Running on Insulin

Chapter 5

Tyler POV

Jenna and I knew our credit and background checks would come through clean. What surprised me was that we had offered to take in this kid without discussing it, but both agreeing to.

There was something about Samantha that spoke to us. We knew she needed a home. We wanted to provide that home. She could be safe with us. And happy.

"Oh," I said to the social worker. "I'm not sure how to go about doing this, but we'll take care of the hospital bill for Samantha."

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"We called the ambulance. We're willing to take her into our home. We are capable of paying the bill," I said.

"Okay. I'll let Billing know. Someone will come talk to you in the morning."

"Great," Tyler smiled.

"This is going to be expensive," I said. "What are you? A millionaire or something?"

"Something like that," he said. "If you look carefully, I'm on your t-shirt."

"What?"

Jenna pulled my muddy t-shirt out of the plastic bag that my clothes had been put in when the nurses must have changed me into a hospital gown. I'd been wearing my TwentyOne Pilots shirt. One of my favourite bands. I looked at the shirt and then at Tyler.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?  This guy has a ski mask on," I said.

"Touché. And I didn't bring my ski mask with. Jen, how should I prove to this young lady that I'm the ski mask guy on her shirt?"

"You could try singing for her," Jenna said.

"I could," he said. "But maybe I'm just a really good singer."

"Well, it's not like you carry business cards," Jenna said.

"Could you imagine. Band business cards. That might be an idea," Tyler mused.

I listened to the two of them.

"I know, why don't I call Josh?" Tyler said.

"Josh?" I asked.

"Josh. My drummer. Josh Dun,"

"Yeah. Okay. Call 'Josh' and have him prove you're Tyler Joseph."

"There's also my driver's license. I could show you that. Would that be proof enough?"

He pulled out his wallet and his phone. He opened his contacts and pressed on 'Josh - mobile' while pulling his license out of his wallet and handing it to me.

"Hey Ty," a voice came over the speaker phone on Tyler's phone. "What's up? Everything okay?"

"Hey Josh. Everything's good. I just need you to confirm something for me."

"Shoot,"

"Who am I?"

"Who?  Are you okay, Ty?  Is Jenna there?"

"I'm fine. I know who I am. Have a young lady here who doesn't believe I am who I say I am, despite the fact that she's holding my license. And was wearing one of our shirts."

"You're trying to prove you're you to a fan? What the hell is going on?"

"It's a bit of a long story, which I promise I will tell you later, but for now, I just need you to tell miss Samantha that I am indeed me,"

"Am I on speaker phone?  Is this candid phone call? Jenna, if you're there, what's going on? Is Tyler okay?"

"Hey Josh," Jenna said. "Tyler's fine. Long story short, we had a bit of an incident in which a teenager wound up in our backyard and we had to bring her to the hospital. Now Tyler is trying to prove we are who we say we are."