Neither TJ nor Spinelli ate that evening, both sleeping until early morning. TJ awoke first his head feeling heavy from crying before he slept. He looked over at Spinelli still sleeping on the bed.
It was early, so he turned over onto his back and tried to get back to sleep. School was going to be awful and he knew it, and today Spinelli was going to visit her dad which would make things even worse.
TJ turned over onto his side, but he couldn't sleep, his mind kept thinking about Spinelli. Half an hour later he heard a rustling sound and turned over to see what it was. Spinelli was sitting up in bed.
"Morning Spinelli" he ventured quietly.
"Hey Teej" she managed a smile in his direction whilst rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "I don't think I've slept that well in ages, what time is it?"
"Uhh a little after seven" TJ watched Spinelli. She seemed to be much better then she was last night.
Spinelli looked at TJ and then back down to the bed. "Sorry about last night TJ"
"What exactly are you apologising for?" he asked getting up and sitting next to her.
"For what happened last night, I didn't mean for everything to just come out like that and I just dumped it all on you"
TJ took her hand. "You can't always keep things bottled up inside Spinelli, sooner or later it's all going to come out"
"I didn't embarrass you then?" she grinned at him.
"Nah" they both laughed.
Spinelli sighed as they both fell silent. She wished that she could pretend everything was alright and wished that she could keep this feeling for the rest of the day. She knew she couldn't, later she would be seeing her dad and if things seemed bad yesterday she was sure they would be worse today.
"Don't worry Spin, its going to be ok, plus you get to miss school right?" he tried to lighten the situation.
"Yeah maybe I'll miss a killer test or something"
"Kids time for breakfast" TJ's mum called.
"I smell pancakes!" TJ jumped up from the bed pulling Spinelli with him.
Surprisingly Spinelli managed more breakfast then she thought she would, which in turn made her feel much better. She followed TJ back up the stairs and waited for him to get dressed for school. She picked up his school bag and shoved his books into it, placing it on the bed ready for him and looked around the room.
TJ came out of the bathroom and reached under his bed for his shoes, sitting on the floor to pull them on he noticed that his bag was ready and waiting for him.
"Thanks Spin, maybe I'll be on time today" he grinned up at her from the floor.
She quietly smiled back at him.
"Hey if you want something to do there's some comic books in the bottom of the closet" TJ grabbed his bag and pulled it over his shoulder.
"Well I better get going, good luck today Spinelli I'll be thinking about you" he pulled her into a hug to which she didn't respond.
TJ gave her one last smile and left for school, leaving Spinelli alone in his room. She thought of her dad, her mind was on nothing else, but there was a good hour before it was time to go and see him. She tried watching tv but found that she had no idea what was going on. As TJ suggested she raided his closet and found a stack of comics but even those couldn't hold her attention for too long.
In the end she sadly closed the comic she had been trying to read and put them all away back into TJ's closet, which she noted was rather messy. Without even thinking she pulled everything that was on the closet floor out onto the bedroom floor and started sorting it into piles.
One stack of comics, a couple of pairs of shoes and about thirty socks most of which didn't match. Some old homework questions which had obviously been forgotten about along with a baseball bat, a weird green gooey blob thing which left stains on the bottom of the closet and on Spinelli's hands when she picked it up and threw it out.
Forty five minutes later everything had been sorted, socks pairs up, shoes dusted off and put away and the closet was looking much better. Spinelli was just throwing the last of the rubbish in the bin when TJ's mum called up the stairs that her mother was here.
That dread feeling in Spinelli's stomach immediately returned as she quickly threw on her remaining clothes and joined her mother in the living room.
Tired was the only word Spinelli could think of to describe her mother. She looked like she hadn't slept in a week as she managed the smallest of smiles at her daughter.
"Come on Pookie" she reached out a hand which for once Spinelli wasn't embarrassed to accept.
Mrs Spinelli told her to wait in the cat whilst she thanked TJ's mum for having her. Spinelli leaned her head up against the cool glass of the cars window and wished the day to be over, the week in fact maybe even the year. Just to be anytime in the future where things could be alright again, where she could be a normal kid with a normal family and friends. She'd even trade everything to go back to the time when her and TJ were nothing more then friends and didn't think they would be. Even though that first day before her Dad became ill was one of the best she could remember.
Spinelli's mother opened the car door and got inside. Starting up the engine and driving off. Spinelli willed the journey to never end.
