When You Look Me in the Eyes

I winced as I put down the phone. My head hurt from all of the yelling. Gary was so mad, but not at us. He was mad at the magazine for publishing the article without talking to us first. I almost felt pity for what would happen to the editor and then I remembered the article, and almost laughed instead.

“That was really loud,” Laura observed, pressing an ice pack against my forehead, which caused me to jump. I relaxed after a second; the cold was easing the pain in my head from Gary’s rant. I remembered the time that we had sat together on the bed, just a few days ago, with my hand pressing ice against her chest, soothing the pain that Joe and I had caused her. I sighed, leaning forward and putting pressure on her hand, pressing the ice harder to my head. She pulled away the ice and wrapped her arms around me.

I was having a really hard day. We had stayed up so late last night that I was cranky and irritable. I stood up and walked to the bathroom to check my blood sugar again. I didn’t want to do it in front of Laura. She hated seeing me stab myself in the finger, even though it didn’t bother me anymore.

I put a drop of blood on the scanner and read the number that popped up after a moment: 210. It was supposed to be about 70 to 120, so it was kind of high. I checked my Omni-pod, still pressed against my lower back, exactly where Laura had put it an hour ago. It was still pumping insulin through my system, but I knew that I was going to need more soon and I hadn’t even had breakfast yet. I really needed to give myself a shot; I didn’t want to, but that was just my bad mood talking. I hate having diabetes. It’s really hard sometimes. I especially hate the affect it has on the other people around me. They’re always worried about me and I don’t want them to have to worry about me.

I came out of the bathroom and walked over to Kevin to tell him what was up. He told me to do whatever I needed to do. I sighed, walking into the bedroom and going over to dig through my suitcase.