Medicine Man

Gray.

Like the clouds up in the sky. The man – my new enemy – who’s wearing the rain has eyes the color of rainy clouds. One of my favorite things.

Damn it.

He frowns, giving me a distracted glance. “Are you okay?”

I blink, embarrassed, and take the pages from his hands before sliding them somewhere random in the book. “Yeah, sorry. Thanks.”

“You might want to fix it.”

“Huh?”

“The book,” he explains, tipping his chin toward the object in my hand. “So it’s not broken anymore. A little glue on the binding should help.”

I swallow, my throat dry. “Right. Yeah, okay. Thanks.”

I’m aware that I’m somewhat repeating my words, but my brain is mush. It’s like the time when my anti-depressants made me almost manic, and they had to give me something to bring me down. I was in a fog the entire time.

Besides, he didn’t even stop to hear my answer. As soon as he doled out his piece of advice, he stood back up, his gaze slipping away from me. Not that it was there for more than a microsecond, but still.

Except I caught a word in all of this, and now it’s stuck in my brain like his name: fix.

“Well, Renn, as much as I’d like to argue, I think I’ll pass.” Beth smiles before turning to the man beside her. “All right, I’m going to do the honors. This is Renn, our resident troublemaker. Watch out for this one. And that’s Willow, our resident good girl. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever had a patient as well behaved as Willow.”

I look away from him. I’m embarrassed now. The way Beth described me sounded lame. Although, I am a good girl. I’ve always followed the rules, listened to my mom and teachers, taken my meds on time.

So, good girl. That’s me.

I don’t know why hearing that bothers me though.

Or the fact that he barely even throws us a smile. He nods, twitches his lips half-heartedly, hardly making eye contact. You can’t call it rude; all of it is polite.

Except, I don’t like it.

Beth continues, “And girls, this here is our new doctor, Dr. Blackwood.”

Even though I knew who he was, my heart races as if I’m hearing it for the first time. The shock of who this man is, is still new and vivid. It’ll probably never wear off.

Again, Dr. Blackwood throws out a slight nod and a small smile. It’s all right and well-timed and nice. And I bet he forgot our names as soon as he heard them. I bet he won’t even remember this encounter tomorrow.

Dear God, it bothers me so much. So fucking much and it doesn’t make sense.

The way he’s not looking at us… at me. The way he said, You might want to fix your book.

“Oh, so you are Dr. Blackwood,” Renn muses. “Can you confirm your age for me? Like, really quickly?”

“Renn!” Beth chides, glaring, and I do the same, forgetting my strange irritation at the man in front of us.

“What? I didn’t ask your age.” Renn rolls her eyes at Beth, pointing to me. “We’ve got a little bet going.”

Damn the bet. I’d completely forgotten about it until Renn popped her stupid, inappropriate question.

“Are you kidding me?” I snap, pointedly looking away from Beth and Dr. Blackwood.

“What? It’s the truth.” Renn shrugs like she’s so innocent. “Besides, you should be worried right now, dude. You lost.”

“I did not lose.” I look at Beth and reassure her, “I wasn’t even playing.”

“Are you kidding me now? Didn’t you say he was short and bald? You put your money on that.”

Beth gasps. “Renn! Willow? Why would you –”

Renn doesn’t let her speak. “No, actually. She said he likes to fart twice in an hour. Then, in the group she said she’d met him and he was short and bald.”

My eyes bug out. “What? I…”

“Both of you –” Beth begins but this time, it’s me who talks over her.

“First of all, the bet was Renn’s idea.” I glare at her, my face flaming, flaming. “And second of all, everybody was freaking out in the group. They were worried about his aura, okay? It was a mess. I had to do something. So I kinda made things up. I did get everyone to calm down, didn’t I?”

“Is that what you do?”

This is the first time he’s said something ever since this nonsensical argument sprouted up.

It’s a wonder I even hear him over my own pounding heartbeats. Somehow, someway, I turn my eyes to him. That’s a wonder too, given my level of embarrassment.

Is it weird that I’m sweating everywhere, even under my bangs? I blow on them and he glances at the fluttering strands before looking into my eyes. Not in passing, but really. Like he’s really seeing me.

The earth tilts slightly but I plant my feet wide and refuse to be moved as he takes me in. My loose topknot, with strands of hair sprinkled around my face, clinging to the nape of my neck. Even though, his gaze flicks along my features and he doesn’t look anywhere else below that, I still try to remember what I’m wearing. I think I’ve got a white t-shirt on with the quote across my breasts, “Just a wizard girl, living in a muggle world.” Oh, and sweatpants with my bunny slippers.