Stacie sat at the stoplight drumming a tune on the steering wheel, impatiently waiting for the light to turn green. In a few minutes she would be late. She didn't feel like getting bitched at by her superviser again. She really wasn't that late, but she was late enough according to him.
In case you're wondering, I work as a EMT for my local Ambulance service. Being only 18, I've been on the squad for two years. Everyone considers me to be a rookie, I just laugh and say yeah I might be a rookie but I am a damn good one. One thing about being a EMT, I just love it to death. My partner, Jackie, has been a friend of my for a long time, and one of my long standing crushes. She stands at about 5'7, has short black hair, brown eyes and a boyish frame. Although she never has really came out to me, her brother or anyone else, she identifies as 'butch". When you look at us, we make a pretty odd pairing. I am 5'5, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and as femme as they come. I mean, I don't do the whole make up and dress thing, but I think you get the picture.
The light finally turned green and Stacie drove on to her destination. The parking lot was full of people coming onto their shift. Jackie was just getting out her truck as Stacie parked next to her. She sat in the car a few minutes, trying to prepare herself for the oncoming shift. Jackie walked to her window, "Girl, you have go to get out of there sometime. If you don't clock in, you will be considered late once again, I really don't think you need that."
Stacie shook her head, "No, not this time." she said stepping out of her car. "That's all I need is him on my ass."
Stacie clocked in, and sat on the couch flipping through the tv channels. She threw the remote aside and laid down trying not to fall asleep. She hated working late nights as a first responder, and hated working earlier mornings as a regular. She could feel eyes on her back. She turned around to see Jackie standing over her. "So you aren't really asleep."
"No, I'm not."
"Good. Listen, I'm havning this party thing this weekend, do you want to come or not?"
"When is it, what time is it, who is going to be there, and what are you serving?"
"Saturday, 8:00, people who are on the EMS, my bro, and some other friends, beer, wine, and food."
"I will be there."
"Good, you know where I live right?"
"Jackie how could I forget?"
"I was just asking."
The alarm sounded causing everyone to jump to alertness. Jackie grabbed for her communicater listening to the emergency. I didn't move until she started talking to me. " 16 year old boy, was playing football, got hit pretty hard, complaining of neck pain, shortness of breath, and pain in his chest. We have to book it to the school." I ran behind her, jumping into the passenger side of the truck, turning on the sirens as we pulled out of the house.
"On a scale of one to ten, it's a seven."
"How did you get hit?"
"He came up in front of me, hitting my chest hard, flipping me and I landed funny on my head."
I was trying to imagine this, but couldn't quite get it, Jackie, understanding football more took over, "He went for the chest first, flipped him over his head and he landed on his neck when he fell."
"Ok, gotcha."
Jackie looked at me worriedly, "His blood pressure is low,and from the sounds of his chest, he isn't doing so great."
"Michael, since your bloodpressure is low, we are going to start a IV on you, ok?"
"Ok," he said.
I reach back to get the IV from Jackie and our hands brushed against eachother as I did. I blushed looking at her. She sort of smiled and that sent chills up and down my spine. I shook my head, remembering the patient first and went back to my work. I cleaned his arm, found the vain, and inserted the needle, adjusting the amount he was supposed to get.
Jackie got the backboard from the truck, "Michael, we have to put you on this backboard now. Don't move, let us do the moving, ok?" She said. He mouthed ok and watched us as we put the backboard on the ground. Luckily, we had a few extra hands to help get him on the board. The next step was loading him into the truck and getting him to the hospital in stable condition.
Carol walked in at that time, "Stace, we're playing frisbee, wanna join us?"
I looked at her oddly,"Sure why not. It's better than sitting in here." I fell in step beside her as we walked out the back door and into the back yard where the others were. Kevin, the youngest squad member at 17 was clutching the blue frisbee in his left hand. "Stace, so glad you decided to join us. We are going to do two teams. You can pick, or you can let one of us pick."
"I don't care. Whatever."
Someone grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back. When I was safely in their arms I looked back to see it was Jackie."Stace is on my team. I ain't letting you animals have my partner. Hard to tell what the hell you'd do to her." she smiled that devious smile and Kevin looked at her oddly.
"Ok, weirdness aside, let's play some frisbee!"
When Jackie had the frisbee and her back turned to me, I took a flying leap and fell with her to the ground. She was startled and managed to turn around to face me. "Well, looks like you finally got me back. But I hope you realize of course this means war."
"I don't believe that. You have never gotten me back for something that I've done to you. Not even when we were younger."
I pushed myself off of her into a sitting position by her side. "Well, that doesn't mean I can't start getting you back now. Besides, you are coming to my part tomorrow nigth, aren't you?" I knowingly shook my head. "Well then, I just might get you back then."
"You wouldn't dare, your brother will be there, he'll protect me. He's my friend not yours." I said sticking my tounge out at her in a childish manner. She pounced on me, holding me to the ground tickiling me. It was pure torture.
Carol couldn't contain herself anymore,"Ok children. Time to stop or I'll have to give you a time out."
Jackie stood up, pulling me up after her. "Well that was just phase one."
The rest of the shift was an easy one. We had to transport a patient from one hospital to the next, take in a child with respiratory problems, and help a man that fell and broke his leg. When the shift was finally over, I packed up my things and headed out to my black car. Jackie came out behind me stopping me before I got in.
"But, for sure you are coming?"
"You worry to much. I will be there. Hell, I might even come a little bit early if you want me to. But I will be there."
"Ok, just making sure."
Jackie started to walk off, but Stacie had to ask her the question that was driving her crazy all evening. She grabbed her arm and briskly pulled her back, "Why are you so worried about me coming? You said everyone else was coming, but I've never seen you ask them repeatily. But you continue to ask me. Why?"
She shook her head, "I-I don't know." she nervously took off her hat with her right hand only to replace it again."I just wanted to make sure."
I released my grip on her arm."Why do you have to make things so complicated?"
"I'm not making things complicated."
"Jackie, I gotta go. I'm going out with some friends tonight. And I need to take a shower. So if I don't get going, I am going to be late."
She stood and watched Stacie get into her car. "Stace, I'll see you tomorrow night."
All Stacie could do was shake her head and pull out of the parking lot .
Stacie entered her house, looking at her mail, heading for the answer machine to check for messages and grabbing clothes for tonight almost all at the same time. That's one of the best things about being a EMT, you have the knack for doing several things at one time.
She jumped into the shower, trying to make it quick. While she was drying her hair, the phone rang so she quickly ran out to the living room to answer it. "Hello?"
"Stace,listen change of plans. Tabby can't make it, Lynn had to go out of town, and Ash is out with her boyfriend. So it looks like you and me are going out to dinner by ourselves."
Stacie sighed heavily, "Ok, are we still going to Imation or are we going somewhere else?"
"I called Imation and told them that our party decreased to two and they said ok and they reserved a different table for us. And I changed it from 8:00 to 8:30. I wasn't sure when you be able to make it, because I heard you had a lot of calls and I didn't want you to be late."
"They weren't bad calls today. We were back about 5 minutes before our shift ended. I'll be ready in about 15 minutes. Are you going to pick me up or is it my turn to pick you up?"
"It was Ash's turn, but since she can't make it, it's your turn."
"Ok, I'll be there in 30."
Stacie sat at the table swirling her spoon around slowly in her coffee. Her friend sat across from her still trying to figure out what she wanted to order. Stacie already knew hers, but it was just the point have having to wait for a waiter. Jessica disgustly threw down the menu staring at Stacie. If looks could kill, she would be dead.
"What is wrong with you? You've been doing that for about 10 minutes now, and you havn't even said a word."
Stacie looked up from her coffee, stopping the movement of the spoon. "I'm just thinking about some things. Well a lot of things."
"Is this about that girl from work? Jackie I believe?"
"How on earth did you ever figure it out?"
Jessica leaned onto the table, close to her friend, "Listen, I've liked girls before, I thought they liked me back and nothing ever happened. Don't fall deeply for her because you are just going to get hurt."
"I know she is, just trust me on this one. Well, today, some weird things happened, that never did before. And tomorrow, she's having this party at her hosue,and she invited me. I'm just thinking about that. Maybe there is something that I'm missing."
"Maybe you are being blinded by cupid's arrow way to much. Maybe you aren't thinking that she has a man."
Stacie slammed her fist down onto the table causing half the resturant to look at them."Damnit Jess, as long as I have known her, she has never gone out with a guy, never. She lived with a woman for a year, but then the lady left, she made up some excuse saying she couldn't stand her anymore even though I know that was a lie. I know what I'm talking about."
Jessica shook her head, "Ok, I believe you. But if something happens that lets you down, don't make me say I told you so."
The two friends dropped that subject right there and continued with their dinner talking about everything besides girls and relationships. Girls and relationships were things that Stacie and Jessica could never agree on. What one saw, the other didn't and vice versa. They never gave advice on woman/woman realtionships either because both of them couldn't agree to what the other person was saying. It was just a lost cause.
After dinner, the two spent the night shopping, and hanging out in a local gay friendly coffee shoppe. They were great friends with Rick and Gina, the owners and stopped by to see them as often as they could. Which was hardly ever enough. Usually on Friday's and Sunday's they would stop by, get a cup of coffee and chat with them until late at night before heading home. Tonight, they stayed longer than they should have and were almost exhausted when they left. When the reached Jessica's house, Stacie mumbled a goodbye and quickly got to her house, turning in so she could be ready for tomorrow.
When we got to the school, a first responder was already on the scene talking to the boy trying to keep him calm. He already had oxygen on him and a c-collar supporting his neck. Jackie began taking his vitals while I started talking to him, asking him questions. "Michael(got his name from the first responder) how bad is the pain in your chest?" He took a few deep breaths before talking.
We arrived at the hospital, dropping Michael off, making the report and jumped back in the truck to head back to the station. The next squad out would not be us so we would have time to lounge around. But if there was a serious call, we might get called out anyway.
I sat in the squad lounge thinking about what happened at the school. Sure, maybe it was just something that happened, and maybe it was meant to mean something. But afterall, maybe it was meant to be nothing. That was the trouble with Jackie. You can never really read her emotions. But, sometimes you can. One time that really sticks out in my mind was when she lost a patient, she walked in the door, tore of her gloves, talked to someone and stomped out the door. I knew she was sad, disappointed, and angry. So, if I ever want anything to work out with her, I have to read between the lines.
We played for over half an hour before another squad got called out. So we made the best of that and kept playing anyway. Then, for some reason, everyone started this weird game of tackle Stacie. Everytime I got ahold of the frisbee, they jumped on me and grabbed the frisbee making a beeline to start playing again. So, I got the bright idea to get Jackie back. She started this, so I was planning of finishing it.