It All Worked Out In The End- A Purple Hearts Rewrite

Chapter 2- I Can't Wait Four Days

~Cassie's POV~
I looked at the woman at the front desk of the pharmacy. Struggling to scramble my words and she gave me a cold look.
"You're holding up the line" she told me, coldly.
I looked back and noticed the line behind me that wrapped around almost all the aisles of this small, 5 aisle pharmacy.

I looked back at the woman. "I-I can't wait four days..." I said to her again and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Look I don't think you understand. I kinda need this insulin to- like, live. I'm out of both of long acting and short acting insulin. And my reserve vial is basically gone." I explained, showing her my pretty much empty insulin vial. "It's.. well it's pretty dangerous for me not to have this."

The woman looked at me, "I mean, I can give you a refill for your prescription if you wanna do it out of pocket." She said.
I chuckled a bit under my breath, "I- I don't think you understand.." I started to say, but she cut me off.

"No. You don't seem to understand that your insurance is not renewed so I cannot help you. You can get a free refill in 4 days." She said. "Now you can either pay out of pocket or leave."
I sighed and looked at the empty vial in my hand, "How much is it?" I asked.

She turned her attention to her computer. "It's going to be three hundred for the long acting and two-twenty for the short acting. So a little over five hundred, how do you want to pay?" She asked me.
I squeezed the vial in my hand, knowing all I had in my bank account was the ten dollars worth of tips I got working last night. And I was planning on using a mix of coupons and the last 15 dollars across my 5 credit cards that I have left to pay for the groceries I have.

Just then, my mom came over, "what's going on?" She asked.
I looked at her, "nothing Ma, please just check out in the other line, this line already hates me." I said.

My mom looked at me and grabbed her wallet, taking all her cash out. "Here, you use my cash, I'll use credit" she said.
I tried pushing her money back at her, "no, Ma-" I started saying but she stopped me.
"Health comes first." she said, shoving the money to me.

I sighed and looked at the woman. She gave a fake smile, "well that all worked out" she said as I started to count the money. Seeing that I barely had eighty bucks. I sighed and the woman just looked at me, "Well... that's unfortunate." she said.
I grabbed my basket, "you know what? It's fine, I'll just try and not die until Friday." I coldly told her as I left the line.

My mother and I soon left the store and we headed to my apartment. We walked upstairs and there was a letter taped to my door. My mom got to it before I could, "Ma, please don't open it" I begged her. But of course, she did it anyway.

"Cassie, what's this? You're not paying your rent?" She asked.
"No, Ma, I am paying it, just a little later." I said as we walked in.
"You're falling apart, Cassie. How can you live like this?" She asked me.
"I'm just busy, Mom." I explained.
"You cannot not pay your rent, Cassie."
"I'm giving the landlord's daughter free piano lessons so that way they don't just throw me out onto the street." I explained while putting my bag down.

My mom put the letter on the table. "Why don't you come and live with me? We could share my bedroom, just like when you were little." she said.
I sighed and shook my head, "no, I'm not twelve anymore, I can't just go backwards."

"You're not taking this seriously. You could die at any moment. Do you not understand that?" My mom said.
I looked at her and snapped, "Mom! I know. I'm fine. I'm doing everything right. I'm bartending, and delivering food, and playing gigs, and teaching piano on my spare time. And I'm constantly exhausted and running late, and I can't sleep because I have this medical debt that just grows like some mold in a basement. So, please, please just be kind to me!" I said and started tearing up.

My mom looked at me and just gently pulled me into a hug. "I should be able to provide for you..." she said softly, her voice started breaking too.
I shook my head a bit. "Mommy, no I love you so much. You don't have to worry about me. I'll figure it out, I promise..." I said softly.

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