「 twelve ✧ ti odio 」
I wasn't going to lie. I absolutely despised my name.
Ever since my father had repeatedly used it when he beat me, I obviously hadn't grown too fond of it. It brought back bad memories.
That's why I had always preferred to go by Mila. It was simpler, easier, cuter, and didn't remind me of my father.
But there was something about the way he said it – something about the way it rolled off his tongue – that made something flip in my stomach.
And by the way he looked at me the second after he said it... he knew it, too.
Emilia. Emilia. Emilia.
I would never get over the way he said it.
However, instead of continuing to obsess over him like an idiot, I walked up on the other side of the young girl and waved. "Hi," I said, smiling and trying to ignore the feeling of Augustus' eyes on me.
"Hello," the little girl said, a smile on her face.
"The vitals we need to run are simple," Dr. Wang said from behind us. "It's just heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, and respiration rate. Augustus, you do heart rate and blood pressure, and Emilia, you can do temperature and respiration rate."
"Sounds good," Augustus said, and I nodded, avoiding eye contact.
I watched as my mortal nemesis unwrap the stethoscope from around his neck and placed the two ends in his ears and smiled at the young girl. "You already know how this works, yeah?"
She nodded, beaming at him.
He gave her a grin and placed the diaphragm of the stethoscope near her heart and counted. I tried not to stare, but... fuck.
"80 beats per minute," he told Dr. Wang after he was finished.
"Perfect," the doctor replied, smiling. "Onto blood pressure."
Next, Augustus wrapped the sphygmomanometer around the girl's arm and placed the stethoscope diaphragm inside of it. He pumped the sphygmomanometer and counted until he said, "120 over 79."
"Again, perfect. Emilia, you ready?" Dr. Wang answered.
I smiled and grabbed the thermometer. "Can you lift your arm for me?" I asked the girl. She obliged, and I placed it underneath her arm. "We're going to wait five minutes and then I'll take it out. Does that sound good?"
She nodded.
Since we were waiting, I took a seat on the far side of the room while Dr. Wang talked to the patient. Augustus came up next to me and I tried not to stiffen at his presence.
"Casen," I said by way of greeting.
"Laurent," he responded, but I still couldn't get over the way he'd said my first name.
Emilia. Emilia. Emilia.
"You know... you did a good job back there," he told me.
"Yeah?"
He nodded, watching me with a sideways tilt of his head. "You're very... professional. You would do good in the medical field. Working in a hospital."
"Be careful," I teased. "That was almost a compliment."
"Was not."
"Was too."
He raised his brows at me. "I was making an observation."
"An observation that didn't involve shaming or ridiculing me."
"I don't know what you're talking about," he replied.
"You don't? Should I remind you of every chemistry class? Or perhaps biology? Or maybe stats-"
"I get it," he huffed.
"You're just immune to compliments," I answered. "Allergic to them, perhaps."
"Not true."
"Yeah? Prove it," I said.
I watched his jaw clench as he surveyed me up and down.
"Fine. I like your hair today."
"I didn't do anything different with it today then I do every day."
"Then I like your hair every day."
I was almost surprised. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. See? I'm not allergic. Your turn."
"My turn?" I asked.
"Yes. You forced me to lie, so now it's your turn."
"Lie? That'll be easy." I smirked. "I love your face. Your personality. Your hair. Your attitude. Your-"
"Shut up. I was kidding."
"I figured." I looked at him then, searching for a compliment. I admitted to myself that it wasn't hard. "Um, I like your outfit." He was wearing a plain white T-shirt with beige cargoes and a black belt. Earlier, he had worn a black trench coat over it. His shoes were black high-top converse that gave him an extra two inches of height that he didn't need.
"Grazie." He smiled, proud of himself for knowing a single word in Italian.
"Bitte," I replied in German. I only knew that word from another one of my German-speaking friends who told me that "bitte" was a phrase used for all sorts of replies. By the way his expression morphed into surprise, I assumed I used the word correctly.
The timer went off and I went over to the girl and took out the thermometer. "98.5," I told Dr. Wang.
I reached over to Augustus and handed me the stethoscope. I then placed it into my ears and held it over the girl's heart.
"I'm going to count your breaths for one minute. Continue to breathe normally, as if I'm not here, alright?"
She nodded, and I performed the test.
"17," I told Dr. Wang after a minute.
After we finished up and said goodbye to the girl, Dr. Wang led us back to her office to retrieve our belongings.
"It was so nice working with you two," she said, smiling. "Tomorrow, you two will be in the research lab. Hopefully I'll see you around the hospital."
We thanked her and walked out, meeting the others on the bus.
"That was fun," I said once we were settled in our seats on the bus.
He nodded beside me. "But I still can't get over how you know the word 'bitte' in German."
"Maybe I'm just smart."
He rose his brow at me, and I shoved him.
"Fine, fine," he chuckled. "But I feel like I know nothing in Italian."
"Do you want me to teach you?"
He shrugged. "It'd help pass the time."
"Okay. How about this – every day, we will pick a phrase and translate it into Italian and German, respectively, for each other?"
"Sounds fun," he replied.
"Good. So... pick a phrase."
He thought for a second. "I hate you."
"Ti odio."
"Ti odio?"
"Yeah, nice job."
"Ti odio," he said again, as if getting used to it on his tongue.
"Now in German?"
"Ich hasse dich."
"Ich hasse dich," I attempted.
"Mhm. Just make sure the 'ch' sound is more of an 'sh'. Don't make the 'c' too hard sounding."
I rolled my eyes. "Ich hasse dich," I said again. "Better?"
"Much."
"Ich hasse dich," I said one last time – partly testing it on my tongue, partly in response to him.
He just smirked. "Ti odio."
hey lovesss <3
sorry for the short filler chapter, but once again i've been so so busy and i wanted to get something out for you guys. next week i have an entire week off for fall break (thank god) so i'll definitely be catching up on writing then.
but dw, the next chapter is going to be eventful and i can't wait for you all to read it ;)
see you in chapter thirteen!