BEAUTIFUL MESS [Book 2] | MIKHAIAH

2

At my lunch break, I sprinted to the gardens after finding a stale sandwich at a cafeteria and called Amaia.

"Hello?"

The relief I felt that she could pick up was insurmountable. The sound of her voice made me smile, and then I began to blubber.

"Mika? What's wrong?"

I shook my head in a symbolic 'I'm fine, don't panic' gesture before realizing she couldn't see me. "My first patient nearly died," I said in a blubbery rush.

"What? Are you okay?"

"Me? I'm fine. I'm not at death's door! I'm not bleeding out on an operating table with zero to no chance of survival!" I began to sob, and people started to give me a wide berth. "God," I mumbled.

"Tell me what happened."

That opened the floodgates. I told her all about Mr. Ramos. About Jessica, who turned out to be the cause of the accident in the first place because she had run a light while on her phone. I told her about the marble I helped pull from a boy's ear. About the sutures I was asked to help put in someone's thumb. About Dr. Ortiz and her motivational speech. About Sam and I being thrown into ER together, and finally, about how I managed to spill coffee all over myself and ended up as a patient.

"I have a second-degree burn," I muttered at the end pulling my fresh scrubs away from the guaze on my stomach.

I could imagine Amaia shaking her head at me. "How have you managed to get into so much trouble in just six hours?"

"I don't know," I said through a chuckle-sob. "God, Aiah, it's nerve-wracking."

Amaia sighed down the phone. "At least you have lots of learning topics to log."

She was right. The health of my clinical learning log was the highlight of the day. I could cross off things like obstructed airways, resuscitation, suturing, foreign object removal, diagnosis of fractures, internal bleeds, and punctured lungs. I looked at my stomach. Burn management. All that in six hours. I smiled.

"I need to go. I'm about to observe in the clinic."

"Okay. See you tonight."

"Will do. And Mika? You can do it." She hung up as a smile bloomed on my face.

I looked at my watch. I had ten minutes left. Dialing another number, I waited for my best friend Elle to pick up.

"Miks, babe!"

I grinned. Such an enthusiastic welcome. "Hey, Elle. How's things?"

"They suck. Dad decided to audit himself. Who does that! Such a freak." Elle groaned. Her father owned the largest grocery store where I grew up, and it sounded like he was taking advantage of Elle's MBA skills.

"You're neck deep in receipts, aren't you?"

She grunted in response. "Charli left."

My breath hitched a little. Last year, it would have hitched because I had been an insanely jealous wannabe lover to my best friend. This time, my breath hitched for her loss.

"You okay?" I asked Elle. Charli had been her girlfriend for a time, thus inflaming my jealousy, but in the end, it didn't work out. The fact Charli used to work for Elle's dad didn't help, so her leaving was a bonus. Still, it sucked for Elle. Their chance had come and gone.

"Yeah. She's moved and  in Cebu now."

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's cool. It's just good to have space now, ya know?"