InsaneJournal

Toby was up early again this morning, though at least this time it had been by his own choice. Yesterday had certainly been an adventure. He didn’t really mind, at least not outside of the fact that he wished it hadn’t included Emyli plus an extra hole in her body. Their plans to come straight home were derailed when he realized that he was fresh out of all the pain killers that Emyli would need once the hospital drugs wore off. What started off as a simple drug run turned into a half-day errand spree. Once they had their “medicine”, Emyli needed to get some spare clothes; then he needed to go by the store to make sure that they didn’t run out of groceries during Emyli’s stay. Nothing was worst that waking up in the middle of the night with the munchies and not having anything in the cupboard to eat. He had kept a keen eye on her since they left the hospital, but Toby kicked it up a gear once they made it to his house. He set Emyli up in his bed, packing her under the blankets with every pillow he could find. Though he had managed to get his hands on some Oxycodone, it was in short supply; he kept the pills in the bottle in his pocket so that he could give one to Emyli when she needed it most.

He spent the rest of the evening by the bedside. They smoked and watched the small TV he had set up on a crate at the foot of the bed until Emyli finally drifted off to sleep. Toby thought that he could take the opportunity to catch up on his own rest, but unfortunately, that didn’t come close to happening. All he could think about was the person who did this to Emyli and why it had her so afraid; when he did manage to drift, Emyli would wake up him with whimpers that gave away the bad dreams she was having. Whether she realized it or not, Toby moved from his sitting position in the floor to the bed, hoping that his presence would comfort her, even if it was only on a subconscious level. Eventually, he gave up on sleep completely, and spent the rest of the night zoning out to infomercials.

By 5 A.M. he couldn’t take sitting still anymore. His limbs were practically screaming for him to move or do anything that didn’t involve remaining stagnant. Toby didn’t leave his room at first. He thought that cleaning his room would expend enough energy for him to sit back down, but it barely put a dent in his anxiousness. So he moved into the living room. When that was spotless, he moved to the kitchen and the mountain of dishes that were waiting in the sink. By the time T.J. finally woke up and shuffled his way out of his room, Toby had already showered and was halfway through cooking breakfast. “Morning,” he threw over his shoulder as he carefully scooped the sunny-side up eggs and set them on a pair of plates. He had probably gone a little overboard, considering that they each had four eggs and several slices of toast, but he figured that Emyli could eat any of the leftovers if she felt up to it. Toby waited until T.J. took a seat before he sat the plate he had made in front of him. “Sorry for disappearing yesterday.” Most roommates likely wouldn’t have cared if one of them wanted to be by themselves all night long, but for Toby and T.J., such behavior was uncommon. Even if T.J. hadn’t knocked on his door, he had to know that something was off. “I brought Emyli home from the hospital. Like, here home.” His words were heavy as he set down a bottle of chocolate syrup beside his friend’s plate. It wasn’t that he thought T.J. would have a problem with Emyli staying at their place, it was just that he worried what he would say about the entire situation. T.J. had a habit of speaking the truths Toby never wanted to hear. “I think she’s gonna crash here for a while, if that’s cool. She didn’t really seem like she wanted to go home.” He grabbed his own plate and took a seat beside T.J.. Barely a second passed before he began to ravenously eat; he hadn’t realized how hungry he was until just now.