As if I didn't have enough to my name of Blazing Alice.
"It slipped the staff's mind. We'll see to it that it won't happen again."
"Oh, it won't happen again," Clara declared with a threatening warning. "I'll see to that once I'm done here and I get to talk with your manager."
Clara was clearly pulling off what some would call a "Karen," but at least her argument and protectiveness were valid. I didn't feel like this medical mental health center was doing me much justice.
In fact, I didn't feel like I belonged here at all.
With Clara bringing food, these nurses didn't have much to do, and yet I still felt like a burden that was thrown onto their laps to deal with. My medications were trial ones, and I only got injections when I suddenly woke up straight to an episode.
I had no recollection of last night's, which only left me wondering if I was half asleep, or if the drugs were doing something to my memory.
The nurse didn't say anything, and Clara used her hand to dismiss her. The doors closed before Clara muttered something so quickly, I almost didn't catch it before she pulled up a stool and sat down.
"Assholes. I've never seen such a facility that could neglect their patients like this. Unbelievable. She'll hear from me, just wait and see."
I believed every word she said and wondered how bad the payback would be on the nurses from last night and this one, who was practically lying for her fellow colleagues.
"Did you spell the room?" I inquired.
"Yup." She gave me a proud smirk like she'd achieved something grand. “I’m not letting them hear our conversation. They currently think we're talking about lingerie. Or at least, I'm talking about lingerie and you're simply agreeing and looking practically unbothered."
"Realistic," I muttered and lowered my gaze to my food. Then I looked at my wrists, debating if I wanted to try and eat when the movement would surely spike a bit of pain.
Pain that reminded me of the crippling suffering I'd endured during the exam mess-up.
I bit my lip but noticed the spoon that was offering a full dose of warm soup. Peering over to Clara, I stared into her comforting expression as she nodded in encouragement.
"You should try the soup. It's really nice. Our new winter special, but we haven't launched it yet. It always sells out when we do."
I decided to try it and inched closer to blow on the steamy liquid a few times before slurping it into my mouth. The taste was delightful as the trickle of flowing flavor left me a tad warmer.
It only took me enjoying a spoonful of soup to realize how cold I was or the fact it felt as though the A/C was on.
"I can see why it sells out," I spoke up and looked at her with a hint of anticipation. "Can I try some more?"
"Certainly!" She looked beyond relieved that I was willing to eat, and she continued to spoon-feed me before she offered for me to try most of the various dishes. When she was finished, I realized I'd eaten everything she brought, which was a first for this entire week from hell.
"Ah! Your dad is going to be so happy you ate everything! I should take a picture," she exclaimed and did exactly that. All I could do was grin while I shivered from the cold.
"Clara? Can we ask to put the A/C off? It's cold."
"Oh, right!" She seemed to jolt at the reminder and pressed the call button. "I don't need you, but can you stop the A/C? It's freezing in here."
"Alright," the voice responded. It sounded like a different nurse than before.
"Hmph. If only I could get paid to be on my phone and watch patients from a window. It’s obvious that the room is freezing the moment you walk in."
"This place is rather...complicated," I confessed quietly, fearing to be a nuisance for complaining.
"Complicated? Beyond that! Your boyfriends are pissed and working with CloverSpell to get you transferred to a private one or even to one of their houses temporarily. At this rate, I could try to get you out by tonight if they piss me off enough," she huffed.
"Clara."
"Hmm?" She looked at me with hopeful eyes, as if I had something positive to say.
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
My question did the trick of making her frown and I lowered my head just to avoid seeing the disappointment flood her expression. It would only add to my obvious depression and that would just start a cascade of troubles that would push her further away.
"Alice, you're my friend," Clara declared. "I know we're not super close for me to use the term best friend, but I definitely consider you a dear friend of mine and that means a lot. I'm far too busy most of the time to maintain friendships where we're hanging out any other day, but I know with you, we could hang out once and the time in between wouldn't matter at all," she reasoned. "Don't think I'm being helpful because you saved me from death or even out of pity. I want to help you get through this rough patch. So don't second guess that," she reasoned.
"But isn't it a burden to come here at this time? You have work," I muttered, trying to think of an excuse to somehow make myself feel more shitty, which was rather counterproductive in what I was supposed to do to get out of my depressive funk.
"You’re not a burden at all, Alice."
Her hand gently moved under my chin, lifting my head up so I could see her proud smile. "A bunch of students from our class offered to take all my shifts for the remainder of the holiday so I can make sure you're being fed and taken care of during this time."
"You mean the students in last semester's class?"
"Mhm! The ones who are breathing and able to pass Semester One thanks to you. They're beyond grateful and wanted to think of something better to say than thank you, but with everything that's happening, none of us wanted to overwhelm you. So we thought making sure you were fed and looked after would be good, at least."
"Don't they hear the rumors?"
Clara groaned and rolled her eyes as a huff left her lips. "You mean the shit-talk the previous Horsemen are spreading because you and your boyfriends got the highest marks in the entire district?"
"Wait...we're at the top?"
"Yup! You and Westley are tied with Gabriel in third and Keru in fourth. The only one not shit-talking is Damon, since he's not the type to spread false stuff, but then again, if he joined in, I wouldn't even be surprised," Clara explained and shook her head. "Their grades were horrendous this year, particularly in the second half, so they would have lost their roles to begin with. They were just being dicks by bullying you while you were down. CloverSpell isn't impressed and there's been a ton of complaints from the student body to the point that they're having a meeting regarding it after Christmas."
"Isn't it school break?"
"It is," Clara confirmed. "But it's bad, Alice. They're purposely spreading word down here versus around the school district because they obviously know everyone won't believe their foolish, made-up tales. They're going to officially announce tonight that your grandma was murdered and that you were innocent due to you saving multiple students during a freak accident at school that left you injured. That will make this community around here shut the hell up. It's no wonder why these nurses are treating you so poorly.” She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm going to sue them."