Opposites

1.7

Emilia made me go up the apartment stairs and towards her bathroom. 

“I think I should take you to the hospital. This just looks bad. I need to make sure everything is definitely okay.” Emilia nearly said under her breath. 

I turned around abruptly, “No, you can’t do that!” Panic filled my voice. 

“I won’t tell Jake or Mary. Go get showered and I’ll get you clothes to wear.”

I marched myself angrily into her bathroom and turned on the shower. 

“I absolutely hate this place.” I muttered to Emilia. She rolled her eyes and continued to read her magazine. 

We were sitting in the waiting room to see the doctor. The walls were a mustard yellow and the seats were leather and green. The entire waiting room was antiquated. I was fidgeting in my seat. Emilia was humming to herself.

“So how’s your boy toy?” I blinked innocently at her and grinned as I referred to her on-again-off-again boyfriend who worked at her bar with her.

“His name is Dan, and he’s not my ‘boy toy.’”

“Oh my god, you’re dating again, aren’t you?” I playfully slapped at her arm.

“Yes Cali, me and Dan are dating again. Things are going really well.” she didn’t look up from her magazine. She bit down on her lip and laughed. The other patients stared at us. I was just glad Emilia didn’t notice.

“Cali Forsythe?” The nurse called for me as she looked down at her clipboard. 

I stood up and so did Emilia. We followed her and she asked me a list of questions, and basically the normal stuff for when someone goes to the doctors. One of the questions completely shook me.

“How did this injury happen?” The nurse cleared her throat and looked up at me for an answer. 

“I, uh,” I blanked on what I had told Emilia. I bit down on my bottom lip. 

“Well?” Emilia looked at me questioningly. 

“I was at a friendly party. There were no drugs or alcohol or anything like that. I was with two of my friends when they randomly broke out into some kind of fight. I got in the middle of it and,” I stopped and searched my mind for the rest of my story. 

“That’s about all we need. I’m going to call in our chief of medicine.” she walked out of the room. 

Why would they need their chief of medicine to come see me? Oh god, they must think it could be a domestic violence issue.

I swallowed and took in a deep breath. I quickly put on a friendly smile and straightened my hospital gown out. I ran my fingers through my hair as Emilia sat on her phone and texted. The chief of medicine came in a few minutes later and smiled at me.

“I’m Doctor Jonathan Teller. I’m here to see what we can do for you.” he gave me a big hearty smile and chuckled softly. 

Teller, that was Justin’s last name. Excors Hospital, that’s where I was. That was where he said his dad worked. 

“I was wondering why they had called their chief of medicine in to see me?” I spoke nervously.

“Every Tuesday is when I decide to take patients on to myself. I guess you got lucky.” he chuckled again and then looked down on the clipboard in his hands.

“Tell the doctor what happened, Cali,” Emilia smiled at me.

I told him exactly what I had said to the nurse. 

“All right, have you been experiencing anything such as nausea, headaches, loss of hearing, a hard time seeing or anything else like that?”

“No,” I calmly responded. 

He sent me to get an x-ray on my chest and left arm after examining the swelling I had in both areas. Nothing turned out to be broken or sprained. A muscle in my arm had been strained, but he just said  to take advil for that, and I was on my way. Emilia dropped me back off at my house due to her having a date that afternoon with Dan. I had just shut my door only to have it reopened by Jake. I forgot Tuesdays were his day off. 

“Cali?” 

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m alive.” I pulled the covers up to my chin as I tucked myself into bed.

“Emilia let us know that you were with her, so you’re off the hook this time. I swear, if you don’t answer your phone one more time,” he spoke.

“I dropped my phone in the fountain at the mall. I’m saving up for a new one.” I quickly explained. 

Justin slammed the door. I guessed he was pretty upset with me for not coming home for two days and breaking my phone within that time. I was pretty upset with myself too.