muse_shuffle | September Disc Two
Track 12. Instant Karma's gonna get you // Gonna knock you off your feet (John Lennon - ‘Instant Karma’)
He didn’t even flinch as the needle pierced his vein. His eyes locked on the vial slowly filling with the thick dark blood being drawn from him. This was stupid; he knew he couldn’t see a HIV virus just from looking at the blood. Yet, still, he couldn’t pull his eyes away. The phlebotomist disconnected the first filled vial and carefully attached a new one. What was she, a fucking vampire?
“You aren’t going to pass out on me, are you?” she asked with a polite smile.
He didn’t look at her. He just cleared his throat and continued to watch the blood sample be drawn from the puncture in the crook of his elbow. “I’m a doctor, I have no issues with blood,” he murmured.
“Oh, that’s what they all say. You would be surprised how many doctors pass out on me when I need to take their samples for medicals,” she said in amusement.
“I’m fine,” he said automatically, his tone distinctly monotonous.
She reached the end of the second vial and went to unclip the circulation band, but he beat her to it. He snapped the fastener open and let it drop to the bench under his arm with a flick of a tight smile in her direction. An imaginary clock in the back of his brain started to tick somewhere. The countdown was on. In probably less than twenty four hours, he would know his fate either way.
Now that they were over, the three months felt like they had sped by. He cleared his throat again (when did it get so dry?) and wet his lips as she pressed a cotton ball to the wound to staunch the blood. There was the tiniest piece of him that felt like he deserved this. Like it was delayed punishment for getting in the car with the drunk driver when he was sixteen. It was that accident that lost him his spleen and not having that was the reason he could be so open to infection now. Was there such a thing as delayed karma? Or maybe it was for leaving Tab for three years? Or because he wasn’t there for his best mate when he needed him the most? Or for the failed relationship with Beth?
What if he really deserved the results to be positive?
He shook himself, taking over the cotton ball duties when the woman asked him to so she could complete the blood test process. None of it mattered anyway. That blood in those vials was either HIV positive or it wasn’t. Flogging a dead horse of thoughts wasn’t going to change it. He stared at the vials again before she collected them and sealed them in to a bag to drop them on top of a nearby basket full of other blood samples. He momentarily wondered how many other of those were HIV tests.
But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was fucking getting through the next twenty four hours without losing it… or with losing it safely.
- asinthecity and drcampbell referenced with permission
Words | 506
He didn’t even flinch as the needle pierced his vein. His eyes locked on the vial slowly filling with the thick dark blood being drawn from him. This was stupid; he knew he couldn’t see a HIV virus just from looking at the blood. Yet, still, he couldn’t pull his eyes away. The phlebotomist disconnected the first filled vial and carefully attached a new one. What was she, a fucking vampire?
“You aren’t going to pass out on me, are you?” she asked with a polite smile.
He didn’t look at her. He just cleared his throat and continued to watch the blood sample be drawn from the puncture in the crook of his elbow. “I’m a doctor, I have no issues with blood,” he murmured.
“Oh, that’s what they all say. You would be surprised how many doctors pass out on me when I need to take their samples for medicals,” she said in amusement.
“I’m fine,” he said automatically, his tone distinctly monotonous.
She reached the end of the second vial and went to unclip the circulation band, but he beat her to it. He snapped the fastener open and let it drop to the bench under his arm with a flick of a tight smile in her direction. An imaginary clock in the back of his brain started to tick somewhere. The countdown was on. In probably less than twenty four hours, he would know his fate either way.
Now that they were over, the three months felt like they had sped by. He cleared his throat again (when did it get so dry?) and wet his lips as she pressed a cotton ball to the wound to staunch the blood. There was the tiniest piece of him that felt like he deserved this. Like it was delayed punishment for getting in the car with the drunk driver when he was sixteen. It was that accident that lost him his spleen and not having that was the reason he could be so open to infection now. Was there such a thing as delayed karma? Or maybe it was for leaving Tab for three years? Or because he wasn’t there for his best mate when he needed him the most? Or for the failed relationship with Beth?
What if he really deserved the results to be positive?
He shook himself, taking over the cotton ball duties when the woman asked him to so she could complete the blood test process. None of it mattered anyway. That blood in those vials was either HIV positive or it wasn’t. Flogging a dead horse of thoughts wasn’t going to change it. He stared at the vials again before she collected them and sealed them in to a bag to drop them on top of a nearby basket full of other blood samples. He momentarily wondered how many other of those were HIV tests.
But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was fucking getting through the next twenty four hours without losing it… or with losing it safely.
- asinthecity and drcampbell referenced with permission
Words | 506