Page 42 of Shattered
CHAPTER 13
Rourke
The Sage City Medical Center wasn’t a job I needed financially. I might have been born into a poor life, but it hadn’t stayed that way. Luck had granted me her fortunes, and once I was stable, I had used those treasures to make the world a less screwed up place to be. At least for some.
I moved across the emergency department. Each of the beds was full and no doctor or staff acknowledged me as I went through and emptied each individual trash can. That was the brilliant part of working in maintenance and housekeeping; I blended in. We were all required to wear scrubs, each position differentiated by color, so the patients could take a quick glance at us and know which of us were nurses, doctors, and technicians. In the tan scrubs, the cooks’ and housekeepers’ color, I melded into the wall. I wasn’t a threat to anyone.
A patient was dismissed from his bed, leaving the space unoccupied. I passed the row of cubicle curtains to ready his bed for the next patient. Next to the stall were two young women, one with a black and pink bruise on her forehead, swollen like a melon.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” one of them said.
“Why would I be mad at you?”
“Because of Jake. I didn’t mean to have sex with him. I swear.”
I slowed my movements, stalling over the soiled linens. Jake. Melissa’s friend. Sage City was a booming city in our country, but my instincts held onto the conversation. Usually, I took off the fitted, flat sheet, and blanket in one swoop. But I stopped, then pulled off the blanket, folding it slowly before placing it in the bin. Pretended that the flat sheet was stuck in the wiring beneath the bed.
“His dick didn’t magically slip into your vagina.”
“Dude! I was drunk. You’ve gotta believe me. I blacked out. I didn’t know what was going on.”
The friend sighed. “It’s whatever, girl.”
“No, I mean likemaybehe roofied me. I don’t know how I would have gotten so drunk that fast. You know me. I can drink tequila like it’s nobody’s business.”
“But weren’t you guys drinking vodka?”
“Yes, but when I realized he was hitting on me, I told him straight up that I wasn’t interested. That you were in love with him.”
“You told him?!”
“Not inthosewords, but yeah. And he bought me another shot. I’m not going to turn down a shot when it’s that damn slow at the club. I wouldn’t have done it otherwise. How do you explain this?” I imagine the speaker was the one with the bruised head, that she was pointing at the mark. Had he given her that too? “You know I wouldn’t sleep with Jake otherwise. Chicks before dicks. You know me.”
“But you were always flirting with him. I thought you liked him too or something.”
“Maybe when he first started bouncing at the Theater.” The Theater was a strip club at the edge of Sage City. “But now he’s over at the Dahlia District, doing who knows what with those prostitutes, so I’d rather not doanythingwith him. You shouldn’t either.”
“I know. They should call it what it is. A damn brothel. Stop pretending like it’s classier and better than a strip club already.”
While there were many different Jakes in the larger metropolitan area of Sage City, there were likely few who once bounced at the Theater, and currently worked at the Dahlia District. Prejudices aside, the two women had filled in the blanks for me. Melissa wasn’t the only woman Jake had roofied and raped.
After a few moments, the second one said, “At least they took you off stage.”
“But imagine the tips I’d get pole dancing with a bruise as big as a lightbulb.”
“Sympathy dollars.”
The two women snickered, which turned into sniffles.
“I believe you,” the other friend finally said. “He did that to Alice too.”
“So gross.”
“I don’t know why I like him.”
“So why do you like him?”
“Ijustsaid I don’t know.”
