Wattpad Block Party Winter Edition III—@Goodnight_Saigon

My Padded Cell on Parris Island

Padded walls for a padded soul;

they refused to listen to my cries,

now they're to blame for my childish lies,

trapped like a rat in this padded hole.

They say that I have gone mad, insane;

padded walls for a padded soul;

it was never in my own control,

what could they possibly know of pain?

My mind's a web that's come unwound;

I know they want me to play my role:

padded walls for a padded soul,

my limbs are straight in jackets, bound.

I have always felt unwhole,

a piece is missing, lost forever;

I'm finished with this whole endeavor:

padded walls for a padded soul.

Well, well, well...

Did you miss me?

I'm back for my second time in the block party! Thanks to Kelly for organizing all this! :)

Goodnight_Saigon here everyone! I'm a proud Canadian with purple in her hair and writing in her heart. Music-wise, the 60's to the 90's are my jam (yes, I said that), and my TV scene involves Buffy, Angel, Sherlock, Supernatural, iZombie, etc. On my bookshelf, you can find anything, from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games to Stephen King's The Shining. I like horror, adventure, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, though lately I've been focusing on the scary stuff.

So that's a little about me, but before you read my post I wanna play a game, so go ahead, answer in the comments, I'm curious...

First ten songs that come up when you hit shuffle?

No cheating! I have weird songs too, so put 'em all down. (Warning: I will predict a lot of Billy Joel music before I even start.) Here we go!

1. Shameless—Billy Joel

2. High Hopes—Pink Floyd

3. Breakfast in America—Supertramp

4. My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)—Fall Out Boy

5. Stop In Nevada—Billy Joel

6. 7 Years—Lukas Graham

7. Wild Things—Alessia Cara

8. The Stranger—Billy Joel

9. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant—Billy Joel

10. The Trooper—Iron Maiden

And there we are! Lots of Billy Joel, just like I said :D 

I could not LIVE without music and I'd say that I have a pretty eclectic taste so this is fun for me to see what everyone else likes!

Okay so now I'm going to post a one shot of my short story She's Right On Time (which also happens to be a Billy Joel song :) ). You don't have to have read the original as this is sort of a prequel for when Brook and Rahul first met. Hope you enjoy!

She's Right On Time One Shot

Brooklyn McCarthy slammed her clipboard on the counter of the nurse's station, heaving quite possibly the largest sigh of her life before collapsing into a nearby chair, rubbing her temple where a headache was beginning to blossom.

"Aw, hon," said the head nurse of her unit, Ashley Reid, a woman in her mid-thirties, leaning over the counter to regard her with a sympathetic smile. "You look tired."

"Do you know how many hours of sleep I've had in the last two days?" Brook whispered shrilly, her eyes wild, leaning close to avoid disturbing people walking by. "I'll give you a hint: it isn't in the double digits!"

"To be fair, you're the one who signed up for extra shifts, you're only required to do one a week."

"I just want to pass this course and be a full nurse..." Brook mimed banging her head on the counter, whining slightly. She took a pen from her blouse pocket and pretended to stab it in her eye.

"Can you act like an adult please?" Ashley pushed her glasses up the ridge of her nose and began to crack her fingers, each pop of her bones causing the other woman's eye to twitch. "It ain't that easy to be a nurse, hon. Did you finish looking after all your patients for tonight?"

"Yes, thankfully. I'll be home, drinking eggnog, and watching Die Hard within the hour. Alone on Christmas Eve, just the way I like it..."

"Die Hard?" The senior nurse frowned, ignoring the second half of her sentence. "That's not a Christmas movie."

"Oh, I'd beg to disagree."

Ashley turned to the nurse typing on the computer behind her at the station, an older Hispanic man named Carlos. "What do you think? Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?"

He scowled, taking a sip from his coffee mug and barely looking up from the screen. "No."

Ashley made a gesture that said, "You see?"

"You know what?" Brook shrugged. "I don't care as long as I'm out of my scrubs and watching Bruce Willis kill someone before midnight."

"You might have to wait a little longer."

"What? Why?"

Ashley gave her an apologetic grimace. "Shanta's swamped, she needs someone to take over an patient for her. You up to giving a sponge bath to the strapping man in pod seven, bed three?"

"Ash, you have got to be kidding me!" Brook exclaimed, causing several passersby to stare. "My shift ends in fifteen minutes. Fifteen! I'm exhausted; I've been on my feet all day." She leaned closer. "I had to pull a nutcracker out of this one idiot's ass and I don't even wanna talk about it. Please, tell Shanta I can't."

"Oh, hon." Ashley pursed her lips, smoothing out her scrubs and smiling. "It's not a choice. Pod seven, bed three. Sponge bath. Try not to embarrass yourself like last time. Have fun."

"Bite me..." Brook grumbled under her breath, storming away from the nurse's station as Ashley chuckled to herself, her curly red ponytail swinging back and forth like a tongue of flickering fire. Doctors and patients alike stepped out of her way, the aura of her displeasure radiating off like a shield. Not that she should have been surprised; Shanta was from the college while Brook was from the university, and whoever said nurses didn't play favourites didn't know Ashley Reid. Even though Brook was just as competent as her fellow nursing student, she couldn't run the floor by herself and was looked down on by her seniors.

She hurried down the hallways, one thing on her mind: the poor guy in bed seven who was about to deal with her while she was in one of her moods. She flew through emerge, the hustle and bustle of the hospital's extra business on Christmas Eve creating a drone in the back of her mind. Of course, being frustrated only made her more nervous. The last time she had given a sponge bath, soap had gone places it wasn't supposed to go and she had gotten her finger stuck—

"You rang for a sponge bath?" Brook said irritably, arriving at her destination and pulling back the curtains surrounding bed three in a less-than-gracious manner. Her plastered-on smile failed her momentarily and she dropped the pen she had been fiddling with as the handsome young man sitting cross-legged on the bed blushed deeply, blinking up at her.

"Um, no." He looked startled, like a deer caught in the headlights. His right arm was in a cast and sling. "N-no, thanks, I'm... good."

"But... I was told..." She gave the guy a searching look, checked the chart at the end of his bed, and felt humiliation crash down around her. What was she thinking? Patients in emerge didn't need sponge baths!

Brook! she mentally scolded herself. Damn, girl, you're fried!

"I was told I could leave just as soon as a nurse came to give me some papers? They said it might be a few minutes but I don't know anything about a sponge bath." Even with his light brown skin, she could see the dark blush in his cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, my supervisor probably thought it'd be funny for me to come running in here. She's a little off." Brook blushed as well, warmth flooding her face. He was a handsome guy with a full set of facial hair and dark eyes. He looked Middle-Eastern, possibly Pakistani or Indian.

"It's okay," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his good arm. He uncrossed his legs and slid off the bed. "You dropped your pen."

"Oh. Right."

"Here, I'll get it—"

"No, it's okay—"

The two of them leaned down at the same time, reaching for then pen, and cracked heads. Brook staggered, biting her tongue to keep from swearing, while the guy stumbled back onto the bed, clutching his head. There was a snicker from someone nearby.

"Sorry!" Brook moaned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," he said, blinking hard. "A nice concussion to go with my broken collarbone."

She smiled a little at his teasing tone. "How'd you break it?"

"Motorcycle accident."

"Oh, my God, what happened?"

"I was driving on Young Street when some asshole lost control of his car and hit my bike. I landed on my shoulder. Nearly got crushed by another car in the process."

She grimaced. "I'm sorry to hear that."

He shrugged. "Yeah, well, what can you do? It's slippery out there, y'know with the whole inch of snow on the ground."

They both laughed for a moment. Less than a foot of snow and life had been known to ground to a halt in Toronto.

Brook suddenly felt hot around the collar. "Do... Do you have someone coming to pick you up? A friend? A... girlfriend?"

"What?" He looked flustered, blushing furiously. "Oh. No. No, I was gonna call a taxi."

"Do you want to save the twenty bucks and I'll drive you? My shift ends in five minutes." Her heartrate had sped up, blood rushing to her face again.

His mouth opened and then closed. "Um..."

"You don't have to say yes!" Brook said quickly.

"No, it's not that." He rubbed his neck again. "Are you sure? I don't want to be trouble."

"I'd like to." She smiled at him, genuinely happy that her night had taken a different turn. "I mean, it's no sponge bath, but..."

"No! No." He laughed. "Sure, if you don't mind. Thank you."

"I'm Brook."

"Rahul. Just let me get discharged and you can take me home." His eyes widened, a new shade of red darkening his cheeks. "My home that is, not your home, why would I go to your home? Ha-ha, that'd be funny, oh God, why am I still talking?"

"I'll go out sign out," Brook said with a laugh, and twenty minutes later than she wanted to be, she was idling out front of the pick-up spot, cursing Ashley for the interrogation session that had made her late, snowflakes melting on her windshield before the wipers could spirit them away. Apparently it had been the senior nurse's plan all along to try to set her up with Rahul.

There was a knock on the car window, making Brook jump. "You're late," Rahul said with a small smile as she rolled down the glass.

"Yeah, well..." She shrugged with a grin. "That's me. I'm never on time. C'mon in, it's cold."

The ride home was quiet, but not uncomfortable, with both of them fiddling with the radio every time a song ended, trying to find something to listen to. Brook learned that Rahul had a sweet spot for rock and roll, and he found out she was into rap. The streets looked beautiful with Christmas lights strung from every lamppost and snow coming down even harder. The wind blew with all its might but the chill didn't disturb the two heading home from the hospital, warm and content in Brook's beat-up Mazda.

When she finally pulled up outside his apartment building, Brook was a little disappointed to see Rahul go, having enjoyed her time spent with him.

"Try not to get into any more accidents," she told him as he stood outside the car, leaning on the passenger-side door.

"I'll try not to." He smiled softly. "Thank you, Brook."

"Wait!" she said as he turned to go and she quickly pulled out a pen, popping the cap off. "Before you go..." She grinned at him, heart pounding. "Can I sign your cast?"

He looked surprised, but nodded, the corners of his mouth twitching as he put his arm back into the warmth of the car. Taking her time to be neat and careful, Brook signed her name and phone number, adding a little heart at the end.

When Rahul saw what she had wrote, his eyes lit up with delight and he turned away with a barely-concealed grin, already planning to call her so that they could talk again.

However, he didn't have to wait very long; he only got a few steps away from the car before his feet slid out from underneath him and he fell, landing on his broken collarbone. He let out a yell of pain, struggling to push himself into a sitting position as the bones grinded in his shoulder.

Brook got out of the car, rushing over to him in concern, when her flats slipped on the same patch of ice and she went down as well, sprawling out on the pavement. The two of them were silent for several moments before they both began to laugh, sitting in the snow together.

Brook got unsteadily to her feet, and helped Rahul up as well, avoiding his injured arm as their laughing died out.

"I think I might've broken it some more," he said through gritted teeth.

"And back we go."

He protested at first, but eventually relented, and as Brook thought about her empty apartment versus Rahul singing along to Christmas carols in her car while they headed back to the hospital, she had to admit that this was definitely the better way to spend her Christmas Eve.

****************************************************************************

I hope you liked it, it was a nice change to write something sweet and cute, rather than gory and horror-filled which has been my focus lately. Anyways to end off, here is a list of the books on my profile, feel free to check them out.

Feeling D.E.T.A.C.H.ed—An *on-hold* novel about the aftermath of a mental health crisis in the future. The story follows two different perspectives and showcases the bonds between family and friends, while showing how large of an impact mental health issues have on everyone. It does have sensitive content though so make sure that you know your limits. The genre is science fiction and dystopian futuristic.

All in Our Head—A short story that follows Beatrice and Cordelia Bowman, twin sisters with a bond that is deeper than blood. This was written for a contest run by Robert Epstein and it won! This story is also science fiction.

Once More With Feeling—A longer short story that revolves around the concept of time travel and love, loss and sacrifice. I would categorize this story as science fiction and romance. This is the one I'm promoting this Block Party and I really hope you check it out!

When Mermaids Cry—A short story concerning quirky-as-hell Jack Kushner, Spice Girls aficionado and Star Wars tie collector, as he travels overseas to investigate mermaid sightings for his newspaper. I wouldn't classify this as a regular mermaid story at all, more like an account of the seedy undersea-belly of the fishing world.

Roles Reversed—An installment series concerning gender swaps in historical situations and what would differ in each case, yet also what would stay the same.

The Farm—A short story starring Liv Reynolds, a brassy thirteen-year-old with a hell of an attitude, as she's forced to babysit her baby brother at a farm party. However, something's been attacking the animals at night, and when the sun goes down, Liv may find herself more alone than she's ever been before.

Omens—A monologue about what happens when the sun goes down and you ignore the curfew...

Christmas at the Talbot House—A short story for those who don't mind a bit of gore. Sure, it doesn't seem that way at first, but tensions can run high at Christmas, especially if you're Shae Chebet, bringing her Kenyan husband and child home to a racially-intolerant family.

And Then There Were None...—A psychological thriller set in Los Angeles. Be prepared to find out who the real monsters are, and don't be surprised if you find them staring back at you when you look in the mirror.

She's Right On Time—A short story that takes place on Christmas Eve, following the disastrous evening of a young couple who seems to be plagued by bad luck.

If any of those sound interesting, I'd love for feedback!

Alrighty then, peace out y'all! A quick reminder that my giveaway is an edit and review for three chapters of a work of your choice. Again, thanks for reading everyone and please feel free to pop over to my profile on Wattpad, my Facebook page, or my Twitter or Instagram account, I would appreciate it to the moon and back!

Signing off! Goodnight Saigon...

--Kaitlyn (Goodnight_Saigon)

***********

P.S. Don't forget to enter the 130+ #WattpadBlockParty Giveaways! Clickable links are at the top of my Wattpad profile! :)

GIVEAWAY LINK ONE:

http://kellyanneblountauthor.blogspot.com/2017/01/giveaways-for-wattpad-block-party_31.html

GIVEAWAY LINK TWO (with Widgets):

http://kellyanneblountauthor.blogspot.com/2017/01/giveaways-with-widgets-for-wattpad.html