Burn You Down

“Avinne, you’ve got a new admit in 26!”

“Christ Lana, it’s not like I don’t already have 3 high acuity patients,” I barked back.

“I know, I know, but I’m not the one who scheduled all the new grads today. None of them can handle the loads they have. Let me give you report real quick. Please?”

“Fine. Go.”

“Okay. James Sullivan. 27 year old Caucasian male presented with nasal bleeding and a possible fracture. Said he was ‘fucking around-“

“Lana!”

“What?! That’s a direct quote! He was messing around with his friends when he tripped and bumped his face on a drum kit,” she said quickly.

“He’s 27 and he’s ‘fucking around?’”

“Yes, don’t judge. He’s very nice. And his friend is verrrry cute,” she giggled.
I rolled my eyes and turned toward room 26. After two and a half years in the emergency room, there shouldn’t have been too many surprises, but sometimes even I was amazed. I grabbed Sullivan’s chart and hustled into the room.

“Alright Mr. Sullivan-“

“Jimmy!”

“What?” I asked and then I looked up. There were two men in the room, one very very tall, with an awful looking purple swollen nose. He almost looked like an elephant seal and I had a sudden urge to burst out laughing. He sat on the crappy, thin bed slumped over like a little boy. Standing next to him was a shorter, buffer guy who muscles were so large that I was kind of freaked out. But as a nurse, you can’t show these things, so I tried my best to stay stone-faced.

“My name’s Jimmy, and my nosie wosie hurts a lot,” the elephant seal/patient pouted.
At this, I let out a laugh. “Well, Jimmy, I’ll have the doctor take a look at it, I’m sure he’ll want an x-ray. Do you mind if I touch your nose? I’ll be gentle, promise.”

When I mentioned touching Jimmy’s nose, he looked absolutely terrified. The other man punched in the arm.
“Man up, Jimbo. Maybe if you weren’t such a maniac we wouldn’t be spending our entire day getting your fucking elephant face checked out,” he looked at me. “My name’s Matt. Sorry he’s such a pansy.”

I grabbed some gloves and gently touched Jimmy’s nose. It looked painful as shit, but I knew that it was only deviated a little and that the doctor could just pop it back into place. However, it seemed like if I told Jimmy this, he’d pass out. The doctor came in right after I finished looking at his nose and made the same conclusion I had. He made small talk with Jimmy the whole time, and Jimmy seemed to relax quite a bit. When the doctor sensed this, he took Jimmy’s nose and relocated it. Jimmy screamed a horrible high-pitched, glass-shattering scream, while Matt threw his head back and let out a belly laugh. The doctor wrote Jimmy some prescriptions and handed them to me.

“I know it hurts, Jim, but on the bright side, the doc gave you some kick-ass meds,” I said with a wink.

Jimmy laughed at this and listened while I told him about the pain killers and applying ice packs. I made him take one of the pills afterward and ensured that Matt knew the same information because I was pretty sure Jimmy wasn’t listening. Instead, he was blowing up gloves and drawing faces on them.

“Thanks for all your help nurse…”

“Avinne.”

“That’s a cool name,” Matt said.

“Come drink with us!!!” Jimmy blurted.

“What? Oh, no thank you, but I have to work-“

“When do you get off?” Jimmy asked.

“Well, at 7, but-“

“It’s already 6:15! You have no choice!”

“Jesus, Jim, let the woman speak!” Matt scolded. “Look, you don’t have to, of course. Jimmy
loves everyone he meets and you seem pretty cool. We wouldn’t mind waiting for you to get off. We’re meeting the rest of our friends at 8 but don’t feel pressured; Jimmy’s a nutcase.”

Jimmy began to protest, but Matt cut him off with a look. I ran the thought through my head and knew that my roommate, Maria, would love to go. She’d been begging me to go out since I didn’t have to work for 3 days. But I just met these guys; it was pretty weird.

“Yeah alright. I need to stop by my apartment, my roommate would love to go too, is that alright?”

“Yeah, we’ll follow you home and wait for you there.”

I discharged Jimmy and they went and waited outside the hospital. I finished up with my other patients and reported off to the night nurse. When I went outside, Jimmy ambushed me.

“Yay! You’re done let’s go!”
I began walking and quickly noticed that I was alone. Turning around, I noticed that the guys were very confused.

“I live like 10 minutes from here. I never drive.”

“Oh, okay.”

We walked the 10 minutes to my apartment, talking about the guys and what the hell Jimmy had been doing when he ruined his face.

“So, it’s all Bri’s fault-“

“Who?”

“Our friend, Brian,” Matt explained. He looked at Jimmy pointedly, “it was definitely all your fault, Jims.”

“Fine. Anyway, it was Brian’s fault. I accidentally tossed my drumstick and it bumped him in the back. He got mad and chased me so I had to run. Then our other friend Johnny jumped out and scared me so I jumped and tripped and smacked my face on my drums.”

“Drums?”

“We’re in a band,” Matt said.

“Uh, a super cool band!” Jimmy proclaimed.

When we got to my apartment, I told them to wait outside while I got ready. As I opened the door, Maria burst out of the bathroom at me.

“WHO ARE THE BOYS THAT YOU WALKED UP HERE WITH?!”

“Guys, Maria. Men. You need to be ready in 10 minutes. We’re going out.”
She squealed and ran into her room, tossing clothes everywhere in order to find the perfect outfit for wherever the hell we were going. I changed out of my scrubs into jeans and a sleeveless black blouse. I put some light makeup and grabbed my phone and wallet. Maria, of course, was not ready at all. I harassed her until she felt “adequate,” and then we walked out to meet Matt and Jimmy.

“Guys, this is Maria. Maria, guys,” I quickly introduced.
They exchanged hellos and we walked toward a black Escalade. The guys had gone and got the car from the hospital while we got ready. We hopped into the car and drove off toward downtown Los Angeles. After a 15 minute drive, we arrived at a small, secluded club. It looked really dark inside and for a second, I was extremely sketched out. On the alert, I followed the guys inside, with Maria bouncing everywhere from excitement. We walked over to the VIP section and right past the bouncer. If Maria’s excitement before was a 10/10, it was now a 300/10. Behind a long, velvet, red curtain, sat three more men and three women. I relaxed a little at the sight of the women, because it made these guys seem less questionable. Matt walked over and planted a kiss on a girl with short choppy blonde hair.

“Everyone, this is Jimmy’s nurse and savior, Avinne. And this is her roommate, Maria,” Matt introduced. “This is my girlfriend, Val.” She giggled and he kissed her head.

“It’s nice to meet you guys, we need more girls around here,” Val said.

“No, we don’t,” a woman with a short wavy blonde bob snapped. She sat on a plush red love seat next to a very attractive guy. The guy had piecey black hair and brilliant green eyes. He turned them on us and looked at us inquisitively. He ran his lips over his gunmetal snakebites.

“We don’t need any more bitches walking around here trying to skank around,” the woman continued.

“Ignore her,” Val said to us. “That’s Zacky and his girlfriend, Gena.”

I began to say something along the lines of “screw you” to Gena, but didn’t get the chance. A girl that looked identical to Val hopped up out of her chair and held out her hand.

“I’m Michelle, Val’s sister. This is my boyfriend Brian.” A tall guy with a chiseled face and light brown eyes smiled and gave a wave. “And that’s Johnny.”

“Drinks!” Jimmy yelled, and handed out shots to everyone. I threw mine back the second he handed it to me.