Learning to Cope

Page 3

Andrew:

I texted Ashley to let her know I was heading home. She was really busy with that guy. I wonder what happened to him. It's really cold out and it smells like rain, or I guess just wet dirt? As I sit in my freshly cleaned white sedan, Ashley texts me: "okay, drive safe! I'll call you when I get off work." she put about seventeen heart emojis in her text. I smile and start my car.

I pull into the parking lot of my apartment complex and see that my RESERVED parking spot has been taken. Again. If I was more confrontational I'd call the office. I found a spot close enough to my apartment and head up the wooden stairs leading to my unit.

I take a quick glance around the dim parking lot, the sunlight was fading fast. My roommate isn't home, thank god. I open the door to my apartment and all the lights are off but I can hear my cat chirp as she runs to me. I close the door so the booger doesn't escape and I pick her up as I walk around turning the lights on.

A couple of hours later, after using the restroom and I glance in the mirror. My eyes are puffy from crying. I'm not ugly but I don't think I'm very conventionally attractive. I'm tall-ish and I have auburn hair although I dyed it to be that color, my hair is naturally really straight and is so hard to style so I keep it rather short. I have green eyes but sometimes they look grey. They're surrounded by long light-colored lashes. I have thin-rimmed glasses and lots of moles all over my face, well actually my whole body. But I have maybe two freckles.

"VRVRVRVRVRVRVR" I jump as my phone starts to vibrate. A large picture of Ashley is displayed on my screen, she's older than me and she has really long blonde hair but it's always pulled into a bun for work. She wears so much makeup as well as a pair of old lady-ish glasses and her teeth are a little crooked, but it's cute.

"Hello?" I answer

"Hey! How are you feeling?" she chirps, I giggle. She sounds so tired but you can tell she's trying to give the impression that she isn't.

"I'm feeling better, are you driving home?"

"yep! Don't worry, I have you on speaker and I won't touch my phone till I'm home." I chuckle again

"I trust you, how are you? You sound tired."

"I'm always tired. It's part of being a nurse at this point." she sighs

"Anyway! Please tell me you're gonna keep volunteering?" she sounds giddy

"of course, why would I stop?" I ask, with an exaggerated gasp.

"Well, can you come in tomorrow?"

"Yeah, why?" what is she up to?

"Well, I have your next patient, and he's H O T" she spelled out the word 'hot'

"oh? So I'll sit with a cute guy till he dies? Sounds like a mountain of fun" I say sarcastically

"No, no. he's a 'high risk' patient and needs almost constant supervision while he recovers"

"high risk? Doesn't that mean he's at high risk of dying?" I ask

"well, kind of but not in the usual sense. He's probably gonna be sent to a facility once he recovers, we gotta get a psychiatrist to do a psych eval when he's ready to be moved." she calmly states

"I can see it now, you two on your wedding day making bedroom eyes at each other while you say your vows!" she squeals in my ear.

"Just because I'm gay doesn't mean every cute guy in the world is." I chuckle.

"Well, I think he's probably gay"

"What makes you say that?" she knows nothing about the LGBT and seems to have just ignored it until she met me, she'd never met a gay person before me.

"Well, he's cute, he looked well dressed and-"

"Stop right there. Those are stereotypes. I don't wanna go through this with you again." I pinch the bridge of my nose and sigh. I step out of the bathroom and head into the kitchen to start making dinner

"okay well, he gives off that vibe." I laugh

"well, I guess I'll find out."

"good, I'll see you tomorrow, I just pulled into my driveway."

"Okay, goodnight, see you tomorrow" she hung up. She never ends a phone call, she just hangs up when she's done talking.

I hope tomorrow goes well.