How We Are

Chapter 7

Upon waking up I found Drew's arm draped around my waist. We were on the couch of our appartment with Keats and Wes on the floor and a clean living room.

I attempted to rise from the couch.

Key word: attempted.

When I tried to get up Drew's grip tightened on my waist and resulted in me tumbling backwards right on to him. My weight on him didn't bother him so much but did cause him to wake up.

" Oh, sorry, Carter," he grumbled drowsily but he still held on to my waist.

Realizing that he still held me Drew blushed and -

Wait.

Drew blushed?

He never blushed..

"Hey," I said. " Are you okay?"

"Uhm, yeah, why?" drew responded, seeming unsure of his own response, as was I.

"You're a bit flushed," I spoke feeling his forehead and sure enough it was warm.

"I'm fine," he said, sitting up, "I'm gonna go take a shower, and when I get back we can all go get McDonald's for dinner or something, " he said, lifting himself off of the couch and to the restroom.

Drew seemed to have been in deep thought so I let him be, but I knew I'd try to talk to him about it later.

I proceded to wake Keaton and Wesley. They looked around, as if they were clueless as to where they were. Once they realized they were in my apartment, they got up and head to the kitchen.

"Just raid my fridge again why don't ya," I said to the boys.

"Relax, we're just getting a drink and we're leaving," Wes said groggily.

"Why are you leaving? We're gonna have Mickey D's for dinner," I bribed, wriggling my eyebrows.

"I wanna stay but our parents invited us to dinner with this new family down the street from us," Keaton said, sounding as if he was really dreading the event.

"Yeah," Wes confirmed, grabbing his keys, and heading for the door.

"Bye, Carter," they mutter on their way out.

" 'Night, guys," I called back. I went into my room and to my en suite bathroom to take a shower.

~~~

It was about six o'clock now, and me and Drew were on our skateboards, on our way to the nearest McDonald's.

"But If you think about it, all water Pokemon beat fire Pokemon, Charmander cannot beat Squirtle," I said but Drew was set on the fact that because Charmander was larger and somewhat more powerful, that he could still beat a water creaute like Squirtle. 

Drew had warmed up since the little incident on the couch, but  that didn't make me forget about it.

"But he's just bigger and fire-ier!" he argued, skating past me into the parking lot of the McDonald's.

"That doesn't defeat the universal law that says water douses fire in any situation," I said matter of factly.

"Whatever," he shrugged, and there he goes again. He closed himself off and gave up. That's not like Drew.

I stepped off my skateboard after he did. He grabbed the handle of the door, but before he could open the door, I grabbed his forearm and pulled him back. He looked at me questioningly.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as sincerely as I could but it was forced. I'm really not good at this.

"What do you mean?" he said nonchalantly, but he knew what I meant.

"Ever since you woke up all flushed earlier, you've been on edge. You just gave up in an arguement, and I know that's not you. Usually we'd argue until you held me upside down and made me admitt to you being correct and superior. So, what's up?" I repeated my question.

Telling him that I realized his peculiar behavior and newly found awkwardness made me almost positive that he would tell me what is up with him. But my friend, my best friend,  surprised me with his response. 

"I'm fine," he said with a sincere smile. It made him look genuinely happy and I couldn't help but feel like he's lying to me. But no matter how badly I want to know what was bothering him, I wasn't going to press any further on the subject because he really did look okay, and that was enough for me right now, after the day we've had.

"Okay," I said and we kind of stood there for a moment smiling.

"Okay, " I said again with a slight laugh, "but if you ever need me, Drew, you know where I live."

And I huggedhim, with my arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around my torso and nuzzled his head into the curve of my neck and laughed.

"Yeah, I know, Carter, thanks," he said, releasing me.

"No problem, except for one of course," I said standing back from him.

"What is it? "he said concerned.

"I'm hungry, so MOVE."

I pushed him out of my way and stepped into the restaurant.

"It's not my fault that you decided to be all mushy out of no where."

"Oh no, I'm turning in to YOU."  I said horrified, but Drew laughed, and I was glad that my best friend was okay again.