>>"Wow. I don't think I could do that. Working in the E.R. You sure are something, Ms. Juliette."

"Thank you," Juliette laughed. "It gets easier once you've done it for a while, though."

>>"I'm an artist. Most of my stuff is shown is small studios or commission work. Not as exciting, huh?"

"No, that is exciting!" Juliette enthused, "I've never been able to draw anything more detailed than a stick person. Have you shown anywhere recently?"

>>"No, that is exciting!" Juliette enthused, "I've never been able to draw anything more detailed than a stick person. Have you shown anywhere recently?"

Now this was a topic Sarah could get into. Her art was one of her favorite topics. Well art in general was. "I have a lot of pieces on display at Trust-ing Arts. It's a little gallery about five streets from here." Sarah stopped herself before she could go on about her work. "Uh, not trying to be rude but if you get me going I may not stop," she laughed at herself. "Though I bet you have plenty of fun stories of work too, yeah?"

>>"I have a lot of pieces on display at Trust-ing Arts. It's a little gallery about five streets from here. Uh, not trying to be rude but if you get me going I may not stop."

"That's alright," Juliette told her honestly. "This is interesting. I don't usually have many conversations that don't end in someone being injured."

>>"Though I bet you have plenty of fun stories of work too, yeah?"

"I have a few," Juliette admitted as she sipped the last of her coffee. Man, it had gone really fast. "I think I'm going to go order another coffee, and then maybe we could swap stories?"

She stood up holding her mug and reached out for Sarah's. "Do you want another one?"

>>"I have a few. I think I'm going to go order another coffee, and then maybe we could swap stories?"

"Definitely."

>>"Do you want another one?"

Looking down to her mug, Sarah was surprised to find her mug almost gone. "Yeah, I would thanks. Let me get some cash outta my wallet."

She knocked back the last of her drink before handing over the mug. Once her hands were free she pulled out a few bills and handed them over. The brunette wondered what kind of stories she could tell that would be entertaining to the nurse.

>>"Yeah, I would thanks. Let me get some cash outta my wallet."

"Don't worry about it," Juliette smiled at her and walked away with the two mugs. She ordered refills and returned holding two full glasses. "Here you are," the woman smiled at Sarah and handed her the mug.

"So, story time, I suppose?" Juliette asked rhetorically as she took a seat in her armchair. "Why don't you start?"

"Thanks," Sarah smiled as she accepted her new mug.

>>"So, story time, I suppose? Why don't you start?"

Sarah took a sip while thinking on which event would be the most entertaining to tell.  Finally she came with one.  "Okay, so my first show at Trust-ing Arts was with three other artists; we each had our own room, ya know? Now, there was another woman, one I knew sorta, and we decided to have a common theme for our rooms, since they were next to each other. We both were pretty into mythology at the time, so we figured we'd do that. I did Germanic myths and she did Japanese.

"Well, two weeks before the show, the two guys dropped out. Like just called and everything to let us know. So now the two of us have to fill the whole place by ourselves. Helena, that's the gallery owner, she asks us to come over to her place one weekend. We go, cause she's the boss. In her basement are four giant canvases. She tells us to 'go crazy' which the two of us take to mean do whatever.

"We already had a theme going for our exhibits so we needed another mythos to do. We had two not as known ones so we figured do one that people wouldn't have trouble figuring out," Sarah paused to take a drink.  "We end up doing Greek, because everyone knows the Greek gods. So we spend the weekend doing these four giant paintings together of various gods and goddesses.

"Day before the show, we're putting everything together. We start setting up the front area with the four canvases when the same two guys come in with their work. Massive confusion happens. They accuse us of stealing their spots. We argue that they quit. It goes on for, like an hour. Finally Helena shows up and listens to these two guys tell their sob story," Sarah was getting into the story now. "They didn't think they'd be ready in time. They were afraid of not having enough to fill the space. So on and so forth.

"Helena, and geese I love that woman, she listens all calm like and when they finish she asks to see a couple of their pieces. They show them to her. They're good too. Not like masterpieces or anything, but good. So Helena looks at them and then tells the guys 'Sorry, but the space has been filled. Next time don't drop out of your commitments.' Which yeah, they were stupid," Sarah stretched her legs towards the fire.

"Now, the show goes great, we sell a bunch. The other artist and I are still in contact, occasionally do work together. About three months after the show, we hear these rumors going around the community that there's a few artists that have been banned from showing their work. Come to find out, Helena called all the other galleries she knew and told them about these guys. From what I understand they still haven't been able to show any of their stuff. Lesson: Do not piss off gallery managers. They can ruin you."

Juliette sat quietly as she listened to Sarah talk. It had been so long since she had spent time with someone who wasn't injured, and she was enjoying the semblance of a normal life in her twenties.

She laughed at the end and sipped her coffee, "sounds like it. At least you got some pieces out of it, though."

"True," she agreed. It had been her first big show and most of her pieces had been bought. She had even gotten a few commissions out of it. "I do believe it's your turn in our little share circle."

"My turn?" Juliette asked jokingly. She had known it was coming. She tucked her legs into the side of the chair as she thought of an interesting story for Sarah. Nothing too gory, she decided.

"Alright. So it was almost midnight on a Wednesday evening. Now typically, we only get accidents like broken arms and concussions on Wednesdays. I mean, who does anything cool on a Wednesday? That night, though, was different. It was really weird. It started with one ambulance. It was just a senior who was puking and had a fever. Nothing weird, right?"

"However, that ambulance was followed by seven more ambulances and I think it might have been about nine cars. They were all filled with puking feverish seniors. So what do you do with twenty-five puking, feverish seniors in an already full ER? Before long, they had taken over every spare stretcher we had."

"So, as it turns out, they had all gone on a pub run, and they had all gotten food poisoning. Unfortunately, there as nothing we could do except give them fluids and send them home. Sorry, not a very funny story, but I couldn't really think of anything and I figured you wouldn't want to hear about Frat boys experimenting with *** toys and keg stands." Juliette shrugged and finished off her coffee.

Sarah listened to Juliette's ER experience. While amusing to know seniors still did pub runs, it wasn't exactly what she thought she would hear. Then again, her story hadn't been too humorous either.

>>"...Sorry, not a very funny story, but I couldn't really think of anything and I figured you wouldn't want to hear about Frat boys experimenting with *** toys and keg stands."

Sarah laughed. "Not quite but now I'm curious. The worst I got into in college was breaking into the science lab for liquid nitrogen." She paused as she remembered the adventure, drinking the last of her cider. "Alcohol wasn't really something we messed with. Mostly because my group all had day jobs, ya know?"

>>"Not quite but now I'm curious. The worst I got into in college was breaking into the science lab for liquid nitrogen. Alcohol wasn't really something we messed with. Mostly because my group all had day jobs, ya know?"

Juliette chuckled as she listened, "yes, well and you probably weren't part of a fraternity. Weird stunts seem to come with the territory. I can always tell you a tale of their misadventures if you'd really like to hear one. Although, liquid nitrogen does sound like a lot of fun. Did you do anything cool with it?"

Now this was a story Sarah liked to tell. College stupidity plus local monuments always equals an awesome story. Shifting a bit in her seat, the brunette turned more towards Juliette.

"Okay, so we went and got the liquid nitro. One of my friends was a chemistry major so we weren't too worried. He had told us everything we needed to be careful about, stuff like that. One of my friends had this van so we loaded it and all of us up and went to Troll Avenue.

"It's a part of Aurora Avenue where this huge statue of a troll sits under the bridge. The area was named after the troll. It's a pretty cool statue. People are welcome to climb all over it and just have fun. Sometimes people try to take Fremont's, the troll, eye, a hubcap. No one has succeeded as far as I know.

"Anyway, we climbed up to his head and shoulders. My brother had grabbed some almost rotten tomatoes from his work. Basically we dunked the tomatoes in the liquid nitro and threw them. When those ran out, one of the other girls and I went to a convenient store and got some other fruit. We ended up using more than half of the tank. No one had any spare money for the next two weeks. Not so crazy but it was fun."

"Well, that is a little crazy," Juliette pointed out with a laugh. "I would never think to do that. So, did the fruit just break into pieces or was there juice everywhere?" She questioned curiously.

"I've always imagined art students to be a little... Well... Square, to be honest. I guess you've proved me wrong. Although, I can't judge. I didn't really do anything cool in university."

>>"I would never think to do that. So, did the fruit just break into pieces or was there juice everywhere?"

Sarah grinned. "Shattered like dropping a glass vase on a concrete floor. It was pretty awesome to watch."

>>"I've always imagined art students to be a little... Well... Square, to be honest. I guess you've proved me wrong. Although, I can't judge. I didn't really do anything cool in university."

The brunette just chuckled. "We'll do just about anything if you frame it right. For art, I mean," she winked. "I've heard quite a bit about med students after finals. Any truth to it?"

Juliette laughed at the image of fruit shattering in her mind. She would have loved to see it in person.

"Well," Juliette thought for a moment, "I was a nursing student, so I can't really give you all that much info on medical students, but I hear they get pretty desperate. I can see some of the doctors I work with being that way, at least. Although, my year of nursing students was a pretty interesting bunch. There was a lot of drama between some of the students."