I failed with Tuesday. There were two of them. So I'll just use the first Tuesday as Tuesday, and the second as Wednesday. There.

...wait. I really effed up. Fixing things now. Sorry if you read the first version when the days were screwed up. I'm rather stupid.


My dad didn't question why Sillabub was there the next morning, he just drove us to school, not asking questions. My family can be good that way.

I couldn't get to see Victoria -or at least sit outside the Intensive Care Unit- that night. We had a softball game, and as they're retarded and didn't give our team enough players in the first place, I had to be there. And I'm kind of our team's pitcher, so I guess I had to go.

I wasn't really focused on the game that night. I was there, going through the motions. Didn't give up too many hits. Put the bat on the ball, found little holes and got singles, nothing spectacular. Our coach sensed something was off, so he didn't complain when I missed the sign to steal second. Not really a huge deal.

Sillabub went to her house for about a half hour than night. She showered, grabbed her school stuff, then climbed in my window again. We did our homework in silence, my laptop playing music that filled the spaces where words couldn't. We got in an argument regarding music, which wasn't an unnatural occurrence. Actually, there's one that happens at least once a week like that between the two of us. It usually results in us throwing things at each other, laughing, but there was no laughter from me that night. Just a shadow, a ghost.


Tuesday. School, going through the motions. Having conversations so pointless that I could take part in them, even in my glazed-over state. I have one class with Sillabub, and it's with the strictest teacher for our grade, so we don't talk much except for in the hallways. She got busted with her phone in first period -something very rare- so she couldn't text me, as it was sitting on her home room teacher's desk.

A trip to the hospital. My dad came with us this time. I climbed into the back seat. Tumblebrutus was there. I didn't question it, didn't really want to. We were friends, he and I, and he knew my family better than even Sillabub. Naturally he'd be the one my parents would ask to go to the hospital with. He held out his hand. I grabbed it, leaned into his shoulder. We slipped into a comfortable silence. Tumble and I don't need to talk, it's not a necessity.

Music was playing again. It was the radio. We commented on it occasionally, stuff like, 'this singer's a whore' and 'who the hell came up with the idea for this song, anyway?'. We don't listen to -don't like- the stuff that's traditionally on the radio.

Twenty-seven steps, this time, to reach the lady behind her desk. But we didn't need directions this time, so we walked right past.

Same elevator, same ten step perimeter. The only way I could keep my mind off the fact I was back in a hospital, with another person who was close to me near possible death, was to count my steps. But I didn't pace this time, instead I held tight to Tumble's hand. If his fingers hurt, he didn't complain.

They still wouldn't let us in to see Victoria, not even her parents, sitting in the cold, cold metal chairs. I liked the coldness. It kept me from thinking of little Victoria in there, fighting a concussion and internal problems for her life.

"You can't have her," I mutter to no one in particular, and that's when Tumble sees how truly anxious and screwed up I am.

"You want to take a walk, go to a book store or something?" He asks me. I nod, looking at my parents.

"Go," my mom says, "I'd rather have you there than in here, pounding a surgeon's face in."

My dad's eyeing up Tumble, probably suspecting a hidden relationship or something. Not that I particularly care. "Take care of her," my father tells him, pressing twenty-five dollars into my hand.

My fingers curl around it, and we walk out of there, Tumble's arm around my shoulder.

"Must you do that?" I ask him quietly, smiling just a little.

"What?" He asks, looking for the desk. I know where I'm going, seventeen steps down that hallway, then out the door.

"Provoke him so much that he'll probably never allow you back inside his household."

He laughs as we walk out into the waning sunlight. "How exactly am I provoking him?"

"With the arm around my shoulder bit," I tell him, actually smiling then. If only because he never took his arm away from my shoulder.

"Ah, right, he's still pissed at the possessive, dickhead last boyfriend. He's afraid I'll do that to you, Lec? I've known you since we were kits, tumbling around in Jenny's preschool together, and he's known me for as long as I've known you."

I shake my head as we enter the store, the perfect scent; new books, some kind of brownie, and a hint of coffee blended into one. Go, café and book store combination! "God knows what goes through a father's mind."

I walk through the shelves, leading Tumble with his hand held in mine, until I find the book I'm currently reading. I pluck it out from the shelf, find a beanbag chair, and plop down into it. Tumble plops down beside me, and then we're both laughing, as this was probably meant for a little kid, judging by the astronaut carpet. Yet, there we were.

I turn to the page I'm at in my copy and begin reading, Tumble goes back and pulls out the same book I have and returns to our little haven. "Dork," I tell him, barely glancing up, "This is the last book in the series. Go find the first." He laughs and goes back to the rows and rows of books, successfully bringing back the first book. "Good boy," I tell him, like he's a Pollicle.

He laughs, and we're both sitting there for a while, just reading on our little beanbag chair. The proximity is close, I'm pretty much leaning on his shoulder, but neither of us really mind. We have been friends since preschool.

"I love you, Lec," He says after a while. This is a phrase often traded between my friends and I, so it doesn't bother me.

"Love you too, Tumble." I say absently, turning the page, completely immersed.

"No, really," he says, actually grabbing my attention, and I turn my gaze to him, which is the most attention he'd be able to receive, given current circumstances. "Will you go out with me?"

I look into his eyes. Brown, showing complete honesty, and so much hope it's threatening to overwhelm me. Vaguely, I wonder how long he's been nursing this crush. But it doesn't matter.

"Yes," I say after a while. Simple, plain, but it meant so much to the both of us.

You used to brave the world all on your own,Now we won't let you go, go it alone.

Be who you wanna be, always stand tall.

Not gonna let you fall.

Reach for my hand as it's held out for you, My shoulders are strong, but you can cry on them too.

And that's how my parents find us, on a tiny beanbag chair in the children's section, leaning into each other, both smiling, reading our books.

Wednesday. Another school day, another seven and a half hours that bore me to death when I'm listening, but I definitely wasn't. My mind was pondering two things, or three, really. The one that took up the least of my thoughts was softball, as we had another game that night, and I was less freaked, so I could actually focus. The second was Victoria. I hadn't heard of any change in her condition, and I couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing. And, even though I'm slightly ashamed to admit it, with Victoria in critical condition, Tumblebrutus was my central thought point.

Yes, we have been friends since kitten hood. I don't know how long he's "loved" me for, nor do I know how long I've liked him, though I only realized I did yesterday.

I couldn't make it to the hospital again, though I never heard any news, so I can only assume it was the same as the other nights.

Softball went fairly well. I was a bit more focused than on Monday, so I managed a triple and stole home when their pitcher threw a bad one and it went passed their catcher.

We won that game, 17-13. Tumblebrutus gave me a big hug afterwards, and pecked the top of my head with a kiss. Much as I hate to admit it, he's at least four inches taller than me. Stupid male genes. Maybe my science teacher's right - that the Y Chromosome is the reason for everything wrong in the world. My science teacher's a girl, incase you can't tell.

My dad gave a disapproving glare that had us both laughing the moment he was out of earshot. Sillabub joined us for ice cream and a game of pool eventually. There was laughter and a french-fry fight, resulting in us getting kicked out by one of the workers -who was only a high school senior, actually- but we laughed about it anyway, and ended up chucking rocks at each other in the parking lot anyway.

Sillabub took me and Tumblebrutus being together all into stride, as she does everything, and she told me later that she'd suspected such a thing was going to happen anyway.

I never knew you could take me so far.

I've always wanted the home that you are.

The ones I need….

Reach for my hand as it's held out for you,My shoulders are strong, but you can cry on them too.