Chapter 34
I ’m putting on a tracksuit.
And then I change it to jeans and a hoodie.
He will come any minute, and I feel like I'm six, and I'm waiting for St. Nicholas. I'm shaking all over. I'm worried, but we'll just study.
Ten minutes ago, Danylo sent me an SMS that he was in the dormitory with his friends and asked if I would not mind meeting.
Me : I'm happy, but the exam is tomorrow, and I don't know anything.
Him : I don't believe. You know everything.
I’m sending a photo of me sitting on the bed among the scattered papers.
Him : Can I help you with something?
Me : Well, what if you're a genius, and you have free time.
Him : I don't know about the first one, but I always have free time for you.
Him : I'll come down to you in five minutes.
Of course, I don't want to be dramatic, but seven minutes and three changes of my clothes have passed.
When he knocks on the door, I jump out of bed and run to him. My heart is beating wildly.
"Hi," he smiles.
"Hi," I struggle to say.
"You are beautiful." His eyes shine looking at me.
"Thank you."
The smell of his perfume reaches me. He always smells so good.
I hope he didn't notice how excited I was. Although I don't even know what exactly made me excited in the first place. The fact that he is in my room or the fact that he is wearing a white T-shirt.
I swear, this guy is never cold.
"How are you doing?" he sits on my bed.
"Fine. What about you? How is Timothey with Zlata?" Danylo falls silent.
"They went to her parents for the weekend."
He lies on my bed and concentrates on reading the notes I made to better remember the material. And although he will never admit it, Danylo is smart as hell.
He became for me a vivid example of how not to give up and always fight to the end.
"Did you do it?" He wonders and takes my notes. "Yes, what?"
"That's brilliant, darley, where were you before?" I'm laughing, I’m pleased when I am praised.
No. Sorry.
I’m pleased when Danylo praises me. And calls me darley.
But I will never admit this to him.
"Questions," I remind, when Danylo is too interested in my letters.
"Electrophoresis of blood serum proteins." Danylo ask the question.
I moan.
"So, okay." I take a deep breath and try to remember everything I know. "Electrophoresis is the most common screening test for detecting quantitative changes in protein fractions in the blood serum and evaluating proteinuria," when I worry, I say all the words too quickly, trying not to forget any statement. "Electrophoresis of serum proteins is usually performed on an agar gel, in which they are separated into five fractions."
Phrases appear in my head as if printed. It’s another plus to have a photographic memory that stores all knowledge like photos. I read everything from my head without even thinking about it.
"How many percent of serum proteins are immunoglobulins?" Danylo interrupts me.
"You interrupted me!" I'm angry.
"Amelia, it's good that you read all the material, but teachers don't like walking encyclopaedias who are confused by other questions."
"Twelve to eighteen percent," I answer and give him a murderous look. "I don't memorise the material, I understand it from A to Z."
"Let's go further."
"But I haven't told everything yet."
"Darley, it’s immediately noticeable when a student knows the material and when doesn't. I said let's move on."
He flips through the pages and finally chooses a question. I like that Danylo takes this seriously. I actually thought he would come, and we'd be fooling around, but no, we're really studying.
"Anticoagulants," he says.
"Substances that prevent blood clotting or slow it down."
"Contraindications to the use of indirect anticoagulants."
"Why do you keep interrupting me?"
"I don't want you to fail the exam," Danylo starts to get annoyed.
"So? And it seems to me that this is exactly what you do."
"Stop behaving like a child and answer the questions, otherwise it may seem to me that you don’t know the answer and are wasting your time." I can feel the veins on my neck popping out of irritation.
"Mental illness, alcoholism, old age, pregnancy, moderate and severe hypertension, aortic aneurysm," I tell, recalling the material.
"Well done, Amelia, you didn’t pass and killed the patient in a matter of seconds, we’re waiting for you at the repassing," Danylo puts the cards aside.
"What?" I shout.
"Instead of shouting, you should have listened to me carefully." He says.
"You said contraindications to the use of anticoagulants of direct action," I repeat his words.
"Indirect! Indirect action, mon amour."
"Either you stop yelling at me or get out of here," I warn.
"Okay," he puts his hands up. "Let's try again. Make it easy this time." I nod. We take deep breaths and exhale.
"Violation of pigment exchange in parenchymal jaundice."
I groan and bury my hands in my face. I have a headache. I will never pass this exam.
"Well, you know everything, I'm sorry that I shouted at you," Danylo touches my leg and I feel an impulse spread throughout my body.
It's hard for me to think when his brown eyes stare at me so piercingly. I don't know if he does it on purpose or not, but it works.
What works is that I can't think about anyone else but him.
I'm drowning in it. Right now. Sitting right in front of him, I suffocate, and his lips are the only salvation, the only chance to give me a flow of air.
I lean towards him and close my eyes. Danylo does the same.
His forehead touches mine.
"This is wrong," I whisper with tears in my eyes.
"It was wrong from the beginning," he admits.
Our breathing is heavy. I can feel his hot stream of air penetrating directly into my lungs.
"What should we do with this?"
"Pretend that this isn’t happening," he says, breathing hard.
"And stay as far away from each other as possible."
"For this, you need to move to another country."
"We make a mistake."
"We did it on the first day we met."
I finally break away from Danylo, he looks at me.
"I thought you were a narcissistic jerk."
"Oh yes," he laughs. "And you looked at me as if you wanted to kill me."
"Times weren’t the best."
"Now they are even worse."
"We were not supposed to meet each other in our lives, so why did we meet?" I look down.
"Things don't always turn out the way we want them to, Ami." Please don't call me that.
From his lips, it sounds like the sweetest temptation.
He always says my name in such a special way.
"So this is our last meeting?" I ask with pain.
"I think so."
"I'm sorry."
"What exactly do you regret, Ami? The fact that we didn’t meet several years ago? That I fell in love with the wrong woman? That the person I love will never be able to love me because she will always love the guy who gave his life for her?" I am silent.
His every word is pure truth. His every word seemed to be torn out of my thoughts.
"Be happy," I finally say when he gets out of bed.
"Find someone whom you will love as much as Denys. I'm sorry that I won't be that person," Danylo closes the door behind him.
I look at the questions in my hand. We passed most of them, so now I have a chance to cry myself to death, and wake up in the morning and take this damn exam. After that, I will fly with my family to the Dominican Republic and hopefully stay there forever.