Chapter 1 #4
“You can’t use your words like a big boy?” The chief rakes his hands through his hair, the words escaping him in bites of barely leashed frustration. “What if he sues us? For the love of all that’s holy, that kid just got attacked by his teacher—”
“After threatening a student!”
Almost like an afterthought, the chief spares me a glimpse. “Hello, drama.”
“Hello,” I say shyly. “And it’s Percy.”
“Percy,” he says, pointing an accusatory finger at Kane, “did this man really make you cry last night?”
Kane, to his credit, looks aghast. “You cried?” he whirls to me. “I didn’t know that.”
“Of course you don’t know,” the chief mutters. “You just go off summoning hurricanes and leaving us to clean up the wreckage.”
The chief glares at Kane, and Kane’s guilty expression lands on me.
Wait, guilty?
There’s a beat of tense, awkward silence, where the chief alternates his dubious stare between me, Kane, and back to me again.
“He didn’t—” I start.
Before I can respond, Kane unexpectedly moves beside me, wrapping an arm around my side.
My face flushes.
“It was a misunderstanding,” Kane says.
I nod, following along.
The chief’s jaw works.
“She was crying because of me,” Hyacinth interjects, forcing herself into view. “She went to Kane to be consoled after I called her an idiot for not applying to more Ivory Tower programs,” Hyacinth continues. “I didn’t expect her to be so overwhelmed that she cried.”
“Sorry,” she mouths at me.
I give her a tight, death-promising smile back.
“But she is my girlfriend,” Kane adds, a little too strongly to be believable. “So nobody is going to bother her again.”
The disbelieving silence stretches on.
“And I will be staying out of trouble,” Kane continues.
His fingers press into my waist. Hyacinth sneaks a glance at us mirthfully. The chief simmers.
Finally, with a scornful look at Kane, the chief sighs.
“Let’s go, Hyacinth,” he says. “We’re late for nights.”
They trudge out, the chief grumbling under his breath, followed by his skeptical, “Is she really dating him?”
Hyacinth’s enthusiastic “Yes!” hangs in the air like a threat as they trail off.
I watch them leave, pulse hammering. Kane and I remain, the air charged, trapped in a stalemate with me, grateful, and him, what—confused? Obligated?
“Well,” I say awkwardly to Kane, placing a hand over my thundering heart while my nerves buzz, “Thanks.”
He’s staring at me intently, his brow furrowed with worry.
Outside this room, the remaining residents are watching us with sheer astonishment.
Then, in front of everyone, Kane steps closer, neck craning down to whisper.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, the word brushing the shell of my ear.
My neck heats.
“They’re all listening in,” he says. I shiver from the proximity, but he looks over at the window. “Everyone is going to know now.”
To whatever residents peer through the dirt-stained viewing glass, our exchange probably looks romantic.
To me, my head is spinning so fast, I can barely pick through my thoughts, much less peel back the layers of my emotions.
I press up onto my tiptoes to whisper back, “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”
His eyes glint, and the smile he answers me with is so dazzling, I’m momentarily speechless. For a fleeting second, I think pretending to fall for him might be easier than I thought.
“You didn’t tell me he cheated on you with Calypso,” he whispers. With a wry smirk, he grins and straightens, releasing my side. “That’s my ex.”
“What?”
The air feels ripped from my lungs; suddenly, I feel lightheaded.
Dr. Demon? With an ex? If I were to imagine his past, I would see him as a bridge troll, only emerging from his cover of darkness to begin residency…
Why would David hook up with Dr. Demon’s girlfriend?
No wonder he looked like he had seen a phantom…
“So I approve of this fake dating scheme,” he says, so quietly only I can hear. “Should we ruin our reputations together?”
My head is still reeling from the idea of him loving some woman, any woman, once.
Did we both get cheated on at the same time?
And for him to have been hurt by it, would that mean that he has… feelings? A heart?
Do Dr. Demon and I have something… in common?
And would that mean… the original plan is back on?
I think of how David fled the room: ashamed and silenced.
And then I look at how the once salubrious intern is looking at me: optimistic and sadistically cheerful.
Two can play this game.
And I don’t want to spend my time feeling so afraid.
My reputation may be dwindling at this hospital, but without the distraction, I’d be able to focus on making it out of this place.
This is supposed to be my final year of school, ever.
Warmth flushes my face, deciding some bargains are worth taking. “Game on, Dr. Demon.”
He chuckles low, fingers angling under my jaw, and presses a soft kiss to my cheek while my face flames. “Call me Kane.”
1 Narrator’s notes: A ‘gunner’ is medical student slang for someone who would gun down their competition if it meant they could use their body as leverage to launch to the top.
Universally loathed, they usually self-isolate and worsen in direct correlation with how good they are at sabotage.