Red Mango

four

June 21st 2015

9:24 AM

Hospitals ally directly with death. Yet something keeps drawing Cody into those pallid, prolonged hallways. Perhaps it is her inclination to welfare. Or her best friend with a fractured tibia in room 14, floor 3.

On the occasional, vacant Sunday morning, Cody wanders through the hospital seeking minor chores to complete for the patients. Now, with an demanding, disabled friend, those chores can no longer be counted as minor.

"The food here tastes like butt."

"Brilliant analogy- now eat your soup," Cody snickers when Sam feigns to gag as the warm, carrot soup comes in contact with her tongue. She isn't wrong, though. The food shares the flavour of overdue tofu.

"I need to change into my scrubs before Dr. Galvan kicks me out," glancing at the glass door, Cody consciously notices Sam's doctor discussing matters with Mr and Mrs. Watson. Her jeans aren't exactly the hygienic appropriate attire to treat ill patients.

"Bye McSteamy," Sam calls when Cody indiscreetly slips out of the room.

Her scrubs are an ensemble that were offered after a month worth of volunteering, a small gesture of appreciation. It made Cody feel like she was running for residency, something that she could only visualise in her wildest dreams. The pale blue fabric feels light on top of Cody's long sleeve black shirt as she exchanges clothes in a compact storage cupboard.

After shifting out of the room, she decides to take a short cut back to Sam's room, through the Maternity Ward of the hospital. She's, only once, been allowed to assist with paediatrics beside Dr. McKinney. A kind, child-like woman who takes pleasure in the helping of expectant woman. Her customary room is just on the curve of the hallway, where her assistant allowed Cody to perform an ultra-sound on a young, pregnant woman.

Deciding that it would be only civil to greet Dr. McKinney, Cody walks towards the open door, assuming that there are no patients present. She was very wrong, though.

"Stop stirring," Dr. McKinney's velvety smooth voice sounds un-characteristically irritated when Cody stops at the door frame. So there is a patient. Cody settles that it would be appropriate to give this woman her rightly deserved privacy. That is until she hears the pitchy laughter of a certain, fellow, blonde student.

Crouching down beside the glass door, Cody glances into the occupied medical room. And to see Brianna Finley, stomach bare, is the last thing on her inexhaustible list of possibilities. Brianna, Amber's loyal side-kick is like the remora to Amber's shark. It's somewhat pathetic how the duo could feature in the blonder version of dumb and dumber.

So viewing Brianna, with Dr. McKinney's appliances roaming the embryo in her stomach, is a piece of information that Cody prefers to un-know. The blonde had been gaining a suspicious amount of weight, expressly with Amber's incredibly high friendship standards. Cody also has an inkling that she knows who provoked this embryo, Brody Lancaster, to be exact. It's easily regarded as an outrageous scandal because Brody was Amber's boyfriend, until eight weeks ago, when he departed to England. Clearly leaving his legacy behind in Westbury.

Never had Cody bolted faster through the hospital's hallways to deliver this news. Nonetheless, the attendance of Sam's parents lessened her pace quite tremendously.

"Mrs, Mr. Watson," nodding respectively at the two adults in the room, Cody manages a smile.

"Oh-Cody. You look adorable," alluding to Cody's scrubs, Mrs. Watson laughs fondly, creases forming beside her eyes. She's an even-tempered woman with a tendency to think of the entire modern generation as six year old children, thus over-using the phrases 'adorable' and 'cute'. Cody doesn't mind, though.