Stories under the Velvet Sky

Chapter Ten: Faerie Tales

I’m going to start off by saying that I hate hospitals, not because they’re terrible buildings in general, or that I may or may not have gotten off on the wrong foot with the staff there. No, I simply hate them because whenever I have to visit one, I am forced to be poked and prodded by needles. Most of the poking is for shots that I may have insisted upon not getting at the time; the prodding usually results from whatever injury I’d gained during the past few months.

This time, I was visiting my primary care physician to change my casts, and get some blood work done. Apparently I was anemic, and therefore he wanted to check to make sure that I had been taking the iron pills he’d recommended for me; either that or eating more red meat.

Dr. Giovanni was a fairly nice man, if not a little bit intimidating to talk to at times due to his tendency to use medical jargon instead of explaining things to me in layman’s terms. He was always very cheerful, smiling a lot, and more than willing to inform me of all the various diseases I could be suffering from, of which anemia would be a symptom.

My Uncle was with me, and as was Adrian for some unexplained reason. His reasoning was something along the lines of not wanting to be left all alone back at the house. I suspected he just wanted to make fun of me for freaking out about getting my blood drawn.

I was in the doctor’s office, sitting on the bench stark-naked save for the cover they always asked you to wear when you did go to the doctor’s for whatever your appointment was for. Dr. Giovanni had yet to stop in, so I was conversing with Adrian while Uncle Eric sat in the waiting room, reading a magazine while smiling to himself in that way adults do when they see two kids they know of the opposite sex hanging out with each other.

“I don’t bloody care if it’s for my own damn good, I hate getting shots! And I would avoid them all if I could!” I growled angrily, disregarding the fact that it was probably very bad for my blood pressure tests to be pissed off right now. I didn’t care about it in the least.

Adrian shook his head, frowning, brows pushed together as if he were deep in thought. He was hunched over in the chair that sat in the corner of the room too, “Then they are a necessary evil. Stop whining about it, there's nothing you can do,” he sounded a lot like he was getting quite a bit angry with me.

I'd never heard him sound like that before. However, considering I'd only known him for about a week or two tops, it wasn't too out of the ordinary for me to witness him doing something unfamiliar.

This was quite intimidating though, so I refrained from my previous bitching about how evil needles were, “Something wrong?” I inquired instead, wondering why he seemed so edgy all of a sudden. I scooted to the edge of the bench-thingy that was half a bed, half a sad excuse for a chair.

He must have realized how scary he looked just then, because his gaze softened a bit, again he shook his head, this time with more of a 'no' implied behind it, “I'm fine, just a little bit tired. Nothing a bit of rest won't cure,” he ditched the frown for a gentle smile that made my heart beat just a little bit faster.

It made me want to blush, and no matter how bad I wanted to deny the fact that I was, the widening of said smile into a grin told me that I was indeed blushing, and that he was indeed going to take advantage of that fact. Jerk.

“Eric told me you brought a visito- oh, hello Adrian,” Thank God for doctors and specifically Doctor Giovanni's outrageously good timing. He was tall, had short brown hair and hazel eyes, and wore a pair of glasses so thick, that he'd probably be as blind as Velma was if he ever took them off. He didn't look much like a doctor, more like a mad scientist.

But what surprised me was that he knew Adrian, “Um, you know him?” this was news to me, as it should be having only known the guy for a such a short time.