The sound of his father's wretching woke Jacob up ten minutes before his alarm would have, and he groaned.  Sam had always made every day brighter, made his problems seem less insurmountable just by being the kind of person she was, but with her gone there was no one to make this any better.  He crawled out of bed groggily and shuffled to the bathroom, hoping his sister wasn't awake yet.

"Dad?  Are you alright in there?" he asked gently.  His father responded by first wretching again, Jacob hoped not on the floor this time, and then by grunting.  Jacob heard the toilet flush, the faucets turn on and off again, and then the door opened.  His father, who had been leaning heavily on the door as he opened it, lost his balance and landed face first on the floor.  He cursed loudly.

"Jesus, Dad, get the hell back to bed before Cassie sees you," Jacob said distainfully.  He was so tired of the Friday morning ritual of getting his hungover father to not make scenes, and his mother wasn't ever any help, preferring the coping method of ignoring her problems until they went away.  Unfortunately for all of them they hadn't, but she was unfazed in her belief that one day life would suddenly be beautiful again and all she had to do was wait long enough.  The tranquilizers she took daily helped, too.

Jacob went downstairs to find Cassie and his mother eating breakfast, both staring dully straight ahead, neither willing to acknowledge what he knew they had both heard.  He sighed and sat, eating his breakfast in silence.  Today would be the last day it would be this bad.