The Truth About Drew

t w e n t y o n e

Drew tapped a pencil to the table, resting his head on his hand. His tongue poked out and swept across his teeth. "Let's see," he muttered, "undistribute 3y+5 from both sides, leaving me with.... Shit, that doesn't work." He groaned and slammed his head down on the desk. "Screw whoever came up with math, good grief."

Blake leaned back on the bed, slowly eating an apple. "Need help?"

"No! I can get this!" Drew snapped, twirling the pencil.

"Sure," Blake said, smirking as he crunched into the apple.

"Why do you sound so smug?" Drew griped.

"Well, for starters, you're on the wrong page."

Drew slammed the book shut before running a hand down his face, letting out a little exasperated sigh. "Okay, I give up. I'm absolutely done. Not dealing with this today."

Blake nodded, noisily biting into his damn apple. "Mmmm..."

"I swear I'm three seconds from hurling the damn thing out the window if you don't stop crunching!" Drew threatened.

"Tense, are we?"

"I'll kill you."

Blake held up his hands in surrender before tossing the apple in the trash can. "Well if you don't want to do your homework, then can you help me with something?"

Drew hummed. "Hmm, sure. What?"

"Baking a cake."

"A cake? Why the hell do you need to bake a cake?" Drew leaned back dangerously far in his chair, the front legs coming off the ground every now and then.

"Did you seriously forget Aaron's birthday?" Blake said, raising an eyebrow.

Drew shot up out of the chair, sending it clattering to the ground as it finally fell over. "Shoot!"

"You're a moron," Blake said, shaking his head. "Help me with the cake and we'll go shopping for a present."

"You're the best."

"I know."

***

"What the hell is this?" Drew yelled for the eighth time in twenty minutes.

"How have you survived so long without poisoning yourself if you don't know what baking powder is?" Blake snapped, his patience wearing thin.

"Well, sorrrry! My mom happens to still feed me," Drew shot back.

"Pass me the flour," Blake said, shaking his head again.

Drew passed him a white bag.

"Drew. This is salt."

Drew's ears turned red. "Maybe I'll just stir and pour the stuff in the pan."

"I think that's a good idea." Blake cracked the eggs and mixed them into the dough. "Can you knead this for me, or will you burn down the kitchen? I figured I'd make rolls too, and they're not too hard. I bet even you can do it."

Drew snatched the dough. "I can do it!" He threw it down on the clean counter and pressed down on it. "Oh my God, it's sticking to my hands!"

Blake sighed. He grabbed Drew's hands and dusted them in flour. "That's to keep them from sticking."

"Oh, thanks."

"Now, knead it like... this," Blake explained patiently. He positioned Drew's hands correctly and guided him through the motions.

"How are you so good at this?" Drew whined.

Blake wiped his hands on his apron. "Experience."

It was at that moment Drew realized just how talented Blake was at practically everything he touched. He could cook, play basketball, make incredible grades, and do almost anything else he put his mind to.

Drew quashed down the drop of jealousy he felt and got to work on the dough, eventually dividing it up into dough balls and setting them on a tray as Blake mixed the batter for the cake and poured it in the pan. He set it in the oven and closed the door.

"Phew, done for now." He walked over to Drew and inspected his progress. "Wow, good job! You didn't fuck up."

"Gee thanks," Drew said sarcastically.

"No problem. Once you're done we can go. What are you getting?"

"I was thinking maybe I'd get him Skyrim. He's been wanting it for a while."

Blake snapped his fingers, "Dammit, I was going to get that." He froze.

"Ha!" Drew leaped on his mistake. "YOU FORGOT TOO!"

"Shut up!" Blake said with a red face.

"And you were making me feel like crap because I forgot, while you forgot too!" Drew tapped the smaller boy's nose. "Be ashamed."

"You forgot as well!" Blake protested weakly.

"But I'm not dating him!" Drew sing-songed.

Blake's shoulder's slumped in defeat. "Yeah yeah, I'm bad at remembering dates, sue me."

"Well, if worse comes to worse, you can always crawl into his bed naked," Drew said.

Blake punched him in the gut. 

***

"Can you please get your nose out of your phone for three seconds?" Blake said snappishly.

Drew looked up, a bag in one hand that held a copy of Skyrim, the last one in the store, which he'd, with no shame what so ever, stolen from some guy's cart when he wasn't looking.

"Yeah?"

"I don't know what to get!" Blake hissed.

"As I said-"

"Besides crawling into his bed naked!"

"Well then, I'm all out of ideas. Actually, I'm sure he'd love it if you popped out of a giant cake naked."

"I'm not a stripper, you fucking moron!"

Drew shrugged, being decidedly unhelpful as he went back to texting Kai.

"Fuck this, I'm getting him that giant stuffed bear he wanted from Hallmark."

"And a giant cake?"

"Fuck you, Drew."

"If you insist," Drew said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Blake blushed and flipped him off, feeling distinctly flustered. He stormed off to buy the bear after telling Drew to NOT. MOVE. Last time he'd left him alone in the mall it had taken him forty minutes to find him in the middle of Hot Topic, in the midst of a conversation with an employee about whales.

Drew waved him off, eyes locked on his phone. "Go buy the bear. I'll stay here."

Blake nodded suspiciously before running into Hallmark.

Drew slipped his phone into his pocket. "And now to go get a slushy." He whistled as he went downstairs, already envisioning the shade of red Blake's face was going to turn when he discovered he was gone.

Lost in thought, he didn't see the lady with the giant bag shove past him on the stairs. He tripped over her bag and went flying down the stairs.

Instead of hitting the ground and breaking something, he crashed into a warm body, and arms wrapped around his waist.

"Thanks," he gasped. "I almost died!"

"My pleasure," a deep voice answered.

Drew looked up, and all the blood drained out of his face. "Jared?"