He walked downstairs and saw Gerard and Suzanne patiently waiting for him. They looked at him with awe and their eye brows were hanging in the air like they were looking at Cinderella in person.
"Now this is weird" Drake said to them as he moved closer to their eyes that were totally fixed on him.
"Am I the only one seeing this?" Suzanne asked Gerrard.
"Oh God! This day is just about to get more interesting" Gerrard replied with a slight chuckle.
"So, how do I look? Not that it matters anyway, after all I'm not trying to impress anybody" Drake was finding it hard to manage his anxiety as he spat out this words with a paused breath and a face waiting for a thousand answers in a second.
"Terrible"
"Sad" Gerard said with a look of pity in his eyes.
"Are you kidding me? You haven't looked this good in a long time."
"Maybe ever, no offence though" Gerard interrupted Suzanne.
In a brief moment of this couple's love exchange, they all burst into laughter, with Drake too.
"It came in today…" Suzanne said slowly.
"Careful. We don't want to ruin this mood"
"It's okay. Go on! What came in?" Drake asked curiously with his eye stretching up above his face.
"Our trip newsletter. The one we go to every year." Suzanne answered.
"Oh, really? Where is it gonna be this year?" Drake said happily as he looked at both their faces.
"Should I tell him?" Gerard asked Suzanne anxiously
"No, I'll tell him" Suzanne said as they were about to start bickering like newlyweds.
"Guys, just say it already" Drake said with apprehension in his voice.
"Turin" Suzanne and Gerard said together with giggles on their faces, they could barely close their teeth.
"Whoa! That's amazing. You've always wanted to go to Turin" Drake said as he nodded his head slightly in excitement.
Gerard and Suzanne were gazing at each other like two lovebirds about to mate and probably forgot that Drake was right there. Drake saw these romantic gazes and pulled his head to the back of his neck as he looked away.
"Guys, I wouldn't want to interrupt this good thing you've got going, so I will just go. Bye. Love you." Drake said on the spot before he left the house without getting a reply from either of them who seemed to have gotten their lips busy.
Drake was going to be late, so he decided not to play any music and just focus on his legs and getting to school early.
APP class was the last one of the day and it just ended. Mr Mount left the class and Alessia and Drake stayed behind to discuss their project, maybe not entirely.
"Whoa! You're beautiful" Alessia said with a happy face as she looked at Drake's hoodie.
"Thank you" Drake said with a very wide smile that exposed all of his beautifully arranged teeth.
Alessia could not but notice his awkward smile and she wondered why. "You do agree they are beautiful" She said as she touched the stars drawn on the hoodie.
Drake's smile suddenly disappeared as he discovered that she wasn't referring to him, but his hoodie. "I must have made a fool of myself" Drake said to himself as he looked at Alessia's hand which was on his back.
"The fact that they shine so bright even in the presence of the moon really amazes me." Alessia said philosophically.
"I think that confidence is what keeps them shining and what makes them loved" Drake replied as he exchanged eye contact with Alessia. It was very hard for Alessia to stop looking at Drake as she was processing what he said.
They stayed a little longer than an hour while they were talking about their projects and frequently, one of them said something to lighten the atmosphere.
Today was one of those days that Drake didn't need to see Dr Keatings. After all, his nightmares weren't all that regular and scary anymore but he wanted to see him, not for therapy, but to talk.
"So, you mind opening that mouth of yours to tell me what brings you here today?" Dr Keating asked Drake who was looking lost as he set his eyes on the multiple portraits and paintings hanging on the walls.
"Nnn nnn" Drake cleared his throat noticing Dr Keating's arrival. "This is a beautiful painting" Drake continued as he fixed his eye on one of the paintings with a shadow and a barn on it.
"I got that in Greece, 2004. But I bet you didn't come all this way to discuss my painting with me. Did you?" Dr Keating asked.
"No, you're right" Drake admitted as he left the painting to sit on a chair. "The nightmares haven't been much of a terror recently and I owe that to your advice and to… to Alessia too. The more that I think about it, I find out that we have more in common. And these past weeks have been different, and I still wonder sometimes if this is just one long dream that would end soon" Drake said softly with an expression of honesty.