The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle

Author:Jennifer Castle [Castle, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: english eBooks
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-09-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Are you sure you don’t want to come watch?” asked Meg one day after last period. She and Gavin were going to try out for My Fair Lady, the Drama Club’s fall musical.

Meg and Gavin were now a well-established couple. Her first real boyfriend, and he was a good one to have. He wasn’t in Andie’s crowd but everyone liked him; plus, he had his own car. They had this habit of leaning together against a wall with their hands in each other’s back pockets, which I thought was just sickening. Sometimes I pictured myself and Joe standing there with them, doing the same thing, and that made it even harder.

Fortunately, I was scheduled to be at Ashland that day. Meg’s face fell when I reminded her, as if she really wanted me to watch her French-kiss in the back row of the school auditorium. I knew she was trying to pull me back into my old activities ever since I’d reduced my hours at the hospital to just two afternoons a week. I needed the time to keep up with class work, but I missed the daily rhythm of the hospital, and being surrounded by people who didn’t know anything about me. Now when I went, after a day of school and people staring sideways at me, it was almost more of a break than being at home.

Sometimes, when it was slow, I’d take a few minutes to sit on the rabbit bench out front and think of that day with David. Wondering where he was and when I’d hear from him next.

When I got to Ashland, all was chaos. A family had brought in their dog after he’d gotten into a fight. He was pretty beat up and bleeding, and Dr. B had been working on him for an hour. Which meant that the regularly scheduled appointments got delayed, and people were pissed. “He just pooped in his own carrier!” said a woman with a cat who was howling low and constantly.

“The doctor is handling an emergency at the moment,” said Eve calmly. “You’re welcome to reschedule, and we’ll give you a discount on the office visit fee.”

This placated the woman and Eve turned to me, made a face. “He’s got to get another doctor in here full-time,” she whispered. “There are just too many days like this.”

I made myself as useful as I could. Dr. B and Robert got the injured dog stabilized, and we were able to start getting appointments in. After an hour, a man in a paint-covered jumpsuit walked in holding a dirty duffel bag with both hands. I saw Eve stiffen and found myself doing the same thing.

“Can I help you?” she said politely as he stepped up to the desk.

“I hope so. My crew was painting an empty apartment and we found this kitty in a closet. She seems sick or something.”

Eve stood up and opened the duffel, peering inside. After a few moments she turned to me. “Get Robert ASAP.”

I did what I was told, and Robert swooped in and took the bag as Eve whispered something to him.

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