Venom

29

"You're kidding," I whispered.

Dr. Wiltshire said nothing, probably thinking I was insane. Hell, I thought I was going crazy. Perhaps it would be me getting checked into the psych ward this time.

"Can I come over now?" I asked.

"Yes, please do. I want to understand where the confusion arose."

"I'm on my way."

I ended the call, dropping my face into my hands and groaning. What the hell is happening to me?

"What's going on?" Ellie demanded.

Having not told her about my grandmother, I settled on giving her a simple response. "I need to go to the hospital right now and sort things out for my internship."

"Okay," She nodded, "But come back right away, I need to know the rest of the drama that's going on in your life."

I turned to her, "You're not mad I didn't tell you earlier?"

"I mean I would've wanted to know before, but I understand why you'd want to keep it a secret."

We embraced before I left her apartment.

It was only once I'd taken a seat in my car that I realized I looked like a sewage rat, but I was too amped with adrenaline to care.

Dashing into the hospital, Dr. Wiltshire was waiting for me in the usual spot.

"Cher, what happened to your face?" He greeted.

Feeling self-conscious, I pressed my cheeks with my hands.

"Do I need to call child services or something? Perhaps a domestic abuse hotline?"

"NO!" I burst. "No, no."

There was only one way to explain my condition and that was to tell him the truth.

"I went on a date with a mini-celebrity and it was pretty cool and secluded, but then these paparazzi came out of nowhere, and they started taking photos of us, and then because this guy has crazy female fans, they came to me at the restaurant I work at and then attacked me."

I let out a breath once I'd sped through the explanation.

Dr. Wiltshire's mouth parted in shock. "Well, please be more careful with yourself, Cher. I'm worried about you."

"Please, don't worry about me. I promise I'm alright."

Lies.

"Well, do you want to work a shift right now?" Dr. Wiltshire offered. "The other intern called in sick, I thought there might be a flu going around and you might have caught it too."

I nodded eagerly. "I'm so sorry, I must've had a nightmare about being fired."

"No worries, it happens to the best of us, Dr. Pennfield does sound like a scary doctor's name." He joked.

Little did he know.

"By the way, this is your last shift in the psych ward. You'll be doing flu shots next week." He informed me before heading off in the opposite direction.

As long as I could continue to work at the hospital, sneaking to see my grandmother would be a possibility.

As I stepped out of the elevator, I found someone other than Taylor sitting at the reception. It was an older guy.

"Are you a new intern?" He asked as I approached him.

"Just filling in for someone else."

A couple of moments later, the guy left for his break.