Cami still felt her left shoulder heavier than the right, although it has been couple days passed since she had a hangover. This day, traces of her pounding head still surfaced from time to time while she was completing her shift; and just like the first day, she found relief with an ibuprofen which she was about to take for the third time within that day.
Cami reached her right hand to her left shoulder and began to grip her shoulder with heavy force on her fingers; as if hoping that the pressures on her fingers could somehow help to relieve the pain on her shoulder. She was also confident that the pill that she took would eventually take effect and aide her pain. After all, painkillers have been humanity's savior, she believed. Got a headache? Take a painkiller. Got a toothache? Take a painkiller. Got some Inflammation and injury? Take a painkiller. Heartbroken? Cami's mind went blank for couple of seconds
Why can't an ibuprofen relieve the pain of a heartbreak too? She wondered. After all, heartbreaks are classified as a variety of pain too. Only it was a type of pain specific to the heart. If an ibuprofen blocks the production of prostaglandins after an injury or infection which will then cause pain, or swelling of a certain area of the body; then why an ibuprofen could not block the same pain caused by traumas of a break-up? Surely, a break-up injures the heart; an organ in the body made up of tissues of which produce prostaglandins that an ibuprofen was made to block once taken in
Imagine the billion dollar profit an ibuprofen can make in addition to its already lucrative industry once it can also cure heartbreaks. Add to it its non-addictive property, making it unlikely to cause addiction on both heartbreaks and painkillers eventually. In the end, people would benefit greatly with this breakthrough as treating one's broken heart is as easy as treating one's hangover. Does your head ache from a bad hang-over? Take an ibuprofen. Does your heart ache from a bad break-up? Take an ibuprofen
Essentially, hangovers and heartbreaks are parallel emotions stemming from the same sensation, of which is regret. Regrets of losing your grip, of losing control. While a hangover makes you regret taking another shots of that tequila after you clearly instructed yourself not to; a heartbreak is that feeling of regret for letting yourself believe in the idea of relationships again after you have just told yourself not to as well.
Hangovers come the morning after you spent the night partying hard, after you let yourself drink one shot after another oblivious of the possible consequences of it all just because the night was so much fun. In the same vein, heartbreaks come after you realized how you were made oblivious of the consequences of the temporary highs of being in love. You were made to live in the moment, that blissful moment when everything was just all fun and laughter; you were giving more love than you can give like you were taking in more shots of the tequila more than your body can take. Until the morning comes and hangovers start to kick in. You feel so sick you struggle to get out of bed, to do nothing but to play the memories of the previous night in your head and scrutinize every scenes in it if you have done or said something stupid. You feel sick and disgusted at the feeling of drinking again, even at the sight of another shot of tequila makes your stomach churn. It does sound exactly like nursing a heartbreak. You spend all day in your bed playing in your mind the scenarios of the breakup, and if you have done or said something stupid to trigger it, or caused it. You felt sick of the heartbreak you felt too disgusted of loving again, the mere idea of it makes your stomach churn.
However, ibuprofens could only cure hangovers for now, and not heartbreaks. Probably the reason why broken hearted people tend to drink heavily in the hopes of inflicting themselves with bad hangover the morning after, then take an ibuprofen hoping that their heartbreaks, too, will be relieved by the painkiller along with their hangovers.
Cami silently walked towards the corridors as she finally settled her thoughts regarding the need for an ibuprofen to cure heartbreaks. It has been her habit to have her mind wander somewhere far to kill time especially whenever it is her final hour of duty. The last hour before the end of work hours have always been the longest to her, and it always seemed to be the slowest to pass by as well. So slow of the time to pass by she had once seen herself got lost in the fancy images of her and her then ex-boyfriend's wedding, then to her giving birth to healthy pairs of twins, a boy and a girl; to even her growing old with her then ex-boyfriend. But since those dreams were taken away from her, she then had herself constantly lost imagining things with much significance to the entire human race. Like how she would end hunger, or stop bashings online and in social media, or how to make ibuprofens cure heartbreaks same as how they cure hangovers; and how to finally obtain lasting world peace.
Few minutes into the end of her shift, Cami was fixing papers on her hand while walking towards the next curvature at the hospital's corridors. Before she could turn right, she felt a slow tap on her left shoulder, the same side which has been in pain for days. Naturally, her impulse forced her to take a sudden twist to face the intruder, who caused pain to shoot up from her shoulder to her head making traces of discomfort smear on her face;
"Ouch!" she squealed
"Oops, I'm sorry!" a man responded with both his hands raised in the air
It was him, the man that Cami saw at the hospital doors, who was trailing behind a stretcher where a bloodied man was lying days ago.
She noticed how his pair of eyes seem to be sucking her in now that she was looking at them closely. Those deep and silent stare seemed to be forcefully pulling her in closer despite the gloom that has been lurking in them.
"How may I help you, Sir?" she stuttered
"Are you okay?" he paused as he leaned in closer to her, "you seemed startled"
"Oh no, I'm fine, really" she brushed off the awkwardness that has started to build up inside her, "I just didn't expect someone tapping me here in the dark corridors. Plus, it is kind of quiet in here. And you know, creepy. I don't know about you but I totally didn't expect somebody to just jump off of me. I mean, that is freaky. But I am totally fine, actually" she flashed her fake wide smile again
"Honestly, I have been calling out to you. You appeared to be pre-occupied so I just thought I'd follow you," he responded calmly
"Right. Papers on hand? Yeah, here!" she shook the hand that holds the patient's profiles as she let out an uncomfortable laugh, "And I am kind of on duty, though I'd be out in a few minutes. But still, nurse on duty, and papers on hand. Pre-occupied with these papers?!" she continued with her forced laugh
"Oh, I am so sorry again, miss" the man continued to raise his hands in the air, "I was just trying to find the way to the pantry"
Cami retreated smiling hardly, and in its place she put an enquiring glance as she stared longer at him;
"Sure. No problem. I can definitely tell where the pantry is," she paused "this is weird. He just asked me the same question just last night" she told herself;
"Thank you, miss" he responded firmly
"Just straight ahead. Then take the stairs to go down one floor and turn right," she consciously answered while watching the man looked at where she was pointing him to go, "Just turn right once you are one floor down. There are no other way but to go right, since it is totally a dead end on the left of the staircase down there"
"I appreciate it," the man nodded then silently retreated into the corridors
"He might have still be in shock for whatever happened to the man in the stretcher that he came with. I just told him the same instructions last night to find the pantry. Either that or he is just simply dumb to remember plain instructions" she whispered again to herself while watching him walking towards the stairs
The man with the quiet eyes took a last glimpse at Cami's direction, gave her a grateful nod before he stepped in to climb the stairs up;
"Sir! Sir!" Cami called out from where she was standing, her sudden loud voice echoed through the corridors, "you'd have to go down the stairs. You want to go to the pantry so you would have to descend one floor down. Down!" she enunciated the last word purposely
The man in dark coat stepped back in a hurry and then threw her a look of embarrassment. He nodded his head again, this time, slowly and heavily. He then stepped his foot to the stairs going down as he mouthed the word "sorry" to her
"He really is weird!" Cami whispered as she sighed a breath of disbelief while watching him descend the stairs.