Until you call again. (Complete)

Promises.

I've never in my life seen him so broken.

I've said this too many times, he's the strongest person I know.

Someone could literally cut off his leg and he'll just smile and say, 'it's ok, it was a mistake'. That's how bad it was.

It's extremely rare to see him tearing up in pain, so rare that I don't even know what to do or say to him to make him feel better as it almost never happens.

I enter the house that's now become my second home and immediately make my way into his bedroom. I know there are people around but I don't even bother to go and greet them. My friend needs me and I need to be there for him.

I enter his bedroom and it looks even worse than I thought it ever would. He's laying flat on the bed with his legs facing the headboard and his head by the edge of the bed. He looks so defeated. I want more than anything to take his pain away.

He doesn't even bother to look up when I come in but I know he knows it's me because he doesn't chase me out. His dad said he hasn't been allowing people in his room since they'd gotten the news.

I proceed to sit on his bed and let him put his head on my thighs as I stroke his face gently. He's not even crying anymore. He's just staring at nothing, numb. My heart breaks for him.

Tristan's mother has battled with breast cancer almost all her life. They'd caught it at its earliest stage and they were able to kill it off with a few rounds of chemotherapy.

Since then, she'd gone to see an oncologist once a year for check ups. Her recent visit hadn't been that great because it was back, and worse than ever.

It was now at its mature stage and they needed to cut the tumors out so she'd had a double mastectomy done.

When Tristan found out about the cancer being back he'd been heart broken, but he remained positive for his mother. He knew the last thing she'd wanted was to see him fall apart so he'd remained strong, for her.

Thankfully that was hardly a hard thing to do for him.

But then tests were run after she'd had surgery and they'd found that the tumor had metastasized to other parts of the body and had now become lethal.

They gave his mother only a few months to live.

If you know Tristan, you know the relationship he has with his mother. You know that she's the most important person in his life.

When he'd heard the cancer had come back, he'd known they were just going to fight it again, just like they had in the past. His mother was strong.

But what he would never accept is defeat. He could never accept that there was nothing that could be done to save his mother.

So he'd spent days just drowning in his sorrow while his mother laid in hospital.

I go back home later that day after comforting him and making sure he was eating right.

One of the many charitable things Aunty Maggie does is help out at the children's oncology center and so I've been there a few times.

There is a research department where they are always running trials for various cancer treatments for prospective patients.

I don't tell Tristan about it as I don't want to put his hopes high, but I instead tell his father. They need to run tests on Mrs Brady to see if she'll qualify for one of the trials they are currently running.

His father welcomes the idea and without wasting time, tests are ran on Mrs Brady and just as we'd hoped, she's the perfect candidate.

I ask Tristan's dad to let me tell him the potential good news.

He's still a mess but he's slowly accepting his mother's fate. We have a seat in his living room and I hold his hand with my two hands.

I smile and he looks at me like I'm crazy,

"I don't want you to have any crazy expectations," I start. "But I think we might have found a way to save your mom," I see the confusion in his eyes so I continue,

"You know the kid's Oncology Centre Aunty Maggie helps out at?" He shakes his head and I continue.

"Well they run trials and there's a specific one they haven't necessarily tested out yet because it's for breast cancer and kids don't really get that often. It's been tried out in different countries and there are probably risks laced in it but..." he doesn't let me finish before he stands up and carries me on his shoulder as I cry for him to put me down.

He eventually does put me down after a while and I make it a point to say, "Tristan, this might not work. It's honestly a long shot." I say to him honestly.

The reason it's not universally approved is because of its many risks.

He looks at me and says, "I'd rather her die fighting to live than just give up." I'm shocked at the bluntness but I'm satisfied with his answer.

I tell him that we've ran tests on his mother and that she's the perfect candidate and that seems to even make him more excited.

Fast forward to two months later. Mrs Brady has done a few cycles of treatment and she's responding to it positively. The new oncologist she was now seeing says that it's because she's a fighter. That's hardly news.

We sit right next to her at the children's oncology center every week for her treatment. It's a pediatric oncology and they don't treat people older than sixteen but Aunty Maggie had pulled some strings to help make that happen.

A few more months later, we're all in sitting in Tristan's backyard just eating and celebrating Mrs Brady's final win against cancer.

The chances of the cancer coming back after that treatment are almost next to zero and those are really great chances we'll gladly accept.

Later that evening, Tristan takes my hand to lead me to his dirty childhood treehouse that I absolutely hate.

He ignores my objections as we struggle our way up there. It now looks worse than it did before and I still wonder why his family still allow him to keep it.

After making it inside it, I put my two fingers on my nose to block out the horrible smell as we now come out the wooded balcony and have a seat on the dirty floor. I decide to forgive him this one time because I'm in a good mood.

We sit there just staring at the night's sky in a comfortable silence. The moon is out today and it's surrounded by an infinite number of stars. It's a beautiful night.

"Nugget," he then starts, holding on to my hand for dear life. "I don't even know how to start to thank you right now." I shake my head to make him stop but he continues nonetheless.

"You literally saved my mother's life. You saved my life. I don't know how I could ever thank you enough." He finishes.

"Do you know how many times you saved my life? I don't know, that's how many. You've saved my life so many times that I can't even count.
But that's what friends are for. Friends are supposed to be there for each other no matter what." I finish and he looks at me to say,

"I don't know what I'd ever do without you."

"I promise you you'll never have to find out."