Meeting Megan
Three weeks later
Drake surprised everyone in the family by getting a part-time job at Baskin-
Robbins. He wanted to save up money to buy Rhoda a special present. Drake was
surprised that his boss let him have his 'gig nights' off without any lecture. It was
probably due to the fact that the after the girls saw him play that lusty rock and roll on
stage they'd come to this location to see him and buy their ice-cream the next day.
Rhoda was not happy about this job choice. She was thrilled on the inside that
Drake was showing responsibility, but all those little tarted up skunk bags she could
do without. She hated the girls that threw themselves at him on the stage now he
was going to serve them their petite cones? This job was going to have to go, but
she didn't know how to make that happen. If that were the only problem facing her
and Drake's couple hood she'd consider herself lucky. But since her and Drake
have been going out for awhile, he thought she should meet his parents and have
dinner with them one evening. Walter and Audrey were easy strings to play. It was
the idea of meeting Megan that was tying her stomach in knots.
Rhoda rested her head on the passenger's side window. She had Drake pick her
up at the Premiere. How long could she use "the strict parents" excuse?
"Don't worry. Mom and Dad will like you. They liked Mindy, Josh's ex-horrible
girlfriend. You're more of a woman that she is." He kissed her on the cheek.
Mindy equals Horrible"I just want to get this over with."
I just want to be me.
"It won't be bad, I promise. I know you told me you have extremely strict parents.
Mine are nothing like that."
Drake parked the car in the garage. Rhoda really wanted to uncover all the
falseness, but how would Drake react? He just called Mindy horrible not five
minutes ago. How she hated this lie. She wasn't as strong willed as Gigi was.
Mindy preferred books and getting good grades instead of being a juvenile
delinquent. How sad that her older sister and her ex-juvie friends missed the bad
old days of their youth and were able to get this plan off the ground for her. Mindy
wanted to be Mindy. The real smart girl who wore non-trendy and non-offensive
preppy clothes and loved to participate in the science fairs, it was this girl who
wanted to have Drake Parker on her arm.
Not some big, whiny, Oprah watching, video game playing, magic aficionado, and
klutz Josh Nichols.
"Your hands are cold." Drake said as he held Rhoda's hand as they walked into the
kitchen.
No one was happier than Audrey to see her son finally have a serious girlfriend and
one that he wanted to bring home to introduce to everyone. She thought this day
would never come. She and Walter wondered if that Drake would be bringing home
a much younger woman when he was forty announcing that he was going to settle
down with a girl whose named ended in 'i', who loved kittens, and wanted world
peace in the empty shelled beauty pageant question and answer way.
Mindy had no choice, but to put Rhoda out there first and foremost even if her
conscience kept reminding her daily of the romantic fraud this whole situation was.
"Hello, Mrs. Nichols." Technically on the door of her office and on the nameplate on
her desk it was the modern hyphenated Audrey Parker-Nichols, but there was no
need to correct the poor young girl who visibly nervous over meeting her boyfriends
parents.
"Hi, Rhoda." They shook hands. The poor girls hands were freezing.
"Do you need any help with dinner?"
"No. But Drake you can take the garbage out. Your father will be a little late coming
home from work."
He could've complained that it was Josh's turn, but he wanted everything to go well
that he didn't want to start anything.
"Fine. Rhoda, do you want anything to drink?"
"Yes, a water. If it's no trouble?"
"It's not any trouble. I'll meet you in the living room." Drake gave his girlfriend a quick
kiss on the lips as his mother's back was turned. He handed her a small bottle of
water before going out the papers and the trash.
"Are you sure you don't need any help, Mrs. Nichols?"
Audrey laughed, "I'm sure, dear." She replied getting the dishes out of the
cupboard.
It would be good to sit down as she hated walking in these wedge heels, which
might have 'stylish', or whoever said they were, but they were killing her feet.
"Miss me?" Drake came back, but with the kitchen dividers open it's not like he and
Rhoda could make out in the open.
"You know I did."
He put his arm around her.
"Your hands smell like strawberries."
"That's the dishwashing liquid."
When Audrey went into the master bedroom to change that was when Drake and
Rhoda were able to make out on the living room sofa.
"Hmm! Ah—em! He—llo!"
Drake felt a smack on the side of his head.
"Oh. Rhoda this is my sister…."
"I have a name you boob!"
"Megan."
No handshake"Hey, Megan."
How thankful she was to see her walk into the kitchen and out the back door.
"Now where were we?"
"Making out on your living room sofa. Your mother is going to come back at any
minute."
"No she won't. It takes her forever to get ready."
This was the only part of the falsehood that she liked. This was the only way Drake
was going to love her. So Rhoda had to be even though she hoped there could
come a day where she could tell Drake the truth.
Mindy was not mentally unstable like her sister, she wanted to be normal in the
worst way. She didn't have to think about these things when Drake and her kissed.
Those moments made her feel beautiful.
"What's wrong with you?" Megan asked Josh when she locked up her bike for the
night in the garage. She knew Josh and Mindy were no longer a couple, but Josh at
that moment didn't look as much heartbroken as he did confused.
"I'm baffled."
"About what?"
"I guess I might as well tell you since Drake is all Rhoda-Rhoda-Rhoda. Three
weeks ago he left me alone at the movie theater and I had to walk home."
"Josh are you going to tell me what has you 'baffled'?"
"Yesterday I went to Marian Catholic on my lunch hour to surprise Mindy and see if
we could talk about getting back together. Since I can't get her on the phone or at
her house."
"Yeah…what did Mindy say?"
"Nothing. I didn't get to talk to her."
"Why not? Josh can you get to the point?"
"Marian Catholic has no record of Mindy Crenshaw. She lied to me. Maybe her
parents sent her away again? I'm going inside."
"Drake brought Rhoda over for dinner."
"Great. I don't want to see them making out. Where are they?"
"In the living room."
"I'll enter through the kitchen. Don't tell anyone what I told you."
"Don't worry, Josh."
Hmm. That was interesting.
12:01 AM
Megan Parker couldn't sleep. She almost agreed with Josh it was sickening seeing
Drake all googly-eyed and "in-love". Megan took a metal suitcase from under bed. It
had an 'I Heart Collecting Dolls' sticker on it. She opened the lock from the key she
kept in another box and took out a matching chrome colored cell phone.
"Voice mail. I get your voice mail. Hal, I need you to look up some records for me.
Crenshaw, Mindy and Simmons, Rhoda. Call me back on this and only this number.
Thanks."
If she didn't look after her brothers who would? Themselves? It was highly unlikely.
They were boobs who were both blinded by the women in their lives.
Megan put the phone back in its slot in the metal briefcase, locked it, and put it
back under her bed along with the key in her old barrettes box.
She went back in her bed, but she was unable to sleep. She took out her remote
control and decided to see what Drake and Josh were doing. Megan kept it on
mute and pressed the 'closed caption #1' button.
Drake: Can I borrow one hundred dollars?Josh: Why? Did you quit your little ice-cream job?
Drake: No. The sale at Rutherford's ends tomorrow and I get paid next
week. I want to buy Rhoda a watch. I promise I'll pay you back.
Josh: All right. Turn around I don't want you to see where I keep my money.
Drake: Okay. I'll pretend that I don't you know that you keep your money in
your officially licensed Oprah cookie jar.
Josh: You know---Megan got bored and turned the video off. Man, were they quite lame, but they were
her brothers and she didn't want anyone to hurt them or she would hurt them right
back.
She was going to get answers she never wanted to see either of her brother's cry
unless she was the one who caused it.