The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

anyway. I have some stuff I need to do.” I walk away from her, knowing it’s for the best, but wishing I was the one she was going to see.
     

Chapter 7
     
     
    #27 Offer to Help Someone Without Them Asking.
     
     
     
    Callie
     
    I feel weird going with Luke, for various reasons, one being that I barely know him. I have no idea how I got into the situation. Actually I do. I was walking around the back end of the campus, because I like how quiet it is there.
     
    As I was pouring some M&Ms into my mouth, I rounded the corner and nearly stepped on Luke. He was sitting down on the ground, in the dirt, with his head lowered and his legs bent up in front of him.
     
    “Oh my God.” I jumped back, pressing my hand to my heart. “What are you doing back here?”
     
    He had on shorts and a white t-shirt and his brown hair was damp. He lifted his face up and his skin was paler than snow. “Callie, what are you doing?”
     
    I balled up the candy wrapper in my hand. “I walk this way after my English class is over. I was actually getting ready to meet up with Seth to go to the gym.”
     
    He bobbed his head up and down and sweat was beading his forehead. “Oh.”
     
    I turned to leave, but decided I couldn’t leave him looking so terrible. “Are you okay?”
     
    He scratched at his arm. “Yeah, I was working out and started feeling like shit so I came back here to take a breather for a minute.”
     
    I crouched down in front of him, keeping enough distance to make me comfortable. “Are you sick or something? You look…”
     
    “Like shit,” he finished for me as he got to his feet and sighed.
     
    My gaze snapped down to his leg, swollen twice its size, blotchy and red. “What happened to your leg?”
     
    He released a slow exhale as he inclined against the brick wall of the school. “I may or may not have forgotten to take my insulin for the last few days.”
     
    “You’re a diabetic?”
     
    He put a finger to his lips and shook his head. “Don’t tell anyone. I don’t like to show weakness. It’s a weird thing with me.”
     
    “Why haven’t you been taking your shots?”
     
    “I ran out and never picked up more. It’s another weird thing with me… I sometimes can’t bring myself to stab a needle into my body.”
     
    I didn’t press as I eyed his leg, enflamed from the knee down. “Do you need me to take you to the doctor? Or go find Kayden?”
     
    He shook his head, stepping forward and then stumbled back, banging his elbow into the wall. “Don’t tell Kayden. When I say no one knows, I mean no one knows.”
     
    I adjusted the strap of my bag higher up on my shoulder. “I think you need to go to the doctor.”
     
    “I know I need to go to the doctor.” Putting some weight on his leg, he hobbled toward me. “Look, don’t you have stuff you don’t want people to know?”
     
    I nodded warily. “Yeah.”
     
    “Okay, well for me, this is one of those things,” he said. “So can you keep quiet about it?”
     
    I nodded again. “As long as you let me take you to the doctor.”
     
    He shut his eyes, breathed in through his nose, and his chest expanded out from underneath his shirt as he opened his eyelids. “Okay, we have a deal. Let me go change my clothes, make an appointment, and then I’ll meet you out front in like twenty minutes.”
     
    “Maybe you should just go to the ER,” I suggested. “You look terrible.”
     
    “ER trips cost a lot of money,” he replied, limping toward the metal doors. “Money I don’t have.”
     
    “Okay, I’ll meet you out front,” I told him and then he stepped inside, letting the door slam shut behind him.
     
    As I headed for my dorm to drop my stuff off, I had no idea how I’d gotten myself into the situation. I’d spent the last six years trying to stay away from guys, but it seems like that’s all I've been around lately, but I wasn’t going to bail out on him.
     
    When I met him out front twenty minutes later, it turned out he couldn’t get into the doctor for another two hours, so we exchanged numbers and I promised him I’d be back from the gym in time to take him.
     
    Two hours later, we’re sitting in the office. Luke jiggles his knee up and down as I read through a copy of People magazine while finishing off a piece of licorice. I changed out of my workout clothes into jeans and a t-shirt. I’m surprised how well I’m handling what I did at the gym with Kayden. Sitting on top of him like that