They Were the Stars, I Was Just in Their Orbit Chapter 02
At the dinner table, my parents could tell I was in a bad mood, so they kept adding food to my plate.
After I set down my fork, I took a deep breath and said, “I don’t want to be a nurse anymore.”
Their eyes widened when they heard that.
“Back then, didn’t you say you’d even take an extra year if that was what it took to get into a medical program?”
“Did something happen at work? Don’t give up on your dream so easily, sweetheart”
I shook my head in silence.
Medicine had been Ethan’s dream. It had never been mine.
It was only because, during an ordinary late-night study session our senior year, he had reached out to me and said, “April, try a little harder. Stay with me forever.”
Because of that one sentence, I threw myself into chasing after him without ever looking back.
From then on, what waited for me were countless obscure medical terms, precise and complicated procedures, and endless nights without sleep.
Things that came easily to other people took me ten times, or even a hundred times, as much effort.
After I started working, I had to stay vigilant every second, terrified that I would fail the patients who had placed their trust in me.
Even then, all Ethan would do was pinch my cheek and say, “Learn from Nina. Don’t be so careless at work.”
I was his girlfriend, but it had been a very long time since he had looked at me as an equal.
At noon the next day, after I finished writing my resignation letter, I ate lunch in the hospital cafeteria.
Nina carried her tray over and sat across from me.
As she scooped half of her mac and cheese onto my plate, she studied my face and asked, “Did you cry again last night?”
I looked up, not understanding what she meant.
Nina seemed surprised instead.
“Ethan and I were working too late last night, so we got a hotel room and crashed there for the night.”
“He said earlier that he forgot to tell you. He figured you’d make a fuss.”
I had slept at my parents’ house last night, so I did not know whether Ethan had come home or not.
Even if I had known, it did not matter anymore.
I kept eating quietly. “Oh. I see.”
Seeing that, Nina tilted her head and leaned closer in surprise.
“You really didn’t cry? Then looks like someone lost the bet. Pay up. Hand over the yogurt.”
Ethan suddenly appeared behind her and placed a bottle of yogurt in Nina’s hand.
Then he sat down beside me with a slight frown.
“Has our April finally grown up? If this had happened before, you would’ve made a scene for three days straight.”
“Hey, hey. April wouldn’t do that.
Then the two of them immediately started arguing about which one of them knew me better.
I sat between them, unable to hear anything clearly anymore.
The fork in my hand would not stop trembling, and a strange wave of nausea rose in my stomach.
The two people closest to me were actually betting on my emotions.
I slowly turned to Ethan and said firmly, “Let’s break up.”
For a moment, the table fell silent. Ethan stared back at me in shock.
“You…”
Before he could finish, Nina carefully leaned closer.
“April, are you mad at me?”
“Last night, we really were only discussing work. I didn’t keep Ethan there on purpose.”
At that, Ethan frowned.
When he looked at me again, the shock in his eyes had already turned into anger.
He treated my breakup as a tantrum and said coldly, “Enough, Nina. You don’t need to explain anything to her. She’s always this willful. Everyone around her ends up exhausted.”
Nina looked as if she still wanted to say something, but Ethan quickly pulled her away, leaving me alone at the table.
I dumped the food I had barely touched, then went to my department and submitted my resignation letter.
The nurse manager did not try too hard to talk me out of it. She only said the process would take a least a month to complete.