When I woke up that morning, I felt like hell, plain and simple. I'm still not entirely sure why I decided that it would be a good idea to do some shots with that woman, I actually don't remember most of the night, but that morning I knew exactly how bad of an idea it had been. My head was pounding, my mouth was dry, and the only memory I could clearly remember was the one where Julie yelled at me and I told her to get out of my house. Thank God she had the sense not to leave. She knew I was full of crap.

It was only six thirty when I woke up, with a half an hour until Ava had to get up to meet her carpool. I got up, took a shower and an aspirin, and was waiting with breakfast when she raced down the stairs at seven. She was still at that age where kids love school and I dreaded the day where she would have to be dragged down the stairs to simply get her in the car. She had no clue what had happened that night and I didn't mention it. I just asked her if she had had a fun time with Aunt Julie and she said she had and I told her to go say goodbye to Aunt Julie before she left for school. I had her in the Mrs. Stevenson's car, the Stevensons lived down the street from us and had a son in Ava's class, by eight sharp (on time, might I add).

Once Ava was gone I allowed myself to collapse onto the counter for only a minute before I was up again. I had gotten Ava off to school but now I had to fix things with Julie. And if she was as mad as I thought she'd be (not that she didn't have a right to be so mad), then I had a lot of groveling to do.

Julie took her time getting ready. I heard her get up before Ava left but she waited until almost eight thirty to make her way down the stairs. I had made some more pancakes and had made plenty of coffee and both were waiting for her on the counter. I placed myself as far away from the food as possible, opting to stand in the corner of the kitchen with my own coffee, and watched as she entered the room.

She stopped in front of her food and stared at me for the longest time. I shrank into the corner as she looked at me, scared shitless. It was my house but if she had told me to leave in that moment I would have left without a second thought. I had completely messed up and I'd do whatever she told me to do to get back on her good side. Finally, when I couldn't stand the silence anymore, I said (rather meekly):

"I made you some breakfast. The coffee should still be hot."

She eyed me for a second more, then replied "You look like hell" before sitting down and taking a sip of her coffee. I knew in that moment that she had already forgiven me, even if she didn't want to forgive me just yet. And even if she had been able to keep from forgiving me, she would forgive me soon enough. That's all I could ask for. I stepped out from my corner and leaned on the counter in front of her.

 "I'm sorry."

"I know."

"I don't know what I was thinking."

"I don't really know either."

"Thank you for setting me straight."

"You're welcome."

"And for not leaving when I told you to."

"Believe me, if anyone was leaving it was you."

"Yeah, I believe that."

"And I'm sorry too."

"For what?"

"For saying that stuff about how Nora would be disappointed. You've been doing really great and that was uncalled for."

"Don't worry about it. I think this is a situation where I'm perfectly okay with taking all the blame."

"You really have been doing great, despite the circumstances."

"Thanks. I wouldn't have been able to do it without your guys' help."

"It's no problem. I like helping out."

"I know, it's one of the things I like about you. And one of the reasons we're still friends after all this time."

"Oh really."

"Really. I was a real basket case."

"Was?"

"Shut up."

"I mean you've come pretty far but I don't think you've come that far."

"Whatever. Give a guy a break."

"Never."

"..."

"Eli?"

"Yep?"

"I know you've been asking for help when you need it but obviously you haven't been telling us everything. That is, you didn't just get drunk for no reason."

"Okay... What's your point?"

"Just know that you can always ask for more help if you need it."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Good. I've gotta get going or I'll be late to work."

"Do you want me to drive you? If you wait ten minutes I'll be ready."

"Don't worry about it. I need a little alone time."

"Alone time?"

"I love Ava but she's a little exhausting. I need some time on the train where I don't have to make conversation or watch out for anyone but myself."

"You've never had to make conversation with me. I'm always fine with a quiet car ride."

"I know but I just want to get back to reality. There's no reason I should postpone it by getting a ride from you."

"All right, weirdo. I'll call you later."

"Sounds good."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Eli?"

"Yeah?"

"I just brought up, you know, the help thing because I wanted to make sure you knew. In case something changed with us."

"Okay..."

"Because you never know what's going to happen, you know? I'm happy to help but I'm not always going to be around to help and clean up your messes."

"I know that."

"I know. But I just wanted to make sure."

"I promise that I know that. Now get to work."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

~~~

To be honest, this has been one of my favorite chapters to write so far. Writing Jelliot fight scenes are always fun (in a twisted way) but I love their awkward/adorable make up scenes even more. 

When it comes time for the one shot competition for JTH (the rules will be posted the day after the story ends), one of the prizes will be that the winner gets to pick a chapter for me to expand into a full length one with action and everything. Someone please choose this chapter! Everyone always picks the big chapters but I always want to expand the simpler ones. Then again, if someone could pick "Just the Highlights (154)" that'd be cool too. I loved writing that one (again, in a twisted way).