“Dr. Hansen? Could I talk to you?” Tyler asked.
“Sure, Tyler. What’s on your mind?” she inquired.
“I’m scared for Amanda,” he confessed. “I know what a jerk Josh was to her. She doesn’t know I’ve seen the bruises. I knew what was happening to her, and I didn’t tell anyone.” He broke down into tears and turned away.
“Tyler, this is not your fault. Don’t think like that. You are not responsible for this. Cutting is usually the pain talking, not the person. Amanda is not trying to punish you by hurting herself. Don’t think that.” Syd put her hand on his shoulder in hopes of easing his pain.
“I’m okay. Thank-you.” He laughed and said, “Guys are supposed to be tough and strong, and here I am blubbering like a baby.” He was so humiliated.
“Amanda is really lucky to have a brother like you.” Syd smiled. “You really care about her.” Tyler’s face turned red. “You know, most girls would kill to have a brother like you,” Syd joked.
“I’d like to think that,” Tyler said with a smile and wiped the tears from his eyes using the sleeves of his sweater.
“You just keep on loving her like you do, and she’ll be fine.” Syd didn’t know if that was really true, but she said it anyway. And Tyler nodded. Syd hoped deep down in her heart that she wasn’t lying.
Ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, Robbie. It’s Syd.”
“Oh, hey.”
“Listen, I’m staying in Nashville with Amanda and her family. I’m trying to do everything I can before my flight leaves tomorrow night.”
“How’s Amanda?”
“Not good. You wouldn’t believe the damage she‘s done to herself. She won’t talk to me. She’s acting like she wishes I would go home. Just tell everyone I’ll be back on Monday morning, okay?”
“Okay. Night, Syd.”
“Night.” Syd hung up her cell and walked back into the house.
Syd thought for a moment before entering Amanda’s room again. She was so scared that she wouldn’t be able to help her. She decided to be brave and knock.
“What do you want?”
“Can I come in?”
“Might as well.”
She opened the door and walked through, looking at Amanda. She hadn’t been out of the bed all day. “How are you feeling?“ No answer. Syd was fed up. “Could you do me a favor and talk to me?”
“What about?” she snapped.
“About why you’re doing this to yourself.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“Well, you can either tell me and let me help you, or I can let social services take over, and they’ll put you in the hospital. Now, which would you rather do?”
Amanda sighed and said, “I did it because I deserve it. It feels good to me. When it gets to be too much, I cut myself, and it goes away.”
“But only temporarily.”
“Doesn’t matter. It helps me.”
“Medications have shown some success in people like you. I’m going to prescribe some Naltrexone. Maybe it will help.”
“I don’t want any damn medicine.”
“You need it, Amanda.”
“Who are you to tell me what to do?”
“I know how hard this is on you. I have been there. You have to want to get help before I can do anything. I want to help you. You have to let me help you.” The two stared at each other for the longest time. “You know, Tyler thinks that it’s his fault you’re cutting. He thinks it’s his fault that he didn’t get you out of your relationship with Josh. He is so scared for you. Don’t you care about that?”
“He does not think that.”
“Oh, yes, he does. He told me. Do you think I would lie to you?”
“No,” Amanda muttered.
“Then let me in.”
