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“You’re smart”
Was the first thing Josh said towards Drake, sitting next to the other on his bed. Drake was staring down at a piece of paper that was in his hands, his dark brow eyes— which sometimes would turn hazel if he got really happy — were wide. He couldn’t believe it, this was unheard of, well at least that’s what his baby sister would claim.
Drake Parker, Mr cool, Mr Smooth, Pretty Boy, got a B+ on his Algebra two test. Drake's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, his eyes unblinking. Afraid that if he shuts them even for a second, that B would turn into a D it wouldn’t be the first time his eyes played such a trick on him. He couldn’t recall which class it was exactly but he remembers the embarrassment he felt after his false excitement, the sweet sympathetic smile on his mother's face when she told him it was a D and not a B. That day created the belief that Drake needed glasses.
He did.
He just doesn’t wear them— at least not in front of Josh, especially not in front of Megan.
“That’s a B…” he says more to himself than Josh, not knowing that his brother had the biggest smile on his face right next to him, leaning near his shoulder to look at Drake's paper.
“Plus” Josh says with that goofy grin he usually has when Drake accomplishes something the boy didn’t believe he could.
“That’s a B!” Drake shouts, standing to his feet his jaw slacks as if it’s just sinking in. That what he’s looking at is real.
“Plus à plus!” Josh emphasizes, his grin never wavering moving back as Drake gets up avoiding getting knocked in his jaw from Drake's shoulder when the teen shoots up from his bed onto his feet.
“Josh!!” Drake looks at his brother with a big smile, his freckle cheeks turning a light red, eyes sparkling with excitement.
When Drake first got his test back he just shoved it into his backpack not even glancing at it, already knowing what he got as a grade. At least, so he thought. He decided to look at his failure at home, not at school where everyone could laugh and mock him for another D or worse.
An F.
He sat on Josh’s bed and opened his Bag and pulled out the sheet as his brother was only a few feet away from him. Then sat next to him when he called him smart.
“I got a B+!!!” Drake grins at his brother.
“I told you, you could do it!” Josh says back his smile getting bigger.
Drake stares at his paper for a while longer, his smile huge, then it strikes him.
“Mom!!!” Was the last thing he shouts before he runs out the room like a little boy on Christmas morning pure excitement pumping through his veins, rushing down the hall to get his mother, hearing Josh loud laughter booming after him.
Josh shakes his head, shoulders still shaking from his laughter, listening to the way Drake shouts for their mom in such excitement. It was such a rare sight, okay sure Drake gets excited easily— but not like this. This type of excitement was a different form.
This form of excitement was like if Drake landed a gig— a big time gig that could get his career to skyrocket, or when Drake writes a song that he’s really proud of, that same gleam in his eyes, that fire that drives to do more. That physical vibration that moves his whole body. That type of excitement.
Josh shakes his head, still snickering, getting up from his bed grabbing Drake's book bag that was discarded next to it walking towards his brother's loft swinging the bag up to the platform hearing distant thumping till it was right next to his ear.
Drake's boots.
A hand presses onto the side of his face, pulling his head down a bit. Warmth presses against his cheek then disappears then the thumping happens again and lowers once again until it disappears completely.
It took some time for Josh to realize Drake came back and pressed a fat kiss on his cheek and left again. The muffled sound of his brother saying ‘Thank you Josh’ cushioned somewhere in his brain.
That made Josh laugh again.
And Drake said Josh tutoring him wasn’t gonna make a difference, that he was just gonna fail again. That he was gonna repeat the grade. But he didn’t. And he’s not.
Josh noticed his brother's eyes were hazel.