2

It was almost a week from their lunch date when she heard from her brother again. He often would forget until the last minute, and then he would call and leave a voice mail for her on her work phone. Which is exactly what he had done this time. He had left her a message while she had been busy running a few tests at the hospital she had worked at for the past four years. Chris’s friends and he were going out in about two hours from when she had got the message.

He knew that things were always on a schedule for her. Some extra time would have been nice for her to be able to get herself together, but he didn’t think like that. He was ready to go hang out with his friends and drag his poor sister along to meet people, and that was that. It was all he cared about. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She didn’t want to go out tonight. It had been a long day already, and she had been busy.

There was no way she could go home and change to make herself look halfway decent. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to think of something to say to him that he would accept as her not trying to get out of it. Though right now, she was battling a headache, and now this. This was not the day for her to be at her best. The day was already shot. As she continued to look at the ceiling, her boss walked in and looked at her.

“Something up there?” he asked as he knew she was not dramatic. She would see something like a drop of water, and then she would try to figure it out before she raised the alarm on the fact that the ceiling was leaking. She had the entire blueprint of the hospital in her head, much like she did the one of the human body. She was good at what she did. She was one of the best in her field. That is why they put up with her little quirks, like not being dramatic and everything like her lack of social skills. She was the no-nonsense type though she was learning to trade quips with the rest of them. She knew she had a long way to go to reach a normal person's reaction. She was trying not to be the computer they all thought she was like.

“No,” she replied. She took a deep breath. She had a rule. Work was work, and her personal life was none of anyone’s business. She tried hard to focus here so she could answer her boss. 

“Then what is going on?” he asked as he looked at her. This man had taken a chance on a young girl who wanted this job. She was qualified and then some, but she was young. She had been only eighteen when she had finished all her board testing. She could trust him.

“I am supposed to go out with my brother to meet his friends. He forgot that I worked and made the time to meet everyone right after work. I can’t get home and change.” She said as she met his eyes and his stare. “I mean, I really don’t want to go at all, but I said I would so he would leave me alone.”

“Go in your scrubs.” He said with a laugh. “I can’t tell you how many times that has actually saved me from a thing I didn’t want to be at.”

“How did the scrubs save you?” Henni asked as she looked at him with widened eyes.

“Kid, all you have to do is say you are on call. Then you can fake a phone call and say you have to leave because of work if you want to leave.” He laughed. “You are a doctor. Use that in your favor for once. Who would know the difference in the end?”

“Oh, I see now.” She said as she looked at him. “Thanks, that might help.”

“It is good to see you at least going out.” The man said as he walked to the door. He looked back at her at the desk, and he smiled, “You need to be young. This job ages everyone enough.”

“I do act young.” She said. She was confused about how one acted young. People told her that she needed to, but she didn’t see why. Being young was trying enough, but how did someone act it? The people she saw around her that were her own age were not the best examples. Their lives were full of mistakes that she could see a mile away. They seemed to have no clue when they crashed and burned into a mountain at full speed. Why on earth would she want to be like that?

“Compared to the most of our patients you might be. Sometimes though, I think you are even older than them.”  He chuckled as he walked away and down the hall.

“Most of our patients are elderly.” She said to herself. “Most of all, they are all dead.”

She had to think of that when she again looked at the ceiling as if it was going to give her the answers she was searching for. She had been so different from everyone when they had figured out that she was special with her mind. That hadn’t been an issue to her except when she was a younger teenager and in university. There had been no one there her own age, and the others all looked at her like she was a freak. She had gotten used to those types of looks. She had accepted her lot in life. Her curse was a blessing to most, and it had opened doors that would have been harder for her to open in life. She knew that she was supposed to be lucky. She thought she was weird to most people right now. That was fine as well.

Medical school wasn’t much better for her. Though people did realize she was different, and she was slightly better than everyone else there. There was no reason to treat her any different than they would have a peer. That was how they saw her for the most part. Now she felt like she was one of them. Though still nearly a decade younger than even the closest in age fresh out of medical school coworker, she was seen as one of them. She had fought for this. She was now even sought out to help others and consult. She knew she had proved herself.

The time she had put into getting where she was, she was happy with the result. She knew that most still had issues with her age. She hoped in time that wouldn’t be an issue. She was as happy in her life as she thought it was. She had a few family members that she talked to. Her brother and her father, they were enough to make life seem complete.

Going out and having fun was relative to her. She didn’t need to do that to have fun. She could do that when she found the reason or cause of a death. It was a release of its own. She didn’t think there would be a person who could understand that as it was hard to explain. Her twin brother didn’t. That was for sure. He had always been popular within his own age group of peers. He could fit into any clique. She almost hated that about him. He seemed to know how to adjust to make himself fit in. She still had no clue on how to do that though she had been doing that her entire life.

He could go out and meet people and then just want to see them or have them want to see him again. She was the opposite. She would rather not meet people. Staying at home and reading or working was what she really liked to do. This was going to be hard for her.

Christian sent her a text telling her about each person that she would meet that night. He didn’t seem all that happy that some of them were showing up. She looked at each message about them and thought at least she would know something about everyone. There was another set of twins that were going to be there. She smiled at that. He had given her a website to look at that was supposedly the store that they owned. As soon as she pulled it up, she laughed. Then she pulled up the website she had been looking at earlier and saw what she needed to. The photo of the coming soon was actually a stock photo from the other website. They were getting their stock from another store that was a discount place and reselling it and calling it their designs. Some of those designs were from Henni and Christian’s older sister. She thought it was funny how it was a small world.

Henni looked at the two sites and laughed at herself. This was why she didn’t like people all that much. She knew that she now had something to say if provoked. Though she would keep it to herself for now. Somehow looking at the few pictures of the sisters, she knew that ammo would come in handy. They both had a look that she knew well. She had seen it a few times before.

They simply thought they were better than everyone else. The group of women were the type that looked at the outsiders and made it difficult for people like her to be out in public. They were the worst type of people that she knew of. They would do nearly anything to keep their appearance. They would also need to keep everyone else as low as they could. Henni really didn’t want to go anymore.