Page 82 of Stolen Bases

We all get lost in the conversation, and the rest of the night flies by in a fit of laughter, too many glasses of wine, the hottest restaurant gossip, and so much love.

twenty-one

Talia

I turn the cornerinto my favorite patient’s room and watch from the door as she reclines in her bed, her best friends at her side. Emma listens as the girl on her right goes on and on about some boy in her biology class while the other paints her nails.

“This color is perfect for you,” the girl holding the nail polish gushes.

Emma lifts her hands and examines the pale purple.

“I agree,” I say, striding into the room. Pulling up Emma’s chart on my tablet, I scan last night’s nurses’ log. I fight the urge to frown. Her oxygen levels were low during last night’s checks. “How is my favorite patient today?”

“Hey, Nurse T.” Emma smiles. She looks happy, but I don’t miss the strain around her eyes. “I’m good.”

A few months back, Emma went into cardiac arrest after being in a car accident with her mom. They hit a center guardrail on the freeway after getting sideswiped by a drunk driver. She had been hiding her symptoms and if it wasn’t for the accident, her parents might not have known she was born with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy—HCM—until it was too late. It breaks my heart that her disease progressed to the point of necessitating a new heart.

“Emma,” I chide. I’ve only been her nurse for a few days, and I’ve learned she’s a lot like me in that she doesn’t want her family and friends to worry.

One day she’s a normal teenage girl on her way to buy a dress for the spring dance, and now she’s in the hospital with a heart disease she never knew she had. She spends more time consoling her loved ones than she does worrying about herself.

She answers with a teenage eye roll. “I’m a little tired. I didn’t sleep well.”

“Are you eating?”

“Yes.”

“Have you done your walk today?”

“Yes. My besties made sure I did the required daily exercise. This is Sierra.” She points to the teen on her right.

Sierra smiles and waves. She’s cute, with sandy blonde hair set in waves around her face and shoulders. “Hi.”

“Nice to meet you, Sierra.”

Emma points to the pretty girl with dark skin and perfectly coiled chocolate braids. “And this is Trinity.”

Trinity’s gaze takes me in from head to toe before she grins. “Wow, you’re hot.”

“Oh my gawd, Trin. You can’t say stuff like that,” Sierra hisses at her.

Trinity throws her hands up. “Why not? She is hot. It’s the eyes and the ass.”

Her friends groan, and I can’t stop the bark of laughter that escapes. Oh, to be a teen again.

“Thanks.”

“Do you have a boyfriend … or girlfriend?” Trinity winks at me.

I like this one. She’s not afraid to be herself. I envy her sixteen-year-old confidence. I wish I had that kind of courage now, let alone when I was her age.

“Nosy, aren’t you?” I tease.

Trinity laughs and shrugs. “I live my truth.”

“I applaud you for that. To answer your question, I do not have a girlfriend,” I admit while I don’t deny having a boyfriend.

The girls catch it too and latch on.

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