I could hear the doctors whispering something about thirty days. My guess was that after thirty days they were going to take her off the breathing tube and everything to see if she lived or not. I hoped I was wrong. Austin was almost done with his tour, but could not come back soon enough. I talked to him every day and every time he had threatened to come back early. I always refused. I had just sat down at the spot on the rock that Austin had showed me when my mom's nurse called, so I headed back down to the hospital.

...

"Hello, Emily," the doctor said with a sad smile, "unfortunately I have some bad news for you." I frowned, "You may have heard people talking about thirty days, right? Well, it is a policy this hospital has. If a person doesn't wake up or have any movements that express life in thirty days after going into a coma like sleep, with the permission of a family member, we will unplug the machines and if she can survive, she will."

"And if she doesn't?" By this point all of the hope that I had been holding onto was gone.

"Then she doesn't, but we are staying hopeful. I'm so sorry that it has come to this, but we knew that the surgery would have its risks and your mother chose to do it anyway. Unfortunately, since you are her only known family member, you have to decide if we proceed with the thirty day policy. The thirty day deadline is in roughly four days." She was struggling to make eye contact with me since I refused to raise my head. It was as if she had never delivered bad news before.

I gave a little chuckle; 'deadline' was such an appropriate word to use in this situation. "Did you know that the deadline will be on my eighteenth birthday?" I finally looked up to meet her gaze. She looked as if she were going to break down in tears. How does she think I feel?

"No. I'm so sorry Emily."

"For my birthday I am receiving a life alone." I gave a nervous laugh, "She would never want to burden me with this, but I don't think this is what she meant when she told me that I should spend more time out being an adult." I sighed, "She was always one to follow policies, so I guess I should let you do what you do best."

"I'm sorry, Emily." This whole week, no, month was just a pile of crap being thrown at my face.

I stepped out of the room to get some air. Did I really just agree to let my mom die? She always has that slight chance of living, but so far hope hasn't worked out so well with her situation. My phone rang, it was Austin. I couldn't talk to him right now, so I just let it ring. He tried again, but I still wouldn't pick up. He tried five more times before he finally gave up. I took a deep breath. Then Sophie called.

"Hey, Soph, what's up?" My voice was barely a whisper.

"It's Austin. I thought you might be avoiding me so I went over to Sophie's and she let me use her phone please don't hang up." He was talking pretty fast and I must admit that it was kinda cute. It was a nice distraction from this pretty awful moment. "I thought all was okay between us."

"It's not that, trust me. Honestly I didn't even want to pick up the phone for Soph." I know it's pretty sad, but it's true.

"Then what is it?"

"You know the thirty day thing I told you about?"

"Yea."

"Well I was sort of right about it. They are going to unplug the machines in four days, and I had to okay it."

"Did you?"

"I had to. It's hospital policy and you know how my mom always followed policies." It was pretty annoying how I had to follow a few rules for my mother just because she always had before, but what else are you supposed to do for your family? I can't let her suffer any longer.

"Oh, Em. I'm coming over there right now, and Soph you're coming with me." I heard a muffled 'where?' in the background that must've been Sophie. He hung up and I knew he would be here as soon as possible.

....

When they showed up I was still sitting outside of my mom's room. Sophie had a teddy bear and a milkshake that she handed to me, "Em, why didn't you tell me this was going on?" She asked. She sounded almost hurt that I had kept her in the dark about this.

"I didn't want to bother you with any of it."

"So that's why you cancelled on me for everything. I thought you were just blowing me off. I should have checked on you. I'm so sorry." She gave me a big hug which almost caused me to spill the milkshake. "Austin told me that the deadline is in four days, but that's your birthday so that can't be it." She was holding the teddy bear in front of my face and pretending that it was the one that was talking. I just lightly pushed it out of the way.

"Wait, that's your birthday?" Austin interrupted, "They have to push it back at least a couple of days now, right? They can't just do that!" He was getting all fired up. He looked like he was about to do something foolish.

"It's okay, Austin. I haven't really celebrated my birthday in the past two years. She could never remember anyway until a couple days after. I always celebrated it on the twentieth instead of the sixteenth anyway."

"Still, now you'll remember your birthday as this moment forever. You can't do that." It was nice that Austin was trying to help, but he didn't understand it; any of it.

"They won't let me push it back, but they will let me move it forward and I don't want to do that either. Really, guys, I'm okay."

"You say you're okay, but we know you're not." Sophie chimed in, "Take the next week off, school starts soon anyway."

"Thanks, Soph."

"Don't mention it. Sisters before Misters. No offense, Austin."

"None taken." He kissed my cheek; he was shaking slightly, "That just means that I get to spend more time with this one anyway. I can take some time off and stay with you. I hope you don't mind the company." I could tell that he still wasn't completely comfortable with me like this yet, but I needed the company. He didn't know if I would blow or not and, hey, we were all making sacrifices.

"I would love you to stay, both of you, but I don't want to leave her side and, at the same time, I want to be anywhere else." I had nowhere else to go anyway.

"I think I can fix that." Sophie brought out a few items from her purse. "I have movies and a book so it would feel like you are somewhere else, I bought decorations, so that you can make it look like anywhere else, or you could be anywhere else and have these cameras in the room that you can look at anytime you want to."

"You just happened to bring cameras?" Austin smiled.

"I never leave home without them. You never know when you'll need a camera." They were both laughing at this. Even though I hadn't left my spot on the floor I was already feeling better.

"Thanks, guys, for everything." I was glad for their company. It helped me feel a little better, which could mean the world in a situation like mine.

"It's no problem, Em."

"Yea, don't mention it. Sisters for life, man." Soph added.

Sophie pulled me into a tight hug and then Austin joined in to make an Em sandwich. I felt protected, cared for, and, most importantly, loved. I had no idea what I would do without them.