?”
“Way overrated man,” Drake whispered back. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and slid down in the uncomfortable metal chair, attempting to achieve some form of rest. He closed his eyes as he half-paid attention to whatever was going on - the birds chirping, the way Eric’s pencil tapped rhythmically behind him, Mrs. Hafer droning on as usual.
“You may choose your own author to research and you will create a five minute presentation for the class due one month from now,” Mrs. Hafer announced as she paced in the front of the room. “A ten page paper will go along with that presentation detailing the author’s life and using the critical analysis we’ve learned in class in interpreting their work. Does anybody have any questions?”
--
The bell rang and kids spilled out into the hallway from various classrooms, eager that the school day was almost winding down to an end. Drake followed Josh out of the oppressive classroom and yawned loudly, irritated that his nap didn’t refresh him as he thought it would. He continued to follow Josh all the way to his locker and Drake leaned against the wall and yawned again as he watched Josh twist the combination lock.
“So man, what’d I miss?”
“Only the biggest project this semester,” Josh informed him, trading in one tattered textbook for another. Funny how the school could afford to fix a hole due to Mindy’s photon cannon but textbooks that had been updated in the last five years or so were cut from the budget. He sighed as he closed his locker and passed Drake the notebook he’d used to take notes on Mrs. Hafer’s project. “It’s all in there dude. I don’t know what you’re going to do this time; it’s not like you can skate by on this project. Mrs. Hafer seemed pretty serious.”
“Yeah, yeah Mrs. Hafer is serious about a lot of things,” Drake responded, looking flippantly over Josh’s neat scrawl on the paper. “Besides, she just needs…hey Sarah!” Drake smiled brightly at the petite brunette who breezed by, clearly slowing down in hopes of him noticing her. “We’re still on for Saturday, right?”
“I’m counting on it!” Sarah replied, giving him a tiny wave as she disappeared around the corner. Drake stood for a moment, still staring at where his date had been until he felt a whap on the back of his head.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“You have the attention span of a fruit fly, you know that?” Josh said in an exasperated tone. He was a little tired of Drake always starting sentences until some pretty girl walked by and stole his attention. Many conversations had gone on to an unfortunate death because of this annoying habit.
“No, a fruit fly actually has to think before moving on,” Mindy joined in, sidling up to Josh while holding her books on her side. “Hey Josh. Mr. Roland wanted me to give this to you; he said you left it in the lab after your class this morning.” She passed him a blue lab exam book and Josh breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing it.
“Thanks Mindy, I didn’t even know it was missing!” Josh eagerly stuffed the book into his backpack.
Mindy casually gave Drake a once over while he looked at her, a scowl fixed on his face. “What’s the matter, still trying to think of a comeback?”
“Brown-noser.”
“Underachiever.”
“Wicked witch.”
“Incompetent goofball!”
“Hey, I am very competent at being a goofball!” Drake said indignantly, adjusting the backpack strap on his shoulder. He flicked his head to move the hair out of his eyes and he saw Mindy looking back at him like a cat that had finally caught her mouse.
“As always Drake, you manage to get my point all on your own,” she said coolly, giving him a smirk. “See you at Science Club Josh.” Mindy sauntered off, leaving the boys alone as the warning bell went off for the next class to begin.
“Man, why does she always get the last word?” Drake asked redundantly, scrunching his nose in disapproval. He fell into step beside Josh as they made their way to their next class. “I’m so glad you guys broke up when you did; I can’t stand that girl.”
--
The rest of the week followed slowly after that day, as though it were crawling toward the weekend. But finally, finally Friday had come and Drake’s contagious energy had even rubbed off on Josh a little. On Wednesday, Drake had managed to convince the other boy to grow some nerve and give Gavin’s sister a call and Josh was still reeling in the fantastic yes he’d received upon nervously asking Lisa for a date.
Now it was Friday night and Josh was standing in the mirror, frowning. He’d changed his shirt at least three times but he still didn’t feel right. Looking down at his feet, he was wearing one loafer and one sneaker and couldn’t make up his mind still when he heard the bedroom bang open.
“Hey Drake, which shoe -” Josh started, but he turned his head and saw it was Megan making her way down the stairs. She plopped down comfortably on the couch and used the remote to turn the television on. “You’re not Drake.”
“No; Boob Number 2 is chatting up his date on the phone downstairs,” Megan replied as Josh made his way down the stairs as well. “Now quiet, it’s TV time.”
“Hang on, maybe I could use your help,” Josh said, grabbing the remote and muting the sound on the television. She glared at him and he had a feeling he would pay for that later. “Which shoe looks better - the loafer or the sneaker?”
“Well that all depends,” Megan started, giving him a once-over. “You’re not wearing that shirt, are you?” Her face lit up with a smile of satisfaction as Josh groaned and made his way back up the stairs toward his bureau, already in disarray from previous clothing choices. She settled back into the couch and un-muted the TV, eager to watch her show and annoy Josh at the same time.
Drake ambled into the room a few minutes later to see Megan zoned in on the TV while Josh was working himself into an almost blind panic while he searched the dresser drawers and threw various shirts on to his bed.
“Josh, what happened to all your clothes?” Drake asked, and then began to remember the importance of the night. “Ohhhh, it’s your big date with Gavin’s sister, right?”
“Ya think?!” Josh said, his voice tinged with sarcasm and mild hysteria. “I just need a shirt! One shirt! Why is this so hard?”
“Josh, calm down,” Drake said, taking the opportunity to sit on a square of his brother’s bed that wasn’t covered in clothing. “You’re making a way bigger deal out of this than you need to.” Josh turned to face Drake and realized that surprisingly, his brother was making sense for once.
“Maybe you’re right.”
“No, I am right,” Drake pointed out, propping himself on his elbows as he took a look at Josh’s outfit. “That shirt? Really?”
In a flash, the boys were a tangle of limbs as Josh pounced on Drake and the two began to wrestle. Screaming, yelling, pinching, slapping - everything was fair game as Josh worked out his frustration and Drake just tried to shield his face from any damage before his own date that night. Their fighting would’ve continued on, but the two boys immediately stopped when they heard a shrill, piercing noise.
“Yo boobs!” Megan exclaimed as a whistle on a pink plaid lanyard swung from her tiny hand. “Do I have to come over and separate you two?”
“Dude, when did she get a whistle?” Josh whispered as they quickly separated from each other, eager to avoid whatever punishment their evil little sister had in mind for them. Drake shrugged and shook his head as he idly began looking through some of the shirts on the large bed.
“Here, wear this one,” Drake suggested, throwing a dark blue long sleeved shirt at his chest. He glanced over at the clock next to his bed on the loft and widened his eyes when he saw the time. “Hey man, I gotta get going. You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Josh replied, pushing his head through the neck hole of his fourth shirt of the night. “Wait, you’re not gonna change? You wore that to school.”
“Yeah, but I’m Drake,” the other boy reminded him and Josh rolled his eyes as Drake made his way toward the door. “See you guys later.”
Josh took one last glance at himself in the mirror and finally deemed himself acceptable for his date. The butterflies in his stomach were fluttering at full force by this point and he wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to eat at the restaurant that he and Lisa had planned on. Giving his hair a final swipe with a hairbrush, Josh made his way toward the door too.
“Bye Megs.”
“Bye boob.”
When Josh left, the room was filled only with the sounds of the television, but it didn’t take long before Megan heard him enter the room again, sighing.
“You know, you could’ve reminded me about the shoes.”
Megan turned and grinned at her flustered step-brother, who kicked off the loafer and began to look for his other sneaker under the bed.
“Yeah, but it’s more fun for me this way.”
--
The night was balmy with an occasional cool breeze as Josh and Lisa began their stroll along the boardwalk not far from B.F. Wang's. Dinner had gone as smooth as Josh could've hoped for; he did manage to spill soy sauce, but it spread quickly over the plastic table and not on anybody's clothes, thank goodness. Lisa had even laughed, charmed at how he had been so bashful and clumsy about the incident. As Josh had cleaned up the mess, he felt the tension release in his tightened shoulder muscles and he was able to enjoy dinner a little bit more thoroughly. What was even better was that Lisa seemed to be enjoying herself too.
The sun was sinking low into the ocean as it stained the sky with vivid pinks and deep oranges. The two of them fell into a steady pattern with their echoing footsteps and a quiet settled over them as they heard the ocean lap up against the damp sand.
"So tell me about your family," Lisa was saying, turning her brown eyes on him. "What are they like?"
"Well...my parents got divorced when I was really little," Josh began, his gaze flickering from her to the ocean and back again. "Then in ninth grade, my dad married my step-mom and she turned out to be completely amazing. That Cinderella story can be pretty misleading, let me tell you." Lisa smiled and waited for him to continue as he breathed in the salty air. "When they got married, Mom already had two kids; Drake, who's my age, and Megan who is only a few years younger."
"Like presto - instant family," Lisa nodded understandingly. "Was that hard? Coming together like that?"
"It was at first. Drake was...is one of the most popular kids at our school and I was just a nerdy kid who liked magic tricks," Josh said, grinning as he realized how far they had come since those early days. "But now...well, we've got each other's backs. Best friends, brothers; whatever you wanna call it, we're there for each other.”
"Oh, that's sweet," Lisa replied, using her finger to twist around a piece of her long, dark chestnut colored hair. "I wish Gavin and I were like that, but we're complete opposites."
"Yeah...you two are a little different from each other," Josh said, only slightly lying through his teeth. Lisa laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"That's an understatement! If I remember right, your mouth dropped wide open when I told you at The Premiere how I knew Gavin," Lisa teased, giggling as she did so. He smiled at her laughter and nodded in agreement.
"All right, I'll admit to being pretty surprised," Josh told her. He bravely slipped his palm into her tiny one and squeezed lightly. "But you know, I think most of my surprise was just carrying over from such a pretty girl like you sticking around to talk to me."
"Ooh, smooth Josh, very smooth," she said, raising her eyebrows as she eyed him up and down. Their arms brushed against one another as they continued to walk, hand in hand. "I bet you sweet talk girls like this all the time."
Josh had to blush at the thought of him being anything near a ladies' man. Certainly over the years if a person who knew Josh and had to describe him, the idea that he was good with girls would almost indefinitely never cross anyone's mind.
"No, no, no," Josh replied, his cheeks tinged with a pink that rivaled the quickly darkening sky. "I had a great teacher, but I'm not very good at this sort of thing." Memories of Drake's "cool lessons" gone awry floated in his head until he saw a visible shiver run down Lisa's arm. "Oh, here Lisa, take my jacket."
Before she could even think to politely protest his offer, Josh's cozy jean jacket slid over her arms and she was grateful for the instant warmth. She looked up into his shining blue eyes and his dimpled grin as she took his soft hand back into her own.
"Not very good, eh?" Lisa asked with only a slight touch of sarcasm. She squeezed tighter and rested her head on his warm forearm. "I think you're doing better than you think."
--
Drake was feeling pretty good about himself the next morning. The date he’d been on the night before with Sarah had gone extremely well and he was supposed to see her later that afternoon. The thought made him hum a song to himself as he sauntered down the hallway and into his bedroom. He had just gotten out of the shower and was in the process of pulling a green t-shirt over his head when the doorbell rang. Josh was in the bathroom now, but Drake figured someone else would get the door. He took his sweet time putting on his favorite pair of faded blue jeans and the doorbell rang once more. Realizing that he and Josh must’ve been the only ones home, Drake took off to the staircase and reached the door upon the fourth ring of the doorbell.
The door swung open and Drake’s face immediately fell when he saw who was on the other side. “Oh. It’s just you.”
“I’d say that you have the manners of a monkey, but that’d be rude to them,” Mindy replied, tightening her grip on the shoulder strap of her backpack. Her look of irritation matched his as Drake rolled his eyes.
“Josh is in the bathroom,” Drake told her and walked away from the door, as if that was a roundabout way of inviting her in. Mindy sighed and followed him, gently closing the door behind her.
“Actually, I’m not here to see Josh.”
“Then what are you here for?”
Mindy paused and pushed a lock of brown hair behind her ear, hesitant in her answer. But she let the words fall out of her mouth as fast as she could.
“I’m here to see you.”
--
chapter 03 | uneasiness