Sincerely, Dr. Cruz

Two: The Hunger Games

Chapter Two: The Hunger Games
Rhode Island Hospital: Providence, Rhode Island

*grrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

Shut up stomach.

I wasn’t exactly in a good mood. After encountering with Brad twice today, lunch had been pushed back two hours to 3:00. My tummy wasn’t happy.

Then again, not that I needed much food anyways.

Stop it Reina.

By the time it was 3:00, my hunger had faded, but I had an orange anyways. Dr. Fordham came by our table and told us to get used to the varying lunch times. I was sitting with Katrina, who groaned as Dr. Fordham left.

“Can I join you guys?” A squeaky voice asked from behind me.

“Jaya, why even ask! Plop yourself.” Katrina exclaimed.

Jaya laughed at Katrina’s statement, and we all became engrossed in conversation.

“Rei, I’m serious. You look different every time I see you. It’s a good different too!” She giggled.

“What do you mean?” Jaya asked as she pushed her thick framed glasses further up, and scrunched her nose as to bring out the fact that she had a cute little nose stud.

“Well…” Katrina began to talk but I cut her off nervously.

“Why don’t we save it for another time?”

“Oh okay.”

I continued eating my orange in silence.

I had lost my appetite.

*****
It was really hard, adjusting to the people here. Brad was a jerk wad as ever, while Jaya was a little sweetheart. Katrina was really bubbly while Caleb was reserved. Armando was… Armando. Martin and Sam were mature. And me?

I don’t know.

Cheesy? A pushover? Different? I had been called all of these things since coming here, mainly by Brad, but then again he had an ego the size of Texas. I guess that in my constant pondering over my personality, I didn’t realize when Jaya has walked in. She had to say my name a few times to eventually get my attention. Well that, and she shook the living daylights out of me.

“REEEEEEIIIIIIIINAAAAAAAAAAA.”

“What!?” I said as I jumped back into the dimension of reality.

“Sorry,” Jaya said as she started to laugh psychotically, “it’s just that I’ve been trying to get your attention for a while now but you were dead staring at the wall.”

Oh.

“Sorry. I guess I just let my mind wander too much. What’s up?”

“Well, I was wondering—“

Jaya was interrupted by a loud crash outside.

“How convenient.” She muttered. Noting the sarcasm.

“Just ignore it. You were saying?”

“Oh um… Oh! Okay so I was saying that—“

Another crash, another mumbled sarcastic remark from Jaya, and last but not least another look of ignorance from me.

“Okay, all random noises aside; I was going to ask if you would like to join me for dinner one of these days.”

Oh. Dinner. How fun.

“Just you or…?”

“Well I guess one of these days when we have some time to actually go get dinner, I was hoping you could meet my older sister. She’s basically the only reason I’m even here in Rhode Island. I may be almost twenty eight but my parents are still convinced that I’m eight.”

“I didn’t know you had a sister!”

“I do. I mean she may be married with her two sons and all but Mon isn’t that bad. Plus as long as she’s a 10 minute drive away, my parents won’t be breathing down my shoulder. I swear…”

“That’s cute.” I said, clearly amused by how opposite Jaya and I were. My entire life I hadn’t bothered to try and leave my parents, and here Jaya was, a few states over and still trying to get away.

“It’s not cute Reina! I’m twenty seven, emphasis on the twenty. Whatever. So dinner?”

“You know what, I would be glad to on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll be accompanied by my younger brother if that’s alright.”

“You have a brother!” Jaya exclaimed, as we both turned to laugh.

Before I could answer the door to my office flew open as Kat stormed in and plopped herself down on one of my chairs, huffing and blowing up her bangs from the jolt of air.

“What happened?” Jaya asked.

“I’m seriously starting to think that he was a mistake.”

“Who?” I grew concerned, knowing that Katrina had been married for two years now. I mean, Todd wasn’t exactly the best husband but they had only been married for two years. Surely nothing could’ve gone that bad now could it?

“Brad that’s what. I swear his parents weren’t planning him—ughhhhhhh.”

Jaya and I suddenly burst out laughing. At least her marriage wasn’t falling apart.

“Kat, you seem seriously stressed. Have we not told you to just ignore him?”

“I know but he knows how to get under peoples’ skin. I swear his words have the effect of a knife ripping apart layers of the epidermis so he can crawl his nasty ass—“

“Kat, language.” Jaya said.

Kat sighed and resumed. “His nasty ass into your skin.”

“You didn’t listen to me.”

“Jaya, I respect your anti-cussing lifestyle and all but I’m not exactly in the best mood.” With that, Kat rested her head against the wall and stared at the ceiling. It was quiet for a moment before the three of us started laughing together. After our fit of giggles were over, Kat left to go deal with Brad again.

Jaya was halfway out the door when she turned to me and said, “Remember, free time. Dinner. Siblings included.” She smiled as she walked out the door.

Maybe I could get through this after all.

AN: Sorry for taking so long with the update. They won’t be frequent because man do I have a heck of a schedule. Not complaining though. Please leave me feedback yeah? I even accept rotten tomatoes!