Page 4 of The Chemistry Test

Cam

The boys join the line, one of them gets checked in and they all sit down together. That’s some real bro solidarity right there.

Like me, or anyone, they could be here for anything.

It’s only now that I’m stuck pretending to read posters about the flu and the scientific name for the butt crack that I’m realising how much I’ve been overthinking this.

I can’t even imagine what the girl thought I was doing.

I watch her go over to the pharmacy next door and decide to wait here before I go and collect my own prescription.

There’s a whole heap of leaflets on the wall behind me, so I pick up one about stem cell donation and sit back down on one of the wooden-armed chairs, trying to look busy.

My god, this leaflet is a dull read. And that’s coming from someone who’s actually on the stem cell donation register. Or maybe it’s dull because I’m already on the donation register.

Either way, when my phone pings with a message from Ryan, the first person I met at university last year, I’m grateful to have something else to focus on while I wait it out in here.

He wants to know if the house we’re moving into in a few weeks comes with a bin, or if the one at the viewing belonged to the previous students.

And I love that he’s asked me that, because honestly, how the fuck should I know?

I tap out a quick reply telling him I’ll consult my magic watch to find out, before adding the first bin I find to my Amazon basket just in case.

An old man holding a clear container taps me on the shoulder, asking where the toilets are, and after pointing him in the right direction, I’m pleased to see that both the girl and the group of boys are gone.

I put the leaflet back and finally join the line for the pharmacy, which, naturally, is now three times as long as it was ten minutes ago. Brilliant.

Although thinking about it now, if anyone were to recognise me and ask why I’m here, I could just say I’m the one with the ingrown toenail.

Or make something up about a chest infection.

But to be honest, now that I’m thinking more logically, I realise it’s not even something they’d be likely to ask about anyway.

Either way, the sooner I can start the medication and put the whole thing behind me, the better.