It had been a long semester for Jeffery and he counted himself lucky for having passed all of his classes. Senior year was bad enough without all of the added stress coming from his family situation had made for an uphill battle the whole way. Less than half way into the semester bad news had started coming from home, yet again. His sister Hannah, two years younger than him, had come home at long last, after having run away for nearly a year with her boyfriend, who Jeffery had always suspected was psychologically, if not physically, abusive. If he had ever found proof of what the guy was doing he would have beaten him to within an inch of his life, but Hannah was too good at covering up for him. What finally drove her away from him, he had no idea, but her ex had left her with something. When she had come home she was nine months pregnant, ready to give birth any day.
That had done nothing for his performance in class, and when the baby was born, healthy little boy, it did nothing to put his mind at ease. He had received near daily phone calls from his mother and sister and his grades had suffered.
If not for the support of his girlfriend and fellow student, Sophie, he would have quit midway through the semester and resigned himself to yet another year of school. Thanks to her, he had managed to get through, and get home, only to arrive to more bad news. His sister had a nervous breakdown and his mother was running herself ragged between visiting Hannah in the hospital and taking care of baby Matthew.
Sophie had family troubles of her own, though hers were with her father, and she had been more than willing to come home with him to help out. She was a lifesaver, keeping everything going as it was supposed to.
Right now, he was out for a walk, at Sophie's insistence. She had told him that he had been spending far too much time inside, worrying himself, and that he needed to get out of the house for at least an hour to relax. After reassuring him that she would be fine taking care of Matthew for an hour while he was out and his mother was at the hospital with his sister.
He had to admit that the cold, winter air did wonders to clear his mind and even when it started to snow again, on top of the three inches already on the ground, he kept walking.
As he walked along, he saw something glistening in the snow. Curious, he bent down and saw that there was some sort of necklace half buried in the snow. Thinking that Sophie might like it, since it looked old and she was into odd looking old trinkets, he decided to take it back home with him. He put it in his pocket for safekeeping and headed back home.
When he got there, he let himself in. His mother was still at the hospital, and by the sound of crying, Matthew was awake.
He followed the sound to Hannah's room, which was where Sophie was sleeping for the time being, since Matthew's crib was in there and she had taken on the responsibility of caring for him. Slipping out of his coat and dropping it on the bed, he took the necklace out of his pocket and slipped it on. Focused on Matthew, Sophie never even looked at him as he took a padded nursing bra he had seen the strap of out from under the bed, the tags were still on it, indicating that his sister must have tossed it under there and forgotten it. Adjusting the straps, he put it on as best as he could and shoved his gloves in the cups.
"Is baby hungry?" he giggled.
Sophie looked at him and rolled her eyes, "No, baby needs changing, but what's that thing around your neck?"
He took off the necklace and tossed it to her, "Here, check it out. I found the thing in a snowdrift."
"Neat," she put it on as she reached for a clean diaper to put on Matthew, then shuddered, "I can tell this thing was in the snow, it's like ice."
Once she finished putting Matthew's diaper on she took off the necklace and put it in her pocket.
"I'll let it warm up before putting it back on," she explained.
"Alright, I'll get dinner ready while you take care of Matthew. he must think you're his mom by now," Jeffery said bitterly, saddened by how his sister was in the hospital while his girlfriend took care of his nephew."
Sophie, always looking on the bright side of things giggled, "As long as he thinks you're his daddy."
Despite himself, Jeffery smiled as he went to the kitchen to see what there was that he could fix for dinner.
A quick look around the kitchen revealed that he would need to go shopping tomorrow, there was next to nothing left in the house, and he usually prided himself in being able to make a good meal out of anything he could find.
In the end he managed a fairly good stir-fry out of leftover chicken, the last two carrots in the fridge, canned green beans, half a box of dried linguine noodles and some packets of soy sauce left over from the last time they had Chinese takeout, however long ago that had been. He would have liked to have done better, but Sophie was as thrilled with dinner as if he had managed to make a five course meal worthy of the best of restaurants.
He cleaned up while Sophie warmed a bottle of baby formula for Matthew, and then they all went into the living room to watch television until Matthew fell asleep, then they planned on having a bit of quality time together until his mother got home.
For a time they sat in silence, not really watching the television and not talking since there was nothing to talk about at this point that they had not already been over at least a dozen times. It would have been the breaking point for most relationships, but his connection with Sophie had only grown stronger. He considered himself lucky that he had a girlfriend who would not be driven off by how messed up his family was, though then again, he understood that her family was far from perfect as well. That was probably why they understood each other so well, both of them had long ago come to accept that no one was perfect and that a good relationship with a mostly sane person was hard to come by. As a result they knew to be happy with what good they could find in the world.
Matthew was having a bit of trouble falling asleep, according to Sophie, he had gas, though how she could tell, Jeffery had no clue.
When Matthew started crying, Sophie suggested that Jeffery go take a shower, something he was grateful for. She understood how the sound of the baby crying got him on edge, so she was willing to let him leave.
Since it was already dark out and no one else was home, Jeffery undressed as he walked to the bathroom and left his clothing in a pile on the floor, figuring that he could pick it up after he was done.
The shower proved wonderfully relaxing, and he stayed in until the hot water ran out.
Towelling himself off, he became aware of an odd tingling feeling centered on his chest, but he blamed in on staying in the shower for so long that the heat had gotten to him.
Sophie was just putting Matthew to bed when he got out and she put a finger to her lips, letting Jeffery know to keep quiet, "I just got him to bed and he spat up on me three times. I really hope you didn't use all the hot water again."
"Sorry," Jeffery winced, towel wrapped around his waist, feeling the cold air of the house cause goosebumps to rise up all over him.
"Don't worry," she sighed, "Waiting won't kill me, but when I'm done I'm probably going right to sleep. I have no clue why, but I'm totally wiped out tonight."
Jeffery nodded, realizing that he was very tired as well, though he blamed it on his walking in the cold, "Me too, I think I'll go straight to sleep."
And the instant his head touched the pillow he fell into a deep sleep.