Leap of Faith

Day Eleven

Who doesn’t love Sunday mornings? You get to sleep in for longer, lounge around the house in your pajamas all day, and you don’t even have to wash your hair or put on a full face of make-up. Yeah, Sunday mornings are the…

Worst.

“Get up!” I hear Libby order me from where I hid under my comforter. “Catherine, wake up.”

“Go away,” I groan.

“Can’t,” my sister sing-songs before jumping on top of me and pulling my comforter away from my face. “Vivian is here, and she’s brought something for you. Oh, by something, I actually mean someone. Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, body to die for. If I were your age…”

I raise my eyebrow at her, but then her words register with me. TJ’s here? In my house? At ten thirty on a Sunday morning? I’m still in bed, I’m in my pajamas, and my hair is disgusting. This cannot be happening.

“So, are you getting up now?” Libby smirks at me. I groan again and pull the comforter back up to cover me. “Ok. I’ll just send the boy up here, then.”

“No!” I shout and promptly get out of bed. “I’m up.”

“Oh, good,” Libby laughs as she claps her hand. “By the way, Cate. The boy is hot. Are you two dating?”

I level a look on my sister that tells her that she should know me better than that. She smiles and shrugs her shoulders before slipping out the door, shouting back at me that I have half an hour to make myself look presentable, or she definitely will send TJ up here. I’d like to see her try, because if my dad ever caught me in my room with a guy, I think he’d ground me for life just seconds before the cops turn up to arrest him for murder.

I brush out my long hair and tie it up in a messy knot, before brushing on a thin layer of mascara. I change out of my sleepwear and pull on a pair of comfortable boyfriend jeans and throw on the first clean t-shirt I could find. Looking at myself in the mirror, I thought that maybe I should make more of an effort, but then I remember that this is just TJ. He’s seen me looking worse than this- he was there when I was spaced out and concussed with blood caked on my cheek and my face swollen. Surely how I looked now was an improvement on that.

I walked down stair and paused at the second to last step. I could hear Mom, Libby and Vivian talking over each other but the only words I understood were rose, white, no, yellow, definitely not, red, possible. I noticed that Dads voice was missing from the conversation, and I’d yet to hear TJ speak, so I had to wonder where they were. Then the obligatory panic rose in me as I realized that maybe, somewhere in this house, my dad and TJ were together and they were talking about me.

I made my way to the family room and bode Mom and Vivian a good morning. When I asked where TJ was, all three women at the couch looked up at me and smiled, before mom pointed back down the hallway to the TV room.

“When I was a kid I collected jars of penny coins,” I heard TJ say to my father as I rounded the corner and saw them both sitting in opposite armchairs. When TJ noticed me in the doorway, he smiled and waved me in. “Your dad was just telling me about your childhood teddy collection.”