TaNkGiRly 的網路日誌

Endymion



Chapter 4



I saw Alex the Endymion again on Monday. He had turned into a totally different person now. He smiled a lot these days. His hair grew longer, but they didn’t make him looked sloppy in anyway at all. It was, as the matter of fact, quite the opposite. He looked amazingly…sexy. I knew I shouldn’t be saying this. After all, I just broke up with Carl for less than 6 months for Christ sake. But let me assured you, folks. When you looked at him, “sexy” would be the only thing that was coming out of your dictionary. His arms and body muscles became more defined after all the rehab sessions. His blue eyes remained breathtaking….alright! I was not going to go through all these graphic details about how to describe a sexy man. I had categorised him, as nice looking as “Greek god” since the first day I saw him, the rest was your imagination. We all knew a sexy person when we saw one. Alex was sexy when he was asleep, when he was in full anger, now he was even sexier when he was awake and calm.

No, although I admitted that he was a very sexy person, it didn’t mean that I fancied him. I didn’t fancy him at all, really. My heart was still kind of half bruised. I wouldn’t think I was ready to fancy anybody at the moment. However, his charm did cause all of we ladies’ testosterone level shoot straight through the ceiling wherever he appeared. Myself included.

“Pity he doesn’t have his leg!” Elaine said that the other day (she was also the one that was so scared of him, she actually bullied others to swap with her every time it was her term to go into his room, funny that).

These days, we often saw him in wheelchair hang around the service station, telling jokes, chatting with whoever that went by, or helping people out. The daredevil/terrorist past was completely behind him. Doctor Owen told me although his internal organ still not functioned very well, needed to be constant monitored and there was not much progress of his legs, his condition had exceeded everybody’s expectation.

“ Hey!” he called me when I carried a whole pile of x-rays on my way to the file room: “I was told you were the one who wake me?”

“I happened to be at your bedside when you were awoke.” I asked him if I could put my x-ray on his lap. He said it was okay.

“What’s your name?”

“Isabella.”

“And I also heard you mumbled something which drew my attention, making me awaken from the coma.” He winked: “Now I can’t remember a thing. What did you say?”

“Nothing much really.”

“I don’t think so. You woke me up, did you?”

I gave him an evil: “…really, there were just some complaints about live….you know, that kind of girly rubbish.”

“It will be me who decide whether it’s rubbish or not. Now, tell me.” Alex gave me a Bambee look. Now great! He didn’t seem want to give up.

I am not going to tell him anything.

What was the point of telling him anyway? Well, my worry back then was already solved. Although not to my best wishes, but it was no longer a big issue. Besides, he was a total stranger (kind of). What was the point of giving him my status update?

I must have been out of my mind to tell him (in coma state) about that back then, I was not going to be completely silly and make a fool of myself in front of him.

“Nop. It was seriously something mumblish rubbish.”

“Oh! I thought it was something philosophical.” He seemed really disappointed.

“I don’t reckon my brain can function that way.”

“Oh! ”

“ Yes, something such as ‘Vidi, Vici, Vinci’ never be my words.”

“I am not that kind of person, either. So I would be very surprise if you actually said those.” He smiled.

“You are not?”

“Do I look like I am?”

“To be honest….everybody looks like philosopher when they are in coma.”

Alex laughed.

By risked for being all romantic girly-whirly to you, I had to tell you for that split second I thought I saw sunshine.

“You look heaps better.”

“ Do I?”

“Yes you do. You should have see yourself just a few months ago, gee! you looked like Marilyn Manson with PMT.”

“Did I?” Alex laughed lightly.

I nodded.

He thought a about it for a second: “Quite frankly, I am pretty impressed myself. I thought I was a goner.”

I threw him a smile: “Well, that proves to be completely nonsense.”

We reached the file room. Alex handed me over the x-rays.

“Well, ta!”

“No problem.” He smiled: “Any time.”

As I turned around, going to enter the room, Alex’s voice started behind me: “By the way, I am Alex.”

“I know.” I gave him a funny look. Oh please, if you worked in the hospital and you didn’t know about Alex, something was terribly wrong with you.

“Just in case.” He winked before he turned around and left.

Doctor Owen and Zoë both were in the file room. My mind still tried to figure out the meaning behind Alex’s last word, I almost walked into them.

I tent to take things seriously sometimes. Maybe he was trying to be funny or something. But for some reason I felt his words had some flirting behind them.

Was he trying to flirt with me? Or it was just purely my imagination?

Maybe I hadn’t been playing in this field for some times, all my feminine senses had lost and I could no longer figure out what men were thinking these days.

“Hey! Young lady!” Zoë: “We were just talking about you.”

“How come you two people are here?” I threw them a look when I handed over the x-ray to the counter: “Don’t you have work to do? Since when the filling room became our common room?”

“Doctor Owen is going to pull our some x-ray for the medic lecture this afternoon.” She poked Dr. Owen with her elbow. I was amused by watching his face turned pink. Works every time, funny that.

“Yeah,” He waived the x-rays in his hand: “…I think I better go now.”

Then he excused himself before Zoë tried to pull him back.

“And what are you doing here?” I turned my head around and asked Zoë.

“Oh.. just hanging around.” She rowed her eyes and threw me an ohthereisnothingundermysleeve smile.

I threw my eyes heavenwards.

Now.

Folks, it was time for me to properly introduce Zoë.

There was an absolute need for me to do so.

You probably knew by now Zoë was my best friend.

You probably also figured out that she was more than nosy. As the matter of fact, she had every potential to be a paparazzi journalist.

You know, one of those who chase celebrities all over the place.

Zoë and I had been known each other for 10 years, longer than Carl and I, as the matter of fact. She arrived Auckland a few years earlier than I did.

She was actually 3 years older than me. However, when we went out, people would normally think we were the same age.

I didn’t know if I should be happy or sad about this.

Don’t get me wrong. I do love her. I also reckoned she was a very decent person who was very funny and amazingly pretty (you don’t find those two in one person a lot these days). But like all best friends, she has something that I hated so much, sometimes I wished I could just knocked her dead, slid her throat or just stab her, just to stop her doing that: her uncontrollable passion about other people’s business.

If no one stopped her, she could go on and on for ages about some thinkofmebomb’s daily life. She could worry for days about someone who just had a new date and she hadn’t got her status yet. She would ring (in my case) the partner of someone just because she reckoned that someone wasn’t coping well with his or her break up. If she set up a blind date for some poor unfortunate soul, she would went for a great length by following this poor candidate to the site just to see the outcome.

Throughout the years of our friendship, I had been set up by her 5 times. No kidding, 5 times. She knew all my friends, my ex’s friends, my work collages, even my neighbours. I would not be surprise if she were the only one in the entire hospital who knew just about everyone’s business. And for the past three weeks, she’s been trying very hard to set me up with Dr Owen (“do you mind if I bring Dr Owen along?”, “Oh! What a coincidence! Dr Owen is there as well!”, last but not least “ You and Dr. Owen could be a very cute couple!! Why don’t you at least give it a go?”)

Now she told me she was just hanging around?

You’ve got to understand why I was very spooky about her motive.

“You got nothing to do for the Labour holiday, right?” Zoë followed me as I went through the shelves, looking for some x-ray files other doctors required back at the station.

What did I just tell you?

I looked at her for a good one minute before I turned around and continued what I was doing.

“Alex is going home for the Labour weekend,” Zoë smiled: “We need a personal care to go with him. I told them you are a perfect candidate for the job.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!!?!!” I almost hit the roof.

“Shish!” Zoë wanted me to lower my voice: “His personal carer had just left on Monday.”

“What happened? He is no longer acting like Nero the emperor.”

“I know, but she decided to go anyway. She had enough.”

“What happened to other personal carer?”

“They all have other patients to look after.”

“But I am not professional, I am only a student.”

“You’ve learned enough to look after a patient.” She winked.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to do this…” I couldn’t believe it, now she was trying to set me up with Alex?

Suddenly I understood the way Alex behaving earlier: “You haven’t told them I accepted, have you?!??!”

“I couldn’t think of any reason why not.” Zoë acted if this is a very common sense thing. Christ! I really hated when she did this: “He’s Dr. Owen’s patients.”

“What’s that got to do with the price of fish?” My mind started becoming very puzzle indeed.

“Everything. So you and Owen will have something to talk about.”

“And how many people you’ve been broadcasting so far?”

She started counting with her fingers. Soon all her finger run out and she had to count with her toes.

Looked like she told pretty much everyone.

Nice! Now I had no choice but to go.

“You do understand you have to ask me first.” I signed.

“By the friendship between you and me, nah!” Zoë threw me a smile before headed off to do her stuff.

Alex was around the station when I returned.

He gave me a wink.

This was just bloody wonderful.

“Hey! Isabella!” Elaine shouted across the corridor: “I heard you are going home with our most eligible bachelor this holiday?”

I gave her an evil. Great! There were about a dozen people along the corridor. I believed every single one of them adjusted their ears for maximum reception.

“Nice one! Young lady!” Elaine patted my pack: “Looks like you are going to have a very nice holiday, eh?”

“Shish!”

Elaine laughed hysterically.

The cheek of her.

It was not like I didn’t like Alex. Everyone liked Alex. Being with such a gorgeously looking person was a very pleasant experience, don’t you think? It just that being set up by others put me in a very embarrassing state. Everyone now thought I was volunteered to do the job. They probably thought: “Looks like she gets over her poor boyfriend a bit more quickly than we thought.” Or: “Gee! She must take her break up very badly. She’s rather going out with a legless man!”. Or: “Look! The cheek of her! Changing man like changing clothes. Last time she was with Dr. Owen (I sincerely hoped Zoë didn’t spread the rumours around about Dr. Owen and I), now she was with someone else!” Zoë obviously didn’t think twice before she acted. The last thing I wanted on this very planet was being in the centre of the talk about.

“Alex’s parents will pick him up tomorrow morning.” Joanna looked at me through her thick glasses: “You will need to arrive here earlier to prepare everything.”

Now will someone reminded me to kill Zoë next time I saw her.

“Okay.” I nodded, felt a little numb.

“Do you need my lecture note, Isabella?” Elaine smiled evilly: “The final exam is coming after the Labour weekend. Do you have time to prepare it?”

FINAL EXAM!!

I completely forgot about that for the last few months!!!

I’ve spent all these time moaning about my break up between Carl and I, I completely forgot about the existence of exams. I’ve totally ignored a couple of essays because I wasn’t in a decent mood to come up with any. I’ve missed the mid-term because my eyes swollen like a pair of mellowpuff I didn’t want to leave the house. Now I had just realised my paper was running the risk of going out of the window. Life was just bloody wonderful! Since when I had lowered myself to Elaine’s standard?

Zoë was definitely dead.

I managed to squeeze an Idonotreallycareaboutwhatyoujustsaid smile to Elaine before I went back to my desk.

Later that day Carl called. Carl and I still talked a great deal these days. This was rather unusual to me, because I’ve never been that kind of person who still remained friends with all of your ex. The thought of me use to get all cosy with him made me felt very, very damn uncomfortable and I’ve always wondering how there were people on earth would do such a thing. I mean, how could they come with the turns when their ex were shagging someone else other than you? No, I couldn’t stand any of that, not even a second. But Carl and I were different. First, we had been like this long before our relationship officially ended. Second, although it was indeed very painful when it ended, Carl and I still cared about each other and we still wish all the best would happen to each other. Occasionally Daphne would join the conversation via another line. She was a very sweet lady. You know, she could have gone all feisty and fussy about Carl and I, but after understood what happened between us, she was quite alright. I knew I wouldn’t be like that at all if I were in her shoes. I felt sincerely happy for him.

I told Carl about my jolly good holiday set up by Zoë.

He nearly laughed his socks off.

“It’s not funny, Carl!”

“Ahem, I’m sorry!” It took Carl a couple of minutes to calm down. As the matter of fact, he tried so hard, he nearly choked: “…Looks like she still couldn’t accept we weren’t met through one of her set ups. Sometimes I wonder if nurse is her true calling.”

“I obsoletely hated Zoë doing that!!” I nearly cried.

“Have you told her?”

“I’ve told her, like, a gazillion times already. She just won’t listen.”

“Oh!”

“You know her as well. She would be such a sweet friend if she stop doing this.”

“That I agree. But what’s her excuse every time? ‘I am doing this with a good intention, darling. It can only be good for you.’”

“I failed to see how this is going to be good for me. Now, how on earth am I going to study for my exam while I am looking after a patients?” I asked

“Well, you just had to try very, very hard, Bella!” Carl (sounded like) finished the coffee in his cup: “There are lots of people going to be in that house. I believe you can nicked some time between here and there to study.”

“But it’s just not enough. I’ve missed the mid-term already. To pass this paper I will have to get a full mark.”

“May you do need Elaine’s note.”

“Elaine doesn’t have a lecture note, for god’s sake! She was just bluffing gigblish to piss me off! She misses lecturer more than I do.”

“Sounds like you are running out of all the resources.”

“You bloody sure I am! Now I might have to take this paper again next year. Thanks for nosytothecore Zoë. She is indeed very dead this time.”

“Save some for me, eh?” Carl laughed.