My Brother's Best Friend

Drew Tells All

   "Drew, man why are you in the bed with my sister?" Joseph asked. I opened my eyes. It was bright and Joseph was standing in my doorway eating a burger from McDonald's. Drew sits up in the bed quickly and runs his fingers through his hair. "Oh nothing, I just fell asleep in here. We--" Drew said before being cut off by Joseph.

"You know what? I don't even wanna know." Joseph says. "And by the way, your mom called." That got Drew's attention.

"When? Why didn't she just call my cell?" he wanted know."

"I don't know man. She said she did and you wouldn't answer. She sounded pretty upset but whatever man, I'll be at the gym  until 2."

I rolled my eyes. Who was Joseph kidding, he didn't work out! I sat up in the bed and looked at Joseph. "Why have you been ignoring your mother?" I ask.

"I don't wanna talk to her." he says plainly.

"Why not? I mean she is your mom."

"Sky just drop it. I have my reasons for not wanting to talk to her." I decide not to ask what they are.

  "Oh and I found you and Amber's little friends passed out in the backyard. I had to threaten to kick their a** to get them to leave." he says out of nowhere. I'd forgotten all about David and Josh. "Whatever Drew." I say to him.

   "Are you seriously mad because I won't tell you about my problems?" he questions me.

"Yes because you never tell me about any of your problems. You didn't tell me about your parent's divorce, your breakup with BreAnne, why you moved to Arizona, or why you decided to come back."

"You had to bring BreAnne up. Right?" he says shaking his head.

  I stand up and look at him. "Well Sky, the thing is I don't have to tell you sh** because you're not my mother, you're not my sister and you sure and he** aren't my girlfriend!" I'd heard enough. I storm out of the room and run outside onto the porch trying to stop myself from crying. When I'm pissed there's no stopping the tears. i find myself sitting on the porch anyway though with tears streaming down my face. So that's how Drew felt about me? It was good to know. Maybe it'd be easier to get over him now. It wasn't though. It just made my heart hurt.

   I don't know how long I sat out there alone before I heard him come out after me. He sits down besides me but neither of us says anything. Not for a long time. Then out of nowhere he says, "I'm sorry." I don't look at him.

"For what? You were only saying how you felt." I say avoiding eye contact with him.

" No I didn't mean any of it, I was just upset. I'd been trying so hard not to think about BreAnne and you just had to bring her up."

"Oh so you still love her or something? Then why'd you break up with her and then run to another state like a b****?"

"Sky it's not even like that. You don't even know what you're talking about. Just listen to me."

"Why?" I say standing up. I was seriously fed up with him. "You never listen to me." I'm halfway down the driveway when he says, "BreAnne was pregnant." My heart stops beating and I stop in my tracks. I can't turn around and look at him though. He knows I'm listening anyway because he continues talking.

"She was the first girl I was ever with and so when she told me, I totally freaked. I was only a year older than you when I found out."

"Oh so you dumped her because you didn't want a baby?"  I say and now I'm pissed. I turn around and look at him.

 He punches the side of the porch. "Sky, you wanted to know so let me finish. Ok." he says. i just nod. "Anyway I was gonna get a job and everything to take care of the baby and her. The thing was my parents didn't know and one of them was in a whole other state with a another woman. So one night, I just blurt it out that BreAnne's pregnant and my mom's just so shocked. She's understanding though like I knew she'd be.

"I tell her about my plans to take care of the baby and we finally have a good conversation which we hadn't had in months. That's why  stopped coming over, I had to sort things out, plan, and I needed time to think. And I did."

"So what happened?" I finally asked. The conversation was becoming a little too much for me. Drew, the guy I'd always been in love with was not as good as he seemed. He actually had flaws.

"Remember the day I came over here to talk to BreAnne? Well I was gonna tell her about the job I'd found and how I was gonna be there for her and the baby when she told me that it was 'taken care of.' I asked her what she meant by that and she told me about how MY mother gave her money to get an abortion. I absolutely flipped out. I told her to stay away from me and a week after that, I decided to go live with my dad." I'm speechless.

    "So why didn't you just tell me that day?"  I ask.

"I know you think you're mature Sky, but you're not. You were thirteen, I wasn't gonna tell you that. You'd look at me differently. You're older now and you're already looking at me differently." he says. And I realize that I am. I stand there and I can't think of anything to say. "So I must've seemed so irrelevant to you that night at your going away party when I told you how I felt..." I say finally able to speak about it aloud. And not only that but I'm finally able to remember the night....