Sebastien Struck

5: a new perspective

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five: a new perspective

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Sometimes it felt as though time was a fickle thing.

That was inherently untrue, because time was very much stable.

But there were pockets of time that felt like they rushed by so fast. So fast she could barely catch up.

And then there were other days, where the sun would come up, and when she'd look out of the window an eternity later, the sun was still up.

It had felt like the past two weeks were in slow motion, time ticking like ice melting in the snow.

Slow and unchanging.

She was used to days melting into one another, long weeks of school, of practicals, of labs, all to come home and study until restarting the process the next day.

But even her academic life wasn't enough to dull the hurt that gnawed away at her heart.

There was nothing that could dull that, she supposed, nothing except for answers or some kind of reconciliation.

She'd be okay with just answers, her mind needed that at the very least.

Her heart could wait forever for all she cared.

But neither her heart, nor her mind would be appeased anytime soon, she didn't think.

She had become an awful recluse after that night, somehow worse than she had been before she took her medical school admission test.

Her sole focus had been her classes and her rotations, and mentally preparing to hear back from all the residency programs she had applied to.

It was an awfully nerve-wracking time in general, and so she didn't want her brain preoccupied with anything else.

It was unfair, she supposed, the way she had been semi-ignoring her friends and family, making excuses to avoid get-togethers or visits, but she just didn't have the mental capacity for anything other than school.

And maybe it was for the best.

But it hurt, all of it, in no small part due to the fact that she had avoided contact with all of the people that made her feel happy.

She had managed one meal with her parents, but other than that, it had been radio silence on her part.

Niesha, completely understandably, was upset that Josephine had run off without letting anyone know; Josephine had given her a condensed version of events omitting his involvement altogether, and ensured her that she was safe, but that she could understand why her friend would be upset.

Josephine had managed to skirt around all of Faye's invites to dinner, Callan's coffee dates, Tai's hangouts, and all else that came in between that.

Unsurprisingly, one of the hardest people to evade had been Adler. She had skipped out on the two dinners she had promised, and while her excuse had been that she got unexpectedly busy, as final years tended to be, that hadn't stopped him from trying to gauge if there was something else.

His final tactic had been sending her pictures of his daughter, in hopes of enticing her to make a trip to theirs.

But she was steadfast in her avoidance.

He was coming from a good place, always taking the carer role in everyone's lives, and he was probably further motivated by the fact that Faye was missing her too, but she couldn't face anyone.