Running on Insulin

Chapter 74

Samantha and Brendon continued to play Fortnite while Josh started getting things together for the party he'd planned.  Throughout the day he'd gotten notifications from people who were coming as they arrived in town. 

Pete and Patrick said they were going to come to the house around six, which we said was perfect, because that would give Samantha more time with Brendon and Zack and Sarah and Kala.

Gerard said he was going to come around seven, if we didn't mind, and Josh told him that was perfect.

At pretty much six o'clock, the doorbell rang and Samantha's head shot up.

"Sam, come meet Pete and Patrick," I said. She looked over at Brendon who winked at her and nodded.

"Go," Brendon said. "You'll like them. They're good guys."

Samantha got up and came over to me. She sort of hid behind me, but not as much as she had at the prison. She was just slightly behind me.

"Hey!" Pete said as he walked in the door. He looked at Samantha and wrapped her in a hug.

"OW!" she exclaimed, and Pete jumped back.

"Sorry. What did I do?" he asked.

"Samantha has a couple of broken ribs. She took on a bully."

Samantha had run upstairs.

"She's also extremely shy," I said. "You might have come on a little strong."

"Oh, shit. I'm sorry," Pete said.

"I'm just going to go upstairs and talk with her. She'll be okay."

I said hello to Patrick quickly, then went upstairs.  Jenna had already gone upstairs. Samantha was sitting on her bed hugging her knees, while Jenna was sitting beside her and talking to her.

"Hey baby girl," I said, sitting down beside her. "You okay?"

"I'm okay. I'm sorry," she said.

"No, no. Don't be sorry. Pete didn't know about your ribs, and he's a real big hugger. He didn't know that when we said take it slow, we meant actually take it slow. He's a really great guy. But if you need some more time, that's totally okay."

"I think I'm okay," Samantha said. "He just kind of, I dunno. Overwhelmed me?"

"Fair," I said. "If you're sure, we can head down and you can meet Pete and Patrick properly, okay?"

Samantha nodded and looked at Jenna, who smiled at her and nodded as well.

We went back downstairs and Patrick came up to us.

"Let's try it this way," he said, smiling at Samantha. "Hi, I'm Patrick. I'm a friend of your dad's"

Samantha startled for a second and grabbed my hand.

"Y-you know my d-dad?"

"Tyler. Yeah. I know Tyler," Patrick said. Samantha visibly relaxed.

"Crap. I messed up, too. Didn't I?" Patrick said.

"No," Samantha said. "Sorry. I thought you meant my birth father for a minute. I'm still getting used to Tyler being my dad."

"Oh. I'm sorry. Ty told us a bit about what you've been through. I didn't think."

"It's okay," Samantha said. "Hi, I'm Samantha."

She put out her hand for Patrick to shake. Jenna and I smiled at each other.

"I'd like to introduce you to my friend and band mate, Pete," Patrick smiled. Pete came over, looking a little sheepish and stuck his hand out for Samantha to shake.

"Hi. I'm Pete and I'm sorry I squished you and overwhelmed you."

Samantha smiled.

"Hi. Sorry I overreacted. Well, not to the hug. Yeah. That hurt. Sorry."

"No. I should be sorry. I mean, I kinda just jumped in there without thinking. But nice to meet you."

Brendon called Samantha over where he was talking with Josh and Pete went over as well.

"I think she's really going to be okay," Jenna smiled at me.

"I think so, too."

The doorbell rang again and Gerard came in. I went over to say hello and introduced him to Samantha. They talked for a little while, and then the party turned into more or less a regular party. Although Josh had been very conservative about alcohol. We knew Stanley drank, and we didn't want to have Samantha worry anyone here would get too drunk and maybe accidentally undo weeks of work.

The guys played music, sang, taught Samantha some of their songs, downloaded their albums onto her phone, gave them their cellphone numbers and promised to keep in touch.

Josh had gotten a mix of junk food and healthy or sugar free snacks so even Samantha could graze without having to pay too much attention. He'd made sure she felt included without standing out. It was so great to see.

At some point Josh had pulled out my ukulele and some drum sticks and he was trying to teach Samantha how to play the ukulele.

"You're hopeless, Dun," I said, going over and picking up one of my other ukuleles. I sat down beside Samantha and showed her the proper finger positions and taught her a few bars of House of Gold. She tried really hard, and actually picked it up fairly quickly.

"Not bad kiddo," I said, putting my arm around her. "We might make a musician out of you yet."

She smiled.

Jenna came over and whispered that she should check her blood sugar and maybe take some insulin, but did it in a way so as to not draw attention to Sam. Obviously her diabetes isn't a secret, but we didn't want to make that the focus of the night.

Sam went into the kitchen and took her blood sugar. I watched and saw her frown.

"Everything okay?" I asked going into the kitchen.

"It's showing higher than it should," she said.

"Well, you've had quite a bit of excitement. And you've been nibbling. How high is it?"

"250." She said, showing me her device.

"Well, let's get you dosed then, huh?"

She nodded and we got the shot ready.

"We'll test in what? 15 minutes again? Make sure it's coming down?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna take a bottle of water, too. That should help,"

"I'm really proud of you, kid. You're getting so much better at taking care of yourself without issue."

"Thanks, D-Tyler," she said.

"You can call me Dad whenever you're comfortable if you want," I hugged her. "Or not. Whatever you're most comfortable with."

The rest of the evening was great. Everyone loved Samantha and she really shone. She was so engaged and really seemed to enjoy meeting everyone.

When it became obvious she was more asleep than awake, we made her go to bed. She protested, but gave in.

Everyone said goodnight to her and she went upstairs with Jenna, who got her tucked into bed.