Nineteen

Chapter Ninety-Six

"When was the last time you were put to sleep?" she asks as she cuts through the cast on my arm.

I think. "I don't think I ever have been."

She doesn't seem surprised. "I'll have to do a screening and a urine test to confirm there isn't any underlining conditions that would prevent you being able to be put to sleep."

I nod and agree. I never needed to be put to sleep before, and I'm a little relieved shes going to do a quick health screening.

She cuts through the last of the of the hard cast and I feel it fall to the ground. The cool air sweeps over my naked arm.

The skin is wrinkled and very white. I didn't realize I had gotten darker since I had been in Florida.

"So," she says as she hands me a clipboard with rows of questions on them, "answer these, and then take your urine test, and we should be good to go," she says as she reaches for a plastic cup. She points to a small bathroom in the corner of the room.

I nod and begin the paperwork. They're simple questions like my family history, medical history, and medications. I have never had a complicated health report, so they're all fairly easy.

I take the cup to the bathroom and do as she asked. I return the items to her and she tells me that I can sit with Clark in the waiting room until they are ready for me.

He seems surprised to see me walk out. "They have to run a health report," I explain.

The panic in his eyes settle and he shows me some of the pictures in the Miami University magazine he has been looking at.

"What should I do about Collin?" I ask after we finish the book.

"Whatever you want."

"I'm serious," I say. "Link told me that he loves me."

He looks at me. "We both have always known that. It doesn't matter what he says if he doesn't act on it. He never has, and probably never will, act on his feelings."

I give him wide eyes. He has never been one to dig deep into feelings, and surprisingly, he's right.

"That's true," I say. "What about Collin?"

"I think he's an asshole. I also think there is a lot that you don't know about him," he says as he opens another magazine. "Good and bad."

I sit back and think. He's right, and he put my thoughts into perspective.

I've outgrown Link, and I'm too old to wait on him like I once did. Waiting hopelessly and taking any sliver of attention he's throw for me.

"Miss Shay?" the lady calls for me once more from the door. I stand.

She steps out a little more. "Uh, your friend can come back, if he'd like."

I look at Clark and he looks a little surprised, but he stands with me.

We walk through the door and down the hall to the little room that I was in earlier. 

"What do you think she needs me for?" he asks when he sits in the chair in the corner.

"I'm not sure." I'm worried now. Something may be wrong, and she believes Clark can be support for me to fall on.

I push that thought back in my head. I've never had any health problems, and I don't know what would randomly come up.

The door clicks open and mu chest tightens. It is a different woman, I assume she is a doctor instead of the nurse. She's holding a yellow folder to her chest when she sits down.

"Hi, Miss Shay. I'm Doctor Emily," she says as she reaches her hand to me. 

I smile at her and focus on the folder in her hand.

"Hi," she says as she reaches for Clark.

"So, how long have you two been a couple?" she asks.

A couple? Me and Clark?

I awkwardly smile at her. "Oh, no. He's just my friend."

Her smile fades. "Are you two romantically involved?"

I feel my face heat up, and Clark shifts around in his seat.

"No, we're not," he says. I look over to him and raise my eyebrow. He crosses his arms and slides further into his chair.

She opens her folder and looks over the words before looking back to me. "Miss Shay, I don't think we can do your operation today."

My hands start to sweat. "What's wrong?" I ask. I'm unsure if I want to know the answer.

"We looked at your health screening and ran tests just to be safe, and something came back on your urine."

I wish she would stop stalling and just tell me. Clark raises in his seat and I can hear him becoming interested in my fate. I don't say anything, afraid it would distract her form the folder.

"It shows that you are about four weeks pregnant," she says.