Blue Eyes | 5sos

Twenty-eight

(not proofread)

..

Two days later
Carson

I would rather be anywhere than sitting here listening to my mom ramble on about random sh*t. From the way she was slurring her words and falling over, I could tell she was drunk.

Truthfully, it was surprising that the nurses had even allowed her into my room in her current state.

"Carson? Are you even fucking listening?"

"Yea, Mom.."

"You're not thinking about that stupid father of yours, are you?"

"No," I said, hiding my eye roll.

That was another thing she was doing that was honestly aggravating me. She was keeping him from seeing me, and every time I asked her about it, she would deny it. She stated that he was just busy visiting his patients, but I knew that wasn't true since Luke had told me he had taken time off work to be with me.

My mind was confused with everything, and I was starting to feel some gravitational pull towards Luke.

Since the overdose, it was like something had awakened in me, and I realized that my father wasn't as bad as I originally pinned him to be.

Ever since the two of us hugged a few days ago when I first woke up, I realized that I didn't want to live like this anymore.

I wanted to be free of the addiction and the fear of overdosing ever again.

But the one person I truly needed to make that happen was forbidden to see me, per my mom's instructions.

"Carson," my mom said, sounding furious and knocking me out of my thoughts. She roughly grabbed my face by my cheeks and turned it to force me to look at her. "Are you even fucking listening to me? You're just like your dumbass father!"

"Hey!"

My eyes glanced over to the door that had just been opened, and I saw Ashton standing there, his eyes glued to where my mom grasped my face. He looked furious.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to my patient?"

My mom's mouth was agape. "Dr. Irwin, we weren't expecting you."

Her hand immediately dropped from my face, and I shied away from her.

This was the first time she was physical with me; usually, it was Ralph grabbing me and not my mom, but today she grabbed me, and I wanted nothing more than to be away from her.

I wanted my dad.

Luke.

"Ms. Everdeen," Ashton spoke, and he stepped further into the room. "I'm going to have to ask you to step out, or I will be forced to call security."

"What?" My mother laughed humorously. She was surely intoxicated. "You can't do that; she's my fucking daughter."

"You just grabbed her face. I'm not going to have you in here stressing out my patient while she recovers."

"You can't just kick me out," my mother argued back, raising her hands. I thought she was going to hit him. "I'm her fucking mother!"

"Miss Everdeen, you cannot be here intoxicated, so I am respectfully asking you to leave before I have to call security, and you will be escorted out of the building."

My mother gave no verbal response but did, however, roll her eyes and head towards the door, not without throwing a warning glare in my direction.

She was pissed.

And for the first time, I felt terrified of my mother.

Thanks, Ash. I smiled and relaxed once my mother had left the room.

"You're welcome, sweetheart. Now let me see that face. He gently took my cheeks in each of his hands and turned my head from side to side, his thumbs brushing over the spot where my mom grabbed me. There would probably be a small bruise later on.

I'm sure he was just being overly dramatic and there wasn't any real injury, but it did bring me comfort and happiness to know that he, my dad, and the rest of his friends genuinely cared for me.

They genuinely loved me.

"I want Luke," I sobbed into Ashton's shoulder. "Please get my dad."

"He's already on his way, love.

I was grateful that Ashton allowed me to stay in this position and continued to hug and comfort me.

"Carson!" I heard the door fling open, and I untucked my head from Ashton's shoulder, looking up to see my dad standing there. "Oh god, Carson. He was crying.

His hair looked disheveled, and there were bags with dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, and I wondered if it was because he hadn't seen me.

But my mom had told me that he was too busy to visit me, so why would he be crying when he found out that I was okay? I knew we hadn't seen each other in two days, but I didn't think he'd react like this.

Suddenly, everything clicked and made sense. My mom had manipulated both myself and Luke, making us both believe that neither of us wanted to see the other when that truly wasn't the case.

I felt myself get emotional, and my eyes welled with tears as well. "Dad," I cried and pulled away from Ashton completely, reaching my arms out towards Luke instead.

He rushed over and completely enveloped me in his own.

For the first time since I'd been with him this past month, I felt at peace. The pure contentment and love I felt from this one minuscule moment with Luke

He pulled away and looked at my face, rubbing his thumb over the red mark on the right side of my cheek. "What happened, pretty girl?"

"It's nothing." I didn't want him to freak out that my mom had done this to me, and I was sure that Ashton would more than likely fill him in later.

"Wait, did you call me dad?"

"Yeah, is that okay? I won't if you don't like it."

"No, no, it's perfectly fine," he smiled. "I just wasn't expecting you to do it so soon. You seem to hate me most of the time."

I smiled back. "Well, maybe I realized you're not so bad."

His eyes started welling up with tears again, so I took the initiative to hug him this time.

"Hey, Luke... I mean, hey, dad?"

"Hm?"

"I want to get better."