From "Lyra's Magnum Opus", chapter 16 "The Mistake":
He sat down, and put his forehead in his hands, his elbows on the table. I quickly replaced the needle on his pricking pen with a clean one, prepping it for next time. I placed the used testing strip and needle in his thick plastic safety jar for biohazards. This was routine by now, this prepping. Just something that needed to be done after every time. It was happening more and more often. I was worried.
"I wonder what it was," he sighed. My eyebrows creased in concern. "I have to figure out what I ate that caused this. That's so dangerous. But, I eat this sometimes. It's never like this. These fries never make me go much above two hundred, if I have a reaction at all."
My eyes stared at his food. He'd hardly eaten his fries. His nuggets were gone, the breading still in the box. He never used any sauce, unnecessary sugar, he'd said. Even ketchup had a high sugar content, I'd learned.
After a few minutes, my eyes went wide. My heart dropped into my stomach. My blood ran cold. His head was still in his hands. He hadn't moved, still breathing slightly heavy.
I picked up his soda. It was mostly gone. I stared at it, and froze.
"I'll be right back, please wait a minute," I told him. He just nodded.
I went up to the counter, holding his drink. I waited my turn, and stood in front of the cashier. She asked how she could help me.
"Hello. My friend ordered a Coke Zero. Is this Coke Zero?"
She just smiled at me. "We're out of Coke Zero, so we replaced it with regular Coke. Our Coke Zero machine part is out of order. Sorry for the inconvenience."
I found myself shaking. The ice in the drink was sloshing around. I was... I was livid!
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" I shouted. I heard the restaurant go quiet. I didn't care!
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience," she repeated, her head bowed now. She sounded so unapologetic.
"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED MY BOYFRIEND! HE HAS DIABETES! WE HAD TO GO GIVE HIM AN INSULIN SHOT JUST NOW! HE THOUGHT HE WAS DRINKING COKE ZERO WHICH HAS NO SUGAR! BUT HE WAS DRINKING A REGULAR COKE BECAUSE OF YOU! HE DIDN'T KNOW! HE COULD HAVE DIED! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM!" I was screaming now. I'd never been that furious in my life. I had to make her understand!
Her face was the picture of shock. In an instant, she was bowing over and over, apologizing over and over, her voice going to a softer, sincere tone. I didn't care. It wasn't enough!
