Page 15 of Ward D
I roll my eyes. “Whatever. I don’t care. Pick whatever patient you want. You always get what you want anyway.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I mean…” I drop my voice a notch so that Ramona doesn’t hear us. She doesn’t need to know all about the drama between me and Cam. “You weren’t on the call schedule for tonight. I don’t even understand why you’re here. Did Stephanie really ask you to switch?”
Cameron is quiet, for once at a loss for words. I had been hoping he would confirm his story that Stephanie had some terrible emergency and begged him to switch shifts at the last moment. But I’ve got a bad feeling that the switch was his idea.
I was legitimately shocked when Cam broke up with me. I didn’t think we were going to be together forever—I saw the writing on the wall for the two of us. There were couples in our class that were considering going into the residency match together to ensure they would end up in locations near each other after medical school, but that notion never once entered Cam’s thoughts. After all, orthopedic surgery is really competitive. Going into the residency match with another person would only drag him down and reduce his chances of getting a slot.
Even so, I figured we would at least date for a few more months. Maybe once our schedules got busy, we would start to drift apart. Or maybe we wouldn’t. Maybe we wouldn’t go into the residency match together, but we would end up both getting a residency slot in the city, and maybe we’d even keep dating. Maybe.
I didn’t expect him to just… end it.
I wonder what Cameron ended up getting on that board exam. I wonder how many points our breakup was worth to him.
“It doesn’t matter to me which patient you see,” I say as I push the thoughts of our miserable breakup conversation out of my head. “Take your pick.”
“If you’re sure…”
“Of course I am. Why would I care aboutthat?”
He flinches slightly. “Look, I’ve been wanting to talk to you. And you won’t take my calls.”
“Hmm. Wonder why.”
“Can we just…” Cam glances over at Ramona, who is within earshot. “Could we talk sometime tonight? I feel like you got it all wrong.”
“I’d rather not, Cam.”
“Please?”
His face is slightly scrunched up, and for a moment, I feel a stab of guilt for being so cold to him. Then I remember what he did to me. “I can’t talk about this right now. Let’s just figure out who we’re seeing tonight.”
Cam looks like he’s going to protest, but then he changes his mind. “Fine.”
I try not to think about Cameron as I study the line of charts up above the nursing station. My eyes dart between the labels and come to rest on the chart of the patient in 905. The one with the blue eyes flecked with yellow. My whole body turns cold when I see the name written on the chart:
CARPENTER
Oh no.
9
EIGHT YEARS EARLIER
Jade’s house is a lot different from mine.
I barely noticed the differences when I was a kid. In fact, I used to think of Jade’s house as the “fun house.” Because in my house, there were so many rules. You had to put away your toys after playing with them. Dishes had to go right in the dishwasher after use. You had to brush your teeth before bed.
Jade’s house didn’t have those rules. As far as I could tell, she didn’t haveanyrules.
I haven’t been to Jade’s house in a few months, but today she has invited me over to study together. Well, I’m hoping we’ll study. Jade will undoubtedly try to distract me by talking about cute boys in our class or how she could get us fake IDs. But I’m determined to keep her on track, even though it’s gotten a lot harder lately.
As I follow Jade down the walkway to her ranch-style house, I can’t help but notice how desperately in need of repairs it is. The house was a mess back when we were kids, but now it looks like a wolf could easily huff and puff and blow it all down. The four steps to get to the front door have nearly disintegrated after several years of snow storms chipping away at them, and when I grab onto the railing so I don’t fall, a large splinter lodges itself in my index finger.
“Ouch!” I cry.
Jade whips her head around to look at me. “What now?”
