Drugged In Love

Chapter 11: Spanish Headache

Amelia Joan

"Morning, Doc Jo." I smiled at Helga when she poured me some more coffee. Her red and white themed shirt and skirt reminds of the musical play, The Waitress.

"Good morning po." Bati ko pabalik bago siya naglakad palayo para ma-serve-an ang ibang customers dito sa Jesse's Diner. It was just twenty past six in the morning and people were already starting to fill this twenty-four hour restaurant for breakfast. Unlike the other people in the booths or tables, I decided to sit here by the counter on a high stool.

Ilang minuto lamang ang layo nito mula sa ospital. Usually, dito kami tumatambay ni Pau kapag nagsawa na kami sa hospital food or trip lang namin. I sighed and looked at my phone next to my coffee mug. I already texted Pau to meet me here.

I have to be in the operating room in probably less than an hour and here I am, shades covering my face, hair in a messy bun, and I have a bîtch of a headache.

I looked nothing like a doctor. I am currently wearing Joe's Ateneo med school sweatshirt and paired it with leggings.  I'm not wearing Joe's clothes because I'm pathetic and reminiscing, no. I am wearing it because believe it or not, it's one of the most comfortable clothing I've ever had in my closet.

And his clothes, I think, is the only good thing that I ever got from our nightmare of a relationship. So, I will take what I can get from that bastard.

Whenever med students in the hospital see it, they always think that I went to Ateneo but I actually didn't. When the economy was bad in the Philippines, my father who was a family medicine doctor decided to move to a small  tropical American island in the Pacific Ocean called Guam to seek a better life. My mother, who was a teacher, moved with him and then a year later, I came into the picture.

I studied elementary through highschool in Guam. After graduation that's when my parents broke the news that they were getting a divorce and that Papa was moving to Seattle where he had bought a house by the mountains and lake, and that mama was staying in our family house on top of a hill in Ypao. Amman stayed with mama since he was still in high school at that time.  Meanwhile I was accepted into a college in Seattle. So I moved in with Papa in Seattle, where he would take me to school every morning and drive me back home. Mama supported me as well, calling. Making sure my tuition was paid for and just being there. I don't think I ever felt like I was never loved. I was lucky to have such parents.

I finished nursing in only two years since apparently, I was advanced from the rest of the class. I then became  a clinical and a PRN hospital nurse. I did that in my gapyear, before I applied to medical school where I got accepted into Johns Hopkins University. I was one of the youngest medical students there. I did my residency in the same institution and then decided to move back to the Philippines because I have always heard of GSMH and always wanted to work there.

So here I am, on Philippine soil, with a Spanish headache. How fúcking ironic is that?

I sighed again.

I met Joe when I was doing my clinical hours in the Swedish Hospital in Seattle. He was a general surgery resident then and he had told me that after residency, he wanted to become a plastic surgeon. I thought it was cool, and amazing, he was kind. He was a gentleman who would bring me coffee whenever I'm in the hospital.

Joseph wasn't really my type even after he started showing motives that he liked me. He wasn't that tall. He was probably around five ten on a good day and he was still taller than me, so I didn't mind. He  wasn't a gym guy. Sakto lang. He was fit but he also had those little chubby lines that I used to pinch.