Fighting a New World

14

Ryder's POV

Things have been going smoothly over these past couple of days. Liam was getting closer with his Target friend, Callum was getting used to working with Tanner, and Jax seemed to be doing better now that he had his punching bag. He was using it for at least 30 minutes every day, always eating a pretty small snack when he was done.

Jax honestly seemed to be doing the best out of all of us, which was actually kind of surprising since all of us were expecting for him to have a harder time.

Really, Liam and Callum were doing better than I thought they would too, especially Liam. I knew he was going to have a hard time adjusting and getting social again since he doesn't really trust strangers but now that he has James, he seems to be way better.

And Callum was getting less annoyed with Tanner and was learning how to control himself with rude customers. He was keeping his lack of out burst streak alive. He hasn't blown up since we left camp and was even the one calming the rest of us down the other night.

The only one who wasn't making any progress was me.

I still couldn't manage more than an hour at the hospital without getting anxious and needing Patrick to take me home.

I can't help but sigh to myself as I remove my hand from my mom's before laying her's back down on the bed.

"I'll be back tomorrow," I promised as I stood up. Patrick only shot me a sad smile as he stood up with me and began leading me out of the hospital but as soon as we passed the nurse' station I stopped at the sound of someone calling my name.

"Mr. Mason, we need to talk before you leave," Nancy said as she waved me over with a sad smile. My heart clenched at that. That smile normally meant something bad was about to happen.

"You can just call me Ryder," I say as I eased up to the front desk.

"We need to talk about updating your payment plan," she said as she went to type something into the computer. "It says a place called Camp New Life used to cover everything but when we tried to charge it them this time, the check wouldn't go through."

"I don't know why. I've been using their insurance for three years now."

"But you aren't in camp anymore," Patrick said with a frown. "Once you leave camp, they can't afford to take care of expenses like that." It felt like my heart stopped beating for a second.

I force myself to take a deep breath to try not to freak out.

"How much is the usual bill?"

"Before your camp's insurance it was 3,000 a month. Do you have any other insurance you would like to add today?"

3,000 dollars per month? That was like five paychecks per month down the drain just like that.

"Uh, no. I don't have any insurance. When is the bill due?"

"It will be due August 12. All of her bills are due by the 12 of the next month."

Well it was July 20th now so I had about 23 days to find a job, find an insurance that will take my mom with her health records, and attempt to make everything insurance didn't cover. Fucking fantastic.

"Okay," I said with a forced smile. "Do you take cash payments or am I going to link payment to a credit or debit card account?"

"We prefer credit or debit accounts because they are more reliable but we do still take cash as long as you have a copy of your bill but we also take checks," she says as she hands me an envelope with my name an address on it. I don't even know how they got my address.

"Okay well I will get you the bill by the 12 then. It will be a cash payment so we are done for right now. Thanks Nancy." I don't give her time to say another word as I turn and head back to the door with Patrick following close behind me.

"You okay," Patrick asked when we were only a few minutes away from the apartment. "You're being uncharacteristically quiet."

"Oh I'm fine," I say with another forced smile as I tried to blink back the tears. "I just have to find an insurance company that will actually help me because of I don't I will have to try to find a to pay 3,000 dollars in medical bills."