Infinitesimal

Chapter 4

Fair Warning: this isn't edited, I didn't have time to re-read it several times and work out grammar mistakes *gasp*. Shame on me. Omfg tho, I'm so tired I've gone from waking up at 2pm to 6:45 am

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Lydia supposes that her small and awkward roommate named Kira isn't the worst person in the world to hang out with. When they spend time together they don't have to overuse profanity or light something on fire to make them both happy - they just take advantage of the TV Lydia's dad had bought for the room and pig out on cheap gas station snacks.

She's been hanging out with Kira in secret for a long while. Her roommate isn't exactly the type of person that would fit in with the new crowd Lydia runs with, so she doesn't mention Kira to anyone. She's afraid Malia will judge her for hanging out with Kira because the other girl acts sorta nerdy, but eventually Lydia can't hide her other friend anymore.

In the middle of exchanging Orphan Black theories and treating themselves to some pineapple smoothies, Kira and Lydia were ambushed - okay, maybe ambushed is a bit too far, but still - by Malia and Scott who were getting drinks of their own. Having spotted the two girls, Scott and Malia took it upon themselves to invite Kira to come with them to a nightclub on Saturday.

Kira said she was excited, Scott silently pumped a fist in the air, Isaac promised to get wasted and Malia said that she knew Stiles worked at the club they'd be going to. Everyone seemed to be looking forward to partying outside of someone's loud dorm room, except Lydia.

She was partially embarrassed of Scott, Malia, and Isaac - Scott and Malia mostly. While Lydia was nice and generally dorky around Kira, she acted more closed off and 'badass' towards her other friend group. She wasn't sure why it mattered so much to her, considering she's out of high school and apparently the social anxiety should stop by now, but Lydia didn't want either of them to find out she was more than she let on.

What if Kira mentioned something about Lydia's hair growing back, then went on to talk about her sickness?

What if Malia was an outright bitch to Kira?

And Stiles being there is a whole other story entirely.

"You okay? You're looking a little pale." Aiden jokes, discarding of a used needle. Lydia's nurse, Aiden, begins to mix two red and blue liquids together, that form purple when he swirls them around in the beaker. He smiling at his own joke but that smile quickly turns into a frown when he notices Lydia isn't grinning back at him.

She's not usually very talkative or peppy during their sessions, since every time she comes her she's reminded again that she's dying, but normally Aiden can get a chuckle out of her. Lydia really isn't in the mood for this right now, with the club coming up soon and the crap feeling sitting in the hospital room gives her.

They don't even know what's making her sick, really. It's just one of those rare diseases scientists haven't had the time to study yet since it's almost unheard of. Lydia barely knows what it's called, and she's not sure it matters. The thing that does matter though, the thing that's really plaguing her, is that there's no cure and this disease is rotting her from the inside out.

"Lydia? Hello? Earth to Dia?" Aiden waves a small cup of the purple liquid in front of her face. Lydia wrinkles her nose, it smells like cough syrup and fertilizer.

"Sorry, A. I'm just feeling a little spent today." She apologizes, putting her legs off the side of the exam table just so she can swing them back and forth.

"What's this?" Lydia questions, taking the cup from him.

Aiden blinks rapidly before scurrying off to the other side of the room to check each mixture, blood test, and X-ray again. He frantically picks through the many photos of her skeleton and the blood tests, along with a few screenshots he had printed out from Google. The man returns to Lydia's side with some of the tips of papers lodged in his mouth to carry everything.

"I think I found out what this disease is. I looked at your X-rays again and saw where it started- in the brain then spreading lower down towards your collarbones now." Aiden traced the thin black vein going down Lydia's neck.

"According to the blood tests you have traces of wolfsbane in your system, and I remembered back in Ancient Rome wolfsbane was used as poison - people would soak it in teas to serve to enemy soldiers to ensure that they'd get sick and, well, eventually die. So since you have wolfsbane in your system and your symptoms are similar to those of the poisoned in Ancient Rome I just-" He rambled on until Lydia cut him off.

"Aiden, I have places to be. Explain things in three sentences or less." Lydia tells him.

He thinks for a moment, biting his lip and making a strange face as if she couldn't tell he was thinking without him looking like a cartoon character. Aiden eventually slowly opens his mouth, having collected himself.

"You may have wolfsbane poisoning, and that is a small amount of liquid wolfsbane for you to drink so I can monitor what it does to you. This is a huge breakthrough, Dia, you could get cured." Aiden explains. He grins widely at the last part, and Lydia can't help but let her lips tug up into a large grin at the thought of finally being normal and cured.

Lydia doesn't hesitate to put her head back and let the drink roll down her throat, trying to keep the medicine away from her tastebuds all the while. She trusts Aiden, mostly because he's known about her sickness since they were kids and he's never once treated her differently or acted as if she needed to be coddled. If something was wrong, she would know it, and if things were improving he didn't over exaggerate it.

"Thank you, Aiden." Lydia says, and the boy leans forward to hug her.