There was a lot more to medicine than knowing the anatomy and physiology of a human being, or how to treat the injuries and diseases patients come in with, so much so that there were sections on the MCAT that dealt with psychology and the behaviors of humans. Having taken a psychology class as an elective in secondary school and minoring in anthropology at University had helped more than Karli had ever expected them to, and the knowledge she’d received from it did wonders when it came to dealing with patients – including, but not pertaining to, family and friends like Maddox. Though she could sense that something was wrong simply by studying his abnormal demeanor as compared to his usual, she could not place a specific reason as to why he was the way he was. However she doubted that it was just her observant skills that triggered her attention; anybody who knew Maddox could walk into her apartment and easily spot something abnormal with the way he was attempting to compose himself. She didn’t voice her curiosity out loud, though, in the subconscious fear of upsetting him and kept her inquiries to herself.
“You know Sam. She’d do anything for the extra money until she lands a steady job, even if it means taking late hour shifts. And you know my hectic schedule.” She responded, but not before taking into account the pregnant pause in between his statement. It seemed, to Karli at least, that he wasn’t really there. Physically of course he was (lest this was one giant hallucination in which case she really needed to get herself checked into a rehab center), but his hesitation made it seem like his attention was more focused on what was going on inside his head instead of the fact that he was sitting in her apartment.
Karli’s eyes fell to the water bottle in her hands for a moment as he ate, polished fingernails fiddling absently with the wrapper as it loosened with condensation. It was freezing against her palms but she made no move to put it down, and she was half tempted to twist open the cap and dump it over her head as if that would help wake her up more – in fact, the temptation was so great she could realistically picture herself doing it. The more logical side of her reasoned that she could just excuse herself and go take the pills laying idly within her bedside drawer before she recalled how low of a dosage she’d had left and the surgery she’d need it for early the next morning. There was absolutely no way she could walk into that operating room without it in her system for a plethora of reasons; her resident would surely kick her out if she so much as yawned, and she needed to part-take in this operation so she could put it in her board log. So she’d stayed, the edge of the counter behind her pressed against her lower back and cold against the thin layer of clothing, and took another drink of her water while Maddox ate and began to recount the cooking accident that had him so rattled.
She felt her eyebrows slant as she listened, eyes following the pizza Sam had ordered from Paisano’s as he threw up his hands with his erratic explanation, half convinced it was about to fly out of his grasp and stick to the ceiling, before returning to his face. Karli had no doubt to her previous suspicions that something more than an accidental fire was wrong. Throughout her time of knowing Maddox she had never really witnessed him so disheveled – always complacent and with a smile to match. But the more he spoke and fidgeted the more that strange feeling in the pit of her stomach coiled, and for once in her life she was at a loss of what to say. Karli prided herself in her listening skills more so than her communication skills, after all. The last thing she wanted to do was set him off by mentioning something that she shouldn’t, or phrasing something wrong.
“As cliché as it sounds,” Karli began hesitantly, making a halfhearted attempt at neutralizing her expression as she finally spoke, “accidents happen – and the Food Network isn’t much help to anybody to be honest. I learned that a long while ago. Don’t fret too much about it though; you put out the fire in time and maybe sometime in the future it might even give you something to look back at and laugh about.” She twisted to place the water bottle on the counter behind her and brought a hand up to tuck her bangs behind her ear, offering him as gentle of a smile as she could manage. A part of her wanted to reach over and affectionately tousle his hair like she used to do whenever she comforted one of her younger brothers, but instead her arms crossed over her chest again and kept herself at a comfortable distance away from him. It’d become such a frequent thing in the past that the gesture was almost too painful to imagine. “It could have been a lot worse, though. I’d say you got pretty lucky.”
