DISCLAIMER! Hey! I dont own Lacey Duval, Jeff McKensie, Jenny House, and many other charachters that may end up being part of this story, Lurlene McDaniel does! So don't sue me or anything, I'm giving you a warning!
Also, let me know what you think, if I get good reviews, I'll keep writing! Thanks!
Chapter One:
"Lacey? Is that really you?"
Lacey Duval looked up at Jeff McKensie, who was walking through the hospital's cafeteria.
"Hi Jeff, yeah, it's me!" Lacey said, flipping her blonde hair out of her face. "What's up?"
"Nothing much, what are you doing here?" Jeff asked.
"Oh, you know… The usual… Uncle Nelson wants me here to check up on my blood sugar levels."
"Your diabetes being a problem?" Jeff asked, pulling out a seat and sitting down next to Lacey.
"No, but after I went into keto, they're keeping a close check on me. I don't see why though, I can handle my diabetes perfectly fine."
Since leaving the hospital, Lacey had filled Jeff in on what had happened in her life involving her diabetes. She still didn't understand why medical sciencehadn't come up with a better way for a diabetic to get insulin into her body, but her blood sugar levels had gone way up after she had cheated on her diet and decreased her insulin injections to loose weight. She had stopped checking her blood-glucose altogether, and figured, why bother?
Deep down in Lacey's mind, she knew that ignoring her diabetes wouldn't make it go away, but at least it made life easier! But ending up in a diabetic coma with high blood sugar wasn't the easy way out. Her Uncle Nelson was her doctor, who made her see all sorts of specialists now, a counsellor, a dietician, an exercise therapist, and now, a social worker.
"Lacey, if you were handling your diabetes perfectly fine, you wouldn't have ended up in the hospital. There's no use lying about it. The only way you can keep your diabetes under control is with your diet, insulin and exercise. We all want you to win this, Lacey. Your sixteen now, shouldn't you take control of yourself?"
"Jeff, don't you think I hear enough of this at home? Now that Mom's checking my blood sugar on the monitor twice a day and monitoring every bite that goes into my mouth, every slightly high or low number makes her go crazy. I cant wait to be on my own!"
"Sorry, Lacey. I'm just worried about you. It's not like I haven't experienced doctors and hospitals, you know."
Jeff had hemophilia, which meant that his blood didn't clot properly. At the very least, a small cut could land him in the hospital, even kill him. Jeff was in university at FSU, studying architecture, but still incredibly interested in Lacey, and had been since they had met at Jenny House two years before.
Lacey glanced down at her watch. "Jeff, I've gotta go. Sorry, my appointment's in three minutes, and Uncle Nelson will be really mad if I'm late… or if I don't show up at all."
Jeff took Lacey's hand. "I'll wait in the waiting room. Then maybe we could go somewhere after?"
"Sure." Lacey said.
For the last little while, Lacey was trying to tone herself down and be more open around people, instead of wearing coolness like a shield.
Lacey and Jeff walked back towards Dr. Nelson's waiting room, which had moved into the Diabetes Research Institute not too long ago. The DRI was a huge complex to research, treat and diagnose diabetes, which had been built recently. While Lacey had been sitting in the cafeteria, she had forgotten she was in the DRI, not in the regular hospital. "What are you doing in the DRI? They haven't got you diagnosed with diabetes do they? Trust me, you don't want it." Lacey said coolly.
"No, I was just over in the main hospital building, and I remembered you mentioning you had to see your uncle a few weeks ago. I decided to come through the DRI and check the place out, and here you were."
"Oh. I thought my mom or my uncle might have gotten you in on this. They really like you Jeff."
"I like you too, Lacey."
She had tried not too, but something about him sparked her interest and made her want to know more of him.
She sighed. "I tried not to." She told him truthfully. "I tried not to like you"
She gazed up into Jeff's eyes, and he tilted her chin upwards and swiftly pushed her hair away from her face. "But things arent always how you plan, Lacey." He said, then kissed her gently.
"I really have to go, Jeff." Lacey said.
He moved his hand away from her face, then grabbed her hand. "Lets go, I wouldnt want you in trouble again."
Lacey walked with Jeff to Uncle Nelson's office, then figured she should probably check her blood sugar before she went in. "Jeff, I've gotta check my glucose, can you tell them I'm here? I'll just be over in the corner there." She said, motioning to a secluded corner.
"Sure." Jeff said, as Lacey ducked into the corner.
She fumbled with the glucometer and finally got a reading. Luckily, it was close to normal. She threw the monitor back into her messenger bag and pulled out her glucose log.
"So many days left..." She said softly to herself. "So many days."
