Hopeless

Nights Out

The bags forming underneath her eyes were prominent, and despite Catherine's desperate attempts, the very small amount of makeup she was allowed to wear barely covered that. Her sleep seemed like the least important thing at the moment. Especially, with wounded soldiers being transported in. However, she had to admit it wasn't anything like working closely to the front lines. Yet, her bones still constantly ached, her feet were always swollen, her hands always full and all the while, it seemed that she earned a nickname among the other nurses, 'Goldie Locks'.

The funny thing was, her hair was brown, no mistaking it. Nothing gold about it, whatsoever. Instead, she had inquired the nickname for making sure everything was 'just right' as the others put it. She was meticulous with her work, but in Catherine's mind, these men put down their lives to fight. The least she could do was offer the best care possible, even if that meant staying hours past her shift to see to it. It wasn't like she was the only nurse who did so either.

She took a puff of the cigarette settled between her fingers and exhaled it.

In her other hand: a letter, from her family back home. Her younger brother wrote the lot of the letter, telling her about his schooling and his new interests. He boasted about his newest comic book, Captain America's adventures' and asked if she met the masked hero himself. She smiled contently down at the letter. Her younger brother was so full of wonder, ignorance. She somewhat envied him, especially now. The last few lines were written in her mother's familiar fancy penmanship. It said the usual about making sure to be careful, don't do anything unmoral. If only her mother could see her. Standing in front of the medical building, having a puff. Man, would she let Catherine have it.

Catherine scoffed to herself and mushed the cigarette against her finger.. She then tucked it back into the cigarette box, folded the letter up, and stuffed it into her pocket. She would have to write back later.

"And what do you plan to do with your time off?" Patty asked coming up beside Catherine to give her hip a playful jut.

Catherine laughed lightly and shook her head at the nurse. Patty was a nice girl and pretty too. She had soft blonde hair, that always seemed to fall just right, the nurses uniform, although very plain, fit her figure in just the right places and her confidence was enough to draw any guy in. If she wasn't so nice, Catherine may even dislike the woman a tiny bit or a lot.

"Sleep," Catherine answered earnestly as she turned to go back inside.

Patty huffed loudly and followed Catherine's suit. "Wrong answer," she replied playfully. "We, my friend, are going dancing."

Catherine looked over at the woman in bewilderment. Like she just grew two more heads. There was no way. "We have a free night, and all you want to do is sleep? Cathy, have some fun."

Catherine rolled her eyes at the woman and sighed. "Well, I guess, dancing does sound kinda fun."

The blonde's face lit up.

"Stop messing with your hair, you will frizz it up." Patty said swatting Catherine's hand as she tried to fiddle with the curls. Catherine's hair wasn't the shiniest, her figure was kind of curvy in some ways, it didn't really fit into dresses all that right, but Patty had cast a magic spell on her or something. The woman staring back at her in the mirror wasn't the Catherine she grew up knowing or ever being.

Her lips were painted with a bright red lipstick, and that same color coated her fingernails. Although, they were required to wear an off duty uniform, Catherine looked like she could dance the night away, with loose curls in her hair, and more makeup on than usual. Patty smiled brightly into the reflection from behind Catherine proudly.