When Beth was little, maybe around ten, she couldn't wait to grow up. First, she couldn't wait to get to middle school. She would have her own locker to decorate, different teachers for every subject, and an actual lunch hour where she could do anything she wanted (except leave the premises).
Needless to say, middle school was a dud. Girls were cruel and at that age, boys started to figure out what kissing and sex were. She couldn't even count the number of times she had come home crying over something as silly as a girl outright telling her her shirt was ugly. But she moved on. Her skin got a little thicker.
When Beth reached 8th grade, she really couldn't wait to get to high school. She would get her license, a job, and there were homecoming and prom dances to look forward to. But, high school was only a little better than middle school. By her sophomore year, she had weeded out the popular bitches from the real girls and the fun guys from the uptight guys who only thought about sports and getting laid. The years were slow, even though she did everything she told herself she was going to. She got her license, even though she didn't have a car, and a job, even though most of the money she made went to helping her parents afford bills.
By senior year, she couldn't wait to get the hell out of dodge. She was utterly sick of two-faced people. Her high school was so small, she knew the name and face of every single person she graduated with. When she walked across that stage, she was almost tempted to give all those people the finger. She knew at that moment, on that stage looking out at the rest of her "classmates", that she was going to go somewhere and they would be stuck in this small town forever.
But now, at the ripe college age of 20, she really didn't understand why, in her youth, she wanted to grow up so damn bad. She missed the carefree days when she didn't have to pay rent, or electricity, or garbage. She missed just doing her chores and then going outside to play. Those were the days. Adult life just sucked.
She had been on her feet all day again and her calves were literally starting to burn. They always said that as long as you wore comfortable shoes, you could stand being on your feet all day. They were wrong. So wrong. It didn't matter what kind of shoes Beth wore, her feet, her legs, her back, they always hurt like a bitch by the time she got home. She had asked around the hospital she worked at, talked to all the nurses, and all of them told her she would get used to the pain because toughing it out and continuing to help people was worth it. She had sighed at the time. They always told her she would get used to things or to tough it out. Just like she would have to tough out all the shit the nurses gave her because she was only a lowly CNA. Granted, half of them did like her better now than before, but it had taken almost a year of working at the hospital and getting even tougher skin than before.
Today was Thursday. Thursdays were already Beth's toughest days of the week but on top of a long day, this Thursday she had lost a patient. A kind, elderly woman named Esther had been in with pneumonia. Esther's husband had died three years prior and she had even lost her thirty-year-old son a year ago to a drunk driver. The old woman was basically alone, but it was as if all of the shit life threw at her didn't get her down. Beth had asked her her secret and the old woman had simply replied that at her age, she knew it wouldn't be long before she saw both of them in a better place. At the moment, Beth (who had never been a crier in her life) had shed a few tears.
The woman had been in for a week and had even started to show signs of improvement. She had even had a nice little chat with Beth just that morning about how classes were going. Beth had checked her vitals, which seemed good, and continued on with her lowly CNA duties. Then, an hour before Beth's part time shift was due to be up, a code blue had rung throughout the walls of the hospital. Beth had followed the coding team, both curious to see who it was and wanting to help. Her heart had literally dropped to her feet when they turned into Esher's room. Beth knew then that it was over. Esther was DNR and she doubted that anyone would be able to bring her back from the prospect of seeing her family again.
After her hospital shift, Beth had spent the whole four hours of her shift at the café thinking about Esther and the woman's determination that there was some sort of life after death. Beth had never really experienced loss beyond the death of a family pet. All of her grandparents had been long gone by the time she was born. She had heard stories about them from her parents but she didn't really feel any connection to them, having never met them. Besides that, both of her parents were healthy and she was an only child so there really wasn't much to worry about there, either. On one hand, she felt lucky that she had never experienced loss but on the other, she wondered if a loss would hit her that much harder since she had never gone through it.
To say she was both mentally and physically exhausted by the time she reached her Biology night class, would be an understatement. She reeked of the coffee a stupid freshman had spilt down the front of her shirt and she had spent so much time thinking about Esther and life after death, that a familiar pain was taken up residence between her eyes. Conveniently enough she didn't have any pain medication on her and the professor she had tonight was one of the loudest she had ever had in her high school career.
The class was a total of four hours long. 6pm to 10pm. Two hours were devoted to lecture and another two were devoted to lab top. Night classes like these were invented for people like Beth who worked two jobs to support herself while going to school. This particular class was molecular biology. She hated the subject but it was a requirement for her minor in biology and certainly helped with her nursing degree.
The class was basically filled with nerds who loved science and either wanted to pursue a career in medicine or wanted to become a scientist of sorts. She had discovered that those seeking the scientist path tended to lack any sort of socializing skills. Unfortunately, her night class was filled with students who were interested in the scientist path. It made lab assignments particularly brutal.
She stumbled into her seat about five minutes before the class was set to begin. Most of the other students were already there, lap tops out and ready to be filled with notes. Beth found it easier to just stuff her books and notebooks into her purse. It was a lot lighter than carrying her MacBook around and she didn't have to worry about it getting stolen if it never left her locked apartment.
As she all but threw her notebook down on the table in front of her, she looked to her right to see her usual lap partner was MIA. It certainly wasn't a normal occurrence for the short, awkward boy to be missing but Beth certainly didn't care. If it meant she could spare herself the agony of going through tonight's lab with him then she was a happy person.
Just as Beth had thrown her purse on the seat next to her, the professor's voice boomed through the lecture hall. She winced and brought a hand up to rub at the spot between her eyes before hunching over and clicking her pen. Let the night begin.
An hour an a half later, the professor was finishing the lecture up a half hour early and Beth's headache had increased ten fold. She was in dire need of something to quell the pain but they still had lab to go through before she could officially leave. As the professor announced a short ten-minute break, she slid down in her chair to relax for a few minutes before moving her things to the lab. The only thing she could really think about now was sinking in a tub full of hot water for a nice long soak.
"Beth."
She half opened her eyes to stair at Professor Lee who was making his way towards her. She didn't bother to sit up, only opened her eyes the rest of the way and nodded at him. Professor Lee, despite his booming voice, was one of her favorites. She had frequented his lecture halls and labs. He liked teaching the night biology classes and whenever she could fit it into her schedule, she took his classes. He was short in stature, about 5'10 and his salt and pepper hair was always sticking out in different directions. His voice, though annoying tonight, was usually enough to keep her awake after long shifts at the hospital and café.
"I know you're severely disappointed your lab partner isn't here tonight," he said as he shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and smirked down at her. He knew how much she hated this class because of the socially awkward students she had to share it with. They were both smokers and more often than not ran into each other in the small smoking area outside the biology building. Occasionally, they would even share the break for the class outside trading hospital stories. He was a doctor turned scientist turned professor. He had explained to her during one of their breaks that he had gotten tired of being a doctor and never putting his personal life first. He had switched to mainly research but after a few years realized it wasn't much better. As a professor, he could teach night classes and spend most of the time with his third wife and step kids.
"But, I would really love to see you working with someone else. I know you expected to get out of this one since tonight I'm only have you do the prep questions but we have someone else in the class that needs a lab partner as well." He smiled down at her as if to say he knew this was some sort of odd punishment but he was doing it anyway. She groaned quietly, for only him to hear and then nodded her head.
"If you insist," she muttered as she finally sat up and began collecting her things.
"How was your shift today?" He asked as an afterthought.
Beth worked her CNA shift at the same hospital Professor Lee had done his residency and he loved hearing some of the crazy stories she came in with. It reminded him of his younger years, he said.
"Don't really want to talk about it," she murmured as she kept her head down. She tried not to let the blush sink into her cheeks as she pulled her messenger bag over her shoulder and stood up.
"When you have a rough day," Professor Lee said quietly, "just remind yourself of how many of the good days overshadow the bad. The good days are why we do what we do."
She finally looked up at him then and took comfort in the small, comforting smile he was showing her. It was nice to have a professor who understood where she was coming from and just how tough her days could be. Most of her other professors had spent their days in classrooms instead of in hospitals. Beth wondered how they anyone really expected them to teach students if they couldn't apply what they knew to real life situations. She was a firm believer in those who can't do, teach. Except in Professor Lee's case.
"Lab station twenty-nine," he called out to her as she made her exit.
She sighed when she finally exited the classroom. She didn't even get to sit at her regular lab station. This day just sucked.
Twenty-five minutes later found Beth with her face stuffed in her lab book, reading over the pre-lab questions. After her talk with Professor Lee, she had been dreading meeting her makeshift lab partner for the day. And then lab had started and said lab partner still hadn't shown up. It gave her a little hope that she would be working on her own after all and could make a quick getaway when she was finally done answering her questions.
"Mr. Hale, I'm so glad you could finally join us."
Beth's head jerked up quickly, immediately deciding that Mr. Hale was no doubt her missing lab partner. Her mouth almost immediately dropped. Striding into the lab was the epitome of sex on legs. It was almost straight out the movies where some freaky, whack job fortuneteller tells a girl she will meet a tall, dark and handsome stranger. He was dressed from head to foot in black but somehow he pulled it off. The leather jacket it wore was just icing on the cake and suddenly, all of her thoughts about just wanting to get the lab over with, floated away.
"Beth will be your partner for tonight," Professor Lee explained as Mr. Hale made his way over to their lab station. "Play nice you two!" He seemed to add as an afterthought.
She repeatedly tried to tell herself to stop staring as he got closer but after a few seconds he was already right in front of her and she was still gawking like some teenager. At least, she decided, she had the good decency to blush. He dropped a motorcycle helmet on the table between them followed by a small duffle bag. He didn't seem to notice her outright staring and instead turned away from her to slide his leather jacket off. When he turned, she let herself take a long gander at his ass. But only long enough to decide she could probably bounce a quarter off of it.
She shook her head immediately after the thought passed her mind and her blush deepened even further. She wasn't really sure what was wrong with her at that moment. Sure, it had been quite a long time since she had seen such a handsome individual but at the same time, it didn't really excuse her down right inappropriate response to him. She looked down at her lab book and angrily shoved a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She was fully prepared to apologize for staring when she looked up, but she found him in his seat simply…staring at her.
His green eyes were like emeralds that cut right through her and her heart fluttered in her chest for a few moments before she sucked in a deep breath. He continued to stare, his demeanor calm and cool. It was unnerving to say the least and any idea she had had of apologizing disappeared. Instead, she found herself getting slightly irritated at his refusal to speak. The way he held himself told her that he was definitely not headed down the scientist path. He was by no means socially inept or awkward.
But still he refused to speak.