Acting Out [Student/Teacher, GxG]

Angel Down

"With all due respect, ma'am, as I've told you multiple times, this was an accidental overdose. My medical history is irrelevant, and what would be really detrimental to my mental health would be forcing me to miss class to undergo senseless interrogation when I've already explained what happened. My tox screen has come back without irregularities, hasn't it? Unless there's something you're not telling me, you have no reason to hold me against my will for an unfortunate lapse in judgement I made while in the throes of a severe migraine. I don't know if you've ever had a migraine, ma'am, but it's hard to think logically when your head feels like it's about to explode."

The nurse eyed me suspiciously. Fuck. After finally being shot up with God knows what and given an uncomfortably large dose of activated charcoal to expel through every orfice of my body, I'd been stuck at the hospital all night arguing with nurses and doctors and, honestly, anyone who would listen, that I needed to be released in time to get to my morning classes. A lot could be said about my decision-making abilities, but school was important to me, and I wasn't about fuck up the only thing in my life that made me feel like I was building a better future for myself because of a Tylenol overdose. I wanted to scream at the frizzy-haired nurse that maybe if they gave this much attention to the men and women who were actually suicidal and asking for help they might be able to save lives, but even the fantasy gave me a pang of guilt. She was just doing her job.

"I understand your frustration, Ms. Harris, but there are certain policies that must be followed before you can be released, and your body has just undergone a severe trauma. I'll see if the psychiatrist is free to speak with you, and if she is, the process should be very straightforward from there. How does that sound?"

"Good." I grumbled. "I apologize for my tone, but hopefully you can understand where I'm coming from." God, I felt like one of those middle aged women who goes into department stores and causes a scene, asking some innocent employee for her manager.

Not fifteen minutes later, my nurse returned with a woman who appeared to be in her early to mid 40s.

I was ready. I swung my legs over the side of the gurney and stood, ignoring the pain in my stomach and watching with a smug satisfaction as my nurse's eyes seemed to pop out of her skull. Not bed-ridden, am I? I held my hand out to grasp the older woman's, and shook her hand firmly, smiling courteously.

"Hello, Doctor. If it's alright with you, I'd like to cut to the chase. You probably know a bit about my situation from that file you're holding." My eyes glanced down at the offending folder. "My name is Rowan Harris, and I'm a first year motion picture production student at the North American Film Academy. I'm very grateful to the team of doctors who got me back up on my feet last night, and I understand how this may have appeared to you and your colleagues, but it really was just a stupid, juvenile mistake, and it certainly won't happen again. As you can see, a hectic schedule and chronic migraines don't always make a the best pair, but I'll be seeing my specialist during my upcoming reading break, and I'm confident that with a little tweaking of my medications, I'll be right as rain." I laughed good-naturedly despite the pain in my throat from spending several hours vomiting up charcoal, Tylenol, and stomach acid. I didn't actually have a specialist back home in Los Angeles, nor was I technically on any medication for my migraines, but I had a good feeling that, thanks to the differences between the American and Canadian medical systems, when my medical files were transferred, they would only get my hospital files.

"Other than the co-codamol, what medications have you been tried on for your migraines?"

I pictured the bottles in my mother's medicine cabinet. Most of them had to be for her migraines, didn't they? "Dilaudid..." I started, racking my brain for names. Anything. "Tramadol, Vicodin, and Demerol."