Title: Pubic Lice

Prompt Used: Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. 

She bit her lip nervously as she waited in line at the hospital front desk. She had smoothed her hair a dozen times, but it wouldn’t make the nervousness disappear. She was nearing the front, and the people only seemed to piling up. There was no way she was going to escape embarrassment. She was going to be the freak again. She got to the counter, the nurse in charge looking incredibly disinterested, not even bothering to look her in the eyes. Yuna cleared before speaking sheepishly. 

“I was wondering if you had any cases of pubic lice…” She said, in her best attempt at a whisper. But unfortunately, it was clear that everyone around her heard her question, or two words of her question, more accurately. 

“Excuse me?” The nurse shot back in confusion. Everyone around her was eyeing her with the same perplexity, some even added a dash of disgust. 

“It’s for a project for my Entomology course.” Yuna explained quickly, whipping out the syllabus she had in hand. Her words became rapid, a habit she had whenever she was particularly bashful. “We have to collect tons of species of bugs, and the last on my list is pubic lice. I’m almost done with the project but I really need this!” 

“I’m sorry, miss.” The nurse spoke while questioning the legitimacy of the syllabus she was examining. “We can’t disclose information like that.” 

“Please!” Yuna begged as she instinctively lunged forward to grab the hand of the nurse. If someone wasn’t staring at her before, they definitely were now. “I’ve tried every hospital in the area. If I fail this assignment, I’ll have to grow maggots in my apartment to make up the credit. I don’t want maggots infesting my apartment!” 

The nurse looked around nervously. She rolled her eyes, agreeing reluctantly. She signaled another nurse to come to her aid, whispering the coordinates of the pubic lice patient in the nurse’s ear. Yuna simply stood smiling like a fool, glad that her desperation had helped her once again. 

Yuna skipped happily to the elevator, holding a tiny vile in her hand. Her entire semester had been spent cursing her poor decision of taking entomology to cover the advanced science requirement, and after all the time she had wasted studying in addition to collecting vile creatures, she was finally free. She was so happy, in fact, she began to coo at the insects that were barely visible. She was glad that she was the only one who was waiting for the elevator on this floor; after having been subjected to so many looks of distaste in her quest to get the crabs, she was more than happy to be free of judgement. 

Just as the doors opened, her phone rang, signaling that her best friend Minjoo was calling. Usually, she would be against talking on the phone in an elevator, especially to the less than polite Minjoo, for fear of being rude, but she thought this instance should be an exception since only one man around her age was in the elevator that had just opened. A man that would be incredibly good looking if it were not for the ridiculous mop of hair on his head. Yuna almost laughed at how hilarious he looked, sporting a serious face a horrifying hair style. She stifled the giggle, though, instead paying more attention to her friend on the other line. 

“I have the pubic lice!” Yuna yelled into the phone enthusiastically. Naturally, the man in the elevator with her glanced at her up and down before taking a giant, hardly subtle, step to his left. 

“God, why can’t you be normal?” Minjoo answered through the phone. She couldn’t see her, but she knew her roommate well enough to know that she was crinkling her nose, and most likely rolling her eyes. 

“If being excited about completing a seriously insane assignment constitutes as abnormal, then I will gladly bask in the lack of normality I am displaying right now.” Yuna said, her smile not leaving her face. Her counterpart, however, was not as cheery. After hearing the pubic lice comment, he kept his distance. He noticed the small vile the girl he previously thought of as unhygienic had in her hands, making him automatically classify her as a freak. Now, she was being an obnoxious freak. 

“Whatever, ant queen. Are we still meeting up later?” Minjoo asked, making her lack of interest in Yuna’s accomplishments clear. 

“I’d rather be the ant queen than the maggot queen, so I’ll ignore your tone and take that nickname as a ‘thank you for not turning our apartment into a maggot farm’. But sure, I’ll be there as soon as I drop these babies off at school.” Yuna lovingly stared at the hideous creatures squirming around in the glass tube. 

“Yes, please don’t bring those things with you. Later.” Minjoo called cooly before hanging up, not bothering to wait for Yuna to respond. Yuna rolled her eyes at the cold behavior from her friend before moving to lock her phone. 

In that instant of distraction, with the aid of the elevator’s abrupt jolt, the vile containing the pubic lice slipped onto the floor with a crash, sending glass everywhere, and setting Yuna’s grade free. 

“Crap!” She yelled out, looking for something to scoop the creatures with. It was too late; the man who had held his tongue for the duration of the ride stepped on them the moment they crawled out of their case. 

Yuna looked at the dead parasites in horror, then focusing her attention on the man who was dousing himself in hand sanitizer. Which was ridiculous, Yuna thought, considering he didn’t even put his hands on anything. 

“Are you crazy?! What the hell was that?!” Yuna yelled up at him. She was in an absolute panic, seeing all of her hope die before her. 

“I’m crazy? You were about to cause an outbreak of pubic lice, for Christ’s sake!” He matched her tone. 

“We could’ve contained them! You stomped on my project! I worked on this for weeks!” Her tone was now one filled with agony. She would be lying if she said she didn’t feel like she would begin crying every minute. What made it worse was that the elevator doors had opened, and there was a group of people watching the man look down in disgust, and Yuna looking like she had just seen her own mother die in front of her. It took little time for him to leave in a huff, checking his shoes every other step to make sure nothing was still with him. 

Of course Yuna had to stay and clean up, and receive a massive scolding from the terrifying nurse who had helped her.