24 Visits

Visit Ten

VISIT TEN:

Reason: Check up, bloodwork

Symptoms: None

Time in: 12:00 pm November 18th, 2014

Jennie watched Rosie, keeping the thermometer firm under her tongue. She’d been silent, lost in thought since the morning. Mostly because she was going to see Rosie. But when she’d actually seen Rosie it became hard to talk.

She’d listened to the CD, and then listened again, and again… Jennie liked it, no, Jennie loved it. So much that she actually brought herself to finally do a google search on Rosie. She was originally going to read up on Rosie a little bit more, learn more about her music; and then she saw that damning little tabloid.

Rosie Spending A lot of Time With an Agent. Could they be more??

Splattered around were pictures of Rosie and a really pretty woman that Jennie vaguely recognized from the first time Rosie was brought in.

And for some reason Jennie had the urge to google Jane Kim after that. She found nothing but more pictures, a company, general accomplishments - and she was very accomplished. Accomplished and pretty.

It had been nagging Jennie for some reason, and being close to Rosie just made her think about it more. Was Rosie dating her? Was that even a thing that was allowed to happen?

“Jennie?” Rosie said around the thermometer.

Jennie ripped it away, wondering how long she’d been zoned out. “Oh, yeah. Temperature is fine.”

Rosie looked up at her and grinned. Her hair was down again, bangs tucked to the side. It really showed off how mature she could look.

“Jennie still hasn’t answered my question,” Rosie said in a sing-song voice. “Did you like the CD?”

Jennie froze. She could always lie and say she didn’t, it was hard for her to give praise sometimes, to reveal a part of herself like that. What she liked, what she didn’t like. It would give insight on her she didn’t know if she wanted to share. “Yes,” she finally said. “I did. You’re really...good.”

“I told you no one can resist!” Rosie said. Jeez. It was annoying how even at her most irritating she could still be cute.

“Whatever,” Jennie muttered, heading over to the cabinets in the office. “Which arm?” She didn’t have to look at Rosie to see the flash of panic that washed over her. Suzy had mentioned that Rosie didn’t like needles after the very first encounter, said that it was best to talk to her while drawing blood. So, naturally, Jennie did the exact opposite last time.

“Suzy?” Rosie muttered.

“She’s got better things to do, I can handle it,” Jennie said, now looking at Rosie. She smiled; it was nice to be able to scare the great Roseanne Park. She flicked the needle in her hand, if only for dramatic effect since it didn’t actually have anything in it.

“Left,” Rosie sighed, her eyes squeezed shut.

Jennie wrapped an elastic band around the top of Rosie’s arm so she could pop the veins out a little more, and then pressed down on the skin to see better. Rosie kept her eyes shut. “So how did you even become an idol?” Jennie asked, attaching the first vial to the tube in prep for extraction.

Rosie laughed. “You couldn’t google me?”

Jennie was grateful Rosie had her eyes shut and couldn’t see the bright blush on her face. “You’re my patient, why would I?” she asked, slowly sticking the needle in the left joint of Rosie’s arm. Rosie didn’t react.

“I googled you. Graduated two years early from Harvard in pre-med, one year early from Harvard medical school. You lived in America all that time?”

Jennie remembered the constant traveling, the business of college. The stress. “I went back and forth a lot.”

“Oh,” Rosie said. “Well, my story isn’t that interesting either. There is a biography about me somewhere that I signed the rights off to, but it makes me look like some rags to riches story.”

“Were you?”

Rosie shrugged, her face still turned away. “I mean, my family wasn’t the most well off, but we were never struggling. Things were harder after Papa died. I had to take care of my brother and sisters a lot because Mama started having to travel more. But even when Papa was alive I knew I wanted to be an idol.”

“Why?”

“I like making people smile, I like singing. I like being noticed and when people look up to me and go wow! She’s amazing. ”

Jennie smiled, pulling the needle out of Rosie’s skin and setting the vials to the side of the exam table. “You’re done,” she said, pressing a cotton ball against the small prick.

“What? I didn’t even know you stuck me!” Rosie whirled her head up to look at Jennie, and then at her arm.

“I’m good at what I do,” Jennie told her. She bandaged the prick, grinning a little at Rosie’s shock.

“You’re good at distracting,” Rosie said, almost accusingly, but her eyes were shining and lips tilted up just enough to show she was joking.

But she was right. Jennie was good at distracting, so much so that she completely forgot why she was on edge about Rosie. She’d forgotten the tabloid, the possible rumors read on the internet. But when Jennie remembered them, somehow they bugged her a little more than before.