Tricky Wisdom: Year I

by Camryn Eyde

  Taylor looked subdued. “I’m sorry, too. Friends?”

  “Always.”

  We embraced, and as my arms wrapped around her, my brain couldn’t help but supply useless information about how different she felt from Olivia. I caught the scent of Taylor’s musky perfume, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t shut my eyes and savor the smell.

  

  Heaving in a load of wood a few minutes later, Taylor and Charli, along with Taylor’s parents, left, leaving the four of us to watch the football game. Unable to get my head into the action after my conversation with Taylor, I sat and stared at the screen blankly. I caught a few odd looks as I sighed loudly…again.

  “Walk with me?” Olivia asked, taking my hand.

  I nodded. Anything was better than sitting there replaying the moment I rejected Taylor Robbins.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Olivia asked the moment we reached the lake. Taking a similar path as Taylor and I, I shrugged in reply. “You’ve been a delightful example of a depressed human being since you returned from the lake with your secret lover. What happened?”

  “I had a chance to kiss her.” Olivia’s hand tightened in mine. I looked down at the entwined fingers curiously. Why was I still holding her hand? “I didn’t go through with it.”

  “What? Why? I thought that was the whole point of this ordeal?”

  “It’s one thing to find out if she’s into me that way, it’s entirely another to cheat on someone.”

  “You didn’t kiss her because of Charli?”

  “I didn’t kiss her because of you and Charli.”

  “Me? What do I have to do with this?”

  “You’re my girlfriend…at least to Taylor you are. I’m hardly setting a good example by cheating on my first girlfriend to the first interested party, now am I?”

  Olivia stared at me for a moment. “That is actually quite…noble of you. Who would’ve thought?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’m hardly without morals.”

  “Perhaps, however, I’m here in the capacity as a pretend girlfriend to stir some kind of jealousy in your best friend who also happens to be in a relationship.”

  I groaned. She had a point.

  “Maybe we should break up?” she said.

  “Why?”

  “It might prompt her to part ways with Charli. Win-win.”

  A hollow victory. I sighed. “Maybe. Right now, I just want to walk.”

  Olivia nodded, and hand in hand we continued around to the far side of the lake. There, I led her down the Petersen’s pier and we sat on the edge, dangling our feet over the water. Hands finally disengaged, I took comfort in the way her thigh pressed against mine on the narrow dock. I could smell the pine mixed with smoke in the crisp air, and across the gently rippling lake, I saw my childhood house standing solid and timeless.

  “So, why medicine?” I asked, breaking the comfortable silence keeping us company.

  Olivia took a long breath. “The human body has always fascinated me. I excelled at the sciences at school, and was advised by my career advisor to put my passion to good use.”

  “Where’d you go to school?”

  Olivia glanced at me. “What is this? Twenty questions.”

  I shrugged. “Why not. I barely know you.”

  She huffed. “You first. Why medicine?”

  “Taylor.” Olivia frowned in confusion so I enlightened her. “We were seven and climbing trees near the house. She fell and cut herself badly when she caught the shed roof on the way down. I remember seeing the inside of her leg the gash was so deep. Blood everywhere.” Olivia gasped. Rightfully so. It was a horrific wound. “Figuring that wasn’t good, I shoved my hand hard down on her leg and screamed out for Mom.” I fiddled with the wooden pole beside my leg, feeling the splintered wood. “I had my hand on her leg as we were rushed to the hospital. The doctor said I saved her life. I guess from then on, I knew that that’s what I wanted to do…save lives.”

  Olivia reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “So,” I said after holding hands quietly for a few minutes as I lost myself in thoughts of my childhood friend covered in blood. “Where did you go to school?”

  “The Bronx.”

  “You’re a native New Yorker?”

  Olivia shook her head. “Where did you go to school?”

  “Aurora. You’re not from New York?”

  Olivia shook her head again. “I was born in Buffalo. I think.”

  “You think?”

  She ignored me. “What are you going to specialize in?”

  I shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it. I was going to walk out with a general practitioner license, but I think I’ll wait until we’re in clinical rotations to make up my mind.”

  “You think you were born in Buffalo?”

  Olivia’s gaze held fast on the water. “I was found on the doorstep of a convent.”

  “What?” I heard about stories like that in the news, but had never really thought about what happened to those babies as they grew. I wondered if this is why Olivia was so defensive and determined to prove herself. I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “And then what?”

  “I believe it’s my turn to ask a question.” After a pause, she said, “Why Taylor?”

  “Why am I in love with her?”

  Olivia nodded.

  I blew out a long breath. “I don’t know. Lots of little things, I suppose. I began to notice other girls around me when I was thirteen. They were all into boys, but I found nothing special to get worked up over. Taylor really umm…” I held a hand out in front of my chest. “Grew, and I found I had a crush on her instead of the popular boy like the rest of them. She’s the closest friend I’ve ever had and, I don’t know, I love everything about her. Her smile. Her laugh. Her phobia of cockroaches.” I chuckled to myself. “She was just…everything.” I startled myself a little when it occurred to me that I said ‘was’.

  “What does she do?”

  “Huh?” I blinked. “Uh, uh. My turn. Have you ever been in love?”

  “Yes. Now, what does she do?”

  “No, wait. More details please.”

  “You didn’t specify for any. Answer my question.”

  “Taylor works at her dad’s grocery store.” I could see by the look on Olivia’s face that she didn’t approve. “She has an MBA from Minnesota U and is being trained to take over the business.” That information didn’t impress her either. “Tell me about your first love.”

  “That’s not a question, it’s a demand.”

  “Amuse me.”

  She huffed. “It was a guy I met when I was seventeen. We fell in love and fell out of it quite abruptly a year later.”

  “Why thanks, Mark Twain.”

  “What?”

  “Your storytelling is woeful. There was no detail in that. Try again.”

  “Why should I?”

  “Because I spilled my heart out to you.”

  “Which was entirely your choice.”

  “You asked me ‘why Taylor’, it makes sense to elaborate. So, why this mystery seventeen-year-old?”

  “It’s my turn.”

  I rolled my eyes and groaned. “Fine. What do you want to know?”

  “Once you’ve finished your MD, where are you going to go?”

  “Here. I planned to come home and find work in Aurora or something. Somewhere close.”

  She looked confused by this. “What on earth for? You’ll have an MD. You could go anywhere.”

  “This is my home. That’s why. I love northern Minnesota. I love being close to my parents, and…well…Taylor is here.”

  “You’re talented. Intelligent. If you were serious about saving people, then you should apply your skills elsewhere.”

  “Or…I may totally suck at clinical rotations and be nothing more than a GP.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “Why, Miss Boyd, was that a compliment? Actually, several compliments.” She sc
offed and I smiled. “You think I’m talented?”

  “You’re not completely incompetent.”

  “You think I’m intelligent?”

  “You have your moments.”

  I grinned broadly. “You like me, don’t you?”

  “Don’t be absurd. I tolerate you, is all.”

  “Mmm hmm.”

  She clucked her tongue and avoided my eyes. Her hand, however, was still linked with mine. Something that fascinated me as I looked down at them. How had we become so comfortable with each other to be able to hold hands for an hour? I smiled. I wasn’t going to complain. Olivia was an attractive woman, even if she was a pain in the ass.

  “So what do you want to be when you grow up?” I asked her after shifting my attention away from wayward thoughts of attractive pre-med students.

  My question obviously caught her by surprise, and she started to laugh. My face broke into a wide smile at the sound of it. “You should do that more often?”

  “What?”

  “Laugh.”

  “I laugh!” she said, immediately frowning.

  “No, you chuckle derisively. Mostly you sneer.”

  “I do not!” She glared at me while I laughed quietly to myself. “Pediatrics.”

  “Huh?”

  “I want to work in pediatrics.”

  “Oh. Really?”

  “Why, don’t you think I’m capable?”

  “No…I just expected you to shoot for the stars, you know? Be a surgeon.”

  She sniffed and looked across the lake. “That’s my second choice.”

  “Why pediatrics?”

  Olivia took a deep breath and rushed it out. “Kids don’t deserve to be in pain.” She lowered her head to stare at our interlocked hands, and her hair fell across her face, obstructing my view. The mood shifted when she said quietly, “I want to help them.”

  Frowning with concern, I rubbed my thumb against the back of her hand. “Then you will,” I whispered.

  She nodded slightly to acknowledge my words, then a moment later, she cleared her throat and stood up so rapidly, I was tugged along for the ride and nearly fell into the water. Squealing with imminent doom, I latched on to her tightly. She obviously noticed the urgency and pulled me from my overbalanced view of the water below me and we ended up in a bear hug.

  “Holy crap,” I blurted as my heart tried to stop racing.

  “Oops,” she muttered, but then her shoulders started shaking.

  “You better not be laughing,” I said as I pulled back from her slightly to see her bite her lip…hard. She shook her head, but the tears shining in her eyes said a different story. “You are laughing! You nearly gave me hypothermia, and now you’re amused? Some doctor you’re going to make.”

  She kept laughing, her face going red with the effort of keeping it in. I couldn’t help it. She was amazing to watch and I began to smile and shake my own shoulders with laughter. The dam released and she let her head fall onto my shoulder as the sound of her laughing echoed around the lake. As I laughed and shook my head at her, I added eccentric to my list of adjectives. Eccentric and sweet…in a not completely unattractive way.

  Chapter Six

  I drew random squiggles on my notepad as I procrastinated the research required to do my social medicine paper. The soft tones of Norah Jones filled my ears, as recommended by Olivia, and I zoned out to her sound. My mind was in northeast Minnesota. Taylor had messaged me incessantly since I left, wanting to know how I was, telling me how much she missed me and always adding a question about how Olivia was doing. My replies felt like I was going behind Olivia’s back in some kind of screwed-up affair. It was insane. A few minutes ago, Taylor had sent me a countdown to Christmas. It was two weeks away.

  I jerked with pain as the ear plugs were ripped from my ears.

  “I said, are you listening to me?”

  Rubbing my ears I snarled at Olivia. “That hurts.”

  “Can you please clean the bathroom?”

  “What?”

  “You promised me you’d do it weekly, and by my count, it’s been ten days.”

  “What are you doing for Christmas?”

  Olivia looked slightly winded by that and her hands fell from her hips where she had propped them intimidatingly. “Pardon?”

  “Christmas. Do you have plans?” My parents had bought me a ticket back in July, fully intending their only child to be home a Christmas, which was a blessing, because after the impromptu trip northwest for two, I had no money left.

  She blinked my question. “I don’t see what that has to do with the state of our bathroom.”

  “It has nothing to do with it. Besides, this is more important.”

  “I disagree. Showering without a colony of mold growing in the corner is. Please clean the bathroom. We can discuss empty holiday traditions afterward.”

  “Christmas isn’t empty. It’s all about giving and warmth and family and—” I nearly bit off my tongue when I realized what I was saying. “Oh.”

  Giving me a tight grimace, Olivia said, “Bathroom. Now. I’d like to shower today.”

  I nodded quickly and scrubbed away my insensitivity with bleach and a plastic bristle brush. “Idiot,” I whispered as I rinsed the bleach away to reveal a sparkling shower stall. Mulling over ways to apologize to an orphan about how Christmas is awesome because it’s about family, I suddenly frowned. Even babies given away by their parents could still enjoy Christmas. Right? Damn, maybe she was against it for religious reasons, or simply acting like Scrooge McDuck again. I ripped my gloves off and marched to the living area.

  “What do you have against Christmas?” Olivia looked up at me, startled by my sudden appearance. “I don’t buy the poor me routine. Surely orphans get Christmas, too.”

  She knitted her eyebrows together and stood from her chair. Damn she was tall. “You think I’m looking for pity for simply detesting a religiously significant day because it’s become all about profit margins and how much people can spend on their children?”

  “That’s not what it’s like for me. It’s always been about thanks and love.”

  “Yes, but for the majority, it’s about the latest gadgets and games. I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was five. And don’t you dare bring up my heritage again. I’m not an orphan, I was abandoned by living, breathing parents, not by deceased ones. Christmas reminds me of the day I was left, practically frozen to death, on a cement doorstep.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock and gasped loudly. “You were found on Christmas Day?”

  She flinched and I suspect she hadn’t meant to reveal that.

  “You were born on Christmas?”

  She ignored my question. “My point is, I’m not big into Christmas. And why are we even having this conversation?” She shook her head and stalked off to the kitchen.

  “I wanted to see if you’d come home with me.”

  “For Christmas?”

  “No, just for Christmas Eve. I don’t want you humbugging all over the house and scaring away Santa.”

  The bottle she was bringing to her mouth paused and she glared at me. “Funny.”

  I grinned. “So, are you busy? Want to come with?”

  “What I want, is to finish my paper and study for Friday’s exam…and shower. Is it clean?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you.”

  She breezed past me a moment later with a waft of vanilla in her wake. I had to admit, she really did smell nice for a cantankerous person.

  

  Despite my efforts to bring Olivia with me, she refused and said she had plans. I was dubious. Traveling home a couple of days before Christmas, I called the apartment phone soon after I arrived.

  “Hello, Olivia Boyd speaking, how may I help you?”

  Ugh. Her phone manner was horribly polite. “Hi.”

  “Darcy?” she asked after a pause.

  “Yep.”

  “Did you forget something?”

  “No. Accidental
dial I’m afraid. Sorry to bother you.”

  “It’s fine. Goodbye.”

  “Wait.”

  “What?”

  “You haven’t left yet? I thought you were heading to the Bronx.”

  “I will be. Someone rang the apartment and held me up.”

  I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Sorry,” I said, not feeling that emotion in the slightest.

  “Goodbye, Darcy.”

  The dial tone sounded in my ear. Suspicious, I considered ringing her back until my mother shouted out, “Taylor’s here.”

  Smiling, I forgot the phone and ran outside to meet my friend. She enveloped me in a hug that lingered.

  “You’re home.”

  “I am.”

  She hesitated to pull away, and we were soon staring at one another with an uncomfortable charge between us.

  “Umm…hi,” I said, recalling the last conversation we had face to face.

  “Hi.”

  “I’ve missed you.”

  “Me too.”

  She stepped back and looked over to the house. “Is Olivia here?”

  I shook my head.

  “Oh.”

  “Charli?”

  “Went to Wisconsin to spend a couple of days with her brother’s family.”

  “Oh.” I had a full week at home, potentially time to spend one-on-one with Taylor. A luxury I hadn’t had for months. A grin grew on my face and she mimicked it. “Slumber party?”

  “I brought snacks.”

  We high-fived each other, and half an hour later, we were side-by-side in my bed watching the first in a long line of chick flick movies we planned to watch. Hands stuffed in a bowl of popcorn and candy, we munched away happily. It felt like old times.