Page 31

Our final examin anatomy is tomorrow.

Like half of our class, I am in the library, trying to study. I wish I could study with Heather, but she’s still mad at me, and she’s studying somewhere else. At home, I guess.

I still can’t believe I screwed that up so badly. If only she hadn’t walked in on me in the shower.

Anyway, I’ve got my anatomy textbook, my anatomy atlas, and pages of crumpled notes. I’ve got five different colors of highlighters. Even if my life has turned to shit, at least I can pass my anatomy final.

I brought a metal water bottle with me that was a present from my mother when I started medical school. I guess she thought I’d be drinking a lot of water, although it’s mainly been coffee. I’m already too jittery, though, and I’d like to try to get some sleep tonight, so I’m off caffeine for now.

I grab my water bottle and leave the library to fill it up at the drinking fountain outside. As the water level rises in the container, I remember learning in chemistry class about how water is the only molecule where the solid form has a lower density than the liquid form. That’s why ice floats on water. I always found that fascinating.

Maybe I should’ve been a chemist. Then all this crap wouldn’t be happening to me.

“Hey, Abe.”

I swivel my head at the voice from behind me. It’s one of my classmates—Victor. He’s wearing a pair of blue scrubs, like he’s been in the lab studying or maybe planning to go. (I hope it’s the latter since I hate to think he hasn’t changed since being elbow deep in a cadaver.) He is shifting between his feet and tugging at his scrub shirt.

“Hey,” I say.

I don’t know Victor very well, but I saw him at Kovak’s clinic that day with a “cough that won’t go away,” and the memory makes me cringe.

“Hey, listen,” Victor says, “I’m kind of screwed for this exam tomorrow.”

“I know what you mean.”

“No, that’s not…” Victor picks at the cuticle of his fingernail, and I wince. I hate it when people do that. “I can’t focus, and I have so much to study before the exam tomorrow morning.”

“Right… okay…”

“So,” he says.

“So.”

Victor groans. “Please, Abe. I’m never going to pass the anatomy final without some help. And I need a good grade on this one, or else I’m screwed. Conlon’s gonna fail me—he’s not messing around. I’m desperate. You gotta hook me up.”

Hook him up? Is that what this is about? He wants me to sell him drugs in the middle of the hospital? I shake my head in disgust. “Sorry, you’ve got the wrong guy.”

“Oh, come on,” he grunts. “I know you work at Kovak’s clinic. Everyone knows. Give me a break.”

Everyone knows. Everyone in the school thinks I’m a freaking drug dealer. That’s my situation right now.

Suddenly, the test tomorrow doesn’t seem nearly as important as my reputation.

“Listen to me, asshole,” I hiss at Victor. “I am not a drug dealer. You need to pull yourself together and get some help. But you’re not getting anything from me. Not one damn pill.”

“But—”

I take a step toward Victor, and he flinches. I’m not much taller than him, but I’m a lot bigger. I could destroy him if I wanted, and he knows it. I am done messing around. “Not one damn pill,” I repeat in a firm voice. “You understand?”

Victor looks like he’s going to protest again but thinks better of it. He nods and then scurries away. I watch him disappear down the hallway.

That’s when I make an important decision. I am done with Kovak and all his bullshit. Done. And he needs to understand that.

So I leave all my books behind in the library, get in my car, and drive to Kovak’s clinic.