Man of the Year (Drake Story)

Chapter Fire

“You can’t do that! You can’t take something that’s mine!”

The shouting hadn’t stopped after what I was sure was an hour. Being that I was right next door to the room that Isaac and Joshua were arguing in, I couldn’t help but finally slip lazily out of bed after finally having had enough of the bickering over something that was most likely trivial and not worth taking away time from my rest.

I knocked on the door of the bedroom and finally there was silence. They’d stopped arguing once they realized that there was an outside world, with real people other than them.

“Good morning, Aubrey.” Joshua said tersely. He walked back into the room and folded his arms in front of Isaac, well ready to continue the argument while disregarding.

“Hey, Aubs.” Isaac greeted me with a silly grin.

“Please, no nicknames.”

“If you don’t mind, Isaac and I were discussing something kind of personal in here.” Joshua barely looked at me. I’d almost forgotten that he was the direct puppet of Michael, who hated me purely out of jealousy. Isaac only resisted from talking to me because his friends didn’t like me, but he acted generally the same towards everybody.

“See, that’s the thing,” I said. “You guys are discussing this thing kind of loudly, and I was looking forward to snoozing little bit into the morning. I don’t mind leaving, but I do mind hearing this argument.”

Without waiting for either of their responses, I turned around for the door.

“Wait, Aubrey. While you’re here, why don’t you be a mediator for us?” Isaac asked. I chuckled and turned around.

“Are you sure? I don’t think your buddy is okay with that.”

Joshua glared at Isaac with wide eyes, only realizing that I was talking about him a good few seconds after I said it. He shrugged without words, but still bit his bottom lip until it turned tomato red.

“Here’s the story. My friend Joshua goes out last night, gets drunk, and assigns me as a driver. Mind you, he’s usually the responsible one. I have no problem driving, so I take us home, but I realize that I haven’t had any fun for the night. So I tell him that now that I’ve driven him home, I’m going to go out to a party myself, and I’ll call the him to send a driver to pick me up. I party, and then when I call, he doesn’t pick up. I end up having to walk home. I almost got hit by a car!” Isaac yelled. “So when I get back home, I call my buddy Ryan and tell him that he can borrow my car. It was actually Joshua’s car. Ryan brought back the car in one piece. I just did it to piss Josh off.”

I laughed a bit, and then turned to Joshua. He looked more upset just hearing the story again.

“That was horrible of you! I was in my sleep during the wee hours of the morning and I hear a soft voice above me, in a dream, I suppose, begging for food. Crying about how hungry she is. It disturbs me so much that I wake up and head outside so I can take a trip to the local McDonald’s—it was a craving. And when I go in the car, the mileage is sky high! That’s how we got here. Now what do you have to say, Aubrey?” Joshua asked it accusingly, like he would just waiting for me to take Isaac’s side so he could blow on me, too. But their argument was no longer on my mind. Now all I could think of was the voice in Joshua’s dream. A soft voice begging for food. Who else could it be but her?

I left the room without another word, ignoring their calls for me to come back and engage in the conversation again. I couldn’t. Not anymore. Sleep didn’t matter. My Uncle didn’t matter. Nothing did, not even Cyrus. My main priority was getting over to the East Wing with food for her, no matter the consequences.