Bad News (Coprolalia Part Three)

Chapter Thirteen

December 21st, 2027. 3:06AM.

Ben was awoken from his peaceful few hours of slumber that he'd managed to catch in the on call room on the current slow night when someone's scrub bottoms were flung directly into his face.

"Go away!" Ben snapped at whoever it was.

In the eerie silence that followed, he opened his eyes and saw Parker and Elias staring at him in horror, both half naked.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Go find a different place. I'm sleeping in here. Out." He threw the scrub pants back at them. "Out, now."

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1:00PM

Ben set his lunch of a lettuce, tomato, and cheese sandwich, a water bottle, and a cup of cherry jello on the table that Parker, Hayley, and Analise were sitting at.

Parker glared at him and Analise started laughing so hard that her diet coke nearly came spraying out of her nose.

"It's not my fault that you hit me in the face with scrubs, Parks." Ben snapped. He picked up his sandwich and pointed it at her. "Shame, my friend. Shame."

Analise continued to laugh and Parker's face turned red with what was either a blush or anger. Maybe both.

"You two are the worst friends." Parker finally complained. It was surprisingly quiet.

Ben sighed and put his sandwich back on the red plastic tray. "I don't care if you're sleeping with Elias, Parker. I don't care who sleeps with who, ever. You should just check the on call rooms before you have sex in them to make sure nobody is already sleeping there. And don't throw your pants in people's faces."

Analise slowly stopped laughing. "You people and your romances are so entertaining." Analise had explained it a while ago: she was asexual and aromantic. "So Ben, any word from Barbie recently?"

"None." He glanced at his phone. Thank god neither Parker nor Analise were human lie detectors like Claire. "But it's Celeste's birthday tomorrow." Another lie: tomorrow was Claire's.

"Is that why you've got the day off tomorrow?" Parker asked.

He nodded. "I promised Julien that I'd help him look for her on her birthday before we left St. Louis. The theory is that if she's already fallen off the deep end, if any day is a day to be grounded it's that day."

He was becoming incredibly adapt at lying now, wow.

Analise nodded. "Why are you taking Christmas off?"

"My sister and a lot of our friends were raised super religious." Ben shrugged. Emma wasn't religious, and it was really only one friend with the religious background. "I'm taking the day off so I can spend it with them." With her.

"It's a good thing you aren't a surgeon." Hayley looked deep in thought. It was surprising that she'd talked at all. Even since their first day, she'd always shadowed the other surgeons. She'd been even more quiet since they'd gotten back, like she knew something was wrong. "I'm so excited for the holidays. Lots of drunk driving and ridiculous accidents, lots of cool surgeries and transplants."

Analise high-fived the quiet girl. "Hell yeah!"

Ben's phone started to ring at exactly the same time as when Elias came over and sat next to him. "Who's calling you?"

"My sister." He answered, standing up, bringing his lunch with him. "I'll see you guys later, I need to take this. You can deal with the girls, Elias. Bye."