The Discovery of Natalia Myers

01 mass

I STARE AT THE BLOOD draining out of my vein, feeling lightheaded and in pain. "Just one more tube and then I'm done," the nurse says in a cheery voice. "There we go," she closes the IV drip on my arm and gives me a small cotton ball smothered in ammonia. "In case you feel light-headed again."

"Thank you," I mumble, taking a sniff of it and almost gagging. Pushing myself slightly up from the chair, I gather all of my hair into a bun and secure it with a clip. "What do I do now?"

The nurse keeps sticking little stickers on the tubes filled with my blood, labelling them to send to the lab. "We will wait for your test results and the doctor will be with you once we have them." She grabs a bunch of antiseptic wipes and goes over the small area where my arm just was. "You can go sit down in the general area and don't hesitate to come to the nurses station if you start feeling worse, okay?" She offers me a small smile and helps me get up from the chair.

As quickly as I can, I leave the procedure room and head straight to the bathroom. I grab a few paper towels, soak them and wipe my stomach clean from the sticky substance they used for the ultrasound earlier. Once I'm done with that I go back to the soft couch I was sitting on before. My eyes quickly scan the area. All the other people who were with me earlier had already left. Leaning back onto the couch, I grab my phone from my purse.

Please keep me updated on how it goes :)

That's the first message I see on my phone from my boyfriend. I send him a quick text back as I wait.

Earlier this morning I started having intense stomach pains that wouldn't disappear even after I had one too many painkillers. My friend Maria told me the best thing for me would be to go to the ER, just in case. So here I am. Waiting on blood results to see what's wrong with me. They gave me some antacids before, thinking it's just an acid reflux issue, but that didn't make me feel better at all.

Seems like it only made me feel worse.

I'm not really a fan of hospitals. Back in the day I used to watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy and had an obsession with medicine. For a while I even thought I'm going to apply to med school. That dream got cut short when I realised I don't like being around sick people.

That's why I opted for the closest thing – pharmacy.

I still get all the basic human body knowledge, but I just focus more on the drugs part of it all and so far, I'm enjoying every bit of it. Although hard at times, I feel like I made the right decision with this degree.

My eyes wander to the snack machine in the corner. On cue, my stomach made the loudest noise possible, followed by a soft chuckle from behind me. I freeze in my spot, suddenly aware that I'm no longer the only person here.

"Someone's hungry."

I almost lose my breath as I come face-to-face with the owner of that voice. His demeanour is a lot different to what I'm used to – a bright smile on his face. A mop of golden hair sits on top of his head, a few strands falling onto his face, which make me notice the stormy blue eyes of this stranger.

I gulp as I mentally go over my appearance. Next to his beige pants and the loose button-up shirt with the flower pattern, my black sweatpants and black hoodie make me look like a hobo. Who comes to the ER looking like that?

"I've been here a while," I mutter, my eyes still scanning the rows of snacks, ready to devour anything and everything I could get my hands on.

The stranger hums in response, throwing his coat onto the couch across from my sitting spot. He takes a couple of long strides towards me and there he is, right next to me as a whiff of his cologne hits my nose; a mixture of something citrusy and something that makes the hairs on my neck rise up.