You're My Way Home, You're My Backbone.

The sound of the front door slamming shut and who sounded like Jon yelling ‘sorry, the wind caught it!” startled Brendon awake. At first he was confused by the noise and where he was from being snapped out of sleep all of a sudden, but slowly his mind caught up.

It took a while for Brendon to wake up enough to finally stumble of out the bed and out of the room. Treading carefully, he let his hand skim the wall of the hallway for extra balance as he headed for the kitchen, licking his dry lips.

Below his knee the area of the lump felt tight, like if someone had grabbed the group muscles in his sleep and tied a knot in it. It was annoying, he realised, more than anything. It wasn’t the nicest thing to wake up to almost every day but it was better than the pain, it could be worse.

Just as he turned into the kitchen doorway Brendon sighed pushing himself off the wall and shuffled into the room where he could hear Spencer talking quietly.

Sitting on top of the kitchen table Spencer gazed up as Brendon walked into the room. Brendon smiled softly and walked past him being quiet as he could. He was only halfway across the room when Spencer gestured for his attention, placing the phone against his shoulder after asking the person on the line to wait a minute.

“Did the door wake you?”

“Yeah. It’s okay though.” Brendon shrugged turning to the cupboards. “I had to get up sometime.”

“The wind caught it,” Spencer explained. “Ryan went back to his place for a few hours. Jon went with him by the way.”

Brendon nodded as picked up the first glass he saw and filled it up with water. Spencer lifted the phone back up to his ear continuing his previous conversation. Brendon could hear a faint murmur from the mobile as the other person talked. It sounded a little like Pete but was too hard to tell.

Stepping back from the sink, Brendon yelped, letting the glass slip from his hand and land on the ground, amazingly without shattering. White hot pain like venom shot up under his kneecap, then all the way down to his foot through the bones. What felt like fire rippled under his skin seconds later, making everything weak enough for his knee to buckle underneath his weight.

Brendon reached out for the bench to stop his fall but his fingers didn’t grip. He fell backwards landing square on his tail bone on the lino flooring. Brendon groaned loudly as another shot of pain raced up his spine into his neck.

Brendon heard a gasp behind him followed by a small clutter that echoed throughout the room.

“Shit, are you okay?” Spencer gasped jumping down from the table.

Brendon winced when he tried to move and whimpered quietly when another stab of hot pain raced down his leg. Spencer lightly kicked the glass out of his way and kneeled down holding Brendon in a sitting position.

“What happened?”

“I-My leg. It was that sharp pain again.” Brendon grunted. “Fuck, I landed on my tail bone too.”

Squeezing his eyes shut Brendon took a deep breath. The pain that was in his leg, as per usual, vanished pretty quickly leaving his leg feel like it was asleep, like he had been sitting on it for too long, but the pain in his back didn’t go anywhere. Spencer moved one arm around Brendon’s waist attempting to lift him up.

“Ouch! Wait, not yet,” Brendon gasped, snapping his eyes open. “Just wait a minute.”

Spencer nodded and shifted to be sitting on the ground besides Brendon, still supporting his back. Brendon smiled a bit shaky in thanks and took a few deep breaths.

This was his second time landing on his tail bone this month from the exact same thing. The only difference was that he fell in Spencer’s kitchen this time instead of his bedroom and he didn’t have a bedside table that cut his arm on the way down.

“I’m getting really sick of falling over or almost going ass up.” Brendon sighed.

“I could ask Ryan if he has any bubble wrap.” Spencer suggested.

Brendon laughed weakly. Suddenly there was a noise in the room that wasn’t from either of them that sounded like talking, though very faint. Spencer’s eyes widened and he turned around reaching for his phone that had rolled under the table when he jumped down to help Brendon. It was a bit of a stretch but he managed to reach it without moving his arm from Brendon’s waist.

“Sorry! Something happened and I had to put the phone down.” Spencer quickly apologised.

Brendon stayed quiet where he sat and looked around the room. That was when he noticed that his legs were resting in the spilt water causing him to frown. He didn’t have any spare clothes with him because he hadn’t actually planned on spending the night, he just happened to fall asleep during one the movies the guys were watching and didn’t awake until morning.

Brendon spotted a tea-towel resting on the bench and leant forward very carefully until his finger tips brushed the fabric. He gave the towel a pull, just enough for it to fall onto his legs so he could use it to mop up the mess. His track pants looked like they had cleaned up most of the water already though.

“Brendon had a bit of a fall- No, he’s fine. He just landed a little hard,” Spencer said shaking his head though the person on the line could not see him doing it. “He’s fine.”

Spencer looked at Brendon and mouthed ‘Pete’. Brendon pointed to the phone and waved.

“Bren says hello.” Spencer laughed and pulled the phone away from his ear suddenly. “I think by that racket Pete said hello back.”

Brendon smiled and screwed the tea-towel into a ball, throwing in into the sink. He winced at the movement and settled back into Spencer’s hold. Brendon didn’t made another move for a while until Spencer was ending the phone call, saying a short goodbye and reassuring that, yes, Brendon was fine.

“I think I’m good to move now,” Brendon said one Spencer put the phone up on the table. “Were you talking to Pete about the band?”

“Yeah, he said he’ll get what he can sorted for us,” Spencer shifted so he was crouching on his feet. “He also said good luck and to keep him notified or else he’ll won’t stop calling until your phone explodes.”

Brendon wrapped an arm around Spencer’s shoulders and braced his other hand on the floor. He took a deep breath and nodded, clenching his eyes closed.

With a loud groan Brendon got pulled back up onto his feet. His back cracked loud enough to make them both wince at the loudness of it. Brendon stumbled a little on his feet before Spencer tightened his arm, holding him still. Times like these he was happy one of his friends was bigger than him, if only by a little bit.

Brendon tested putting weight on his bad leg, nothing happen, no pain. There was a dull ache at the bottom of his spine though and a soggy wet patch of fabric sticking to the skin of his ankles.

“You good?”

“Yeah. My ass hurts though, but my leg is fine now.” Brendon said a little off hand. “Maybe I should wrap my ass up in bubble wrap after all.”

Spencer snorted a laugh as he helped Brendon into the lounge room. They shuffled carefully around the furniture until they got to the couch, where Spencer helped Brendon sit down. Before Brendon could get his mouth around the words ‘thank you’ Spencer pushed him back into the seat and placed his legs up, feet resting on a bunch of cushions.

Brendon blinked surprised and let a slow smile pull at his lips.

“Thank you.”

“No problem,” Spencer smiled, standing back up. “Now, if I get you another glass of water, will you spill this one too?” He joked lightly.

Shaking his head, Brendon laughed and tried to slap Spencer’s leg, but Spencer stepped out of arm’s reach and walked back to the kitchen. The sound of glass clinking followed.

Brendon looked away from the kitchen doorway and up at the ceiling letting out a deep breath.

Bring up a hand to his face, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

He was really, really honestly sick of falling over or coming very close to it. Before all this, Brendon had excellent balance, always had, and now because of a lump on his leg it was shot to pieces because of a bit of pain. Brendon hoped that when the tumour was removed the pain will go with it, never to come back again.

Brendon moved his hand away from his face the same time Spencer walked back into the room, glass of water in hand. He set it down on the coffee table within arm’s reach of the couch.

“Thanks.”

Spencer smiled sitting down on the other couch. He looked over at Brendon and let his smile face, worry taking over.

“Are you sure that you’re alright?” Spencer asked frowning. “That fall was a bit nasty.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Seriously, thanks for helping me.”

“Any time, what are friends for?” Spencer said, his smile returning.

Brendon couldn’t help mirroring the image.