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Enjoy!
April changed into her scrubs in the interns' locker room with a smile on her face. Since her somewhat unsuccessful date with Jackson a week ago, she had been on cloud nine. The gorgeous man with the hypnotic bluish-green eyes was now her boyfriend. She wasn't dreaming anymore.
Jackson Avery: boyfriend. Her sisters wouldn't believe her if she had told them who she was currently dating. Maybe Alice would because she was aware of her older sister's crush on the pretty boy. She was the only sister April trusted with her secrets. Libby would likely claim any picture she had of Jackson came from a modeling website. And Kimmie would agree as she worshipped the oldest Kepner daughter.
But she wasn't planning on bragging to them yet. They had only been together for a week. She never did tell anybody but Alice about Zach. She wanted to be absolutely sure she and Jackson could last more than a month before finding a way to introduce him to her parents. There was a high chance they would like him. He respected her more than any man ever had. So far, she hadn't found anything horribly wrong with him. A small temper, but not towards her. He surprisingly didn't push her to have sex with him considering he was a horndog with Rachel Lawson. Then again, he seemed to know her better than he knew his ex-girlfriend. It wasn't rocket science to figure out that the topic of sex made April uneasy, for whatever reason.
Reed was convinced her roommate was a virgin, but April denied it every time. She could understand why the redhead would be embarrassed to admit it because it seemed everybody around her was comfortable talking about or having sex except for her. From what she could remember in her red notebook, there wasn't anything written inside about whether or not she was a virgin. While she wrote personal thoughts and information in her red notebook, her sex life wasn't one of them.
Facing her locker, an arm extended over her shoulder with a coffee cup in her hand. "Good morning," Jackson's voice greeted her from behind. She happily accepted her soy vanilla latte from him. "I thought I'd get our coffee a little earlier than usual."
"Aww, thank you," she chirped, turning around with a bright smile on her face. "Just what I needed."
"You could've fooled me at five in the morning," he quipped before leaning forward and kissing her gently on the lips. Jackson was hardly a morning person compared to his girlfriend, but seeing her face woke him up more than his cappuccino did. "So how ugly will your sweater be tonight?"
"Reed forced me to buy this red sweater with white snowflakes and a giant gray cat wearing a Santa hat on the front," she answered, rolling her eyes. "She must really hate the holidays since she'll be wearing a sweater with Christmas lights that actually light up."
Jackson chuckled and placed his palm against a locker just beside April's head. "Well, if you ever want to take a break from the party, we could always hang out in your room and I'll gladly help you remove that sweater," he smugly suggested. "Your door does have a lock, right?"
She couldn't think clearly due to the touch of his lips against her neck. Just when she thought sex wouldn't be a huge deal for him he dropped that harmless bomb on her. "Y-yeah, but… don't you think it would be rude to skip out on my own party?"
"You won't be ditching it completely, April. I just want to spend some time alone with you."
"B-but it'll be loud. There's nothing romantic about sex at a loud party," she hesitantly replied and bit down on her lower lip. She hated how awkward she acted whenever sex was brought up, but awkward was a part of her personality.
He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Do you want to talk about anything? You can trust me. I won't make fun of you if you're a virgin."
April closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm not a virgin, Jackson," she whispered, despite nobody else around in their aisle. She pressed her hand against his chest. "I don't- the locker room's not an appropriate place to talk about this."
"Were you raped?" he bluntly asked.
"No!" she gasped in shock. "If I was, I would be in therapy for the rest of my life. I can't believe you just asked me that!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm trying to understand why sex is such a touchy subject for you."
"Not everyone's open about sex like you are," she retorted. "I don't just take off my clothes for every guy who thinks I'm hot or whatever – not that there were a lot of them, but you know what I mean."
Jackson instantly felt like an ass for offending her. He probably shouldn't have asked her that question out in the open where anybody could have been listening to their conversation. That last thing he wanted to do was make April uncomfortable, especially when it appeared she was ready to cry. Sometimes he lacked sensitivity with his girlfriends and he reminded himself his current one was definitely the sensitive type with many insecurities.
He tenderly kissed her forehead. "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry I insulted you."
"It's fine," she softly said before she sipped her latte.
"And for the record, I'm not with you for the sex. You're more than that to me," he assured her and smiled.
April smirked at him. "I think you're a serial killer. You're too… perfect sometimes," she jokingly replied. She handed him her coffee cup, so she could wear her lab coat.
Jackson watched her stuff her red notebook inside of her pocket before he gave back her latte. "So, am I allowed to read what's in there since I'm your boyfriend now?" he asked curiously.
"Nice try, but no." She grinned at him as they left the locker room together. "It's off-limits to everybody's eyes and that includes yours. Don't even try to steal it. I'm not kidding."
"Oh, alright. I'll be a good boy."
They met up with the rest of their group, who were waiting for Swanson in the lobby. For the first time, the interns had arrived before their resident. One or two of them always showed up after her, which resulted in tons of scut work for the day.
"Are my eyes deceiving me or is Swanson late?" Charles grinned widely. He was certain he couldn't be scolded this time for not arriving on time like the others. "Does this mean she'll be assigning scut to herself?"
"Well, if she still decides to drop scut on somebody it should be those two," Reed said as she pointed at April and Jackson. "They came last, so they lose by default."
Her roommate shook her head. "None of us are getting scut. We deserve to be scut free today."
Swanson appeared a minute later. "Morning, guppies," she muttered. The blonde resident was visibly in a bad mood, which worried her five interns. It probably didn't matter if they were all early. "Sorry for running late."
"Umm… everything alright, Dr. Swanson?" Reed politely asked.
"No, everything's not alright," her boss sternly answered. "My roommate abandoned me and moved out while I was here working last night. She kept babbling about how our apartment was too far away from Seattle Grace. She wants in on the best surgeries by arriving at work as early as possible, so I told her to go live in their basement if she's that desperate. Apparently, she took my advice seriously and fled."
Trevor kindly smiled at Swanson. "You can't say she's not hardcore about being a surgeon," he pointed out.
She rolled her eyes. "She's a freaking ortho resident. You can't tell me that's more hardcore than cardio. Whatever. I'm more pissed off about having to take care of the rent by myself until I find another reliable roommate."
Charles approached her and gave her hug. "I'm sorry your roommate's a bitch."
"Oh, get off of me, Percy!" Swanson glared at her intern as he returned to his original place. "I'm not in the mood for your ass kissing today. You've got rectal exams in the outpatient center. Kepner and Adamson, suture duty in the ER. Avery and Stanley, you're with me. That's all for now. If I need the rest of you, I'll page you. Other than that, leave me alone."
April exchanged amused glances with Reed as Swanson marched down the hallway. Both Jackson and Trevor didn't appear too thrilled to be following around the third year resident. "Good luck, you two," she teased.
"Well, if we don't show up at your party tonight, it means Swanson murdered us and buried our bodies in the woods," Jackson humorously warned her. He gave his girlfriend a quick peck on the lips. "I'll see you later – maybe."
Reed nudged April with her elbow as they headed for an elevator to go downstairs to the pit. "That guy is so freaking head over heels for you. I bet he'd do anything you ask him to."
"He's not my lap dog. He's my boyfriend. I won't treat him the way Rachel did," she insisted.
"And how are you not eager to see him naked?"
"Is sex that big of a deal to everyone except for me?" April asked in annoyance as she walked inside of an elevator with her roommate. "And before you say it – I'm not a virgin."
Reed softly laughed. "You know, the more you claim you're not, the more I think you are. Why won't you just confess and tell me you're a virgin?"
"Because I'm not!" she snapped. "Boyfriend number one. His name was Garrett and I regretted it big time. That's all I'm going to tell you."
"Why, what happened? Did he die?" her roommate jokingly asked. April scowled at her with her arms folded. "Fine, fine. That was mean, but you're really not going to tell me?"
April let out a sigh of relief when they arrived at the ER. "Nope."
Reed groaned as she followed the redhead out of the elevator. "I'll find out sooner or later, April. I'll force it out of you if I have to."
Reed was determined to successfully host the ugly sweater party she had been planning for a whole week. She couldn't care less about the fact that she and April had been awake since four in the morning. Her annual ugly sweater party was her version of celebrating Christmas. Maybe it was growing up with a family who hadn't been very enthusiastic about holidays that made her so anti-holiday. April couldn't understand how anybody hated Christmas or any holiday for that matter, but at least her roommate allowed her to decorate the living room with some Christmas lights.
Many of their guests were interns. About half were surgical interns, while the others were specializing elsewhere at Mercy West. A chunk of them were Reed and Charles' friends from medical school. And there was exactly one nurse present – Zach. April felt embarrassed being around him even though they agreed to be friends. A quick greeting and then she scurried off to hide in the kitchen. Fortunately, Jackson hadn't arrived yet to increase the tension. Working with Swanson turned out to be a blessing in disguise since he and Trevor had the luxury of scrubbing in on a quadruple bypass surgery with their resident and Dr. Martin, so they were running late.
April watched Reed and Zach converse with each other from the kitchen. They appeared to be hitting it off, though they were already sort of friends before when she was dating Nurse Rock Star. She partially hid her face with the red cup in her hand while she simultaneously listened to a new friend talk about himself.
His name was Brad Parker. He met Reed and briefly dated her during their first year at U-Dub. Now he was an intern at Mercy West and focusing on internal medicine. He seemed like a nice person, not that April had any interest in him. But she felt guilty about ignoring him as she continued to spy on her roommate and ex-boyfriend.
"So, if you're not busy anytime soon, maybe we could… go out sometime?" he inquired.
"Huh, what?" She quickly shook her head and smiled. "Oh, umm… sorry, I can't. I have a boyfriend… who is not here yet, but he's coming."
"Well, damn," Brad sighed, flashing a disappointed smile. "This boyfriend of yours, is he worth it?"
April shyly nodded and grinned. "Our relationship is still very new, but yes. Yes, he is." She heard faint knocking on the front door. Reed was too busy flirting with Zach to notice more guests had arrived and the loud music also distracted her. "Excuse me for a second."
She left the kitchen to answer the door. She hoped it would be Jackson, but instead it was Charles – decked out in a yellow and black sweater that resembled Charlie Brown's shirt, which made her laugh.
"What?" Charles looked down at his sweater. "It's ugly and it's a sweater."
"I know, but… did you bring Snoopy and Linus with you too?" she quipped.
"Uh huh, laugh all you want, but Reed will think this is pretty awesome," he insisted as he entered the apartment. "Don't you get it? She's always calling me Charlie. She never calls me Charles. Maybe if she gets the joke, she'll think it's… I don't know. Adorable?"
"You have a thing for Reed?" the redhead asked gleefully.
Charles covered April's mouth his hand. He scanned the living room for anybody who might have overheard their conversation. He brought her to a more secluded area – the bathroom.
April stood by the toilet after he closed the door behind him and locked it. "I'm uncomfortable," she muttered.
"I'm finally going to tell her," he started with a grin on his face before he announced, "I'm going to tell Reed I love her. Tonight is the night I'm gonna grow some balls and tell her how I feel. And it doesn't matter how stupid I look because everybody looks stupid at this party."
"Oh, that's... sweet," she hesitantly responded.
"You think it's a bad idea?" He pointed at himself. "I've been in love with this woman since med school. I'm tired of my balls shrinking whenever I'm around her. I have to do it now or I never will."
"You're right, but as your friend I should probably warn you that Reed's busy trying to hook up with my ex-boyfriend."
Charles groaned. "Nurse Rock Star? She'd rather be with that dork than a kick ass surgeon like me?"
"Hey! You didn't think he was a dork when I dated him," April replied defensively and folded her arms. "And we're barely surgeons, so kick ass is a bit of a stretch don't you think?"
"He walks with a cane," he added.
"Because his ass is still healing!"
"Which your now boyfriend broke over a jealous rage." Charles leaned back against the door and pouted. "Zach's not that impressive, right? I get that he plays the guitar and the drums, but I play a mean bass. Dudes who play the bass don't get enough respect, in my opinion."
April shrugged her shoulders. "I can't say he isn't a sweetheart because he really was," she admitted. "And he never pushed me to have sex with him or make me feel any pressure about having sex with him. Why can't all guys think that way? Some of you guys do it because it's the macho thing to do, but I always thought sex should be romantic and beautiful…"
And another ramble was enough for Charles to want to leave her alone in the bathroom. It wasn't just Reed who had to endure the perky intern's verbal essays. By then their entire group was used to them, but they didn't necessarily love listening to them either. After the first few sentences, her words typically morphed into the incoherent sound the adults spoke in the old school Peanuts Gallery shows.
Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha.
"…doesn't that make sense to you?" The door opening and closing shook her out of her own world. Charles had ditched her in the bathroom. She rolled her eyes as she opened the door. "Jerk."
Returning to her living room, she spotted the taller, non-bald version of Charlie Brown approaching Reed and Zach. April instantly felt bad for him because he would likely be shot down or his balls would shrink yet again. She decided to stand nearby to offer moral support for her friend.
Charles stood behind Reed and cleared his throat to interrupt her conversation with Zach. She spun around and immediately burst into laughter when she saw his ugly sweater.
"Charlie! Oh, I get it! Charlie Brown!" She poked at his chest as she obnoxiously giggled at him. "You look ridiculous."
"Isn't that the point?"
"Yeah, but… Charlie Brown. You know, he was kind of a loser," Reed reminded him. "I'm sure you're aware of that."
Charles nervously laughed. "Uhh, yeah." He nodded his head at Zach. "What's up, Jacobs? How's your ass?"
"It's better. Thank you for asking," the nurse awkwardly replied. He looked past Charles' shoulder and saw April turn around and hide her face when they made eye contact. "Umm, excuse me."
Reed rolled her eyes when Zach walked away from them. Charles grinned widely, forcing her to slap his arm. "I was on a roll with him, you moron!"
Meanwhile, Zach lightly tapped April's shoulder. She put on her brightest smile before she turned back around to face him. "Are you having a nice time?" she asked and pointed at the Santa hat on his head. "That's a really cute hat, by the way."
He softly laughed. "You've been avoiding me."
"Have I?"
"Well, when you say, 'Hi', and then practically run away afterwards I'm pretty sure that's avoidance. So, what is it? Too cool to be hanging out with a guy who needs a cane to walk?"
April shook her head. "Oh, no. It's not that at all. I'm… dating Jackson now," she said and gently bit down on her lower lip while she fidgeted with her red cup. "I just don't want things to be weird when he's here."
"Things don't have to be weird. I mean, I don't have to talk to him and I know he's not gonna want to talk to me. That's fair." He sighed. "But I hope you're happy. I want you to be happy. I was always kind of second best after him, right?"
"That doesn't mean I was only with you because he wasn't available. I had no idea he even had feelings for me until after he- well, I found out at the flag football game… before he broke your tailbone."
"It's funny how you were practically the last person to find out," Zach teased. "Even I eventually realized why he hated me. I just didn't want to say anything because why should I? As painful as it was to break up with you, it was the right decision. Just stop avoiding me like we had a bad break up, April."
She forced herself to laugh, brushing back strands of her hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry. From my past experience, the dumper completely forgot I existed nor have I ever had my ex and my current boyfriend in the same room before," she replied. "I don't know what I'm doing sometimes!"
"Just relax," he advised, adding a friendly pat on her shoulder. "I'll stay out of his way as long as he does the same, okay? No worries."
After her ex-boyfriend returned to his conversation with Reed, April plopped down on the couch. She checked her watch impatiently. The party had been in full effect for more than an hour and Jackson wasn't there. She understood that quadruple bypass procedures could take hours, but she wanted to be with her boyfriend. They hadn't seen each other since that morning in the locker room. Or maybe he was too tired from work and stayed home, she thought. But he would have called her or sent her a text message if he changed his mind about coming.
Charles sloppily sat down beside her and sighed. "Hey, can we like makeout in front of Reed for a few minutes to make her jealous or whatever? Jackson doesn't have to know."
"Are you kidding me?" She pushed herself up from the couch, tossing her empty red cup onto his lap. "Didn't I warn you, Charlie Brown?"
He watched his coworker leave, then he slouched on the couch and frowned. "Good grief."
Jackson sat down on the bench in front of his locker feeling exhausted and relieved. Exhausted because he had been at work five more hours than he was supposed to be, but he was looking forward to seeing April. The surgery lacked any complications and it was just what he needed to get his future cardio career started. Dr. Martin trusted him to handle the harvested arteries retrieved from the patient's leg until the cardio surgeon was prepared to graft them to the coronary arteries. They were transferred safely, so he completed his job without any embarrassing mishaps. He finally scrubbed in on surgery he could brag about to his family even if he hardly did anything. Cardio was cardio to the Avery's and he was just an intern, so they would cut him some slack.
"Ready to go, man?" Trevor asked after he closed his own locker. He stood behind his coworker and pointed at his sweater. It was green with dancing reindeer on it. "What do you think of my sweater? Cool?"
His roommate turned his head to check out his party attire. "It's ugly, bro."
"Yes!" He celebrated with a fist pump. "But the dancing reindeer. You think I'll get laid tonight because of them?"
"Hmm… yeah- no, probably not," Jackson answered with a smirk. "Nobody gets laid at an ugly sweater party."
"You say that now, but you're the one with a girlfriend… again," Trevor reminded him. "I know April's on the shy side, but how can she say no to you? I mean, if I was a chick, I'd do you."
Jackson faced forward as he removed his scrub top. "And this conversation suddenly got really weird." He threw his orange garment inside of his locker. "Anyway, April seems to have her own beliefs about sex. She's all about romance and not straight up hot sex. She says she's not a virgin, but I don't know if she's being honest about that."
"So if she's a virgin, would you be alright with that?"
"I'm not with her for the sex. If I have to wait to have sex with her, then I'll wait – as long as it doesn't take me a year to sleep with her," he shamefully confessed. "I'm a guy who can't not have sex. I just can't. You know what I'm talking about, right?"
Trevor chuckled. "Yeah, when you can have all of the sex you want why not take advantage of the opportunity?" He started walking out of the locker room. "I'll meet you by the car, dude."
Jackson stood up, so he could finish changing out of his scrubs. He sent April a text message telling her he was on his way to her apartment as he left the locker room. Walking inside of an elevator, he met up with Swanson, who was by herself in her street clothes. She appeared ragged and pissy. It was a long day for her as well.
Swanson snickered at her intern's bright yellow sweatshirt with the Los Angeles Lakers logo on it. "Lakers fan?"
"No. It's for an ugly sweater party," he answered.
"I think you misunderstood the basic rules for an ugly sweater party. The yellow is a little too bright for my taste, but shouldn't you be wearing something a little more Christmas-y?"
Jackson grinned at his resident. "I'm a Boston Celtics fan, so anything Lakers is ugly to me," he proudly stated.
"Ah, I see. That makes sense. I grew up in Chicago. Huge Bears fan and I know a thing or two about heated sports rivalries," she explained. "I hate the Packers more than anything else. None of you five better be Packers fans or else I'm going to have a hard time playing fair."
"I don't think any of us are." He smiled at the blonde. "I never thought of you as a big sports fan."
"Not exactly. Just a big Chicago Bears fan." Swanson smiled back at Jackson. "You're an okay guy, Avery. When I heard an Avery was coming to our hospital I thought you'd be an arrogant asshole, but you're not so bad. You're still kind of a loser for fainting in the OR. However, I'm sure you'll find a way to make up for it."
"Well, I'm glad you changed your mind about me."
"And I like that you're looking into Cardiothoracics. We should get drinks at Schmo's sometime and talk about that. Maybe do more than talk," she suggestively added.
Jackson raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. Was his superior hitting on him? He shifted uncomfortably as the elevator reached the main lobby. They both stepped out together. She seemed to be waiting for an answer from him since she matched his pace and walked alongside him.
"I… I can't. I have a girlfriend," he murmured.
Swanson sighed playfully. "Of course you do. A guy like you can't stay single for long." She tugged on his sweatshirt, pulling him towards her just outside of the hospital entrance. "But for what it's worth, I can get you into the best cardio surgeries. Can your girlfriend do that?"
Jackson slowly inhaled and exhaled after the third year walked off to her car. He never expected his resident to be the kind of person who would bend the rules to favor one intern over the others. Swanson always came off as a rule follower and an overachieving doctor who appreciated hard work over lazy asses. The last thing he ever expected from her was sex for surgeries.
He did have his share of flirting his way to better grades at Harvard, though. He didn't do it often as he was an excellent student-athlete, but once in a while, he forced himself to work his magic with his pretty boy looks. After he graduated from medical school, he promised himself he wouldn't cheat his way to the top no matter what. If he wanted to be the best in his field, he was going to work for it. Despite being spoon fed throughout their entire lives, his sisters were hard workers, so they were able to defend their arrogance. He couldn't quite do that yet.
He quickly shook his head, dismissing Swanson's offer. There was a party to go to and a girlfriend to finally be with.
Reed answered the door and drunkenly grinned at Jackson and Trevor. "You are super duper late, boys," she greeted then, her voice slightly slurred. "Come on in."
Both men entered the apartment. It was crowded with more people arriving as the time passed. Of course, Jackson immediately searched for April in the sea of doctors. He couldn't find her anywhere.
"Where's April?" he asked, nearly shouting at Reed due to the loud music taking over the living room.
"Oh, I think she's hiding in her room. Wanted to take a nap or whatever," she yelled into his ear and pointed at Charles, who was passed out on the couch while two other partiers drew on his face. "You might have to take his ass home later. He's plastered. So much that he's snoozing away now."
Jackson nodded, forcing a smile. "Cool. I'll go check on April."
He politely pushed his way through the living room and walked to April's bedroom. Quietly entering her bedroom, he found her sleeping peacefully on her bed. He wondered how the music hadn't disrupted her sleep, but they had been awake since before sunrise, so she had a reason to be knocked out. She lay on her side, snuggled up against a lavender pillow. Her red sweater was hanging from her desk chair. He softly chuckled at how tacky it looked. His girlfriend was asleep in a white tank top and jeans. And she looked cute.
Slipping out of his shoes, Jackson climbed onto the bed. Instead of gently nudging her to wake her up, he decided to do it the Prince Charming way. He was certain she would appreciate being woken up by kisses from her boyfriend. He started at her shoulder, moving his way up to her neck, then to her chin and her jaw line. She stirred in her sleep, but not enough to wake up. So he finally kissed her lips, which seemed to do the trick.
April's eyes fluttered open as she stretched her arms over her head. She was slightly caught off-guard when she saw Jackson hovering above her. "Oh, you're here," she giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "How was the surgery?"
"Interesting. Too long, but it's not often you get to scrub in for a quadruple bypass." He smiled as he dipped his face into her neck and lightly gnawed at it. She squirmed underneath him when he hit her apparent sweet spot, a little known fact he discovered during a makeout session in her bedroom a few days ago. "Call me cheesy, but I missed you today."
"It's okay. I missed you too."
He moved back up to her lips, kissing her passionately. His hand slid underneath her tank top, traveling upwards along her side. She seemed to be fine with it until his fingers reached the bottom of her breast. That was when she rolled off of the bed in a panic, landing face first onto the floor.
"Whoa, April." Jackson crawled towards the edge of the bed. He helped her up from the floor, then he sat up. "What's the matter? We weren't going to have sex if that's where you thought I was going."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" April placed her hands against the back of her head as she paced back and forth in front of her boyfriend. She had a feeling he likely thought she was nuts. "I don't know why I'm such a spaz. I can't believe I- you deserve better, Jackson. You really do."
"Calm down," he soothingly ordered, grabbing her wrist and forcing her to sit down beside him. "Just tell me the truth. I'm not going to laugh at you or think any less of you because you're a virgin."
She groaned in frustration, burying her face into her hands. "I'm not a virgin!"
"Well, I don't believe you," he stated. "Unless, you can convince me otherwise. If your first time was awful, I'm pretty sure you're not the only person in the world to have crappy sex. It's not really something to be ashamed about."
"I had a pregnancy scare," she mumbled against her palms. "But that's not entirely why I'm so freaking paranoid about having sex with somebody."
There wasn't much of a point in hiding her reasons from him anymore. They weren't going to have a successful relationship if she wasn't completely open and honest with him. She also thought she was slowly pushing him away like she did with other potential boyfriends in the college.
April moved her hands away from her face and frowned at Jackson. "Have you ever been in love or thought you were? You know that can't eat, can't sleep feeling and you put your entire trust into that significant other?"
"Maybe once, but I'm not really sure it was love." He slightly grimaced. "I'll be honest with you. Settling down isn't in my current plans at the moment. A lot of girlfriends came and went, but I can't say I missed them all."
"Oh, umm… I'm not ready to settle down either. We're still young and our surgical careers are just starting," she agreed. "But I did make the mistake of thinking I was in love with a guy. My first boyfriend, Garrett. I was eighteen and a naïve freshman at Akron. He was the sweetest guy I met. We were dating for about four months when he said he loved me, so I thought he meant it. I couldn't find a reason why he didn't."
"And what happened?"
"So… one night we decided to take that step and have sex," April continued, nervously playing with the hem of her tank top. "And you know me, I'm all about safety precautions. I thought we were fine. Then, I was like ten days late and I thought maybe I could be pregnant. When I told him he flipped out and said he didn't want to have any part of it because he refused to be a teenage father or whatever. I hadn't even taken a pregnancy test yet and he already blew me off. All of a sudden, he became this douche I hardly recognized."
"I uhh, took a test of course and even went to the hospital for a blood test to be absolutely sure. After I found out I wasn't pregnant, I went to Garrett's dorm room to tell him and hopefully, make him feel stupid," she recalled and laughed to herself. "You know what he was doing when I got there? He was screwing some other girl. Also, he was cheating on me the whole time. Ever since then I've had trouble trusting people, especially men. Boyfriend number two broke up with me because I wouldn't have sex with him. So if you're hoping I'll give in tomorrow or next week, then you should just break up with me now. This whole week of dating was fun while it lasted."
Jackson shook his head. "I'm not breaking up with you," he assured her, rubbing her knee with his thumb. "Those guys you dated sound like a bunch of assholes to me. I already told you this morning that I'm not with you for the sex and I meant that. Whenever you're ready, okay?"
April slowly nodded. "I never actually told anybody about that before. None of my sisters or my friends in college. They all probably assume I'm still a virgin." She sadly smiled at Jackson. "I kind of wish I was. If I knew my first time would result in something so humiliating, then I wouldn't have done it. I'd take back my virginity in a heartbeat if I could. Save it for someone who does love and care about me."
He was beginning to understand why she was so damn insecure. Whoever this Garrett guy was, he hoped he would never meet him because he would most likely knock him out with one punch. Her self-esteem issues went back as far as grade school, but losing her virginity to a man who pretended to love her was the biggest blow. And he couldn't blame her for having trust issues after being cheated on in the past.
She just wanted to be loved. He wasn't sure if he would be the man to love her, but he didn't rule it out either.
After the party officially died down and the guests started to leave April and Reed's apartment, Jackson and Trevor offered to help them clean up before they went home. Charles continued to sleep on the couch, though his face was covered with ink. By the time they finished cleaning up, it was one in the morning. Most of them had been awake for almost a full 24 hours. They were all thankful to be off from work the following day.
Trevor grunted as Charles' weight pressed down on his back while he wrapped his roommate's arm over his shoulder. "Holy shit, this guy's a whale," he complained, dragging his fellow intern slowly towards the door. He briefly took a glimpse at Jackson, who was busy giving April a very long goodnight kiss. "Some help would be fuckin' awesome, Avery. Before my back breaks in half."
"In a minute," he answered against his girlfriend's lips.
Since her confession earlier that night, his feelings had grown stronger for her. Something about her innocence and her obsession with old fashioned romance was attractive to him. And he appreciated her honesty. It wasn't the most comfortable conversation for her, but at least she opened up to him.
"Avery! Let's go!" Trevor impatiently shouted from outside of the apartment.
Jackson sighed as he finally pulled himself away from April. "I will see you tomorrow," he softly said, sneaking in one more kiss before running out of her apartment to catch up with his roommates. He assisted Trevor with Charles, holding his other arm over his own shoulder. "I guess I'll drive his car and you take the other one home."
"You and Kepner have sex in her room? The way you were kissing her, it was like you gave her the best sex ever… or maybe it was the other way around," he jokingly suggested.
"No, we didn't have sex. And no, I'm not disappointed."
"Wait a few months, then get back to me," Trevor scoffed.
As the two men somewhat carelessly dumped Charles in the backseat of his old BMW, the sound of a gun's safety unlocking alerted the both of them. Jackson and Trevor quickly turned around to see a man with a hood over his head aiming his gun at the them.
"Give me the keys, your wallets, everything," the man demanded.
Trevor didn't hesitate to obey his orders, emptying out his pockets within seconds. Jackson started to do the same until he suddenly lunged at the man. He was a former football player, splitting time between wide receiver and safety. Who was this guy kidding? They both fought for the gun, tussling on the ground.
And then shots were fired.
So yeah, I decided to change it up a bit and not make April a virgin :P And yes, Callie was Swanson's roommate lol.
