It killed her. But she didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t ready and at the pace that her world was currently going in, she didn’t know if she would ever be.

Her troubled thoughts made sleep come a lot harder than it usually did. The humid night didn’t do much to help either but eventually, the youngest Carlin fell into a fitful sleep.

* HONK * “Come on Spence we’re gonna be late!” Ashley yelled from the window of her car.

Spencer stuck her head out of her bedroom window and giggled, “As if you actually care about being late for school.”

“Are you kidding me? I love getting to school early to watch all those half asleep idiots nearly crash into each other in the parking lot. Now let’s go woman!”

Smiling, the younger girl went back in her room and grabbed her backpack along with her ipod. Her hair was still wet from her early morning shower and it created a wet spot on the back of her blue t-shirt. As she jumped the last three steps she looked up to see her father bent over the sink, pouring various bottles of alcohol down the drain.

Arthur’s eyes looked up and locked onto those of his only daughter, a relieved looking smile playing on her lips that soon caused a smile of his own. “New day, fresh start.” he said as he tossed the empty bottle into the recycling bin.

Overjoyed would be an understatement to what Spencer felt at that moment. Standing there in that kitchen, was her father, not the man who was drinking away his pain for the past few weeks, but the strong proud man that was her constant pillar of strength.

She rushed over to him and embraced him in a warm hug. “I missed you dad.”

Arthur wrapped his arms around her and fought off the onset of tears, “I know honey. I promise I’m not going anywhere ever again.” He pulled away from his daughter to see tears sliding down her face past her brilliant smile. Sniffling, he used his thumb to wipe them and away and patted Spencer on the shoulder. “Come on. You’ve got school and Ashley sounds like she’s ready to drive through the front door.”