“Dilara?”
The voice belonged to my mother, the voice that drifted past the barriers of my tiredness and called to me. When I looked up from the place where I was sitting at the bottom of the staircase, she was steadily making her way towards me. Even though my fog clouded brain, I was able to see that she was just as tired as I was, that she was practically sleeping on her feet, but here she was, still making her way towards me.
“Yes, mum?”
“You should go to sleep. You don’t need to stay down here until everyone leaves.”
“But it would be rude if I—”
“You’re a guest too, Dilara. You’re allowed to leave whenever you want to—even though leaving just requires you to go upstairs.”
My mother sat down besi
