A Scarred Heart

It had been two years since Melissa walked out of her mother’s house during her visit with her. Since that day at 26 years old Melissa has not spoken to her mother, she has no connections with her at all. Feeling wronged for everything her mother tried to push on to her at such an early age Melissa decided to start living her life for herself even if that meant cutting her mother out of her life. Dragging herself out of bed she goes to her bathroom starting her shower as hot as she can stand it pushing aside the feeling, she has in the pit of her stomach that something is not right about today. As she stands in front of the mirror brushing her teeth, she notices her dark hair is getting duller like her body is being sapped of everything. Continuing to shrug off how she feels she strips down and jumps in the shower. Rolling her shoulders under the scalding water hoping this will make her feel better. After washing her hair, she jumps out of the shower wrapping a towel around her body she walks back to her bedroom going to her closet. Picking out a set of bright pink scrubs that is her favorite set pulling the pants on she remembers when she first got this set. The day she graduated from medical school; they were a gift from a friend she had made while there. The scrubs had been too long at one point and Melissa had to hem them to continue to use them, being only 5'2" most clothes had to be hemmed. Melissa even being 28 years old now, she still was mistaken as a teenager by most people when she walked into the room due to her height, her torso was longer than her leg's making every set of scrub pant she wore drag the ground. At 5'2" she was thin and lean which helped her in climbing to get things she usually needed from higher shelves without having to ask her nurses for help. Once she had her scrubs on, her name tag in hand she grabbed her purse making her way down the three flights of stairs she had to take. Being only in her second year of her residency she still had a long way to go before she completed her licensing for Pathology, Pathology had never been a choice in her career until a year ago before she started her residency. Walking into the hospital after stashing her purse under her car seat Melissa bumped into Nathan. " Woah, hey" Nathan said, Startling Melissa, looking up noticing his bright smile at her. Nathan was 6'5", ash blonde hair that was kept as a crew cut, making his sharp jaw line stand out, along with his ice blue eyes. She noticed that Nathan had his hands on her arms to keep her from falling over as she tried to take a step back to create distance between them.  " Hey, I didn't think they had you here today." Melissa replied, her fair skinned cheeks flushing bright red from the amount of embarrassment of walking straight into him by being preoccupied with her thoughts. " They always have me here you just never notice me, because your always intertwined with your thoughts just like you were this morning. Only this morning you bumped straight into me which means something is bothering you." he said, watching as she began to chew on her nails. " I'm not bothered by anything; we should get going before we become late." With that reply she turned around, marching straight into the hospital without another thought on the nagging sensation growing in the pit of her stomach still. Once getting inside the hospital she goes to the morgue to go about her day. Her mind continues to wander about what this sinking feeling in her stomach means as she slowly completes her tasks she has been assigned today. Working a residency means little sleep and little time for personal interests as she is determined to complete her residency to hopefully be able to make a difference in people's lives although the people she's helping are no longer living. Melissa's hope is that she can use her job as a means of helping the families of those who have passed, find peace, and move forward with their lives. After work that night as Melissa was walking back out to her car getting the sense of someone following her to the employee parking lot, she stops observing her area around her. The sun setting in the west provides extraordinarily tiny light left in the day, the streetlights used in their employee parking lot has not come on yet. Scanning her area, she feels slightly uneasy until her eyes land on Nathan running up behind her shouting at her. "Melissa! Wait!" " I'll wait." She shouts back. A moment later Nathan is standing in front of her huffing and puffing trying to catch his breath as he had been trying to catch her the moment she walked out of the hospital. Since the day he laid eyes on her in school he had been trying to ask her out, but it had never seemed like it was the right time. Her brightly illuminated green eyes and dark hair had enticed him even though she was a foot shorter than him, he found her attractive. The way she first blushed when they met in a class they shared, because she was embarrassed to ask for help reaching things, she could not made him smile. No one had ever made him smile the way she did even though at the time she was going through a horrible heart break she would not talk about to anyone. "I have been trying to ask you for years now, and maybe now is the right time, but would you like to go get dinner with me?" Nathan asked, shifting his weight between his feet nervously as he waited for any kind of answer that was not a no. He had finally gained enough courage and thought the time was right, that hearing a no from the woman he dreamed about every day he did not think he could manage. "I should really...." Melissa started before collapsing in front of Nathan.