Page 8 of Alessia
I think so. Who’s this?
Oh yeah right… She doesn’t have my number so she can’t know it’s me.
It’s Harper, You gave me your
number on my notepad. You know…
The girl you almost made into
a pavement pancake.
Pavement Pancake huh? Sounds like a
waste of such a pretty girl.??
My cheeks heat and I feel a flutter in my core. Pretty girl? My mind whirls to come up with some kind of witty response. I type and delete it again and again.
You still there?
Yeah… I’m here…
You think I’m pretty?
What the hell Harper, that’s all you can come up with? So much for playing it cool. Who am I kidding? Playing it cool ended when I had a staring competition with a fucking piece of paper in the trash.
Yes.
I stare at my phone. One single word and my head spins.
I open my car and get in. I silence my phone and leave it on the passenger seat. When my car starts music’s blaring through my speakers. On autopilot I drive back to the hospital for my second shift. It’s only a short four-hour shift on the pediatric wing. It should be a slow one, unlike those ER shifts. I can’t wait to cheer up those little faces. The pediatric wing is my favorite place to be. Although most of those kids are very sick, I love how they still see the positive side of things. There’s always somebody laughing and playing. If it’s not the tiny human patients, then it’s one of their siblings. The nurses on that floor are a lot friendlier as well. If I had a life outside of the hospital, I could see myself becoming friends with some of them.
I park my car in the staff parking lot and get my phone from the seat. I unlock the screen and see that I’ve got a new message from Alessia.
Please tell me you didn’t end up as a pavement pancake!??
I laugh. The sound startles me. She’s funny.
No, I didn’t. I was driving so
I couldn’t check my phone.
I step out of my car and start walking back to work.
Phew! I almost called in a search party.
Don’t scare me like that again or I’ll whip your fine ass!
What the hell! Who says you can get
within whipping distance of my ass?
“I do.” Her voice fills my ears from behind.
I whip my head around to see Alessia standing right behind me. She’s still wearing her crimson scrubs, and a few pieces of hair are now framing her face instead of being tucked into her ponytail. She looks a bit wild.
“Rough shift?” I ask.
“Nah, it was alright. Just a lot of running around, thank God for cardio.”
