24 Feel Better Pancakes

The next morning, Emily decided to do something nice for someone else to shake off her gloomy mood. She whipped up a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and headed up to apartment 405.

Justin's bleary-eyed roommate didn't say a word, just left the door open before going back to bed. She blushed. It was before nine on the weekend. Was Justin even awake? She carefully knocked on his bedroom door.

"Justin? It's Emily. I wanted to see if you were feeling any better so I made you breakfast."

He laughed weakly from under the covers. "So are these Apology Pancakes?"

Setting down the plate, she crossed her arms over her chest. "What do I have to apologize for?"

"You did land on me when I was already hurt."

She had forgotten about that. But it was his own fault for lying on the ground in the dark!

"Let's just call them Feel Better Pancakes."

"That works. I can't exactly sit up though…" Justin confessed, embarrassed.

"Why not?"

"Doctor's orders. I'm supposed to stay here in the dark until I feel better. I've already passed out and thrown up in the last twenty-four hours. I had to promise so that they'd even let me go. I hate hospitals."

"You can't eat lying down!"

"Not unless I don't use any syrup and roll them up like a burrito," he said matter-of-factly.

The image of him eating a burrito pancake cracked Emily up. "Okay, I've got to see you do that at least once."

He groaned. "Seriously?"

"Hey, I made you pancakes."

"Fine." Still on his back, Justin took a pancake and rolled it up before taking a bite. "That's…really good. I might not need syrup after all."

She smiled. "I used my mom's secret. Adding a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream to the milk makes them really good even from a mix."

He swallowed quickly before replying. "I never would have guessed these were from a mix. I've had pancakes at restaurants that are just like these."

"We could do a side-by-side comparison test taste where I blindfold you and have you guess which is which."

He turned to look at her and winced. His head must still hurt. "Are you messing with me?"

It had started out that way but seeing the incredulous look on his face she was tempted to do it for real and video the whole thing to laugh at later. "I'm serious, it'd be funny."

"Alright, just let me know when. My schedule is pretty flexible. You know, when I'm not stuck in bed."

As Justin finished up his burrito pancakes Emily looked around his room. He had mentioned how impersonal it was before but she was still surprised to see the only thing that identified who it belonged to.

The picture frame. She saw who appeared to be his parents, a couple of little girls, his cat, and…Samantha. She was in three of the pictures.

In one, they looked fairly young. It was a group shot at the beach that included who appeared to be Justin's parents, another woman, and several kids.

Samantha's arm was around Justin's shoulder and she had a gap-toothed grin. He had sand in his hair and did not look happy.

The next picture was a selfie of a younger Samantha with two little girls squishing their faces together as they made weird expressions. The third one got to her most: Samantha was blowing a bubble with bubblegum onto Justin's cheek as he pulled a disgusted face.

"She must be really important to you to make it into this frame," Emily commented.

"Huh?" Justin asked, his mouth full of pancake.

"Samantha. She's in more of these pictures than anyone."

"She's probably my best friend," he admitted. "She annoys me constantly but I don't know what I'd do without her."

Emily laughed. "I can see that. You don't look happy in either of those pictures."

He sighed. "She tried to bury me in a hole she'd dug at the beach and that's how I got all sandy. You ever been covered in sand? It's itchy and is impossible to get off.

"As for the other one, she bet me five dollars she could blow a bubble bigger than her face. That was her revenge when she lost and my mom happened to have her phone out and took the picture."

"You grew up together?"

"Sort of. Our moms are really close so even though her family lived a couple hours away we still saw them several times a year."

"So I'm guessing those other girls are her sisters," Emily mused. They all grew up together but he chose Samantha.

"Yeah, Lily and Kaitlyn. They didn't hang out with us as much because they're a lot younger."

Emily went quiet for a while as she absorbed all of the information she'd heard. This was the most Justin had ever talked about himself around her. And it was all about another girl. Why did that feel strange?

"Speaking of Samantha, we wanted to go to dinner together to make up for the laser tag thing. When does she leave?"

"Next Sunday."

"Hmm…I'm working Friday and Saturday nights. What if we did lunch on Saturday?" she asked.

"That should work but I'll double check with her and get back to you."

He looked tired and in pain, though slightly less pale after eating the pancakes. "I'll leave you alone now. Get some sleep."

"I will. Thanks for breakfast." He gave her a sweet smile before closing his eyes.

Emily quietly shut the door behind her and crept back to her apartment after locking the door behind her. That was the first time she saw Justin without his glasses on.

He looked even more tired than usual without the frames to hide his eyebags. The thought made her sad. Justin was always so worn out these days.