Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Danika
“Hi, I’m Dedicated Danika.” I wave to the small group in front of me.
The boy to my left says his name is Marvelous Mark and the girl next to him calls herself Electric Ella.
I hold in my groan as we continue around the circle.
If there’s one thing I hate, it’s icebreaker games.
I thought this was med school, not preschool.
Four more students introduce themselves, but I can’t find it in me to care. I’d rather get to know people the organic way, over a drink and shared plate of nachos.
Behind me the door opens and I don’t look to see who’s entered as we’re almost nearing the end of the circle and this mundane activity.
“Oh good, our late straggler has arrived. Please state your name and an adjective that starts with the same letter.”
“Uh, I’m Nervous Nico.”
My breath catches in my throat.
There is no fucking way he is here. He’s supposed to be at Columbia or NYU. That was his plan. Move back to New York. Get far away from me. So why the hell is Nico pulling up a chair and squeezing in next to me?
Nervous? Seriously? I can think of much better adjectives for him. Nefarious, naughty, narcissistic…
I feel him move close to say something in my ear but I lean away, giving him a look that says if he said a word to me, it would be his last. The scathing stare shuts him up, thankfully, and I turn my attention back to the group leader who had referred to herself as Charming Charlie.
“Excellent! I’m so glad we’re all here and ready to embark on this journey together!
As I said, I’m Charlie. I’m a third year med student and I’ll be kind of like your mentor this year.
Since there’s so many first years this semester, we’ve sectioned you into small groups to make things easier.
So, you might want to get comfortable with each other.
We’ll be spending a lot of time together this year. ”
This time my groan is external. All nine pairs of eyes whip in my direction.
“Oh, uh, ahh! Yay! I can’t wait to start!
” I cheer to try and mask my moaning. I’m not sure they buy it, but Charlie starts talking again so at least the heat is off me.
Next to me, Nico chuckles, and I have to hold myself back from punching him in his Adam's apple bobbing throat.
Charlie’s peppy voice breaks me from murderous thoughts. “We have Dr. Branford here to talk you through a few things before we break for lunch.”
A tall man with neatly braided locks and a pristinely white lab coat takes the metaphorical stage.
He’s clearly older in age but also exudes wisdom.
Everything about him is attention grabbing, from the way he towers over us, to the intentional way he looks each and every one of us in the eye before he speaks.
“You are all here to succeed at something great. In order to do that, you will need to work harder than you’ve ever worked in your entire life.
” He pauses, his deep voice reverberating around the room “Starting today, you will do things you never thought you’d ever do.
You’ll achieve things you never thought you would achieve.
Some of you will fail. Some of you will leave or quit.
Many of you will pass, but only a few will go on to achieve greatness.
” He stops and looks at us all again. “I’ll be interested to see which of you fall into each category. ”
Some of the group is avoiding his gaze, clearly lacking their confidence in the choice they’ve made to start medical school. Not me, though. I look Dr. Branford right in the eyes and when his gaze meets mine, I give him my best nod of determination.
Dr. Branford thanks Charlie before leaving the room, a sense of importance going with him.
“Let’s break for lunch and meet back here at two. If you don’t know where the cafeteria is, follow me.” The group gets to their feet and all but Nico and I follow Charlie out the door onto the quad.
“Just hear me out,” he says, grabbing my wrist before I can fly out the door. I pull myself free and cross my arms over my chest.
“What are you doing here, Nico? I thought you were going back to New York.”
“I had a change of heart.”
“More like a change of circumstance. You didn’t get in, did you?”
Nico’s silence speaks volumes.
“So because you weren’t good enough to get into Columbia, you think you’ll just slum it here with me and I’ll fall back into your arms?”
He shrugs. “Not in so many words but...Dani, if I haven’t given up yet you know that means I’m not going to. Besides, I don’t see you dating anyone else since we broke up. Clearly you’re missing me too.”
“You are delusional.” Turning on my heels, I head toward the door but his voice stops me in my tracks.
“We’ve got four more years together, Danika. I’ll wear you down eventually.” The resolve in his voice is undeniable. I won’t be getting rid of him easily. I’ll just have to think of something else to do.
Luckily I’m able to avoid Nico the rest of the day by strategically placing myself on opposite sides of the room from him.
He doesn’t try to speak to me again, but I feel his gaze boring into me from practically every corner of the space.
I can’t go through the next four years like this. Something needs to change. Now.
The minute I enter my apartment, I collapse onto the couch with a groan. Arden sits at the dining room table pouring over a copy of Introduction to Statistics. I sigh loudly.
Then I sigh louder.
“You know, I get the very subtle sense that you want to complain about something but I don’t have the time right now. This statistics class is kicking my ass again.” Arden runs his hand roughly through his buzzed hair then throws his pen into the open spine of his textbook.
“Intro to Stats? I took that sophomore year.”
“Bully for you,” he grunts, slamming his book closed. “Distract me. What’s with all the sighing?”
“My stupid ex-boyfriend is in my med school cohort. I thought I got rid of him after graduation but it turns out a festering sore doesn’t just heal once it’s stopped oozing.”
Arden grimaces. “Thanks for the visual. Who’s this prick? He giving you a hard time?” I don’t imagine the way his voice deepens with the threat of violence.
“I can handle it. I just was hoping I’d be able to start this year fresh without any distractions and now that he won’t leave me alone…”
“You need me to talk to this guy?” Arden’s hands have balled into fists on top of the table. If eyes could genuinely darken, his would be black as night right now.
“Down dog,” I tease but I don’t know if it reaches him.
He’s all of a sudden very rigid. I’ve seen him this mad before.
Right before he punched Jason Till in the face sophomore year of high school, breaking his nose in two places.
The blood had splattered onto my new Gap sweatshirt.
The one my dad had gotten me after a particularly nasty fight he had with mom.
I need to deescalate the situation and fast. “Wait, what do you mean again?”
“Huh?”
“You said ‘this class is kicking my ass again’. You’ve taken it before?”
He nods, his fists loosening ever so slightly as he’s brought back to reality. “Last semester but I failed it. And if I fail it again, I’m going to have to stay an extra semester to catch up so I really need to pass it this time.”
Getting up from the couch, I walk over toward the table, looking at the cover of the book he’s got in front of him. I remember this statistics class. It was one of the easier ones for me, mostly because I enjoyed it. I probably still have my notes, too.
“I could help you study.”
Arden’s eyes bolt to mine before they narrow into slits. “What’s in it for you?”
I feign offense. “You think I wouldn’t just offer something out of the kindness of my damn heart, Arden?”
“I think you’re about to have a very busy semester and you tutoring me would take a lot of time and energy for both of us. And if we agreed to do it, you’d need something in return.”
Something. What could I possibly need from Arden? He already gave me a roof over my head when I needed it most. I really don’t think I can ask for much else.
Unless…No, Danika! Get your mind out of the gutter. This is Margot’s brother.
Shaking my head of any thoughts, sexual or otherwise, I try and get back to the task at hand. He is right, I’m going to be crazy busy and I shouldn’t have to dedicate my precious free time to something if I don’t get anything in return.
The wheels are still turning in my head when Arden speaks again. “I have an idea. Not sure you’re gonna like it though.”
“Color me intrigued,” I say, sitting in the seat opposite him. Arden’s eyes are blazing as he gives me his full, undivided attention. Oh, this is interesting.
“You want this ex off your back, right?”
“I don’t need you fighting for—”
“You help me pass statistics, I’ll pretend to be your boyfriend.”
My mouth gaps open. Then closes again. “You want to be my boyfriend?”
“I said pretend.”
“You want to be my pretend boyfriend?”
Arden sighs but a grin tugs at his lips, that dimple coming out to play. “If this guy thinks you’re taken then he’ll be less likely to bother you, right?”
Nico mentioned that I hadn’t dated anyone so if he sees me with a boyfriend, that should put the nail in this coffin once and for all, right?
“I guess so…”
It all seems too perfect. Too likely-to-work. I hate to admit it but this plan is…genius.
The only trouble now is, will I be able to separate reality from fiction?
After ordering a pizza for dinner, Arden and I spend the next few hours ironing out the details of our master plan.
“So, Wednesday and Sunday afternoons we’ll work on stats.”
Arden looks over his class and work schedule. “Works for me.”
“And we can figure out the easiest ways to be public together in front of Nico.” I glance at my own schedule. “The best time this week is probably at the welcome drinks Friday night. All the first year cohorts and their guests are invited to a cocktail hour event.”
“Sounds fancy.”
“How fancy can an event being held in the dining hall be?”
Arden groans.
“Look if you don’t want to do this, we can—”
“No, no. Let’s go. It’ll be…fun.”
“It looked like it physically pained you to say the word fun.”
“It did.”
Gathering our dirty paper plates, I start to clean up our dinner. “We don’t have to stay long, just enough for Nico to see us.”
“You should stay long though. This is part of your med school orientation, you should stay and make connections.”
Blinking a few times, I turn to face him again. “You don’t mind staying?”
“I don’t mind staying.” He nods, definitively.
“Hm,” I murmur. “Then we’ll stay for a bit.” I nod and head into the kitchen. Arden follows me, his hands full with the empty pizza box. He hovers it over the counter before bringing it instead to the garbage can and stuffing it inside. I find myself smiling despite myself. Progress.