You don't hear from your dad for a while

The two weeks since your father was discharged seemed to last forever. Between the hours of sheer boredom and dull monotony, you were sure that you were going slightly stir-crazy. Even the visits by the nurses to give you painful rehab sessions and follow up checks were a relief and the look on your face when they came in caused you endless kidding by Louise, the main nurse who handled your case. She was 43 and had a kid around your age, a girl named Taylor, that you mentioned you knew from school. She somehow became nicer to you afterwards.

Still, what was really shocking to you was that you didn't have any communication with your dad during the entire two weeks you were in there. You didn't expect her to drop in every single day but to go without even so much as a phone call or text, that was a bit much. Still, you supposed that the main thing going on in your dad's life was learning how to adjust to being a 19 year-old teenage girl and living a life that was as drastic a departure from the life of a marketing ad executive as possible.

It was nice, though, that Randall came to visit you. It was still August, before school started, and seniors were able to get their books and class assignments. He had picked yours up for you, the school having been notified about your situation and being kind enough to giving your schedule to Randall for review. It was a nice afternoon when he came in and spending a few hours talking about school, making plans on how to handle your senior year, that was a good way to distract you from the creeping loneliness that was the absence of your dad.

The next week, when you were finally realized, you found yourself wearing a brace around your torso to help your ribs heal, your left arm was in a sling, and you were somehow hobbling on a bad leg with your left foot in an air cast. Still, to be free and able to get home again, that was the major thing. It was hard to say goodbye to Louise, though, who actually had a few tears as she made sure you were ready to go. As a parting gift, she handed you an envelope and shook her head when you were about to open it. "It's for you and your lady friend. Trust me on this...mother's intuition."

You wanted to remind her what was going on but all you could find the courage to say was "thanks" meekly before you ambled into Randall's car for the drive home.

"You sure you'll be okay?" he asked as you opened the door to the house. "I can stay here for a few days to help you get settled in."

"That's okay, I know Alice is out of town for the week. Enjoy it, man."

After he shook his head at how crazy you were, making sure to extract an iron-clad promise you'd call him the moment you needed his help, Randall took off and left you in the quiet of the house. "Man...it's good to be home..." you coughed, winced, and then slowly made your way to the couch where, in a rare feat of charity, Alice had prepped for you to rest on. "Right, house?"