"Don't make promises you can't keep."
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Noah Reed is lost. Fed up with his constant attitude and need for self-destruction, his mother sends him to live out the rest of the year with his father in hop...
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"Noah."
I shift in my sleep, distantly hearing my name being called.
"Noah," the voice persists. I feel myself being shaken. "Noah, wake up."
I wake up groggily, finding I'm back in the hospital waiting room. I try to remember how I got here, the sleep slowly fading from my mind as memories come back. Mom had fallen asleep while we were talking, so a nurse escorted me back here so Mom could get some rest. I guess I feel asleep as well, though I have no recollection of doing so.
I yawn, looking up to find my father standing before me. He looks as tired as I feel.
"What?" I ask, wondering what happened. My heart rate spikes as I begin to worry about Mom, which rids my body of the sleepiness that had been plaguing me. "Is it Mom?" I question, sitting up too quickly. "Did something happen? Is she okay?"
"She's fine," Dad assures me. "She's sleeping. It's just, I think you should head home, son. You've been here too long, and . . ." Dad trails off. "Look, you're clearly exhausted. Go home, get some sleep in a real bed. You can come back tomorrow."
"No," I counter. "I'm not leaving. What if something happens to her? I have to be here, Dad."
"You need to go home," Dad argues. "You can't run off of no sleep, and a chair is no place to try and get some, son. If you're worried about something happening, I'll stay here. How about that? That way your mom won't be alone and I can call you if anything were to go wrong."
I shake my head, flustered. "Why don't you just go home, Dad. I can hold the fort here."
"You need sleep," Dad says softly. "Please, Noah. Go home and get some rest."
In this moment, I realize that I can no longer say my mother is the only parent who ever sacrificed something for me. Right now, my dad is giving up his chance to go home and get some sleep after almost twenty-four hours of relatively none, for me. Even after I said some pretty harsh things to him yesterday, things we still haven't had the chance to talk about.
Maybe I was wrong when I said my mother was the only person to ever love me at my darkest. Maybe my father's love has been there all along, but I was just too blind to see it.
Wordlessly, I take the house key my father extends to me, rising from the chair I sit in and heading for the front of the hospital, ready to go home to my father's house one last time before I leave for good.
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a/n: i see my girlfriend in one more day whaaaaaaaaat
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