A Year to Live

The Condition

"My mom said that if you eat glue your organs don't actually stick together." Johnny complained, sticking his tongue out. Great, he told his parents. That little brat.

"I bet she also told you that watermelons don't grow in your belly if you swallow a seed." I winked. His mouth dropped in a gasp along with the rest of the children. "If you keep your mouth open like that you'll catch flies." I added one last knock to my statement before smiling at the kids and going to see my mother who was gesturing for me to join her.

"You know if you keep lying to those kids they'll be scared to watch Dora the Explorer right?" She asked and I just shrugged.

"Just because I told them that Dora is a Mexican paedophile doesn't mean that they'll stop watching her show." I smirked getting an eye roll and a look of disappointment from my mother.

"One of your friends from school just got here. Parker I think it was. He got in an accident and they're stitching him up, thought you might want to say 'hi.'" She smiled. I laughed at my mom's attempt to try to make me friends, but agreed. 

I walked to the Emergency Room and saw Parker laughing at something Graylan said, a nurse gladly doing his sutures. I took a deep breath before going up to the two of them. Graylan still hasn't said a word to me since he called me a whore, and tonight was mine and Parker's date. 

As I was walking I noticed Parker look up at me, a large adorable smile breaking out across his face. "Hey Isa!" He called when I was still a little bit away.

Graylan turned and when his eyes locked on mine, he made up some excuse that I hardly heard about going to the cafeteria for a second. I rolled my eyes, not surprised, but continued to walk towards Parker. "What did you do this time?" I asked before mentally face palming.

Parker was a regular at the hospital. Most people knew him by name. He was always in here for stupid accidents; I swear he was even more accident prone than me. Everyone knew he was a regular, but he didn't know we knew, so he probably thought I was crazy for asking what he did this time. 

Thankfully he just brushed it off and told me. Apparently he and Graylan were biking, and had a competition for who could get the most air. Freaking boys never want to lose, so of course Parker did an unreasonable height, and fell off. The punch line of the story was when he told me a stick was the thing that punctured his arm. I almost broke out into laughter at that, but then I saw the bloody stick that they had taken out and felt nauseous. 

We were having a normal conversation when I noticed Graylan coming back over. When he saw me he was about to turn around, but I said a quick goodbye to Parker and gave him a weak hug before turning around and going back to my mother who was standing at the end of the hall reading a file. "What's it this time? Pacemaker malfunction? Oh let me guess! Heart aneurysm." I said nudging her with a little wink.

She always let me help out with her cases because I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. I was sort of her prodigy, and that's how I met Calum initially. I was still iffy at that point, but he confirmed I wanted to be a Cardiothoracic surgeon when I was older. "Heart attack." My mom answered. My eyes widened, and I felt my stomach bubbling with excitement.

Alright, let me tell you how weird I know this sounds. Because if I heard someone getting excited over a heart attack, I would shun them too ok? But with all the cases I've helped my mom deal with, not once has she let me see a heart attack patient, so this was pretty exciting stuff. "Can I come?" I asked anxiously.

"No." She mumbled simply. Well there goes that theory. 

"Please Mom! You know I've always wanted to help someone who had a heart attack!" I groaned, folding my arms over my chest in protest. Hehe that rhymed. Loser.