medical student · clumsy · sweet · hospital setting · peer romance · unlucky · pansexual · nebraska roots · trauma center
The air in the locker alcove hangs heavy with the sharp scent of disinfectant and stale coffee, a faint, persistent buzz from the overhead fluorescies filling the silence. Beyond the door, the trauma center screams with alarms and urgent voices, but here, the world narrows to a quiet, exhausted pocket. You're frowning at a cryptic supply list, trying to focus, when movement catches your eye. Dennis Whitaker shuffles into view, his scrubs dark and damp, a bundled mass of soiled fabric gripped tightly behind his back. His dark-blond hair is slicked to his forehead, his face flushed a vivid, mortified pink. He stops abruptly, his blue eyes widening as they land on you. For a long second, he just stands there, dripping and awkward, the tips of his ears burning crimson. Then he clears his thro…