BREATHIN' | J. AVERY

coffee

aisha and cristina weren't enthused when they walked towards the hospital. they weren't in their scrubs yet. aisha had ordered a small coffee from one of the stands nearby. right as she was about to take her first sip, a man in orange collided into her. the coffee's lid flew from the pressure and spilled all over her red sweater. her eyes were shut and she refused to open them and acknowledge the damage. so, cristina did it for her.

"orange scrubs?! we don't even get into the building and a mercy wester spilled hot coffee all over one of the most-"

"cristina." she sternly stated as she slowly opened her eyes. she figured the green-eyed man would utter some sort of apology by then.

she looked familiar to him. so pretty. like he'd seen her before, "have we met?"

"have we met?" she scoffed. "no we haven't met. whatever, good luck with your job" she groaned as she started to walk away.

"wait- i'm really sorry about the coffee. i didn't mean to startle you... or your sweater" he smiled. he figured that there would be some sort of reciprocation. most of the girls he encountered would fall to their knees with his grin. neither aisha or cristina did.

"noted." she replied before walking away, throwing her cup in the trash.

—

after aisha changed into her blue scrubs, she was paged to cover for torres for the day. it wasn't that interesting. she walked to the e.r. to find the residents grouped in front of owen.

"in mercy west we do zones" she heard a familiar voice say proudly. her head jolted up... he was a resident. aisha had a gut feeling that there would be a lot more spilled coffee instances.

when owen approved his idea, cristina's smile disappeared. "what's your name?"

"jackson avery" he beamed. jackson avery. maybe aisha's sarcastic wish of good luck backfired for her. his eyes caught hers and she couldn't help but chuckle at the circumstances. she always finds herself in unwanted events. she began to walk away until owen addressed her.

"khanna, where are you going?" he asked. "we didn't finish here."

jackson's mind repeated her name 30 times in his head. khanna. khanna. khanna. aisha khanna, the harper avery award recipient from last year. cristina glared at him when she realized that he was staring at aisha.

"i'm covering a few of torres' cases today. i didn't think this "zoning" applied to me for the day" she answered.

hunt cleared his throat, "in that case do you need a resident? maybe you can pick one from the mercy west bunch. show them around?"

aisha scanned the group of residents in orange scrubs. she saw avery fix his posture, prepared to go with her. "you know what? i think i'll be fine. i'll be sure to page one of them if i find the need" she lied before walking away.

—

aisha sat down with her lunch to see lexie, cristina, and alex fuming. she listened to them as she took a bite out of her apple. she was relieved that she didn't have to work with any of the mercy west residents for the day.

"yours is the one who saved the whole e.r. from the maniac with the hammer?" lexie questioned cristina.

"i'm sorry what?" aisha chuckled. "how did i not hear about this? which resident was this?"

"coffee guy" cristina replied. "and he didn't save anyone. he did some stupid ninja leap and then tripped a guy- aisha i'd be worried if i were you."

"wait who's coffee guy?" alex asked.

"avery" she sighed. "he literally ran into us and my coffee spilled all over my sweater. where was he running to?" she asked rhetorically. "we all were supposed to meet up at the same time."

"well you did show up late, so i guess he was right" alex laughed before aisha threw a french fry at him. "thanks."

"wait" lexie paused. "why should aisha be scared? she wasn't even there."

"i mean- aisha's currently the hospital's pride and joy. she literally covered torres today."

"oh please. it's not like i operated."

"don't worry. avery will take the attention away from you. he won owen over owen anyway."

"well mine has a notebook" lexie started. "a very personal notebook, and i stole it."

"lexie" aisha sighed.

"you what?" cristina questioned.

"give it" alex demanded.

"no. no, i-i am not sinking to their level! they are vindictive and they are aggressive- and they are not team players!" lexie said, slightly shaking the table.

"then place it back!" aisha widened her eyes.

"she's not a really nice person."

"lexie!"

"aish, when did you become so soft. it's payback for the coffee" cristina said.

"excuse you" aisha chuckled. "i'm just trying to be nice given the circumstances. we should rise above."

"you purposefully chose not to show a resident around the hospital" alex responded.

"they'll figure it out."

"hey!" izzie smiled as she walked up with two cups of coffee.

"oh, score. you rock" alex smiled as he reached for a cup.

"oh that's not for you" she said.

"who's it for?" cristina asked.

"charles."

"your mercy wester?!"

"no izzie you can not do that" aisha advised.

"what happened to rising above?" lexie mocked.

"that was before i saw the coffee!" she whisper screamed. "izzie he will spill it on you!"

"they're handing us our asses on a plate, and you're serving them coffee?" alex interrogated her.

"charles is actually kinda awesome. and if y'all could get past your sad, little egos, you would realize, you can't write off all of the mercy west residents just because you feel threatened" she said before walking away.

"oh we do not feel threatened" cristina scoffed.

"no" alex agreed.

"yeah, we feel pretty threatened" lexie admitted.

"speak for yourselves" aisha said before taking a sip of her water. "i'm out."

"wait" alex hesitated. "they're not here."

"what?"

"the mercy westers... they don't eat. they're working."

"they don't eat!" cristina exclaimed before the three of them rushed out.

aisha stared at the table of full trays and the empty chairs in front of her. it makes sense for the seattle grace residents to make a mess.