“I love this place,” Courtney said, leading the charge and going straight towards the cashier, ordering an animal style double-double with cheese and no pickles. This girl knew about food too, she was fucking perfect.
We sat down on the bright red bench to wait for our food, my hand returned to its place on her leg, this time forgetting about her dress and just resting it down on her bare thigh, just above the knee. I turned to her and looked straight into her eyes.
“I'm glad we're here. As long as I have the most beautiful date in the room, I'm happy.”
“Oh why thank you,” she said, batting her eyelashes exaggeratedly, “you’re too much.”
She rested her hand on the top of mine, it was barely able to cover the whole thing but it seemed so right. Like two puzzle pieces finally coming together after forcing themselves into fitting with pieces they never belonged with from the start.
“So how are you feeling?” she asked, bringing on a more serious tone but still smiling in her incredibly disarming manner.
“I’m doing ok. Most of the pain is just a dull reminder now and I still can’t lift anything. But I’m doing much better now.”
She looked down at her heels and looked back up at me, strands of blond waves falling in front of her eyes. She slid the rebellious locks back to their places; stuck behind her ear.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she said, looking at me, and the crazy thing was that I could tell she genuinely meant it. Even though she had absolutely nothing to do with me getting shot, here she was feeling so much emotion that she felt the need to apologize for it. It proved to me how good of a soul this girl had and made me want her even more.
“It’s fine. Gonna be a great story to tell the grandkids,” I said, finding the silver lining and ignoring to mention how close I was to the brink of full-blown addiction along with the traumatizing nightmare that still wouldn’t go away. I felt my blood run cold as that nightmare came shooting back. I quickly silenced the memory as best as I could before it ruined the rest of the night.
“How many kids do you want?” Courtney asked, switching gears and being refreshingly blunt for someone on her first date. It was also a question I wasn’t really prepared for, so after stammering for a bit, I answered, “Three would probably be my ideal.”
“Yeah but then you have that awkward middle child that’s going to go off and teach in Thailand for two years then come back home as a Buddhist priest.”
“How about you then?”
“I’m thinking two is my ideal number. That way they have some company when I need to go relax at the spa and I won’t have to sell my soul to pay for their colleges.”
“Makes sense,” I said, standing up to grab our orders and leading us over to an empty booth tucked away in the far right corner of the diner. There was a window that opened up to the bus stop which housed another couple of homeless people along with someone who I could have sworn was a finalist on American Idol at one point.
“So you come here often?” Courtney asked, smirking over her cheeseburger and gesturing out to the white and red fast-food diner. She laughed through a bite as I nodded, except I don’t think she knew I wasn’t actually joking. As much as I preached against it to some of my patients, I knew I would be fine eating a double double every now and then. And by every now and then I mean every Friday like clockwork.
“Wait, are you serious? You eat this every week and you still look like you’re straight out of a mall catalogue?”
“Damn, mall catalogue? Not even a sports magazine?”
“Ugh, you know what I mean,” she said, waving a fork in the air before plunging it down into her fries. I noticed she must be one of the very few people on this earth, or that I knew of at least, who used forks to eat fries.
“So you think I’m attractive?” I said, toying with her a bit. I figured I could catch her in a corner and see if she would play back or not. I was finding myself wanting to challenge her more and more now, excited that I may have found an equal.
“Well, only when you have a stethoscope around your neck,” she said, her eyes narrowing as her lips drew upwards in a mischievous grin.
“So you’re only going out with me because I’m a doctor?”
“Maybe. Or maybe I’m just into really hot men that only wear stethoscopes.”
Her expression said it all. It also made me extremely horny. So much so, in fact, that I could feel my dark blue boxer briefs tightening around my growing bulge. I couldn’t help but sneak glances at her cleavage, imagining myself planting kissing down her chest, teasing her pointed nipples while she turned into clay underneath my hands. I needed this girl. I needed her now.
“Maybe I should come in for an exam some time,” she said, casually kicking her foot against my calf, hitching it on and still keeping eye contact. My cock was straining against my jeans now, threatening to burst out right there, underneath the shiny red table.
“Make an appointment, I’ll make sure to have my stethoscope,” I smirked, holding my leg solid against her brushing motions. She sat back and looked out the window for a second, making me wonder what exactly was going through this girl’s head. I had the urge to probe her, to learn what made her tick, what turned her on, what was her biggest desire, her strongest want. She looked back at me and returned her leg to its original spot by her seat.
The break in contact did nothing to subdue the raging hard-on I had going.
“I’ll have to go in sometime soon then,” she said as she took another bite out of her cheeseburger. It looked like she was straight out of one of those burger commercials with Paris Hilton on the hood of some expensive car.
I was just about to tell her that we needed to go when, from across the room, a shout rang through the diner. We both turned to look and saw two of the homeless men yelling into each other’s faces as an In-N-Out employee tried to break them up. Then, chaos erupted when the homeless man on the right, his face wrinkled and sunburned from the sun, produced a shiny, serrated knife and tried to slice clean through the employee’s chest. Thankfully the employee was quicker than the drugged out vagrant so he was able to dodge the stab at the last second possible. With the employee out of the way, the homeless man turned to his original opponent and launched forward, this time hitting his target. He sliced right through the other guy’s bicep, ripping a shrill scream through him. Courtney screamed in unison and I immediately threw my hand in front of her, letting her know that I was there for her.
There was no way I was going to let anything happen to this girl.
“Oh my god!” yelled out an older woman by the drink station, slumping down onto the bench as she passed out. The assailant looked down at the dying man and bolted out of the diner, running into the street and narrowly dodging oncoming traffic by what seemed like inches.
I snapped into physician mode, running over to the man and ripping off my shirt, letting everyone around know that I was a trained physician. I balled up my shirt and pushed down on the gushing stab wound, trying to stop the blood. I looked over to a man standing by the exit, “Call 9-1-1!”
Courtney was behind me by then, looking at me just before putting her hands into the mess, helping me apply more pressure and finally slow the bleeding. Meanwhile, the man was already beginning to lose consciousness underneath us.
“Hey, hey, buddy, stay awake, alright?”
“What’s your name?” Courtney asked, knowing it was important that the man didn’t give up and close his eyes.
“Oscar,” he rasped, his breathing difficult, not from the wound but from years and years of smoking. We pushed down harder, the crimson red pooling around us on the tiled floor. I could hear a kid crying from the corner, asking his mommy what was going on. Another man was hovering over us, trying to offer his help but not having anything much to do.
Courtney leaned into me as she kept putting pressure down on the wound, those rebellious strands of hair falling down in front of her face. She used a forearm clear of an
y blood to push the hair away, letting her look down at Oscar. She was handling this so well, as if she knew exactly what to do and didn't hesitate for a second, a vital trait to have in the medical field.
"Where are you from, Oscar?" she asked, trying anything short of slapping him to keep Oscar awake.
"Kansas," he coughed.
I noticed that his skin was beginning to regain some of its tint, and the bleeding was slowing. It looked like Oscar was going to make it.
“Oscar, how does a double-double cheeseburger and an extra large order of fries sound? Because you’ll be eating that when you get better, alright?” I said, still pressing down hard on the wound, my shirt was soaking through with red.
“What’s your favorite food?” Courtney asked, this time trying to blow a stray strand of hair away from her face. She looked at me and I felt an incredible, overwhelming sense of partnership. Something clicked at that moment, us helping save this man’s life together, experiencing an intense sense of bond between me and her. I looked down and smiled at Oscar just as the paramedics came rushing in through the door, the police not far behind them.
“He has a stab wound to the right bicep. Doesn’t look like it hit the brachial artery so he should be ok.”
“Got it, thanks doctor.”
I nodded to the man as he quickly turned his attention to Oscar. I moved aside with Courtney, watching them take Oscar and rush him off to the hospital. We were quite as we washed off and waited for the police to interview us about the ordeal. The questions didn’t last too long, it seemed like a simple cut and dry case, now all they had to do was find the guy with the knife.
Thinking he was out there somewhere did make me a little nervous, I hooked an arm around Courtney’s waist and pulled her in tight, wanting to make sure she was safe. When the police let us go we walked back to the car, still in silence.
Finally, “Great first date, I’d say.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her lightheartedness, her view of the world seemed to be through just the perfect shade of rose-colored glasses, and I was beginning to fall for this girl even harder.
If that was possible.
“It’s one for the books, that’s for sure,” I said, drumming my thumbs against the leather steering wheel as Courtney fixed a small, shimmery diamond earring.
“Well, I for one had a ton of fun. And unlike Emma, I found out I don’t pass out at the sight of blood.”
“Oh that’s right! Everyone was talking about her for the rest of the day. Sweet girl,” I said, remembering the time Courtney’s best friend discovered she had a very bad reaction to the sight of anyone bleeding.
“What a dork. God, I love that girl,” she said. Her friendship was clearly strong, I could tell she was a loyal person, someone who stuck to their pack and didn’t stray too far. It was another trait that I admired. I started to wonder if Courtney had anything I didn’t like, because so far I couldn’t find anything.
“I’m guessing you still want to become a doctor? You handled that patient really well for someone who hasn’t even taken Organic Chemistry yet,” I said, admiring her for the way she stepped up even when danger was still around the corner. The guy could have come back and decided to finish the job, or Courtney could have just stayed back. And even if she did, I wouldn’t have blamed her, it’s not an easy thing to do. It’s weird, someone would think it would be instinct to run up to a bleeding man and try to help, but if that situation does come around, most people think twice before running in to help hands-on. And they don’t doublethink it in a fucked up way, just human nature for a lot of people.
But Courtney was different. She was different than a lot of people I knew. A lot of the girls I had been with. She was just different.
“Yep, if anything that just proved it to me and now I’m even thinking I might just want to work in emergency medicine. The adrenaline rush is crazy, I feel so incredible knowing that we saved that guy’s life!” Her genuine emotions were flooding her speech, I saw that she swelled up her chest a little, breathing in the incredible moment and capturing it for the rest of her life. I still remembered the first person I saved; a teenage girl who was involved in a nasty car accident. She was in really bad shape and I was only nineteen but I knew what to do and how to stop the bleeding. I was able to keep her stable until the ambulance had gotten there and then they took it from there. If it wasn’t for me, she would have easily bled out that day.
It was an incredible moment and one that I’ll never forget.
I also couldn’t forget the one person I was responsible for killing.
“What made you choose emergency medicine?” she asked me, forcing me to think about something else, drawing my mind away from the horrible nightmare that was beginning to resurface, scratching its way up to my consciousness. I felt like I wanted to tell Courtney about it, like maybe it would solve it all, but I couldn’t. I was, honestly and truly, scared it would make her run. I was scared it would make her think I had way too much baggage to actually be normal.
So I couldn’t tell her. Not yet.
“I was addicted to the rush too, it felt like everything made sense the moment I have to step in. Everything is so much clearer and I feel like I could actually breathe. Saving a life is indescribable already, but add in the intense pressure that comes with emergency medicine and you have a crazy rollercoaster of emotions that someone mixes together to create pure fucking bliss.” I said, unable to even keep my language clean in front of Courtney. I had a small suspicion that curse words wouldn’t bother her, but even so, I just had to drop the fucking f-bomb when I was talking about my career.
And then suddenly I was thinking about my job. And all the people I help. And all the people I help by prescribing them meds. By prescribing them painkillers.
Oh fuck.
My palms started becoming a little clammy as I clutched the leather tighter in my grip. I needed to stay with her tonight. I couldn’t be by myself. I would get into no good if I were left on my own, even if it meant crashing on her couch.
“This is it,” she said, pointing up at her place.
“Hmm… that’s weird,” Courtney added, sounding puzzled as she looked over her shoulder to the street we had just passed.
“Why was Ally just parked there?” she asked, more to herself than anything else, but the name caught me by surprise. I mean, it couldn’t be the same Ally. But then again… they did work at the same hospital?
“Wait, Ally the nurse?” I couldn’t let it slide. If it was indeed Ally, then that was a weird coincidence, weirder than most coincidences one sees.
I was suspicious.
“Well… she used to be a nurse. Why, you know her?”
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Uh, yeah. She was my physical therapist,” I said, taken aback by two things. First, that Courtney could eventually find out what Ally had done to my horned up body and two, that Ally was camping out in the first place.
“Oh, you were probably her last patient then! She talked about someone that she apparently grew up with, like a twin brother. Was that you?” she asked.
Something was off. Ally and I were clearly close, but not to that extreme. Yeah, she jacked me off but so did that one sorority girl at the back of the barn, doesn’t mean I’m calling her my twin.
Now that’s just fucked up.
“No it couldn’t have.”
“Hm, she did act weird when I told her I was going out on a date with you.”
Shit. She told her?
“Oh… you guys close?” I asked, wondering if there was more to this than either of them were letting on. But no, that would mean accusing Courtney and I couldn’t do that. I knew that she was no danger to me, I felt like she may have been one of the most loyal people i knew. I could feel that about her.
“Kind of. Well, we used to be. Then she started getting into some weird stuff,” she said, talking as if she was suddenly wary of her, like a mouse having to creep around a sleeping
cat. Something seemed to have spooked her. I squeezed her shoulders a little tighter, reminding her that I was here. I was taking care of her. I was forgetting about the need to be numb. I wanted to feel again. Even if that meant feeling the pain, I wanted to feel what I felt when I was with Courtney.
“Her brother is apparently a drug dealer and she started swiping things from the hospital, then she started having these weird outbursts, crying one second, punching the wall the next. I don’t know, but it sucks seeing that,” she looked down at her hands, carrying the sadness of having to witness the mental decline of a close friend. That situation could never have been easy and I admired Courtney for still keeping such an optimistic outlook on life.
But her news also worried the shit out of me. This meant Ally wasn’t the same little Hello Kitty loving girl in the backseat of Marco’s car. And talking about Marco, it looked like he wasn’t clean either, if he was back in the game then he might decide to tap his old contacts.
This was not good news at all.
“Damn, well it sounds like she’s definitely not someone you want to be hanging out with,” I said, hoping she would listen to my advice and not get mixed up with Ally’s crowd. I knew that group all too well and I was fighting my hardest to stay separated from that. I didn’t need Courtney falling into something with them. No, I needed Courtney underneath me as I fucked her, making us one, enveloping us both in a web of passion. I needed her to be with me.
“Yeah, I’m not planning on it. Besides she didn’t like Orange is the New Black. I mean, like really? And you expect me to think you’re normal?” she asked, giggling at her own overblown character. She didn't’ take life too seriously and she helped give that ease on to me.
“Can you make an exception?” I asked, grinning over towards her as I pulled into a parking spot. The flickering white street lamp cast a fluorescent glow on us as we walked up to her apartment, a protective hand around her perfectly sized waist. The size you can hold on to without ever wanting to let go. Her heels clicked on the concrete as she laughed, “so you’re telling me you have a coffee addiction and don’t like quality television?”
Numbed (The White Coat Series) Page 7