Dray XI

Home. One am. Front dining room/kitchen. Enter Aron, Lou, Dray.

Lou. Shortly. "We need to talk."

Aron. "Maybe tomorrow, love. I think we all need some space."

Lou nods. Dray's lip curls into a sneer.

When Lou looks away towards Aron, though, Dray's face reveals itself-- devastation and loss and crippling anger.

Dray. "I'm not going to talk to him."

Lily appears in the doorway, her eyes red, looking pissed off. "I should've known you were out dragging him away from some shit-hole party. Mom, we need you upstairs."

Lou looks immediately concerned, disappears through the open door.

Aron turns to go, as he's walking towards the door, calls back quietly without turning around. "Get some sleep, Dray."

Dray. "Why do you care?"

Aron turns back to face him, weary. "Listen, Dray, I'm sorry that Jason's gone, and I get that you miss him, but can you stop attacking me for no reason? It's shitty that you lost him, and I get that, but I'm not the reason your father's gone and neither is Lou."

Dray. His voice small, barely audible. "No. I am."

Aron stops in his tracks, the frustration disappearing from his face. "Oh, no. God, no. Dray"--

Dray. "You don't know the whole story. It was. It was me, it was all me, you don't know"--

Aron. Quietly. "So tell me."

Dray hesitates, staring at the carpet.

Aron. Jerks his head to the adjacent living room. "Come on. In here okay?"

Dray follows, sits down across from Aron. "Mom'll hate me."

Aron shakes his head. "No, she won't, and neither will I. I can promise you that." He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. 

Dray. Fiercely. "I'm just like him. I'm drinking, and I'm just like him, and someday I'm going to destroy everything just like he did."

Aron. Gently. "I'd say you have some choices to make, then, Dray, and that means it's your choice whether you're going to drink or not."

Dray looks down. "He was drinking before he went on that boat."

Aron sits silently, waiting for Dray to continue. Long pause.

Dray. "I saw him drinking, and he told me it was our secret, that Mom didn't have to know because she worried too much. I should have stopped him, Aron, I should have told Mom or told someone, I should have smashed every damn bottle he owned"--

Dray's voice breaks, and Aron crosses the room to wrap his arms around Dray, who drops his head onto his folded arms and lets Aron hold him.

Lou emerges from the other door, where she had heard Dray's story, brushes back Dray's hair and kisses his forehead. "Oh, baby, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I let you think that all these years. It was never your fault, Dray. Never. I've always known Jason was drinking that day. Sweetheart, I saw the beer he had with him and I didn't stand up to him like I should have, so if it's anyone's fault he drove the boat after he drank, it's mine, not yours. Oh, sweetheart."

Dray leans into her, shoulders shaking silently, and Aron wraps his arms around both of them until Dray has scraped the telltale tears off of his cheeks.