Chapter 47

Tyler's POV

"How long was it?" I asked Jenna once Jill stopped seizing.

"Two minutes. She also has a MedicAlert bracelet. It has her mom's number on it," Jenna said.

"Give her a call. Ask her what we need to do now," I took my sweatshirt that I'd been wearing before we played some songs for Jill and Sam, and put it under Jill's head.  Her eyes were closed, but she seemed to be breathing okay.

"Sam, what do we do now? Did Jill tell you?" I asked, turning around to where Sam had been sitting. "Where is she?"

Josh shrugged.

"Did either of you see her leave?" He asked.

"Maybe she went to get something from her room that Jill left upstairs?" Jenna suggested.

"I'll go look," Josh said. He went upstairs and I stayed sitting by Jill's side. Her eyes started to open. She looked around and looked confused. Jenna was on the phone with Jill's mom.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You're alright," I said. "It's Tyler. You had a seizure and you're okay. You're in my basement and Jenna is calling your mom, okay?"

Jill started crying.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't be sorry. It's okay,"

"I wet my pants. I probably peed on your floor."

"That's okay. We can get that cleaned up. You being okay is more important," I said.

"Jill, your mom's coming to pick you up, okay?" Jenna said. Jill nodded.

"Do you want to sit up?" I asked her. She shook her head.

"I need to stay lying down for a minute," she said.

"Jill," Jenna said. "Do you want to borrow a pair of my sweatpants?  You can bring them back to school and give them to Sam."

"Yes please," she whispered.

Jenna went upstairs. I stayed with Jill and just reassured her she was okay, and not to be upset or embarrassed.

"Where's Sam?" Jill asked, looking around.

"I'm not sure. But she told us exactly what to do. She was kinda your hero. Because I wasn't sure what to do."

"Ty," Jenna said, coming downstairs. "The front door is open."

"What do you mean?"  I asked. And then seeing the panicked look on Jenna's face I knew what she meant. But I didn't want to upset Jill.

"Jill, Jenna's going to stay with you until you feel ready to get up and change, okay?"

Jill nodded and I went upstairs.

Josh was just coming to the basement stairs.

"She's not in her room or out back," he said, frantically.

"Jenna noticed the front door is open," I said, running to the front of the house. Sure enough, the front door stood wide open.

"She ran," Josh said. "Why would she run?  And where would she go?"

"Shit," I said. Where would she have gone?

I pulled out my phone and tried using the Find My iPhone app.

"She's not too far," I said, looking at the display. "And she's on foot. But she's fast."

Josh and I took off in the direction of her phone.

"Shouldn't one of us go by car?" I asked.

"I can't drive now. You grab a car. I think she's heading to the park by the river," I said, running in that direction. Josh turned around and went back to the house.

I ran towards the park hoping to catch Samantha. I didn't know what she would do, or if she was even heading to the park, but I had to catch up to her. Could she be heading towards her old house? Was it even in that direction?

Every once in a while I stopped and checked the app to see where Sam's phone was.  She had stopped.  By the bridge on the other side of the park.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I said, running. I called Josh as I ran.

"Josh! She's at the bridge on the other side of Turner Park!" I said breathlessly.

"I'm on my way," Josh said, and hung up.

The park wasn't that far from the house, but it felt like the distance was stretching rather than getting shorter as I ran towards it.  I kept checking the app. Sam's phone hadn't moved. It was still at the bridge. I wanted to believe she was with the phone, too.

I turned the corner and ran through the park. I saw Josh's car parked on the bridge, but I didn't see Josh. Or Sam.  Tears sprang to my eyes.

'No, no, no, no,' I thought to myself.

I kept running.  I got to Josh's car and looked frantically around.

"JOSH!" I yelled. "SAM!"

Josh poked his head around the back of his car.

"We're right here," Josh said. They were at the back of the car. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and ran over.

Sam had her arms around her knees and was sobbing into her jeans.

"Hey," I said, bending down in front of her. "Hey, what's up?"

"I ruined everything. I always ruin everything!" she cried.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I tried to do something nice for Jill and instead I probably killed her!"

"Sam, you didn't do anything wrong.  Jill's okay.  She had a seizure, but she's okay.  Her mom's going to come pick her up, and she's going to go home to rest, but she's okay."

Samantha shook her head.

"Everything I do, I screw up somehow," she said. "I'm just a useless waste of space."

"Samantha, you are not. You are an amazing kid, you're smart and funny and sweet.  You did an amazing thing for your friend. And you took charge and told us what we needed to do. I had no idea what we should do, and you told us. You kept her from getting hurt. Samantha, you helped your friend."

"She probably is going to hate me now, anyway," Samantha said, crying.

I wrapped her in my arms and held her while she cried. There was no point in trying to talk to her right now. She needed to get these emotions out first.

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Jenna POV

Jill felt a little better a few minutes later and sat up. I handed her my sweatpants and helped her up and into the washroom where she could clean up and change into the dry pants.  I found a plastic bag and gave that to her when she came out of the bathroom, for her wet pants.  The two of us walked up the stairs to wait for her mom.  I got her situated on the couch and got her a glass of water.

"Where's Samantha?" she asked again. I sighed. I didn't want to  lie to her, but I didn't want her to worry.

"Honestly, Jill, I don't know. She took off when you had your seizure. She struggles a lot with things. She didn't have a good home life before she came to live with us, and she struggles to see herself in any positive light.  When you had your seizure, she may have thought she caused it. She, well, I shouldn't be telling you this, so please don't ever tell her I did. Her dad told her she's useless because she's a girl, and a whole host of other things. If she thinks your seizure was your fault, she's run because she doesn't think she deserves to be here."

Jill frowned.

"My seizure wasn't her fault.  It happens sometimes. I probably got a little overexcited and that's not her fault,"

"I know. But Sam, her brain doesn't work that way. She takes a lot on herself when things go wrong.  We're trying to help her, but she has years of abuse to work through."

Just then the doorbell rang. I got up and opened the door.

"Hi," said the brown haired woman, who looked like a slightly older version of Jill. "I'm Erin, Jill's mom.  Is Jill okay?"