I thought of my past life as I yelled at him. After Keith had abandoned me I had been completely alone. It was just my son and I trying to make things work on our own. How nice it would have been to have someone on my side someone to talk to! Someone to believe me. I thought of how good it felt to talk with Louis.
"So you can never be sure whether someone can help you or not if you don’t talk to them. You don’t have to do everything yourself! You’re too young to burden yourself like this. It’s okay to ask for help!" I yelled at him. "So I’m sorry if I’m overstepping but there’s no way I could live wit myself knowing someone who needed help
I gave him a serious determined look as I explained to him. I wasn’t backing down. Underneath the dismissive things he was saying I could tell he was someone who needed help. It takes one to know one after all.
Mike’s eyes widened in surprise as they searched mine for a moment. I wondered what come back he was thinking of now. Then they began to tremble as they looked into mine. I was surprised by this sudden change in demeanor. Had I gotten through to him?
"I’ve never had anyone to rely on!" He yelled at me. "For the longest time it’s just been my dad, my sister and me."
My expression softened as I listened to him.
My mother left us when my sister was 2. My dad had to look after us on his own and then he got sick when I was 12. At first our family health insurance covered his dialysis treatments and my father was still able to work then two years later the insurance said they couldn’t cover the his treatment anymore. My father reached out to our relatives but didn’t want to help because it was too expensive for them to help pay the medical bills. To compensate my father tried getting multiple jobs to cover the hospital bills but it was just too much money. He couldn’t get the treatments as often and that resulted in his kidney worsening he became bedridden. Our relatives didn’t reach out or try to help us at that point. With no choice, At 15 I began working multiple part time jobs to try help pay his hospital bill as well as look after my sister and I. but I couldn’t always make the payments. His condition has just continued worsening over the years. Now we’re here."
Suddenly they filled with tears and they streamed down his face.
I let him cry giving him the space to express himself. It was after a little while that he finally spoke up.
I was horrified by his story. So Mikes aloof and secretive nature came from the fact that he’s never had anyone he could rely on growing up aside from his now ill father. I couldn’t believe his family had refused to help them. For him to have to step and have to step up and take care of his father and sister on his own is insane. Considering he was still a child! It’s just so messed up!
"Why would your family refuse to help?" I asked him.
"I don’t know they aren’t rich perhaps they just thought it would be too much of a hassle. But you see, if I can’t rely on my own family who can I rely on!" He told me.
"How much do you need?" I asked him.
"You can’t help me Jasmine. I’m in debt, when I turned 18 and was of legal age I resorted to using credit cards to pay for my fathers dialysis treatments since the insurance denied supporting him," he said to me. "But it’s too late now. It been too many years if my father receiving inconsistent treatment. God knows how long he has to live now. The doctors keep suggesting that we stop wasting money paying for dialysis treatments since it’s not going to help in the end."
I felt my eyes water up hearing him speak. He was in so much pain.
"How much are you in debt?" I managed to ask him with out tearing up.
" I have accumulated about 15,000 usd in debt and it’s increasing every month." He told me.
Being in debt as a college student was awful especially since student typically took also out loans to study. So it like he was in double debt. 15,000 was a lot to owe too.It was truly humbling hearing him say this. To think I used to spend amounts like this frivolously with no care in the world when I lived as a socialite. Meanwhile someone else was struggling to make that amount. Now with the life I now lived I had a new appreciation for working class people.
I looked at Victoria who was playing with Tony down the hallway as they ate the snacks they had gotten from the vending machine.
"How much does your fathers kidney transplant cost?" I then asked him.
"22,000 usd," he told me. "You see either way there’s no way for me to pay for it."
He was 15 thousand in debt and he needed 22,000 for his fathers kidney transplant.
So he needed just under 40000. I had 50,000 usd from the luxury goods.
I could give him the 40,000usd he needed. It was supposed to be for investing for Anthony but Mikes father was going to die.
"I can give you the money you need," I told him.
His eyes widened in surprise. "What?" he said in disbelief.
"I’ll give you the money you need," I assured him.
"That’s a lot of money to have lying around to casually give to someone. Unless you mean you’ll take a loan," he said to me.
I couldn’t tell him I got the money selling luxury goods I’d received. He thought I was an ordinary salary woman not a socialite.
"It’s my savings," I told him. "It’s money I received from my family and from working."That should be believable enough I thought to myself. I mean it was partially true.
"I can’t take your savings, I can’t accept that it’s not right," he told me.
"Mike your father will die if he doesn’t get the treatment, right?" I reasoned with him. "You don’t have a choice!"
"There’s no way I would be able to pay you back," he told me.