「 eleven ✧ choking kink? 」
I tried not to shake under the intensity of his gaze, but my anxiety took over. My whole body trembled – a natural reaction, at this point, to his outbursts.
"A 25 out of 30, Emilia? Do you know how much your bad grades can tarnish our family name?"
How? I wanted to scream. How can a 9-year-old's bad grade harm your precious reputation?
But I stayed silent. I stayed silent as he beat me, as he called me every curse imaginable, as he spat in my face in disgust. I stayed silent as he ripped away every last shred of my dignity, as he tore apart my soul and crucified my sane thoughts.
And only when he was done, when hours passed and all that was left to hit was the broken, bruised and bloodied parts of my body, did he get out his cigarette.
And only then, despite my void of emotion, was I truly scared.
✦✧✦✧
"Hey. Shh, it's okay. Laurent, wake up."
My panicked eyes met calm blue-gray ones as my brain slowly processed that I wasn't in my father's study.
I was safe.
I was safe.
I was safe.
"Are you alright?" Augustus asked as I slowly sat up, rubbing my temples.
No. "I'm fine. Just a bad dream, that's all."
He looked skeptical. "Are you sure?"
"It's fine. Please, drop it."
His face flashed with something I couldn't place – Regret? Remorse? - but he nodded and stood from the bed. I ignored the way his muscles flexed with the movements, ignored the hard lines on his stomach. And fuck – why was he only wearing boxers?
And then memories of last night came rushing back.
The dare. The twenty dollars.
My scars. Him seeing them.
"Are you sure you're alright? C'mon, let's get ready and go have breakfast."
I swallowed, almost confused at the way he glazed over all the events from yesterday. Had he just forgotten them?
By the time we were at breakfast, I was convinced he didn't remember what had happened between us. Otherwise, he would've mentioned something – right?
I grabbed a small fruit bowl after being stared down by Augustus and sat with our group. They talked about how the rest of the night went and the people they met.
"You wouldn't believe it," Lacey said between bites. "This one guy came up to me and fucking asked if I could give him head in the bathroom. He outright said it."
Rohan laughed. "That's so embarrassing. He was that desperate?"
"Did you do it?" Aurora asked, a gleam in her smile.
When Lacey didn't respond, we all covered our mouths in shock.
"Lace!" Callum exclaimed. "I thought we had a pact! No sucking random dick in the bathroom!"
"I was drunk," she shrugged. And then her voice lowered, but her smile widened. "And it was big."
"You're horrible," Aurora responded, chuckling.
Breakfast was over quickly and by 10:30am, we arrived at the school. Dr. Brown seemed elated at the front of the auditorium, gripping the microphone like it was his last salvation.
"Hello everyone! Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your museum field trips yesterday and were able to learn lots. Today, however, in my personal opinion, will be even more exciting. I'm proud to announce that these next few days are going to be dedicated to internships. Whether you're majoring in law, medicine, science, math, or anything else, you'll get to spend time with a professional in that occupation and spend days rotating with a partner to learn more about your major.
"Please go to the bus with your major on the sign in front. If you don't see your major or have any questions, please come talk to me. Thank you and have fun!"
Waving bye to the others, I joined Augustus to walk toward the bus that said "medicine".
"Hi there," an older woman in her mid-70s said by way of greeting. She gave us a big smile and I studied her curly white hair pinned in the back of her head and the smile lines on her cheeks. "Names?"
"Emilia Laurent," I said. I watched as she slowly dragged her finger down the clipboard, looking for my name. I resisted the urge to point it out for her.
"Great. And you?" She smiled at Augustus.
"Augustus Casen."
She followed the same, agonizingly slow process to find his name before exclaiming, "Oh, this is perfect?"
"What is?" he asked.
"You two are partners."
We both let out a groan. "You're joking," Augustus said.
"Please switch it," I begged.
She let out a small giggle. "Sorry. Rules are rules. Plus, you never know." She gave us a wink. "Maybe it's fate."
"'Fate' my ass," Augustus muttered.
"What was that?" she asked him.
He gave her a sweet smile. "Nothing. You're right. I can't wait to work with this gem of a partner." He gave me a pained smile. "What all do we have – do we get to do together?" he corrected.
"Hm, let's see." She flipped through her clipboard before landing on a page. "Ah, yes. You have to sit together on the bus for attendance reasons. And when you go into your rotations, you'll go with them. Since we only have 8 people signed up for medicine and 4 rotations over 4 days, you'll basically spend the entire day with each other at each rotation."
"That's perfect!" I exclaimed through clenched teeth. "I can't wait to work with him!"
"That's the spirit!" the woman exclaimed. "Now if you wouldn't mind, please find a seat next to each other on the bus."
I gave Augustus a huge, sarcastic grin. "Ladies first."
He didn't even argue. He stepped onto the fancy ass charter bus and took his seat toward the front. I clenched my fists as I took my seat next to him, all events from last night forgotten.
"You know," he began, running his hands down his thighs. "Maybe she was right. Maybe it's fate."
"Fate that I'm going to strangle you?" I shrugged. "Maybe."
He just chuckled. "You want to choke me?"
I gave him a pointed look. "Don't twist my words. I said strangle."
"Choke, strangle... they can be used interchangeably, really."
"Shut up," I muttered.
"If you want to choke me, Laurent, just say the word and we can experiment tonight-"
"God, shut up!" I exclaimed, eyes wide and practically begging him to keep quiet.
"Or what?" His eyes twinkled. "What's the matter? Are you afraid that everyone on this bus is going to hear about your choking kink-"
I slammed my hand over his mouth, desperate for him to shut the hell up. I didn't even register the position we'd landed ourselves in until I realized that our faces were inches away and that a part of my sober body was touching his lips.
I immediately pulled back, shaking out my hand in disgust and reaching for the hand sanitizer in my bag. Augustus scoffed next to me, but I ignored him. Oddly enough, he didn't say anything else for the rest of the trip, and I enjoyed the quiet ride to the hospital.
We arrived at around 11. The eight of us introduced each other and received badges that let us into certain areas of the hospital. They explained that after we ate, we would split into four rotations: doing lab work, shadowing, providing basic patient care, and attending conferences.
I found a table next to a female doctor who introduced herself as Dr. Wang. When she asked if I was going to eat, I politely said that I had a large breakfast as Augustus came and sat across from me.
He shook Dr. Wang's hand, introducing himself. Once he sat back down, he handed me a sliced apple on his tray.
"I'm fine," I said.
"Please." He gave me a look that said he wasn't going to drop it, so I reluctantly took the apple and began eating a slice. A small, tiny part of me was grateful for him.
"You know," Doctor Wang said, looking at her clipboard, "I think you two are my first rotation for basic patient care."
"Really? That's amazing. What will we do?"
She smiled at me. "We're going to get lots of patient interaction. First, I'll teach you guys how I take vitals and such and you'll get to practice on each other. Then, we'll get to visit some patient rooms and I'll have you try to talk to them and take vitals."
"Sounds fun," Augustus said before taking a bite of his sandwich.
"It will be." She winked. "Once you two are done, come find me at the front of the cafeteria. We start at 12."
She left and I finished my apple slices, muttering a small thank you to Augustus again. The idiot just smirked.
We met Dr. Wang and 12 and she took us to her office. Inside, there was a small patient bed and lots of medical supplies on display and in the cabinets, according to her labels.
"First, let's take vitals. I assume that you both already know how to do so, but let's practice. Who wants to go first?"
"I will," Augustus said before I could. Sighing, I slid onto the bed and sat upright, my legs hanging off the edge.
Dr. Wang gave Augustus the stethoscope. "Here. Let's see if you know what to do."
He placed the stethoscope in his ears and hesitated before putting it on my chest. But I nodded and he placed it on, looking down and counting in his head.
He shook his head before pulling back. "Your sweater is too thick. I need to go underneath it."
I bit the inside of my cheek. "Okay."
"I'll just... go on the back?"
I nodded, unable to form words as I felt him near my tattered skin. He slid his hand underneath my shirt on my back and placed the stethoscope near my spine.
I vaguely heard him tell me to breathe, but I couldn't think. I couldn't process anything except how close his touch was to all my scars.
He won't hurt you. He's not him.
He won't hurt you.
He won't hurt you.
Breathe, Emilia. In and out. In and out.
I fucking tried – I really did. But I think Augustus could sense my panic and he ended up pulling back, giving the stethoscope back to Dr. Wang.
She took it without question. "Emilia, would you like to take his blood pressure?"
Relieved to be off the hospital bed, I gratefully accepted the sphygmomanometer and unwrapped it.
I placed the stethoscope in my ears and rolled up the sleeves of Augustus' shirt. I tried not to gape at the size of his bicep and wrapped the sphygmomanometer on him, placing the stethoscope on the inside so I could keep track of his heart rate.
Once it was secured, I began pumping and found his systolic and diastolic pressure. "117 over 84," I told her as I unraveled the Velcro.
We did a couple more vitals – temperature and respiration rate – and went over HIPAA, the patient protection and confidentiality act, before she took us to see patients.
Once we got to her floor, she knocked on the door and motioned for us to get hand sanitizer. We took it and were rubbing it on as we walked in.
I hadn't realized we were on the pediatric floor until I saw a small girl lying in the bed, her arm in a sling.
"Hi there," Dr. Wang greeted, smiling at the girl. "How are you?"
"Good," she replied. "Except for this." She made an obvious motion toward her broken arm.
"That's true." Dr. Wang laughed. "If you don't mind, my friends here, Augustus and Emilia, are going to do some of your vitals like we did yesterday. Does that sound good?"
The girl nodded and Augustus immediately went to her side. "I'm Augustus," he said my introduction. "And that's Emilia," he said, pointing at me.
And fuck.
Fuck.
Time stopped.
Because in this hospital room, in front of that small girl with her arm in a sling, was the first time I had ever heard Augustus say my first name.
hey everyone <3
sorry to post so late but i've been TERRIBLY busy this week. i ended up writing this entire chapter just today so if there are any mistakes, please lmk so i can fix them!!
this chapter... I CANT EXPRESS how much i love writing about august and lia.
thank you for reading and see you in chapter twelve !!