Spotlight Girl //a Jeremy Jordan Fanfic//

Two: A Fateful Discovery

Susie stayed with me the rest of the night. I let myself sob for a while, trying to get the bulk of it out of my system before I attempted to speak again.

She got me to eat one half of the sandwich she brought up and promptly ate the other in compromise. Once I'd calmed myself down, Susie and I just talked - we talked about Mum mostly, recalling memories and stories from growing up, how I was feeling, which evidently wasn't that great, but as I opened up and talked stuff out, I felt a 10 times better than I had in weeks.

"I'm really glad you decided to open up today..." Susie says after a while, picking up the plate and standing up from her position on the floor. "It's the most you've spoken about it in 6 months."

Smiling at her half heartedly, I sigh. " Yeah, well thanks for staying and listening to my blubbering."

She let out a small chuckle. "Oh hush up now!" She smiled, stroking my head with her hand. "Blubber away for all I care, I'm just happy to hear your voice."

I smile weakly up at her as she leaves the room to take the plates and cutlery downstairs. When she appears again a few minutes later, I have somehow found the strength to lift my head off the pillow and sit up in bed.

Susie then extends a hand out to me and I take it gratefully as she pulls me up. We the. Roll up our sleeves and get to work rearranging the room.

We put the donations box in the corner, minus a few things that I threw in haphazardly when I wasn't thinking straight, emptied each of the other boxes one by one, placing each item I was keeping in their own rightful place, organising the rest of the books in all the other boxes on the shelves installed by uncle Adam around the room and by 8 o'clock that night, we had cleared the whole room of the boxes.

We were just putting on my bedding and duvet when the door was nudged open and four little paws came padding in and as the duvet hit the mattress, so did Duchess. She circled the mattress a few times before plopping down and curling herself up into a ball.

Rolling my eyes, I let out a soft chuckle and plop myself next to her, giving her a little scratch behind the ears. Her big sad eyes look up at me as if to say, "I know Duchie old girl...I miss her too."

I lean down and plant a small kiss on her head and lean back onto the pillows. Looking around at the now cleared out room, my stuff out of the boxes and now in some kind of order, I felt a sort of clarity wash over me.

The first box of books fit nicely on the desk while the rest found their place on the shelves around the room. Trinkets and ornaments filled every corner from the windowsill to the drawers holding what little clothes I had decided on keeping. My guitar was propped up against the bed still in its case and besides from a few pictures Susie took upon herself to stick to the wall, the room is pretty bare. Alice told me I was allowed to paint the room however I wanted and decorate to my hearts desire, but my heart just wasn't in it...not for the last 6 months.

"And I think," Susie says from the other side of the room after closing a drawer that she just stacked a bunch of notebooks and papers into. "That's all the boxes emptied!" She continues triumphantly.

As if on cue, Aunt Alice appears in the doorway. "Hey girls, I wondered what all the commotion was up here." She smirked, looking around at the clean and box-free room.

I nod, looking around its her. "Yup, Susie finally talked me round to it." I tell her, failing to mention my slight breakdown that caused all the boxes to be emptied out onto the floor and over half my wardrobe to be gone.

Alice smiled, bending down and cupping my face in her hands. "Well I'm very proud of you." She tells me, planting a small kiss on my forehead and stroking my hair lovingly. She then hopped up from her bent over position and trotted over to the door way where a rather large chest awaited and dragged it into the room.