NOT AGAIN
1105 Words
My eyelids slowly slid open as the light in the room hit them.
I felt I was lying on a soft bed… a hospital bed.
“Finally, you are awake,” a voice said happily.
I stiffened.
Eric.
He was sitting beside me on the bed, his face just a few inches away from mine.
His green eyes seemed to search my face like I was his lost toy.
Like he recognized me.
“Have we met before?” he asked, his voice cool but almost intimidating.
“No.” I shook my head a little too hard.
He stared at me… I could feel the sparks flying around us—his familiar scent that hadn’t changed, his soft palms on my arm, the temptation to wrap myself around his broad, firm shoulders, the urge to feel his strong arms tangled around my slender waist… our body heat explaining chemistry in ways books never could, soaking in the softness of his lips and the passion that followed after.
It was electric!
He seemed to recognize those feelings too… his eyes never left my face.
“I think I have seen you before… you look oddly familiar,” he insisted.
I smiled a bitter smile.
If I hadn’t known what the end would look like… if I hadn’t known that I was just a fling to him and nothing more, I would’ve told him.
Though he might not believe me, I would tell him anyway.
About our vacations, our dreams, our adventures.
His eyes would light up and he would laugh—his hearty, healthy laugh that made mine sound like a hyena’s.
But I couldn’t.
He betrayed me.
I expected our reunion to be filled with bitterness, the bite of betrayal digging into me, releasing sparks of revenge and evil thoughts… but it was the opposite.
Somehow, my stupid brain was trying to tell me we could work it out.
Maybe he didn’t actually mean it when he said I was a fling.
I searched his face, but I couldn’t read his emotions well.
All I could make out was that he was trying so hard to remember me.
He suddenly bent down and sniffed my hair.
I felt excitement spike my heartbeat.
Suddenly, the door swung open and a lady walked in.
“Sorry, I’m late, honey. I had to tidy up things before—”
A plate smashed on the floor loudly as Eric raised his head from the awkward position.
The woman was not alone.
I felt my bladder threaten to blow up as I recognized the faces.
Vivian.
And Eric’s stepmother.
“Ethan, what’s going on?” she asked quietly, staring at us with a rather calm expression.
Ethan? He changed his name in this universe?
I didn’t know how he was going to explain away our awkward position.
“Well, she fainted, and I wanted to check if she was okay,” he said nonchalantly, like it was a normal thing.
A sudden dark expression flashed through Vivian’s eyes as she stared at me.
It didn’t last even a second—just like a blink—and she was all calm and smiling again.
“I didn’t know you were a doctor,” she said with a sly smile.
“Oh, I just wanted to help. She looked helpless and fragile. Just a random girl that came to see a relative or something,” he explained, still sounding uninterested.
“Then why is she in your bed?” his stepmother asked.
She didn’t bother to hide her distasteful scowl at me.
“She seemed to miss her room, fainted, and I laid her on my bed. Nothing serious. Nothing special. Just a random, stupid, sick girl, I guess,” he replied.
“Now rest and don’t go causing any trouble again,” he said to me as he left with Vivian.
I stared at him… shocked.
Stupid?
He had just called me stupid!
“I almost thought you were cheating on me with her,” Vivian said, adjusting his shirt collar at the door.
He laughed… that hearty laugh I had longed to hear.
“Cheat on you? With her? Oh Vivian, don’t be silly. She’s so plain. I would never.”
He didn’t care that I could hear him… that his words stung.
I had only come to say thank you for helping out my mom.
My nose flared as I realized how stupid I had been to even think we would work out again.
I jumped out of the bed, stretched my dress, and began to walk out of the door when his stepmother stopped me.
“I see what you are doing, you stupid, silly homewrecker,” she spat disgustedly.
“I didn’t do anything,” I protested.
“Oh, you won’t. I can make life a little too hot for you if you try to test waters deeper than you can swim. Stay away from Ethan.”
“I have nothing to do with Ethan. Like he said, I fainted and he helped me, that’s all,” I replied, anger beginning to rise in my voice.
“Oh, I know you won’t,” she smiled—her smile dark and creepy.
She turned and walked away from me.
How the hell was I supposed to work with Eric—I mean Ethan—for a whole six months without losing my mind?
I nearly screamed.
I walked back to my mother’s ward—and there he was, standing over her like a guardian angel.
Hot and flustered, I marched up to him to give him a piece of my mind.
“Oh, it’s you again,” he said with a small smile.
I looked past his face.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, struggling to keep my mouth in check.
“Oh, just checking on her. She seems so weak and tired. I hope she gets well soon,” he said softly.
“And what are you now? A nurse?” I asked, making sure to smear my voice with sarcasm.
But he only threw his head back and laughed.
“You don’t sound so plain or stupid… I just feel I’ve met you before,” he said, his stare holding me captive once more.
“Are you stalking me?” he suddenly asked.
I snapped out of my daze and stared wildly at him.
“You are in my m—” I started but was interrupted.
“I was waiting for you—her again?!” Vivian shrieked as she walked into the ward.
This was the last thing I wanted
- Writer
