All Six Strings

Delia and Friends.

Delia Crowley, Nathan Steel, Brianna Livingston and Sarah Fletcher walked with their cohort of final year nursing students out of the final exam with a collective sigh of relief. Hands deep in her pockets, Delia felt Briannas lanky, thin arm slink around her aching shoulders as they fell into step with each other. Her hair hung in waving tresses obscuring her face from Briannas prying eyes as they trailed closely behind their friends. She saw the fuzzy black mass of Briannas' hair swim annoyingly into her peripheral vision.

"What?" she demanded of her classmate.
"You are still worried aren't you?" came Briannas maddening intuition. Delia shot her a withering, exhausted look through the plane of her thick spectacles. She saw Brianna straighten up and lighten, which infuriated her.
"You know, out of all of us, you probably have the least to worry about Diels" came the shrill voice of Sarah from ahead. Delia looked forward at her as she craned her neck backward to address them. Her shot, straight brown hair shimmied and caught the sunlight as the current of students carried them out into the campus courtyard.
Delia let her words fall like heavy raindrops into her brain, soaking in like water on parched ground. "Ehhh" she huffed, shrugging against the weight of her backpack. She felt Briannas arm give her a reassuring squeeze as they entered the campus dining room with the throng.
"How do you think you did, Nathan?" Brianna raised her voice to address her tall friend in front of her. He swiveled around as he walked and shrugged, holding his hands up in a 'I don't know, well see' kind of way. His blonde curls were slicked back with enough wax to turn him into a candle. His messenger bag hung in tatters over his broad shoulders and his stubbled face finally relaxed into his old lazy slouch. He swiveled in his sneakers again to face the menu board and scrutinised it without another word, hands in his chino pockets. Brianna shook her head, exasperated and Delia found herself laughing, watching Nathan slide one of his hands slyly into Sarahs back pocket.
"I'm bloody staving. Hey Nathan. What did you put for question twenty eight part A? I had rotating tourniquets" Sarah asked looking up at Nathan as he slid his hand up her waist.
Delia watched as he shrugged and murmured in agreement, eyes staring upward over the heads of the students ahead of them. Sarah giggled as his fingers fondled her flank and flinched playfully away, laughing. "Stop!" she giggled, shrill and ringing. Nathan guffawed and gave her a cheesy, teasing grin.
They made their order together and he chivalrously paired for both of them, they then stood aside and Delia and Brianna advanced. Delia suddenly realised that she wasn't too hungry. She adjusted her backpack on her shoulders and Brianna nudged her.
"What d'ye' want?" she asked, glancing her her and then back up at the menus while fiddling with her oversized purse. Delia simply shook her head and muttered something that might have been 'just a small cup of tea' though Brianna may have just guessed because she shrugged and then made out her order to the tall, spindly, dark haired man behind the till of the campus dining room.
Delia let herself be guided by Brianna like a magnet toward the sofa at the other side of the room to sit with the other two. Brianna flopped rather gracefully into the sofa beside Nathan who had his arm stretched out and wrapped around Sarah's shoulders. She herself came to fold herself into the arm chair opposite then, shirking her backpack with a sigh.
"What about you Delia, these two are arguing over question twenty eight part A. What did you think it was?" Brianna asked her from across the small coffee table in their little alcove.
Delia remembered as though through a camera lease, the words that formed the question she referred to, which asked 'name the blood thinning practice no longer in use, and give the year the research discrediting it was published?' Delia remembered that she too gave the answer of 'rotating tourniquets' but had failed to give the year the data concerning it was published. She nodded toward Sarah. "Yeah, same but I couldn't recall the year the paper was published for the life of me. I have no idea what the hell kind of question that is. And I'm not really too worried about it. But instead, I gave the reasons for its discontinuation. The ones I could remember reading anyway; painful for the patient, may cause bruising, compartment syndrome, vascular injury and the like. Then, I described that the use of medications like aspirin or abixaban are in favour for the management of ... uhhh ..." she trailed off, closing her eyes as she tried to remember the question and her response to it. After the weeks that preceded the exam, her brain felt like a wrung out sponge and her quest for information was arduous.
After a pause though, Brianna chimed in. "'Disorders and conditions related to or of which abnormal blood clotting is a clinical feature and in which the patients life is concerned'. Or something to that effect. You know, heart attacks, strokes, emboli, and the like" such a bullshit question if you ask me. What the hell is the point in it?" She lamented, rolling her eyes. Sarah looked across Nathan at her with slightly widened eyes.
"See, Brie's got it. Let's all copy of her, ohh! No! We can't now!" Nathan wined, sarcastically.
A lady wearing a grey apron wandered over with a tray bearing four hot beverages and two paper bags, smiling a tired smile in the late afternoon bustle. She bent down and doled them out to Delias grateful friends. She handed her a small cup of English brave fast tea, white with one sugar with the bag still in. She saw this and then shot a glance at Brianna who winked at her. She mouthed a 'thank you' in her direction and sipped it, privately ruminating on the exam.
The conversation between her three closest friends had fallen to the sidelines of her attention as she savoured the taste of her tea. She thought of several other questions she'd ummed and ahhhed over. She had made a point of avoiding leaving any question blank of course, but as ever there were doubts. 'When wasn't there doubts?' She asked herself bitterly. 'What if you fail the final?' She thought, eyes involuntarily widening and staring blankly ahead, tea cupped in her cold hands.
"Delia?"
"Diels?"
"Oi! Specs! Look alive!" Delia finally heard Briannas voice follow the calls of the other two as it filtered down into her consciousness. She shook her head and took a long pull on the rapidly cooling cup of tea, focusing on Briannas bemused face.
"Hmm?" she hummed, leaning forward on her knees.
"We were saying, my brother told me yesterday that his mates band's got themselves a new face. They're playing a gig tomorrow night at the Eight Bar. Debut for the newbie. We should go. Together. You know. Grab a few drinks, have some fun. Relax a little. You in?" she explained, sipping her cappuccino but keeping her big brown eyes fixed on her. Delia thought about this. The mental image of the Eight Bar, a local dive pub that tried its hardest to be classy, on a Friday night didn't appeal. Far too many people, loud, bass heavy music with too much screaming, alcohol. After the month she'd spent cramming for the final, she really didn't think a night of partying and drinking would do her any good.
As though Brianna could read her thoughts in her magnified eyes, she said "you can do nothing about the exam now. Come with us, have some fun for once. Live a little" in a deadpan tone that warded off arguments like a horseshoe above a door. Delia searched her eyes and found them cold and unyielding, she bristled and drained her cup.
"If I do, can you promise that your brothers mates garage band is no scream-feat?" She asked, a pleading note to her tied voice causing Brianna to chuckle.
"The guy doesn't scream" she assured, grinning.
"Right. We're in. We pre-drinking this time?" Sarah addressed the other three, clapping her hands together in a gesture of finality.
"Ohh please! Don't! What's the point in that? Friday nights half off night anyway!" moaned Nathan to the grinning merriment of the two females who flanked him on the sofa. Delia found herself laughing for a second time as she watched them.
"No really, I heated the newbie's really good. Bagged themselves this unknown genius a while ago. I've seen their flyers about campus for months before that too. Appeals for auditions. I saw one recently that said 'third and final call. Anyone with a shred of guitar skills is drafted. If another ukulele or violin player shows I'm gonna chain myself to the door of the arts building' or something dramatic like that. Thought I would hurt myself I was laughing so hard. I really should have taken a picture of it" Brianna reported, an amused mist clouding her eyes for a moment.
"Ohhh yeah! I've seen that too!" agreed Sarah, slapping Nathans arm as she too laughed an organic, tinkling laugh that Delia almost caught.
"Okay, we'll, I'm in then. This group sounds like it'd be okay" relented Delia, to the smiles and gleeful cackles of her friends.