offsetting minors | s. crosby

Friends who have slept together

"I can't believe you."

I set my lunch trey down at the cafeteria table and look at Jordan, confused at his outburst and the accusatory scowl he's throwing my way. Casey and Alexis are here too, both picking on salads- which is the most consistently decent thing the hospital cafeteria offers. "Hello to you too, Jordan. How's your day been?"

"Three cases of the flu, two sets of sutures, and a crazy old lady in the ER who won't shut up about her cat, Mittens. And I've been thrown up on twice. Meanwhile, it's our third day here and apparently you're saving kid patients from inoperable brain tumors. I hate you."

Alexis glances up from where she's been trying to stab at a tomato and smirks. "Let's not forget the hot sex she must be having with Pittsburgh's finest. Some people have all the luck."

I can't stop my face from going red. "Can we maybe not discuss my sex life at the lunch table, thank you."

"You can't parade your new boyfriend around here-especially when he's Sidney Crosby- and not expect to get shit for it, babe."

"He dropped me off and he is not my boyfriend. It was all very innocent." Not the part before he dropped me off, exactly, but they didn't need to know that.

"Well in that case, sign me up to be innocent with Captain Canada. He could do whatever-"

"Jordan, didn't you say you have a boyfriend?"

He shrugs. "Yeah, so? Tommy and I have been dating for three years and I know that he would definitely approve if I had an affair with Sidney Crosby. I'd be cheering him on if he did the same. But anyway, we can talk about your raunchy sex affairs later. Can we go back to the tumor? How the hell did you manage to land something this big? We're interns, we do grunt work."

"It's going to be at least a fourteen hour surgery, and Dr. Alvarez needed an assistant to scrub in. And I am doing grunt work, I'll just be there to hand him scalpels and whatnot. I don't think they trust me to wield the knife yet."

"You're the first intern to get to scrub in on a surgery, Elliot. That's big. This surgery is big- huge, even. We should celebrate."

"We can celebrate after Justin makes it out of this thing in one piece."  I counter. "I'm so worried about the kid. You know he's here all alone, no family or anything. This surgery has a million different ways it could go wrong and ruin his life if it doesn't end it, and there's no one here with him."

"Okay, well tomorrow, after you give that kid a new shot at his life and take out his crazy inoperable brain tumor, we're going out for drinks. Lots of them." Casey stares at each of us until we nod in agreement. In any case, it'd be nice to have actual friends to hang out with outside of the hospital. Being new in town didn't exactly lend to much socializing, and neither did my crazy work schedule. 

We disband after lunch after someone's pager went off. Dr. Roberts has me spend the rest of the day researching cases like Justin's- operable butterfly brainstem gliomas. There aren't many documented cases- and of them, more are failures than are success stories, but I try to focus on what went right and commit them to memory. Before I know it, I'm surrounded by a monstrous pile of case studies. It's nearing eight o'clock and my shift is coming to its end- but more importantly, Sidney is on his way to pick me up. I get a text from him- though I don't remember giving him my number- telling me that he's about twenty minutes out. 

This sends me flying to the locker room so I can change into something more acceptable. I didn't know what his plans are for dinner tonight, but I had brought along a casual sundress and a pair of black ankle boots to change into. I swipe on some lipstick, take my hair down from its bun, and make sure that I look acceptable before I leave. I want to see Justin before tomorrow, so I head up to his room in the few minutes I have before Sidney shows up. I hate to admit it, but I honestly have no idea how much time he has left and I want him to feel as at-ease as possible before his surgery.