Prescribed (The White Coat Series) by D.D. Parker Page B

comrades, racing each other to get to the bottom. I passed a group of men playing dominos outside of a family owned pastry shop. They riled up when one of them placed their last domino, claiming the win and all its glory. I heard the men loudly denounce him as a cheater and then they all laughed heartily, enjoying the day with their closest friends. 
    It was a beautiful feeling to observe such life. 
    I unlocked Courtney’s door and walked straight into the living room, dropping off my backpack on the floor next to the entrance and making my way over to the kitchen. I poured myself the last of the milk and had whatever was left of the cinnamon toast crunch. I also threw a hot pocket into the microwave for good measure. 
    “Hey, how was lab?” Courtney asked, coming out of her bedroom with her hair still a mess and her tank-top, which she got at a Rihanna concert, hanging precariously off of one shoulder. It was already the afternoon and this girl was still sleeping. 
    What was I going to do with her? 
    “It was good, the TA threw a fit cuz someone copied someone else’s homework but then we got on to figuring out chemicals and stuff,” I said, lifting a slightly bended spoon up to my mouth. 
    “Well, get your ass ready cuz we’re going to the mall,” she said, dragging her rubber slippers with her towards the bathroom. 
    “I can’t, I have calculus in an hour.” 
    “The only cal you’ll be calculusing is me in the Victoria Secret store. The coupons just came in.” 
    “Calculusing isn’t a thing,” I called after her as she closed the bathroom door. And then I laughed because of just how crazy yet beautifully unrestrained my best friend was. 
    It felt so good to laugh lately. It felt good to release the trauma that had occurred. It was like toxins were being expunged with every time I found something funny. At one point I sounded very similar to a mating hyena which I’m sure wasn’t very pleasant for anyone around. The room felt lighter after the laugh attack subsided, the air was easier to breathe and flowed through the space like a silky breeze. It was a weird roller coaster of emotions, which probably led to my describing of air as silk, but it was true. I was making progress though and progress was good. I made a choice. I was going to the mall and I was going to be happy. 
    Done deal. 
    Courtney jammed out to Nicki Minaj on the way to there, the windows down and the wind picking up the mane of hair around me. I sang along with her, trying my hardest to keep a smiling face. I lost my euphoria somewhere between changing out of my clothes and getting into the car. Courtney was able to distract me for the most part, but I still wasn’t feeling one hundred percent. I was getting there, just not there yet. It seemed as though the whole fake-it-till-you-make-it thing applied to emotions as well. 
    We found a parking spot close to the entrance and made our way over to the not-so-grand mall entrance, dodging a driver who was too busy checking his email rather than seeing where he was going. I had to snatch Courtney out of the way at the last second, grabbing her white Coach purse and tugging her to my side of the street. 
    We entered the mall and ran straight towards Victoria’s Secret, ready to unleash some major bra savings with coupons that Courtney conveniently hordes. I noticed that Courtney chose out the ones she liked the most without any restraints. The ones that made her look pretty damn hot. She liked that too, she wanted to flaunt her sexuality. I looked down at the bland black bras I had chosen and realized I could get something with more lace, frills, blue, pink, dark, bright. I could choose whatever I wanted. Eric never really liked it when I wore overly sexy bras since he said he liked me not having to flaunt for him but I now could see it was just him trying to manipulate me into feeling more self-conscience. I could do whatever I wanted now. 
    I chose the ones that made me look