#because otherwise i won’t have any meds for wednesday at noon

[koushuwu]

listen, it’s cold as shit, my prescription fucked up somehow so i couldn’t buy my meds at the pharmacy just now and the wind howling outside is stressing me out. what the fuck.

[5hfanfiction]

FROM AFAR - CHAPTER 5

It was a regular wednesday morning and I was up for my eight am class. The weather was getting really cold by this time of the year, which I guess it was around beginning of fall, so I just lazily put on my sweater and mentally prepared myself for the rain outside. After doing my morning routine I checked my phone for new messages and instantly noticed something was off. Apparently Lauren was having some serious back pain and couldn’t make to her class. The girls were with her at the dining hall trying to think about what to do.

I made my way down there to check up on them and encountered a crying green eyed girl seating at one of the tables with Ally and Dinah. The girls explained to me that Lauren had woken up with a strong pain and could barely walk. We assumed that it happened because of the effort she had to put on during the changing of rooms a few days earlier. They had called Lori to get some help but she was useless. She didn’t believe them and the severity of our problem and asked if Lauren could make it to the college so the nurse could take a look at it. She couldn’t.

We called the nurse too and she suggested that Lauren should take a hot shower to make it better, and she clearly wasn’t joking about it. Then we called the campus security because maybe, just maybe, they could put our friend inside a car and take her to the college, or even a hospital for the matter. But they refused to do that too since it was a problem on her spine and they didn’t want to compromise their asses. We were stuck. Besides the stress caused by the situation and the suffering of our friend, we were pissed by the incompetence of those people. Ally and Dinah headed to Lori’s office to try to get some sense into her mind while I stayed with with Lauren at the residence hall lounge.

“Is it really that bad?”

“I took a medicine but the pain won’t go away,” Lauren explained to me that she had had back problems before when she was younger, but it was under control now. Well, not anymore.

“You won’t get in trouble for missing class, will you? I really don’t want you to stay here if you’re missing something important”

“Don’t worry, I texted my professor and she’ll understand. I don’t have anything important today, I just want to fix you as soon as possible”

A few minutes after the girls left, Ally called me to let me know what they had decided to do.

“Hey Mila, so… we just talked to Lori and she said she can get a driver to take Lo to the hospital at noon, but we told her that it’s too far away and we need to take her to the hospital right away”. We didn’t know what to do by now, we were stuck again. Then the girls got back to the dorms so we could discuss a plan.

“You have no idea how fucking angry I am because of that bitch. I wish you guys were there to see it. She didn’t even look at us. Either she doesn’t care or she thinks we’re lying to her. God I hate her so much, I’ll make a complaint against her to everybody I can find on my way,’‘ Dinah was really pissed because our advisor wasn’t even doing her job. She didn’t have to love us, just to do her job. We all wanted to beat the fuck out of that woman by now.

’'What if we take an uber, it’s our last option”

“Mila, it’s her job to find a way to help us, besides, we don’t know which hospital will accept our insurance, we don’t know anything, that’s why we need her,’' Ally stated and she was right. But Lauren was in pain and we needed to help her on our own. Right on cue Lori called Dinah saying that an ambulance was on its way to the dorms. Okay, now we had something, but then we remembered that Lori could simply take us in her car, and now we hoped the insurance would pay for that ambulance otherwise Lauren was in real trouble.

’'We can’t miss class today, we should go and tell the professor Lauren can’t make it today. Only one person can go in the ambulance anyway. Do you mind going with her, Mila?”

“No, it’s fine. I’m already late for class and I just texted my teacher to let her know it’s an emergency”

Moments later the ambulance was parked in front of the residence hall. The paramedics had to help Lauren make her way to the vehicle, the girl wasn’t lying when she said she couldn’t walk. The short way to the hospital was filled with questions for Lauren about her condition, in order for the doctors to have as much information as possible to try to solve her problem, while the driver asked me about our exchange after I told her we were not americans.

We didn’t know what would happen at the hospital and I’m pretty sure Lauren was a bit scared just like me. Right, it was just a hospital and we all had been to one before, but this wasn’t home, and mom wasn’t there to make you feel protected. We also worried about the expenses, we knew how complicated it could be with medical bills in the U.S. and we didn’t even know if our insurance would cover anything because nobody had used it before.

It turned out to be less scary than we predicted. The nurse gathered Lauren’s documents and information, while she changed into a hospital gown and I of course snapped a picture of her and sent it to my mom. I had texted her earlier saying Lauren wasn’t feeling good and by coincidence my mom also had a herniated disk, she even told me that the pain could be due to the cold weather.

They didn’t run any tests or imaging diagnostic exam because, I assumed, Lauren had had this before and the physician just prescribed some medicine for the pain and inflammation. At first we thought it was bullshit. How could he make conclusions if he didn’t run any test of any kind, right? But then again it was the american health system and the less you do inside a hospital, the better for you and for your pocket.

It didn’t take much for her to be discharged and the next step was get to a drugstore and then home. After a good amount of time waiting for her meds, we were back to the dorms by lunch time. It was just me and Lauren so we had lunch together and headed to her room since we both needed some rest, but only after we informed the girls that everything was fine now. Just then Lauren called her parents to let them know she had to go to the emergency. She didn’t want to worry them before so she waited until it was over. After spending a couple of hours in her room, both of us sleeping, I woke up and headed to my room to finish some homework since I had missed all my classes that day, and when it was night time Ally and Dinah joined us in Lauren’s room like we did most of the nights.

–

“Camz, do you mind sleeping here tonight? My mom told me it was better if someone stayed with me in case I need anything”. Both Ally and Dinah weren’t there anymore and I didn’t see any problem in sleeping there if she felt it’d make her more comfortable. We layed down with our heads on opposite ends of the bed, that was our disposition every time we were on the same bed. Not that we had slept in the same space many times before, but it’s just common sense since we didn’t have a lot of intimacy yet. None of the girls had.

“I could really use a foot massage right now, you know…’' I said, but wasn’t expecting anything in return. Your friends usually ignore you when you ask for a massage, that’s just how the universe works. But Lauren actually started to rub my feet and I couldn’t complain. She took her time on my right foot and then grabbed the other one, none of us saying anything for a while.

’'You know you can stop if you want, right?” Lauren was so into what she was doing that I guess she lost count of time. Not that I wasn’t enjoying it, but I didn’t want her to do this for so long just because I wanted a damn foot massage. She didn’t have to do it. She didn’t have to keep doing it.

But she didn’t stop.

I didn’t dare make a comment about what just happened. I didn’t want to think much of it, but I couldn’t stop myself from noticing that what she was doing wasn’t normal, right? Lauren was too quiet and there was a different vibe in the room, I was sure I could feel it. That was the first time that I really thought something different was going on between us, I just didn’t know what yet. She finally stopped.

“Goodnight, Camz”

“Night, Lo”