He had been like this all day. Toby had been in his room, happily toking away while he played the new Batman game; that was where he had been when Celine Dion’s wonderful voice rang through the walls. He knew, in an instant, what had happened -- Belinda had broken up with T.J.. He had never been a fan of the other Earth elemental. She had outrageous expectations of T.J. and Toby didn’t like the way he always tried to bend himself to meet them. He thought it was a blessing when Belinda dropped off the face of the planet, but now she had come back just to shatter his heart. If seeing his best friend in such a state didn’t put him off relationships entirely, then he wasn’t sure what else would. Toby sat in his room, minding his own business for the better part of the morning. He had been through this song and dance before, not once but more than a handful of times. By noon, he figured that T.J. would eventually surface for lunch. But 12 p.m. came and went, and that damn song kept playing on repeat. It was obvious at that point that he needed to step in and pull T.J. out of the misery pit he had dug for himself.
Whatever Toby had expected to find, it certainly wasn’t what waited for him on the other side of the door to his friend’s bedroom. He’d happened to walk in right at the exact moment that T.J. tried to sob around the giant hunk of cake in his mouth. “For the love of God, T.J…” Toby ran his hand over his face, trying to figure out what he could possibly do to help at this point. The first thing he decided to do was turn off that god-awful song; he knew it was T.J.’s anthem of heartbreak, but he knew that if he heard it one last time, he would cross the line where he couldn’t be held responsible for his actions anymore. Toby stood over his friend for a moment, trying to decide what to say. He squat, then went down further until he was sitting next to T.J.’s head. His hand reached out and squeezed the other man on the shoulder. “Come on, Teege. She’s not worth this man.” The truth was, Toby wasn’t that great when it came to emotions. If it had been anyone else wallowing in the floor, drowning in tears and Little Debbie cakes, he would have mocked them and left them to suffer alone. But T.J. was the most important person in his life; the least he could was put him back together, even if he had to do it time and time and time again. “Let’s get up and get some real food in your stomach. Whaddya say, buddy?”