Chapter 4 Awkward Encounters

Abigail's Point Of View.
"Is everything okay in here?" The female doctor who was addressing us before I had gone ahead to make a fool of myself, showed up. Her eyebrows were raised, probably at the proximity at which we stood. It was crazy. Ridiculous. Everything about today was and if I was being honest, I just wanted to leave. But at the same time, I didn't want to leave. Did that make sense? A part of me longed to be left alone with Jack again. A part of me wanted him to finish what he had been up to.

"Uh..." Jack looked so confused. He looked as though being seen with me was some sort of big crime. And I didn't know whether to laugh at that or be upset. "We were just talking. I was telling the intern that she needs to make good use of the lunchtime around here," he then stared at me, his head tilted. "Now that is utter luxury."

"Do you feel alright now? You took quite a mighty and careless fall back there."

"I feel fine. I just have a small headache that's all, but I'm sure it will be gone before I say jack." I said, chuckling. Alone. Why did I do that? I had nothing else to say but I'm sure there were other wittier things I could have said. Classic me.

She smiled as though I had said something adorable, then she turned to Jack. "You know what, Kiki? Why don't you go while I finish up here?" Her smile deepened. Hold on a second, Kiki? Where did that even come from? "For some reason, I have more confidence in you today and I trust you to take care of the issue with the other interns more than I would today. They are kinda too much for me today."

He squinted his eyes at her, then set his fist on his waist, frowning, "Wait, so you want me to head supervision today?"

"It is what I said. Besides, you are the head."

"Wrong, I'm your assistant and usually you're the one reminding me. Are you sure you are okay? I could drive you home if you're not." His country accent always made a show for itself whenever he showed affection. I had to look away or I would burn a hole at the side of the lady's face. Maybe they had forgotten about me. Would it be wrong to excuse myself from the awkward situation? After all, they were talking about me, well... Sort of anyway.

"I'm fine and I just decided that it would be great if you led today. Maybe that small responsibility would let you into a new opportunity. You know, eye service and stuff." She said and they both chuckled. Oh, how I wanted to just get out of there. My feet tapped. Furiously. But I couldn't help but look up.

"Okay, but not because of the eye service that you mentioned..." He glanced at me and then at her again, "but because you asked nicely." With one more glance at me, he walked out of the room. The lady doctor didn't take her eyes off him, though. Yup. She had to like him. Otherwise, why was she suddenly twirling her hair around her pinky finger and giggling to the air in front of her? Was it crazy to say that she annoyed me already? But what right did I have to be jealous? I was the one who ended things with Jack. I was given a ring and I have it back, all this just to-

"Hey!" She called loudly, startling me. I smiled softly, trying to mask the emotion I felt welling up inside. I only hoped it was working.

"Hi."

"I'm Cynthia. Neurosurgeon. I'm not going to say here at Graceland, because I know that you already know. I mean, duh, I'm standing here after all." She laughed I smiled. Awkwardly. She seemed nice. At least not as intense as she'd sounded an hour ago whilst addressing us.

"I'm Abigail, it's really nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Oh, please don't call me ma'am. Please. And don't like me already, after the first two weeks you can then decide if you like me or not. Most of the docs here don't. I'm not going to beat around the bush, if they don't like me, it's because I'm as serious as my career. My roles are just as important, so you mess up, I mess you up." She said. Why did she smile as she said that like it was some kind of friendly threat? Was it?

"Um... Okay." That was it. That was all I had.

"I'm sorry for that, I just... I don't know, I like you. And it has nothing to do with the fact that you fainted on your first day or that the situation looks exactly like what happened to me on my first day. It's pretty much just you. And a lot is going to happen. A lot that you didn't bargain for. A lot you didn't see coming and sometimes I might lose it too, but that doesn't shouldn't take the specialness of the thing we both love, right?" That made a little sense, I guess. It meant a lot to me that she was giving me an advice, whether it sounded crazy or not crazy, I was going to take it and hold on to it for the rough journey ahead.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me. I only hope that upon this information, I don't still disappoint you in one way or the other."

"I have a feeling you won't." She smiled and moved to that covered room behind, probably to get the migraine pills. I was still trying to keep my left foot from tapping crazily. What were the odds that she knew my parents? Was that why she was being a little bit nice to me? Because, perhaps she knew them both. When she then came back with the drugs, I tried to forget the worries I soon felt bubbling against my heart.

***

I felt better. Way more better than when I woke up, my head was no longer pounding. I immediately spotted Arty, pouring coffee from the machine that sat at the corner. She stared up and saw me before I got closer, and stood beside her.

"Look who's looking much brighter for her own good."

"Yeah, well, I feel way more brighter for my own good," I said and she chuckled, bouncing her eyebrow at me.

"Why are your eyebrows all bouncy?"

"Nothing." She turned off the machine, and the sky smile remained.

"Come on now, you have something that you don't want to give me. Spit it out already."

"Okay, take it easy, sick girl. There's nothing I'm hiding."

"There is, you just don't want to talk about it. But if you didn't have the intention of asking me anything, you shouldn't stare at me that way, it seriously only leaves me so curious and curiosity kinda leads to anxiety, you should know all these things, doctor." I said and she rolled her eyes.

Giving in, she groaned and turned to me. "What are you? 'Jackie convincing'? I was just wondering if there was anything going on between Doctor Heartland and you." I tried hard to keep my expression simple, even though my palms felt really sweaty at the mention of his name. Urgh! Why did I still feel affected? I literally just saw him a few minutes ago.

"Why wouldn't you think that? Of course, there's something going on between us." That had her excited, she leaned in, waiting for me to drop the gossip bomb. "He's one of Neuro surgeons here and is going to train a whole lot of us. So of course, there's something going on between him and I, you feel me?" I said and she glared at me.

"There was absolutely no reason for that brutality, you had me spiked up over there." She carefully held the coffee still in one hand. I chuckled.

"I know I did, but to just clear the air now, there's nothing going in, really. Just like you, I have only met him today." I hated that. Lying, I had done that once to Jack too. I had several times.

She studied me for a while, then shrugged. She seemed convinced. "Okay, but you have to know that this is not my first time seeing him. I had only met him officially today, but I had been seeing him all along I'd been coming to Graceland." She kept mute until we passed some group of nurse interns, the male one whistled. I was pretty sure that was for Arty, not me. "Jerks," Arty whispered underneath her breath before diving in to give more of the story. "Anyway, I thought he was very handsome the first day I saw him. His blonde hair did a number, his dimples had me every time he smiled from a distance and his country accent just closed the chapter. It was a crazy episode of crushing days I was having on this guy and then I just kinda got over him." She shrugged. I exhaled. I had no right to protect that territory, yes, but the last thing I wanted was for my new friend to start batting eyes on Jack. It just couldn't happen, not in front of me. I decided to ask the question I had sworn never to ask long ago.

"Was it because you found out he was seeing someone else or did you just simply lose interest?" I only hoped that didn't sound too desperate, I had always been a bad actor as I was a bad liar. She shrugged again.

"I guess I wasn't ready to enter into a relationship or even a 'crushdom' with anyone. I had been limiting it to 'just admire the guy and move on, Arty'. I didn't really see the reason to move out of that place suddenly. Plus, I think the doctors crushing on him over here was too much, and please don't even get me started on the nurses. I mean, my aunt is sixty years and she thinks 'He's cute'." She laughed and I did too. Despite the restlessness, I felt building in my abdomen. There was no way I could compete with the women here! They were way too beautiful for my own good. Hold the phone! Why did I even need to compete? It was not like I still had feelings for him, right? Right?!

Arty turned to me and up the plastic cup, "I gotta get this to one of the doctors. Apparently, she liked my face too much. I was the only one that has brewed her two cups of coffee in one day," Arty sighed and started walking into the office. "I just hope this doesn't continue. Wait for me, I'm coming."

But I couldn't wait any longer after a minute, I had to throw water on my face or I would be making the floor my bed once again. I felt dizzy. I immediately rushed off, looking for the nearest bathroom. Luckily, right at the corner, there was one. I hastily made my way to one of the sinks for dear life. With one hand gripping the sink, I splashed the cold water on my face with the other hand. I didn't look up in the mirror, couldn't. I was afraid of the dark-circles-under-eye girl that I would be staring back at. With one more splash, I felt okay. Better than I did before. I straightened and wiped out my wet hands at the sides of my scrubs, placing watermarks on them. I sighed. Where was my head at? Just as I turned to reach for one of those drying thingies that hung up, the door opened and Jack stepped in. He looked surprised to see me. Ditto, darling, ditto. Again, we both decided to speak at the same time. It used to be so funny and cute back in those days. He would ask me to go first and I would. He would stare so seriously, waiting for me to finish, and then would laugh so hard when he realized that I had nothing sensible to say after all. I used to enjoy that, but now? This was just awkward.

"You go first." He said.

"No, please, go first," I said and he studied me, then shrugged.

"Okay, then. What are you doing in the male doctors' bathroom?" He asked with his hands folded over his breasts. Oh, this was the male's bathroom? No wonder the sign was squeaky.

"I thought it was the female bathroom."

"And you couldn't ask around for directions? Or at least read the sign?" I stared up at the sign that hung up on the door. A stick figure that looked like he was waving. Wait, that was a male figure? I wasn't as fluent as I thought I was in signposts after all.

"I'm sorry." He raised his eyebrows at that. What good as it to stand here and argue with him? I was mustering the strength I would use and deal with the fact that my first day wasn't going as I planned. I kept fainting. Interns seemed bored to death while the doctors seemed to be having all the fun. "I'm sorry," I said again, this time, my voice shook. I placed my hands over my face and before I knew what was going on, tears fell Hard. It seemed like the more I tried to hold in, the more the tears fell. I didn't see him come over, but I felt his arms around me. His chin pressed at the top of my head. That posture reminded me of the old days.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry you hate me so much."

He didn't say anything for a while, which only scared me further. Oh, he had to. His silence only meant agreement. I sniffed so loudly and stepped back to avoid getting a snort on his scrubs. He stared at me, I couldn't stare back but his persistent eye only made me more and more uncomfortable. I finally let my eyes drop to his chest and I saw the tearstains.

"Sorry for that," I whispered and he nodded slowly. "I don't know what came over me, I just went and did that and in front of you. On you. I don't usually do that, you know." He knew that was a lie. I was almost sure I couldn't count how many times he'd comforted me in my tears through the years when we were still the Abigail and Jack I loved so much.

"It's okay." He smiled sadly and then added, "And I don't hate you, Abigail. I couldn't hate you even if I tried. I'm just getting to the fact that you're just anyone now." He said and walked out.