Page 7 of Gene

One more week and she would be able to get it checked out. One more week and she would hopefully know what was going on without having to pay a huge fee.

Sammi didn’t quite understand why it took a few weeks for insurance to kick in. It wasn’t like she had gotten the job just to get insurance. She had gotten it so she could help her brother pay off his debt.

Maybe she should have looked for a second job where insurance would come in right away, but she wouldn’t have been able to work both. With her feeling as poorly as she was and working so much, by the time she got home, she ate, took a shower, and passed out on her bed. Sometimes, she didn’t even have energy to eat or take a shower. Those nights were especially hard.

Her Little wanted to peek out so many times when she got home, but she was completely exhausted. There was no way she could be Little and stay safe with how tired she was. Which made working just a little bit more dangerous.

More recently she had felt her Little come to the surface when she was working. Something she was desperately trying to not let happen, but it was hard. It had been so long since she had been Little, and she felt like it was going to be a lot longer until she could.

She hadn’t anticipated that she’d have to pay off her brother’s debt. All her extra money and savings went into helping him while he also worked. Sammi didn’t know how he had gotten into so much of a hole. Okay, she did because she’d made him tell her.

Sighing, she gripped onto the side of the bin that held all the apples as dizziness assaulted her. She blinked several times and took a couple deep breaths as she grounded herself. Or attempted to ground herself.

“There you are!” Nolan announced, spooking her.

Spinning around, her vision went blurry as dizziness and nausea bubbled inside of her.

“Whoa,” Nolan said, his arms wrapping around her. “You’re all right. Everything is okay. Let’s just sit you on the ground so you can breathe.”

Nolan helped her to the ground, and she took several seconds to calm herself down, trying to get rid of the dizziness and exhaustion. But she knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Sammi had tried this several times when no one was looking, and it never worked. Maybe she should have told somebody how she really felt so if something had happened, they’d have an idea. But it couldn’t be anybody at work because it would put her at risk of Gene knowing, and she didn’t want to get fired.

“Are you okay?” Nolan asked.

“Yes,” Sammi nodded, lying through her teeth.

She was anything but okay.

“Are you sure? You almost collapsed. Are you feeling okay?” Nolan rapid-fired.

“I’m sure.” She looked up at Nolan, giving him a small yet fake smile. “I just wasn’t expecting you, so I turned really fast and lost my balance.”

Which could have been true. Sammi knew it was a combination of a lot of things, but he really did make her jump. She hadn’t heard him walk up.

“Lies. And I think you know that it was a lie,” he stated, handing her a couple of blackberries. “Eat those. Where is your water bottle?”

Sammi put the delicious purple fruit into her mouth before she could respond. If he knew she was lying before, she wouldn’t be able to come up with another fib about the water bottle. She could feel the disappointment already rolling off him and that as before she told him she left it at home.

How was she going to get out of that? She had been trying to go without seeing any of them for a while so they couldn’t look after her. Not that she wasn’t grateful for people watching out for her, but she didn’t want her job to be jeopardized. She needed this job and them reporting to Gene made it feel like her position was at risk.

“Continue to eat those and drink some of this,” Nolan said, handing her a water bottle.

She put it right next to her, not wanting to drink anything no matter how tempting it was. She already kind of had to go to the bathroom and knew that it would only get worse if she had some water.

“Drink the water,” Nolan commanded. “Now.”

With shaky hands, she picked up the water bottle and attempted to open it. Sammi grew frustrated as her grip wasn’t strong enough. Whining, she was about to set it down but Nolan’s hand came into her view.

“Should have opened it before I gave it to you,” he said, quickly opening it and handing it back to her. “I want you to take at least five sips.”

Nodding, she brought the water to her mouth and took five small sips. Nolan didn’t specify how big the sips had to be, and she wasn’t going to ask.

Nolan grabbed his walkie-talkie and before she could fully grasp what he was doing, it was already too late.

“Gene, this is Nolan. Can you come to the packaging barn real quick?” he asked over the walkie-talkie.

Sammi closed the water bottle and placed it beside her, glaring at Nolan.

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