Running on Insulin

Chapter 37

Tyler's POV

I'd found Samantha curled up on the forest floor near the fence. When I carried her back to the house she still wouldn't talk. But she'd been crying.

Jenna managed to get her to talk after she'd had a good cry. It hadn't been that bad a day for her, one stupid kid and one who clearly wanted to be friends. Samantha was back to her old negative talk about herself. Still thinking she was stupid and unworthy of anything fun or good.

We all encouraged her that she could catch up with her class and for a second I saw a look of determination in her eyes. But in a flash it was gone and her face fell just slightly. I knew she was thinking that she was "too stupid" to catch up.

After she finished her snack, Jenna asked again if she had any homework. She said she did and went upstairs to do it. I decided I'd leave her for a bit, then go check in on her. Just to let her know we believed in her and see if she was okay.

Jenna sighed as she got the fish ready to put in the oven and started cutting up a salad. She kept looking towards the stairs.

"She's going to be okay," I said.

"I hope so," Jenna said.

"We'll work with her. So will Dr Freud. Look, you know how low and dark I've been. And I've come out of it. Samantha will too. We just need to be patient."

"I know," Jenna said. "I just hate how hard she is on herself."

While Jenna cut up a salad, I cleaned the broccoli for her and chopped it up into bite size pieces.

"I'm going to go check on Samantha," I said.

I went upstairs and saw Samantha's door wasn't closed all the way. I knocked still, before pushing the door open. Samantha was sitting at her desk with a textbook open in front of her. She jumped and turned around quickly when I pushed open the door. Her hands were up, shielding herself.

"Hey," I said. "Sorry if I startled you. Just came up to see how the homework is going."

I watched as her body relaxed.

"It's okay," she said with a sigh. "Turns out I did the unit in math at my old school, and we were just starting the unit we're doing now in science. PE isn't something you catch up in and I'll probably finish the book for English tonight. Social studies is social studies. I'll just read the chapter on the Bill of Rights because that's what we were discussing in class today."

"Need any help with anything?" I asked.

"I don't think so," she said. "Not yet, anyway. It's just reading and some questions from the texts."

"Okay. Dinner will probably be ready by six. I'll call you when it's ready, okay?"

"Okay," Samantha said, turning back to her homework.

"Just give a shout if you need anything," I said, leaving the room and leaving her door ajar.

"Uh huh," she muttered, chewing on the end of her pencil.

I went back downstairs and into the living room.

"All good?" Josh asked. Jenna looked over from the kitchen.

"Seems to be. She's working on her homework, seems to be okay, and other than being jumpy when I went into her room, she's fine," I said.

Josh and I played some video games for a while and Jenna put the rice on to cook before putting the fish in the oven and the broccoli on to steam.

"Ty," Jenna said. "Can you let Samantha know it's dinner time?"

"I'll get her," Josh said. He was trying so hard to let her know he did like her. I think she was warming up to him a bit.

Josh came down a few minutes later.

"Where's Sam?"

"She'll be down in a minute. I scared her. I don't know how, but I scared her. I knocked on her door before I went in. I even said 'knock knock', and she jumped like I'd shouted 'Boo' at her. She's jumpy."

"Yeah. She jumped when I went in before too," I said.

Sam came downstairs a minute or so later.

"You okay, kiddo?" I asked her.

She nodded.

"I'm so sorry I scared you, Sam," Josh said to her, moving towards her. She shrank back.

"Sam, what's the matter?" I asked. She shook her head. I looked over at Jenna who shrugged. This was new.

"Sam, can you come give me a hand? Set the table for dinner?" Jenna asked.

Samantha went into the kitchen and got our plates and cutlery.

"Josh, what exactly did you do when you went up there?" I asked quietly.

"Nothing. I swear. I just knocked on her door, pushed it open and said hello. I swear. I didn't even touch her. She jumped like a mile in the air and made like I was going to come hit her. I didn't even leave the doorway."

"She did the same when I went up there. But she calmed down right away."

Josh shrugged and then nodded at me to indicate Samantha and Jenna were coming into the dining room.

"Ty," Jenna said. "Can you go grab the rice and broccoli. Sam, you have your insulin and test kit?"

Samantha nodded and took the kit out of her hoodie and tested her sugar. Jenna watched and Samantha started calculating.

"How many units?" Jenna asked her quietly.

"Eleven," she said quietly, slowly turning the dial on her insulin pen. "There's only nine in this pen."

"Okay. I'll grab another from the fridge," Jenna said.

"It's okay. Nine will be fine. I just won't have dressing on my salad," Sam said.

"I've already put dressing on the salad, and you don't have to worry about using insulin, honey. Okay? I promise. It's okay."

"It's only two units. It's okay. Insulin's expensive."

"Samantha, honey," I said. "You need the right amount of insulin. And we have it here for you. It's okay. We're happy to buy it to keep you healthy."

"But I'm not even on your insurance. It's a fortune." Samantha said, tears forming in her eyes.

"That's not something you need to worry about, okay? I promise. It's okay. We're going to protect you and that includes making sure you take the right amount of insulin. We want you to stay healthy. And we want you to live a long and healthy life. And if that means buying new pens every day, we'll do that."

Jenna came back with the second pen.

"It's really cold. Can you use it cold?"

"Yeah," Samantha said. "It'll burn a little but it's fine."

"Why don't you give yourself the nine units from that pen, and I'll hold this one to warm up a bit."

Samantha gave herself the nine units, but struggled to take those last two from the new pen.

Once she did, we served dinner.