They Were the Stars, I Was Just in Their Orbit Chapter 03
After I returned to the nurses’ station, a coworker hesitated for a while before coming over to me.
“April, did you and Dr. Brooks break up?”
Ethan had not agreed to the breakup, but as far as I was concerned, the relationship was already over.
I nodded.
She let out a breath. “No wonder. Just now, an agitated patient caused a scene and shoved Dr. Parker. Dr. Brooks immediately picked her up and carried her to the ER.”
“I saw it happen. She just took a fall, but Dr. Brooks was beside himself with worry.”
At that, my brows drew together.
“Her hands are okay, right?”
Even though I still had misgivings, my legs had already carried me toward the ER before I could stop myself.
Back in school, Nina had more than once draped an arm around my shoulders and declared, “I’m going to become the best cardiothoracic surgeon there is.”
“April, once we’re at the hospital, I’ve got your back.”
If she had hurt her hands by accident, how was she supposed to perform surgery in the future?
Every terrible possibility twisted together in my mind until it became one tangled mess.
When I arrived, Nina was lying on a hospital bed with red-rimmed eyes.
“Nina, are you okay?”
I hurried forward.
When she saw it was me, she forced a smile.
“I’m fine. I only twisted my ankle.”
I had just breathed out in relief when Ethan spoke flatly from the side.
“April, are you happy now?” i stared at him, completely lost.
“If you hadn’t been acting out, Nina wouldn’t have gone to comfort you, and that patient never would have hurt her.”
His openly mocking words pinned me in place.
My mind went completely blank.
Nina quickly pushed his arm. “Why are you blaming April out of nowhere?”
But Ethan kept staring straight at me.
“Why haven’t you grown up at all after all these years? Why does everyone always have to accommodate you? What are you, a princess?”
In the silence that followed, tears seemed to spill from my eyes again.
As if he finally realized how hurtful his words had been, his tone softened slightly.
“Try to be a little more composed from now on, okay?”
He reached out to wipe my tears away, but I turned my head and avoided his hand.
I took several steps back.
“Dr. Brooks, we’ve already broken up. Don’t say things like that to me anymore.”
At that, Ethan almost laughed in anger.
“April, are you done yet?”
Even Nina looked at me with disapproval.
“Don’t say that just because you’re upset.”
To be honest, the two of them were actually very alike.
Neither of them could ever take my words, my feelings, or me as a person seriously.
I forced a mocking smile, then turned and left.
In the days that followed, Ethan gave me the silent treatment all on his own.
On top of that, I deliberately avoided him, and before I knew it, two weeks had passed without us speaking a single word to each other.
But as one of the hospital’s star doctors, gossip about him never stopped in our department.
One rumor said that to help Nina recover, he brought her chicken soup every single day without fail.
Another said that the two of them had coauthored a paper in a major medical journal and been praised by the hospital director.
When my coworkers tried to ask me about them, I only shook my head and said I did not know.
One afternoon, Nina suddenly stopped me.
She reached out and tugged at my sleeve as if nothing had changed.
“April, just because you’re fighting with Ethan, you’re ignoring me, your best friend, too?”
“You two are unbelievable. You’re both so stubborn. Let me give you an opening. Just meet him halfway this once, okay?”
Looking at the best friend I had spent so many years with, I suddenly felt a cold, unfamiliar distance between us.
We had clearly known each other longer, and I had clearly done nothing wrong.
So why did she always take Ethan’s side?