Officially Over It (SWAT Generation 2.0 10)

“Look hard, Reg,” she ordered, jerking her chin at the woman.

I turned my face around and stared at Eerie.

I’d always hated her.

You know that saying ‘anything you can do I can do better?’ Well, Eerie did everything better than me when it came to appearances.

She had short, curly reddish-brown hair the same color as mine. Soft, white skin that seemed to glow thanks to the iridescent light she was standing underneath of out in the lobby next to the bank of elevators. She was skinnier—skinnier than me by far. Where I had curves, Eerie had real curves. The kind that drew a man’s eye and kept it there.

Her eyes were the only thing that I could say were worse than mine. Though, worse is a relative term depending on who you ask.

Where mine were a mix between blue and green—aquamarine if you wanted to be specific—hers were a really light shade of blue.

Honestly, I’d always loved her eyes because they looked almost unreal.

“You see it?” she asked after I’d been staring for a while.

No, no I didn’t.

Peyton picked up the phone, said something under her breath, then hung it up before marching toward the glass doors. “Fucking perfect.”

The hour must be up.

Visiting hours were from seven to ten, eleven to two, and three-thirty to five. During the hours that the NICU was closed, the doors were locked.

Peyton heading toward them meant that visiting hours were now back open.

Yay.

I looked away after I glanced once again at Eerie who was eagerly waiting to get into the room.

“I see that her hair is better styled than mine,” I admitted to Sierra. “I see that her skin looks silkier.” I held up my skinned elbow that I’d gotten from my fall in the parking lot the other day. “I see that her eyes are—”

“Obviously,” she interrupted my words, “you’re not going to come to this conclusion on your own. You and Eerie could pass as twins. You’re both the same height and build. You both have the same hair color. You both have the same smooth, silky skin that just begs you to reach out and touch it. Honey, Nathan chose Eerie because of her similarity to you… and she knows that. If she had that pointed out to her today, I’d highly doubt it would be a surprise to her. It’s probably likely that she realized your similarities in high school, understood why Nathan had chosen her, and decided to be a complete asshole to you from then on because she had to push you away from him.”

I looked at her in surprise. “He didn’t really do that.”

She nodded her head. “He really did.”

I couldn’t…

“That’s insane,” I found myself saying. “That’s utterly, completely, one hundred percent insane.”

I looked down at the patient chart in my hand and flipped to the next page, trying to distract myself as I took a few notes.

“It’s also true.”

I blinked at the male voice that was behind us.

My mouth dropped open when I turned to see Nathan standing there.

“I overlooked her personality,” he said. “Because I could pretend that she was you when I would close my eyes.”

My mouth fell open in obvious shock.

“I don’t want him in there with my child!” I heard the doors swish open and closed, spitting out Peyton who looked harried. She was followed by Eerie who was letting us know how unhappy she was by being kicked out earlier.

Other parents followed her in, all the while looking at Eerie as if she was the nuisance we all knew she was.

It was only after she yelled that Nathan was an ‘asshole’ at the top of her lungs and pointed at him where he was standing next to me that I realized that Peyton had had enough.

She turned around, said something extremely softly to Eerie, then pointed at the exit.

Eerie stared at her with a partially hanging open mouth.

“I will…” she started to say, but Peyton shook her head, said something else, and Eerie clenched her mouth tightly closed and turned around on her heel and left the room.

Again.

Peyton waited for the doors to close behind her before she started back over toward us.

“I just can’t even condone this behavior. I have the authority to kick her stupid as… uh, behind out. Sorry, parents.” She nodded at the Rosses at the table closest the door. “How are y’all doing?”

Mr. Ross looked up and grinned. The other Mr. Ross, who was the more outspoken of the two in their relationship, looked like he was enjoying the show.

“Oh, honey. Don’t apologize for that woman on our account. We’ve been in here all morning listening to her spout her bullshit to your face. You’re allowed to think she’s an ass because she is an ass. No one should have to deal with that.”

I would’ve laughed had this situation been remotely humorous to me at all.