"What do you think I'm in here for you dumbass?" Caitlin, whose been holding her hands out in front of her with her palms up the last 20 minutes, says in her head.
"Um, I'm here for my hands," Caitlin replies out loud as she waves her now boil-ridden fingertips toward the nurse.
"Hmm, yes I see." The nurse seems to snap back into reality as she starts to investigate Caitlin's fingertips and considers the most effective treatment. She grabs a pair of blue-green latex free gloves from the wall-dispenser. The nurse adjusts them so that they hug her long, spiny fingers just right, and Caitlin makes a face as some of the glove powder floats through the air and into her nostrils.
"I'm not going to have to stay here overnight, am I?" Caitlin inquires.
"Oh no, that won't be necessary. I'm going to go get the doctor to write off a prescription for this burn-healing ointment. You will need to apply it three times a day for the next two weeks, and you must wear these gloves at all times so the ointment can soak in," she says as she hands Caitlin two thick black gloves.
"Alright thanks," says Caitlin as the nurse leaves the room. She checks her phone. 208 new text messages. She unlocks her phone, and of course, most of those texts are from her favorite group chat, Flexin' Plexin'.
As the name connotes, the Flexin Plexin friend group was pretty amazing. Individually they were club chairs, squash players, student mentors, coders, artists, podcast recorders, budding scientists, bankers, and philosophers, but when you put them all together-- dang, they were powerful. So powerful some may say they were dangerous. And to think it all started when a computer algorithm matched a chill but shy Californian named Emma (and her soulmate, Finn) with a talkative socialist from D.C. the summer before freshman year. They were instant buds, like two peas in a roomy pod decorated with string lights, cactuses, and a lot of textbooks. Alyssa's outgoing nature attracted people, like bees to a blooming flower, so their friend group expanded quickly. Of course, some people had to be banished along the way, but by senior year the Flexin' Plexin' friend group was sealed and set in stone. One of the perks of being part of such a friend group was having a hands on research team whenever you needed one. With so many people, information could be acquired quickly, whether the topic of interest was a boy, a professor, old exams, or in this case, suspected murder.
"Oh my God you guys WHAT IS HAPPENING???" texts Ana .
"I don't know, but stay where you are," texts Jessica.
"Jessica, where are you?" asks Alyssa.
"I'm in Merkdirt. The paramedics just got here," Jessica responds.
"What are you talking about Jessica? I just saw the boy being rolled in--" Caitlin tries to text back. But yeah...her fingertips. They hurt like a Finn.
"The paramedics just arrived. The cops are trying to talk to me I have to go," Jessica says.
"Ana and Caroline where are you?" asks Emma.
"We're in Mac. We were waiting for the bus. Everyone is being told to stay where they are," Ana texts back.
"We'll see how long that lasts," Alyssa adds.
"Who's doing this???" asks Caroline.
The nurse is knocking on the door. "May I come in?" she asks.
"Yes," Caitlin responds. "Why would I be there if I didn't want people to come in?" she thinks.
The nurse is accompanied by the doctor. She goes over how to use the ointment and warns her of the increased risk of dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, and death while using it before wishing her the best of luck and ushering her out the door. The nurse points towards the exit. At first Caitlin doesn't know where to go. She walks toward the front desk to ask whether she should shelter in place at UHS for a while, but the lady is missing, so Caitlin just walks straight out the door and back up to her apartment like a boss.
