There are two kinds of tired.

The kind that makes your legs ache and your eyes burn — the one you fix with bad coffee, hot showers, and ten minutes of silence in your car before you walk into the house.

And then there’s the kind that settles behind your ribs, heavy and stubborn. The kind that doesn’t care how much you sleep. The kind that comes from holding your life together with both hands and pretending it’s effortless.

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That’s the tired I was carrying the Tuesday night I ended up in that pharmacy line.

I was still in my wrinkled work shirt, tie loosened just enough to breathe. Ava insists on straightening it every morning like it’s a sacred ritual.

“You have to look neat, Daddy,” she says, tiny fingers smoothing a knot twice her fist’s size.

“And who am I to argue with you, my baby chicken?” I always answer, because that line never fails to make her giggle.

By the time evening hits, that same tie looks like it went ten rounds with a leaf blower.

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The pharmacy smelled like disinfectant and too-strong floral perfume — the kind that climbs up your nose and refuses to leave. The line was short but somehow moving in slow motion. I was half-scrolling through the girls’ school portal, checking if Nova’s art project had finally been graded, when I heard it.

Not a cry. Not a word. Just a sharp, shaky inhale — the sound of someone trying their best not to fall apart in public.

At the counter stood a young woman with a toddler on her hip. Her sweatshirt sleeves were frayed at the cuffs, and her hair was piled into a bun that had clearly lost the will to live hours ago. The little boy on her hip was flushed and damp, curls glued to his forehead. His eyes had that glassy, exhausted look that comes after too much crying.

She slid her card across the counter with both hands, murmuring something into his hair.

The scanner beeped.

Declined.

She didn’t move at first. She just stood there very still, like if she froze, maybe reality would reverse and give her a do-over. Then her shoulders slumped, and her face folded in on itself — not dramatic, not loud, just… defeated.

She ran the card again.

“No. No, no… please,” she whispered. “I need this. He needs this. He can’t wait.”

The pharmacist looked like she could fall asleep standing up, but her expression softened.

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“I’m sorry, ma’am,” she said gently. “The prescription’s valid, but your insurance is maxed out. Without coverage or payment, I can’t release insulin.”

“It’s exhausted,” the woman said, and you could hear something in her crack. She held her son closer as tears slid silently down her cheeks. The little boy burrowed his fingers into her sweatshirt and tucked his face into her neck, like he’d learned this posture the hard way.