I woke up the next morning hungover and hanging off of my bed. I sat up a little too fast. "Ugh." I said holding my head. Boots licked my face. I pushed her away. "Get outta here."
I heard a door slam. Good Lord, be quiet.
I looked over my shoulder at my alarm clock, 6:12. I stood up and walked into the kitchen. There was a half a pot of coffee left and a dirty mug in the sink. Well, that meant Dad was up.
I went to look around the house. The door slamming had been Dad leaving. I smiled when I saw my car in the driveway. I had no idea how Alex had managed that one.
I walked back into the kitchen and fixed myself a cup of coffee. Boots laid under the table. I sat down and grabbed a magazine. I was flipping through it when I heard a tap on my window. Boots growled and started yipping. I hushed her. I turned to see D.J. sitting on my grill outside my window. I looked at him questioningly and got up and opened my window. D.J. slipped through my window and climbed down from my sink. Boots walked up to check him out before leaving the kitchen.
I leaned against the counter. "So," I started, "why are you here?"
D.J. shrugged. "Thought you might need this." D.J. held out a plastic bag of Tylenol.
"Thanks." I mumbled grabbing the bag away from him.
"So are you actually going to school today?"
"Of course I am." I quipped. "What kind of question is that?"
D.J. held up his hands. "Hey, I was just wondering."
I sat back down at the table. I took a long sip of coffee and took two of the little white pills out of the bag. After a long silence D.J. piped up, "So I'm guessing you don't go out on school nights very often."
"What makes you think that?" I asked.
He motioned to me. "You don't jump back very fast."
I rolled my eyes. "Well duh."
I walked back into my bedroom and D.J. followed me. I threw a t-shirt on over my tank top and started digging through my closet for a pair of clean jeans. D.J. leaned up against my dresser. "So where's your dad off to so early?"
I shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me."
"Does he do this often?"
"Do what often?" I grabbed a pair of dark jeans off of a hanger.
"Just randomly leave?"
"How do you know he just randomly left?"
D.J. picked a bracelet up off of my dresser and started playing with it. "Well most people don't leave the house at six o'clock in the morning."
"People with jobs do." I walked into the bathroom but left the door open a little.
"So what does your dad do?"
"He's retired." I stripped out of my pajama bottoms and started to put on my jeans.
"Exactly my point."
I pulled my jeans over my butt and buttoned them. "No." I huffed, "He doesn't do this often."
"I wonder where he's going."
I walked out of the bathroom. "He's probably going to meet up with a buddy, but I guess the we'll never know."
D.J. followed me. "So," I said turning around, "are you going to school today?"
D.J. shrugged. "I wasn't planning on it, but ya know, plans change."
I looked at the clock, 6:45. "We still have an hour until we have to leave."
"Wonder how we're gonna pass the time." D.J. raised an eyebrow at me.
"I don't know about you, but I'm gonna go watch T.V. and maybe, just maybe, catch an extra half an hour of sleep."
"I'll come with." D.J. said as he winked.
I smiled and D.J. grabbed my hand. He followed after me to my bedroom.
I flopped down on my bed and D.J. followed after me. D.J. curled up behind me. I picked up my remote and turned on TLC. I laid against D.J.'s chest and took a deep breath. And then I drifted off.
