Lucy:
About a week later, she dreamt of a certain Dr. Adam Fineman. It was a morning dream, because her alarm had already gone off at five, when she shut it off and rolled over. In the dream, she was walking through a room and just reached the door when she heard someone call "Lucy!".
She spun around and there was Adam, sitting at a desk chock full of papers and a few other people sitting around him. They were all busy working and she said "Hi Dr. Fineman" though her words may have slurred on Fineman. He looked down, then apologized for not having found the resources she asked him for. He refused to make eye contact with her. She assured him that it was fine and that she did not know that he had not taken those particular exams. He only nodded and returned to his papers.
The following part of the dream included her washing out period blood from her underwear and from her friend's underwear. As gross as that sounds, there was not a lot of blood and it was not as gruesome as it sounds. She saw Dr. Holdings and she waved to him when he saw her. He smiled, waved back and walked away.
That was it. That was the whole dream. She woke up to a surge of panic that she missed the bus. She let out a relieved whoosh of air when she picked up her phone to see "6:00" on the lock screen. As she quickly showered, dressed and apply a subtle line of eyeliner beneath her lower lashes, she could not make heads or tails of the dream. All she knew was that the presence of blood normally meant something good was coming.
She got to the bus with plenty of time to spare. When she went to sign her name with the bus driver, she noticed the awkward little guy that had only started travelling on the bus two weeks ago. He was holding the sign-in sheet so Lucy went to stand next to him. She looked to him and to her surprise, he smiled at her. She never saw him smile at anyone before. It was not one of those dazzling, white teeth, winning smiles.
It was soft. It was almost...rueful. It was a small smile that made her really see him for the first time. He did not have the baby face that she assumed him to have. He had day old stubble and looked a little older than she thought he was. More mature. He was in fact, very handsome. She stuck out her hand for the clip board with the sheet and he handed it to her. She flipped over the single sheet so that she could write her name on the sheets, but found nothing.
"He went to get an empty sheet", the guy said to her right. She replied with "Oh", then looked to the driver. He was in fact looking for a sheet in between the front seats of the bus. She saw empty space at the bottom of the sheet, outside of the table and decided to squeeze her name right there. As she did so, she felt the guy's eyes on her.
"If you don't mind me asking," she had not expected to talk to him, but her mouth began moving on it's own accord, "Are you from Raynaud's Medical School?" It was the name of her school.
With her eyes still on the paper, she heard him say "Yes", with which she quickly responded, "Me too", then handed him back the clipboard, and headed to the bus without another word. When she boarded the bus and sat down, she thought about his smile. She did not know a smile could have such an effect on her. What she should have done was stayed and spoke with him a little longer. Wait for the driver to get the sheet like a civilized person and just chat a little with the handsome stranger. She had already noticed him from before and how similar their characteristics were to each other. They both boarded and left the board early and were always in front. Either she was staring at his back when they walked back to their halls (he lived in the one directly across from them) or he was staring at hers. When they were in the student lounge, they kept to themselves, unless someone else engaged them. Otherwise, they were asleep or on their own phones.
While she thought about all their similarities, she noticed him board the bus. She saw the quick scan he did, his gaze stopping on her before he sat down. He did not come sit next to her. Why did that short interaction with him make so much difference to her? The little blush on her cheeks and the smile on her face did not fade, all the way to the hospital.
