The Pointe Of The Game

Chapter 8

Charlie. He's laying on the couch and he looks half dead. He's all sweaty and pale. What happened? I shakily walk more into the room. I don't know whether to run to him or run away from him. He moves his body slightly and I move closer to the door. What is happening? Is he ok? Why is he like this? He was fine in 7th hour. There were a million questions running through my head.  I turn to leave when suddenly his mom appears in the doorway.

 "Oh um s-sorry" I stutter

She smiles and says, "It's ok, I figured you were probably in here. Come here, you won't hurt him."

I tentatively walk closer to him and behind his mom. He shifts again and groans softly. Mrs. Williams goes and sits next to his laying form on the side of the couch. She grabs a type of monitor thingy and turns it on. It lights up and beeps twice before showing some random numbers and letters. I step closer and really get a good look at Charlie. What in the crazy dolphins is happening. I know that he's diabetic but I never knew this could happen. 

"Umm, so what exactly is going on? Like I know that he has diabetes but is this like a side effect of it or something?" I ask cautiously 

She looks at me with a small smile on her face and says, "Charlie is having an hypoglycemic episode or a hypo. It's what happens when his blood sugar gets too low. He crashes and goes into hypo. It can also happen if he has too much blood sugar, if that happens, it's called a hyperglycemic episode. It happens occasionally. I think today was because he was stressed and didn't check as much. But it can sometimes happen for no reason. That's just how his body works."  She grabs a pouch from the table by the couch and opens it. Then she puts her hand on his cheek and tells him that she's going to give him a glucose pouch. He becomes just conscious enough so that she can make him swallow the contents of the pouch. He lays his head down again and I think that's the moment he spots me. He tries to sit up and his mom stops him with a hand in his chest. 

"Calm down, You need to take it easy. Just lay back down." She says

He stops trying to sit up and says, "Olivia"  His mom makes room for me to sit and I scoot closer to where he lays.

His mom stands up and says, "I'm going to go to dinner, you're welcome to stay here if you like Olivia or you can come with me to dinner" she's already walking out of the living room. 

I look at Charlie to see that his eyes are closed again but he's moved his hand right next to my leg so that his pinky is just barely touching my jeans. "Do you want me to stay with you?" I ask him quietly "Please" is his soft answer and to confirm it, he searches for my hand with his pinky. When he finds it, he links my pinky with his.

Feeling daring, I take my other hand and start moving his hair out of his face, then I gently start rubbing circles on his scalp. "How are you feeling?" I ask 

"Better than the start" he replies with his eyes still closed. \

We stay like this for a few minutes before he says, "Do you want to go eat?"

"Do you want me to leave you alone?" I ask him. He opens his eyes and shrugs. "I don't want to keep you here if you're hungry," he says.  I repeat my question again. He answers that he couldn't care either way but I knew he did. The way he closed his eyes when he said it was a clear indicator. "No. I'd rather stay and hang out with you."  I tell him. He gives me a slight smile before saying, "Me? Right now? I'm basically just a lump of not enough glucose." I give a small huff of a laugh and tell him, "yes, even right now"

Eventually he perks up a little bit and we start to talk about random nothings. He's still super sluggish and sometimes slow to answer, but I'm just glad to be let in on this part of his life. I know he gets embarrassed about it sometimes; and while I get it, he also can't control it and nobody is going to make fun of him for it because one, just look at the guy: he's huge and strong and could knock anyone down (even though he's actually a sweet teddy bear and loves to hug and encourage others), but two: it's something he can't control and even if he could, it's so rude to make fun of something someone else can't change about themselves.(like when you tell someone that you think they look ugly, like that's DNA) I just hate people sometimes. Like why you gotta put others down like that? 

I wonder if there's a reason that he doesn't tell people about his diabetes.

Like if someone did something to him because of it. This guy has me under a spell. I don't know what it is about him, but I want to know why he does the things he does, and why he acts like he does. I want to know who hurt him and what makes him sad. I want to be the person he comes to when he is about to explode and needs to vent and sob. But I also know that he wouldn't want me to be that person to him. I know that he's just using me as a crutch right now because I'm the only person that he knows in this town. And that's OK. I've been there. I know how important it is to have someone when you're new but I also know that you don't always stick with that person because you're more likely to find someone else that will fit you better after the first few days or so.