Full Mental Case

I came into work that night feeling not quite myself. I plopped onto the computer chair next to Maribeth. She looked over at me.

"Glad to see you back." she said.

"Yeah." I said in a dreary voice.

"You okay you don't seem like yourself." she said.

"I've only been working here for a week." I said to her.

"I can tell, your mood is definitely different. Did you get any sleep today?" she asked.

"I was with my boyfriend most of the day." I said to her.

"What's his name?" she asked me.

"Troy, we were celebrating our second month anniversary." I said to her.

"That's nice, so what does he think of you working here?" she asked me.

"He says it's kind of creepy." I said.

"I don't blame him." she said and laughed and then coughed.

"He doesn't understand that I'm doing this to help others. Speaking of others, how's Mr. Gregory?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure, the doctor's kept us out of the situation. He was having a seizure. Which explained the non-sense he was talking." she said.

"What non-sense?" I asked her.

"You remember, him ranting about killing. Everyone's fine now aren't we?" she asked.

"I guess." I said to her.

She looked over at the computer.

"Looks like my break time." she said.

"I'll take over." I said to her.

"Thanks." she said walking out.

I waited for her to walk down the hall before I brought up the patient facts. I looked up Mr. Gregory. There were about ten people named Gregory. So I tried to narrow the facts. He was a Caucasian, male. That narrowed it down to five. I typed in the medical condition. Rabies. Then the Gregory. I needed came up. I scrolled through his file. He was twenty-five three years older than me, he was a healthy person, enjoyed bike riding. He took a trip to France recently and that's around the time he got sick. Other than that there was no real facts about him. Only that he was attacked by a rabid dog but I already knew that.

"What are you doing?" A cool voice asked next to me.

I jumped.

"Chace, you almost scared me to death." I said to him holding my chest.

"I do that sometimes. Who are you looking up?" he asked looking at the screen.

"Um... just one of the patients." I said.

He rolled towards me looking at the screen. I took a deep breath. Something about him didn't click in my mind. A sort of new instinct told me that he wasn't all that he said he was.

"Poor guy." he said pulling back and looking at me.

"Yeah." I said staring at his neck and arms and then back at his face.

"I heard you have a boyfriend." he said smiling.

"Where did you hear that?" I asked him.

"Maribeth and I got talking. She smokes like a chimney." he said and smiled.

I smiled back.

"I wouldn't know I don't smoke." I said to him.

"It's a bad habit. I've been trying to kick it for a long time." he said to me.

"You don't really look like a smoker. Just a little pale to me." I said.

"Thank you. So, why this line of work?" he asked me.

"What you mean a nurse at a mental ward?" I asked him.

"Pretty much." he said.

"I wanted to be a doctor too competitive, so I became a nurse instead." he said.

"How's it working out?" he asked me.

"It could be better but no one said it would be easy." I said and smiled.

"That's the truth." he said.

"So why are you here? As clean up crew?" I asked him.

"Clean up crew huh? Well if you must know, I needed a place to work to meet different people. I'm starting to have second thought though." he said.

"Really, did you have a job before this?" I asked him.

"I did, I job around from jobs to jobs. One job I was a scientist but got bored." he said.

"A scientist? You don't even look that old." I said to him.

"I'm older than you think." he said smiling.

"So, what's your secret?" I asked him.

"What secret?" he asked.

"To staying young?" I asked him.

"Exercises and dieting." he said and chuckled.

Maribeth came back and saw me and Chace.

"Well, better get back to work." he said to me.

"Okay bye." I said as he got up and walked away.

Maribeth took a seat in her chair. I could smell her cigarette from all the way on my side of the desk.

"So you got silent Chace to talk?" she asked me.

"Silent Chace?" I asked her.

"He never talks to anyone. He just pushes his broom and walks away." she said.

"We just had a conversation about everything." I said to her.

She scooted over to my screen. I quickly exited the facts about Gregory.

"Do you play solitaire?" I asked her as she looked back at me.

"More than you know." she said and smiled.

The next evening. After a nice long morning snooze. Troy and I went out for dinner.

"What would you like to order?" the waiter asked.

"A New York Strip." I said to him.

"How would you like it cooked?" he asked me.

"Rare." I said to him and smiled.

"I will be back with your orders." he said and walked away.

I looked back at Troy.

"I didn't know you liked steak, I would've ordered that as well." he said.

"You must not know me then." I said and giggled.

"I remember our first date. You ordered the cheapest thing on the menu." he said smiling.

"Okay, so maybe a small side salad was a little unadventurous but I was nervous. I mean going out with a hot guy?" I said to him and smiled.

He loved when I called him hot.

"I understand it's hard to eat when your eyes are on me." he said and we laughed.

I reached over and took a sip of my wine and looked back at him.

"So how was work last night?" he asked me.

I sighed.

"Very uneventful, I did talk to the janitor though." I said to him.

"The janitor huh? What's his name?" he asked.

"How do you know it's a he?" I asked him.

"What's a name for a female janitor?" he asked.

I shrugged. "His name's Chace." I said to him.

"Is he good looking?" Troy asked raising an eyebrow.

"What do you care, you're not going gay on me are you?" I asked him and giggled.

"No I got to make sure there's no competition between us." he said.

"No competition at all." I said and smiled.

"Good, because you belong to me." he said holding my hand and smiling.

A few minutes later, our dinner came back. I felt like, I was the guy and he was the woman since the waiter accidentally mixed up our meals. We passed each other's plate. I stared at the steak. My mouth drooling as steam rose from it.

Troy rose his glass to me. I peeled my eyes off the steak and rose my glass.

"To us." he said.

I smiled.

"To us." I said and our glasses clinked.

Troy got me back home and since I was a little tipsy from my five glasses of wine. We decided to spend a little time together.

I pushed him onto my bed.

"You've been working out?" he asked me.

"Yeah." I said crawling on top of him as he laid back against the bed and I began to kiss him.

He wrap his hand around my back and rubbed and down. Then he slipped his hand under my dress and wrapped around to my stomach.

"Wait." he said.

"What?" I asked kissing his neck.

"What's this?" he asked me.

I sat up. His hand still under my dress.

"Just, a little accident from the patient." I said to him.

He pulled my shirt all the way.

"Oh my god, this doesn't look like a human mark." he said.

"The guy had long nails." I said.

"It's not infected is it?" he asked rubbing my stomach.

"No the doctor says I got a clean bill of health." I said frowning. I think our little date was over.

"It's got hairs on it." he said.

I sighed and pulled away and pulled my dress down.

"I guess it's time for you to go." I said looking away.

"Yeah." he said standing back up.

"I'll walk you to the door." I said to him.

I walked him back to the door and kissed him and he walked down the sidewalk to his car. I closed the door and sighed. I rubbed my hand over the four raised marks on my stomach.