Chapter Eight
Melanie
“So did you off the other kid?”
“Excuse me?” Tye was absolutely floored by her question.
“Rumor has it that there was supposed to be someone else here. At the last minute he suffered an injury that kept him from the program. You took his spot.”
“How in the hell would anybody even know that type of information. I didn’t know I got in myself until that meeting let alone who else received letters or should have received them.”
Melanie could see the hurt and shock on his face briefly before he plastered a very pissed off look in its place. She wasn’t sure why she even brought it up, she definitely didn’t believe it. Even though he was a giant Shifter, and just days before she had seen him tear into a rather large lion, he just didn’t seem hostile. Honestly injuring the kid to get a spot in the coveted program sounded more like something she would do. She didn’t, but the idea had merit if she hadn’t got in herself. If she was being honest with herself, she really just wanted to avoid talking about the other night.
“I’m not sure but that’s what everybody was whispering about earlier.”
“I don’t even know who the kid is let alone harm them for a spot here. I’m a doctor. My job is to help and heal not injure.”
“Is that why you took off the other night?”
That was the question she had been avoiding. She didn’t want to go over why she had showed up the other night, and definitely didn’t want to discuss why she left. She couldn’t deal with these emotions right now especially since the chief resident had paired them together. Of all the luck to have she would now be spending all of her time with the one person in the internship she desperately needed to avoid. She had to admit though during rounds today Tye had shown that he earned his spot in the program. He seemed to know the answer to the questions before Dr. Byron could ask the questions.
“How were you able to keep up with Dr. Byron so well today?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
She sighed. He wasn’t going to drop it.
“Tye, I left because you had just turned into a giant bear and fought a giant lion. It was a bit much. I’m sorry I took off like that. Can we please move on and discuss today, and the rest of our internship? We need to get through this program.”
“Being a Shifter in medical school didn’t give me many friends, so I had a lot of time to study. I also have keener senses than you humans do. I’m much more sensitive to smells and emotions than you, and that helps.”
“So you could smell that patient with nephritis? Dr. Byron wasn’t even aware that the kidney infection had progressed to that point.”
“I couldn’t smell the infection per say, but the urine was so strong mixed with the pain he was in. The fact that he had been burning with temperature for almost 36 hours told me it had progressed past just a simple kidney infection and probably into Nephritis. I took a guess, and turned out I was right.”
Melanie stared at him in disbelief. Maybe ending up with Tye as a partner was going to have its perks. He was like her ace in the hole, personal feelings aside, she needed a strong partner like Tye so that she could come out on top of her boards. She noticed another pair of the interns had entered the coffee shop, and after wearily looking at Tye decided to sit elsewhere. That was fine Melanie thought, let them think he did take out the other kid, and she would have him and his abilities all to herself.
Melanie shook her head at herself. Was she really this bad of person? Tye was super sweet, and she could tell that he was interested in her. So why was she now all of a sudden planning to use him and dump him as soon as this was over. Probably because she was the product of her father, and he didn’t know what else to do but use and abuse people.
“Do the doctors know that you can sense things?”
“Not that I’m aware of. They may assume, but nobody’s ever asked me, aside from you, so I’ve never offered up the information. I don’t like drawing attention to myself if you can’t tell.”
She couldn’t help but smile at that thought. In his town he had been smooth, and effortless, but today he had been back to his clumsy self. He had knocked into a nurse’s cart while they were walking through the hall, rather quickly, to keep up with Dr. Byron. Then when he was asked to put a catheter in one of the outpatients he couldn’t quite handle the tubes with his giant hands, and Melanie had ended up taking it from him to insert it.
“Is my discomfort funny to you?”
“No, I just find it amusing that you get so awkward because you seem so confident in your other form.”
“You asked me if I off’d some kid to get this internship. That’s not the first time I’ve been called out for being a Shifter in a human world. Once people see my golden eyes they immediately assume all kinds of things, and then the rumors spread.”
Melanie figured he dealt with that a lot. Here she was planning on using his abilities to her advantage, but it was the same thing. She saw those golden eyes as her golden ticket to ace this internship, and her exams.
“Well I guess we need to work out a study schedule around our schedule at the hospital. Do you have any other obligations we need to worry about?”
“Other obligations?”
“Yes work, girlfriend; other obligations.” Melanie wasn’t sure why she was so annoyed about the mere thought of him having a girlfriend, but she couldn’t look at him when she asked.
“No, I have no other obligations. You?”
“No.” His eyes seemed to almost glow golden as he answered her. He drew it out too in his deep voice, and it felt like it washed over Melanie not leaving any part of her untouched. She diverted her eyes from him, and tried to act natural.
Tye stood, and went to toss his cup.
“I guess there’s only one question left to ask Melanie.”
“What’s that Tye?”
“You’re place or mine?”