COSMOS | Complete

CHAPTER 49: ASHER

It takes ten minutes to reach the Portland Hospital, but it feels like seconds.

I pull into one of the lots, then sit in my car for a few minutes. I stare at the dashboard, the seats that I've kept impeccably clean. I've only driven her for a year. What a waste of money.

I rest my forehead against the steering wheel, squeezing my eyes shut. The cool rubber burns against my skin, one more thing I'm leaving behind. This is not good-bye, I tell myself. However, even if it's not, it sure as hell feels like it.

"Fuck you," I mutter to myself, grabbing my phone and swinging the car door open. The chilly wind immediately snakes its way into the car, and with a shudder, I climb out and slam the door behind me. In front of me, the hospital looms like a prison.

With a huff, I begin stomping towards the hospital doors, shoulders hunched above my ears. At least, before the surgery, I'll get to revisit my TV shows one last time. A good way to die. The Top Chef judges will be able to bid me farewell.

As soon as I step into the hospital, I'm enclosed in a world of soft chatter and whining kids. It's much warmer and welcoming than the outside world, but everyone knows monsters don't show their true form in the first few seconds.

"May I help you?"

I turn to a nice lady sitting behind a desk, pen tucked neatly behind her ear. The nametag tacked to her shirt reads Maybelle. I glance back to her soft, sweet face, halting my brain from trying to find anything distinguishing to recognize her later. What's the point of wasting my last few days trying to warm myself up to a stranger?

"Yes," I say. "I'd like to check myself in for a CT scan."

Maybelle tries to hide her surprise with a smile. However, her chocolate brown eyes don't do a good job of hiding her disbelief.

Clearing her throat, she wheels her chair closer to her computer. "Do we have you in our system?"

"Yes. Asher Thomas."

I've been here countless of times, always leaving without good news.

"I'm eighteen," I remind her. I'm sure the program has this information displayed, but I am old enough to make my own decisions, and I don't want that thought to escape her.

She nods, biting her lip. "Do you have insurance?"

"I don't need it." I turn to dig through my pocket, fishing out my wallet. I wave my credit card. "I could probably buy half your hospital wing with what's on this."

Maybelle rubs her jaw. She's looking for a way out. She's looking for a way to urge me back home.

I sigh, pulling the last trick out of my sleeve. I didn't want to use it, but Maybelle is proving far too problematic to argue with any longer. "My father works here."

She looks up, eyebrows arched.

My lips curl into a little smirk. "Doctor Carter Thomas? Yeah, that's my dad."

Maybelle lets out a little sigh, checking the screen again to verify my claim. She pauses, trying to think of any other way to get the dirty, ragged teenage girl out of her lobby, but I'm right, and I'm not a child. Giving in, her fingers slow over her keyboard. "There'll be a nurse out for you. She'll take you to your room, then alert you when it's time for your scan."

"Thanks."

Her face is white, but she manages a smile. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

I dip my head, straightening as a nurse approaches me. I hope for the opposite.

The nurse has honey-brown skin and a warm smile, and puts me at ease with my decision immediately. She keeps up a light conversation as we head up the elevator, seeming nonchalant with an eighteen-year-old admitting herself to the hospital alone. In a vague way, she reminds me of Heidi.