“I was not pretty, and I’m not saying that to get sympathy. I really wasn’t. I had braces and was short and a little on the plump side, which really meant boobs and a butt. I was growing out of the worst haircut… think accidental mullet on curly hair, and I had been sheltered so I had no idea how to navigate the politics of high school and stay out of the way of mean girls. If someone was mean to me, I was mouthy back. I rose to every occasion in the worst of ways, and it was used against me at all costs. I did not endear myself to anyone because I decided I didn’t need friends,” I admitted. “In the end, I tried to keep my head down, get straight A’s and make it through school. I figured, once I got into nursing, things would be better.”
“Were they?”
I chuckled without mirth. “Nope.” I pointed to my lips. “I still have a mouth problem.”
He smiled. “I happen to like that mouth.”
“Well, when my supervisor blamed me for not counting the sponges correctly, which meant the doctor left one in a patient, despite the fact I wasn’t even in the fucking surgery in the first place. She was. She didn’t particularly like my mouth when I let her have it, or when I quit.”
“Wait, she blamed you?”
“Yep. The hospital had to pay out close to two million in damages.”
“Did the doctor back you up?”
“The doctor never knew us apart,” I said. “Seriously, he got all our names wrong so often, we had to hold our badges up to his face as we approached him just so he’d have some sort of recognition. He had no idea who was in surgery with him at any given time, so it was easy for her to blame me. At least for a little while. In the end, the administrator went back to the video footage and found proof she was lying but I was already gone.”
“Cunt.”
I shook my head. “She was a bi-atch, not the other word. There was nothing warm or deep about her.”
Scooby laughed. “Jesus, for a girl who doesn’t swear much, when you do, you sure make it count.”
“Just speaking the truth.” I ran my hand down Lord’s back. “I found my bliss caring for the elderly, though, so it all worked out.”
“Where’s the bitch now?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care.”
“Do you really mean that?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know, but I do care,” I said. “I hope she had to move back in with her toxic mother and was forced to work the night shift at the morgue in the shittiest hospital in the worst county.”
“Jesus, you’re right.”
“About what?”
“Girlsaremean.”
“I don’t normally wish ill on people, even if I don’t like them but besides trying to blame me for her multiple infractions, she was outwardly snotty to the lower income families who came in for care. I would just like her to know what it’s like to be one of them, living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck, never knowing if you had to make the choice to pay for insulin or heat.”
“You’ve given this a little bit of thought.”
“A lotta bit.” I sighed. “I’m not gonna lie, I can be vindictive.”
“Can’t we all,” he murmured.
“As you can see, I have some issues.”
“Baby, we all have fuckin’ issues. It’s called bein’ an adult. If you manage to get past eighteen without some kind of emotional scar, you’ve been livin’ in a fantasy world,” he said.
“True.”
He smiled gently. “You gonna give this a chance?”
“I think I need to think a little more on it.”
“I get that.”