Someone to Drive Me Home

Prologue

Drew had always been there for me. I can say that, and not even be exaggerating at all. He was always there when I needed someone to talk to, someone to make me smile, and, when I got older, someone to drive me home. And everything in between. I often wondered why he did so much for me. He was just my older brother’s best friend. Well, he was never just my brother’s best friend. Ever since I can remember, Drew spent more time over at my house then he did at his own. I saw just as much of Drew as I did my brother, Kyle, who was three years older than me. Drew was two years old than me; a year younger than Kyle. He was labeled “gifted” in elementary school, and was bumped up to the sixth grade, when he was supposed to be in the fifth. And the sixth grade class he was put into was Kyle’s. I was only nine years old then, that first day that Kyle brought Drew home after school.

I remember it if it was yesterday. It was September, but the weather made it seem like it was still July. It was warm, warm enough that my mom let me play outside in just a t-shirt. I had just gotten off the school bus and was outside, in the front yard, playing hopscotch with my best friend at the time, Lindsey Tyler. She was only my best friend because she lived next door to us. She was an only child and spoiled rotten, and only played with me because her mother told her to. I didn’t know that until years later, though.

The “big kids” school bus pulled up in front of our house and I stopped what I was doing to watched my brother get off the bus. I always waited to ask him how his day was and give him a hug. But this time it was different. A tall, thin boy with dark hair and thick-rimmed glasses got off the bus, right after Kyle. The two of them were laughing and Kyle didn’t even stop to say hi to me.

“Kyle!” I yelled from where I was standing, only a few feet away.

My brother stopped and looked back at me. He gave me a look as if to say ‘everything is going to be different from now on’, although I didn’t catch it then. I just saw him smile faintly and wave. It seemed like maybe he was embarrassed to talk to me, which I didn’t understand at all. He was my big brother.

“Who’s that kid with Kyle?” Lindsey asked me right away, as I watched the two boys walked together up the path to the house and then disappear inside.

“I don’t know,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

“You should go find out,” Lindsey told me, as if I had to listen to her.

I shrugged again, “It doesn’t matter.” I was lying through my teeth, but Lindsey didn’t care enough to even notice.

For the next hour or so, I continued playing outside in my t-shirt, happily, with Lindsey. But the entire time I wondered who the boy with my brother was, and why my brother hadn’t introduced me to him. My brother had never had a best friend before. He was sort of quiet, usually, and didn’t make friends extremely easily. I was a lot more outgoing than Kyle was. Lindsey went home a while later and as soon as she was gone, I ran inside in the house to find my brother.

I found the two boys in the living room, sitting in front of the television, playing video games. Kyle knew he wasn’t allowed to play video games until after dinner, and after his homework was done. I was about to remind him of this, when he looked up and saw me.

“Hey, Lucy,” Kyle said to me nonchalantly.

My eyes were wide. “Hi,” I answered.

“Mom said we could play,” he told me, as if reading my mind.

“Oh, ok.”

“Oh, Lucy,” my brother began again, and I waited. “This is my friend Andrew.”

Andrew. His name was Andrew. I smiled, without even realizing it. “Hi, Andrew.”

“Hi,” Drew grinned, taking his eyes off the video game long enough to look at me and wave.

I decided I shouldn’t intrude on their first time playing video games, so I turned around then and left the room without another word.

I had no idea then, and even for the years that followed, that this boy would become a huge part of my childhood, my life. That he would become like a brother to Kyle, and to me. Or that when my life got turned upside down and I didn’t know what to do or who to turn to, Drew would be there for me. But he was, and he always would be. And I had been never more grateful for anything in my entire life. Drew saved me. I just wish I would have had the chance to tell him so.