I was trying to be polite, but I didn't want to be here. I sat across the table from yet another girl. She was pretty, with toffee skin and curly dark hair, and I could tell she was just as uncomfortable as I was.

"So," I cleared my throat and pushed up my big round glasses, "what do you do?"

"I'm going into social media marketing," she said, eyes fixed on her steak. "What about you?"

"I've got a semester left before I can start applying to medical schools."

"Ooh," she looked up, suddenly interested, "a doctor. What do you want to specialize in?"

"Pulmonology," my eyes lit up, I couldn't help it. "Yeah, I'm applying to a couple of schools that don't require bachelor degrees. Lungs are just so fascinating! They're just muscle sacks that expand and contract."

I didn't notice her growing increasingly uncomfortable.

"And then they get all diseased and blackened and shriveled up. I start an internship tomorrow. I'm going to be shadowing a pulmonologist and seeing all that stuff for real!"

I smiled at her. The girl had pushed her plate away.

"Er, fascinating."

Later that evening, I walked her home. We both stared around, looking anywhere but at each other.

"So," I ran my fingers through my hair, "do you think you might like to go out again some time?"

"No."

I stopped walking. "I--I thought things were working out--"

She stopped, too. "Steve, I just don't think we have that much in common. It's not you, it's me. Sorry."

She turned and walked up the street, disappearing into one of the sandy brick houses. I sighed and turned up the walk to my own home.

My mom was seated on the couch when I walked into the living room.

"Steve!" She smiled at me. "How was the date?"

I groaned and sat down in a chair across from her. "Same as all the others, didn't work out."

Mom's face fell. "Oh. Well you're only twenty-two. It's not like you need a long term--"

"I know, Mom."

She sighed. "You'll find someone. These things just take time."

"I'm going to bed," I said, standing. "I have to be up early tomorrow."

I climbed the stairs to my room and collapsed onto my bed. I was so tall and gangly that my feet pressed uncomfortably against the foot board. That fact only depressed me further.

Mom was right, I was only twenty-two. Maybe I was pushing too hard.

Or maybe you're just destined to die alone, I thought glumly. Steve Bates, Dr. Lonely.

The next day I walked into the lobby of the hospital, straightening the collar of my shirt anxiously. I stepped up to the reception desk.

"Hi, I'm Steve Bates. I'm here to shadow Dr. Lamar."

"He's up in the pulmonology lab," the receptionist told me. "Take the elevator to the third floor and turn right. It should be right there."

I nodded and strode over to the elevator. The door opened and I got on beside a young nurse.

"Which floor?" he asked me.

"Third."

"Mind if we take a stop at the second? That's where I'm going."

I shook my head and he nodded. We rode in awkward silence. The man got off at his stop and I waited for the doors to close, but they never did.

"Oh," a janitor stepped over. "The doors have been jamming a lot lately. The stairs are just around the corner. They'll be a lot quicker, I'm afraid."

I got off the elevator and sped in the direction he pointed. I walked to the end of the seemingly mile-long corridor, but saw no stairwell.

"Ah, dang it."

I turned another corner, then another, beginning to panic. I couldn't be late on my first day!

I finally slowed as I reached a large window. A young woman stood with her face pressed against the glass, peering at the several newborn babies in plastic beds.

"Hi," she cooed at the one closest to her, giving it an overlarge smile.

"Excuse me," I stepped up to her.

She looked up. I stared at the nasal cannula beneath her nose. "Aren't they adorable?"

I looked over at the baby. "Yeah. Where is--"

"I want one." She turned back to the window and gave a smiling gasp at the little one. It stared at her with wide eyes. "Ooh!" She then said to me. "You go over to the nurses' station and tell them you're having a heart attack. Then I'll run in there and snatch it. As a reward I'll let you split custody."

"What?"

She sized me up. "You look like a pretty good dad. You're what? Twenty-two? Perfect time to have a kid."

I stared at her. She stared back, completely serious.

"Um," I backed away. "I'm just gonna..."

"Help me and I'll tell you where the stairs are," the girl batted her eyes. "Please?"

I figured it would be rude to tell her she was insane, but I almost did. "Thanks, but I can find them on my own."

I ran away before she could respond.

Eventually I came back to the elevators. The doors were now closed. Apprehensively, I poked the "up" arrow. The doors opened and I stepped inside. I pressed the third floor button and, miraculously, it went up.

A dark man in a white coat stood in front of me when the doors opened again.

"Ah," he strode over. "Are you Steve?"

I shook his hand. "Yeah. Dr. Lamar?"

He nodded.

I smiled in relief. "Thank you for letting me work with you. Sorry I'm late."

"No trouble. Right this way."

We started down the hall.

"I thought we would just go around and check on a couple of patients today," Dr. Lamar told me as we approached the first door. "Nothing too tricky."

He knocked on the door and then entered.

"Hello, Mrs. Atkins!"

A cranky old woman looked up at us. "Finally! Is someone going to give me my spongebath?"

I gulped.

He conducted a couple tests and then we went to another room.

"You've got to quit smoking, Larry," Lamar told the man in the bed.

"I can quit anytime I want, Doc," he assured him.

We saw patient after patient. After a while the rooms all seemed to blend together. Finally Lamar announced that we were approaching the last room.

"I bet you're beat aren't you?" He asked as he knocked on the door.

The young woman from the nursery was sitting up in bed when we entered the room. I stopped in my tracks, but she had headphones in and didn't seem to notice us.

"How are you doing, Emily?" Lamar asked her.

She looked up. Her emerald eyes brightened as she smiled under her nasal cannula and took out one of her earbuds. Her eyes then rested on me without recognition.

"Hi, Seth."

Lamar indicated toward me. "This is Steve. He's shadowing me. Is it okay if he's in here for your test?"

She nodded and put her earbud back in. I watched her as Lamar pulled out his blood pressure cuff. She looked awfully familiar, apart from our meeting. Did I know her from somewhere?

Lamar began his test. "One-twenty over eighty," he announced and I jotted it down on a clipboard. "Alright, thank you," he then said to Emily.

We left the room.

"We were kind of worried about her the other day," Lamar told me as we walked down the hall. "She came in for a routine check up, now she's been here a week. Cystic Fibrosis is unpredictable like that."

I nodded.

I sat in class the next day copying notes off of a blackboard.

"Our next assignment will be writing a report on the disease of your choice," the teacher told us. "I want you to interview someone with the disease and write about their experience."

I groaned inwardly. I was terrible at writing.

When I got home I reluctantly sat down at my computer.

Okay, I thought, what should I write on?

I typed "lung disease" into the search bar and scrolled through the results. They all looked boring.

"Hmm."

The ninth result was an article on Cystic Fibrosis. I guessed that would work. Now I just needed to find someone with that disease.

That girl from the hospital, I remembered. Maybe I could interview her.

That afternoon I hurried up to her room. The door was ajar when I reached it. I peered inside and found that it was empty.

Dang it! I thought. Did she already leave?

A nurse passed.

"Looking for Emily?"

I nodded. "Is she gone?"

"No, she's downstairs in the conference room."

I said my thanks and started back downstairs. The conference room was so crowded it was a struggle to enter. Children were fighting to get close to the center of the room. I pressed myself against the wall to avoid being trampled.

Emily sat in a chair in the middle of the room, surrounded by children hospital patients. She was taking pictures with them and signing autographs.

She hugged a girl with cancer.

"It's nice to meet you!"

"OMG, I love you!" the girl cried.

Another child stepped up.

"Your show's my favorite!" He told Emily.

Emily signed his paper.

I turned to one of the nurses in the corner of the room.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, Emily was so kind to meet all of these kids today," the nurse said. "Poor thing is just as sick as they are. She really should be in bed, but she always has been one to think of others."

"Why are kids meeting her?"

A kid looked over at me from around the back of his wheelchair. "'Cause she's the coolest TV star ever! Her show is the best."

Show? I thought.

I stepped through the crowd toward Emily. She looked up at me.

"Oh! Dr. Steve."

I laughed. "It's just Intern Steve for now."

She finished signing an autograph.

"Listen," I began, "I wanted to ask you if--"

Another kid stepped up and gave her a hug. "It's so awesome to meet you!"

"Yes?" Emily asked as the kid moved away.

I sighed. "I have to do a report for school. Could I interview you about your condition?"

"It's not that interesting, but sure." She tucked a stray blonde strand of hair into her messy bun as she reached out to another child. "Come to my room this afternoon."

Author's note:

Hi! Thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! If you look in the media spot at the top of the page, you'll notice that there is a video. I thought it would be fun to share with you the songs Emily is listening to during our interactions with her. She's a sucker for pop music but has favorites across pretty much all the genres.