Pop 3
Tristan’s hand quickly covered Olive’s mouth.
They crouched beneath the cold stainless steel table of the meds room, their knees brushing.
Overhead, Nurse Pam’s clogs clacked lazily against the tile as she steps inside the room,
immediately she started going through the built in wall to wall pill drawers to sort the meds out.
“I told you we can’t do it here,” Olive whispered, her breath hot with annoyance.
Tristan gave her a silencing stare and pressed a finger to her lips.
“Your roommate Petals is creepy. She keeps checking me out like I’m a snack she wants to swallow whole,
and she’ll definitely rat us out. Let’s sneak out of here, hit a hotel, maybe even back at my place—”
“A hotel?” Olive hissed. “I’m ninety, Tristan. If anybody finds out I’m hotel hooking up with a 21 year old guy,
I’ll be ruined, that will be the biggest nursing home scandal,
they’re gonna lipstick cover the toilet mirrors naming me as a predator.
Worse, I’ll be excommunicated from the afternoon Bingo sessions.”
“You’re not a predator,” Tristan said softly. “You’re my girlfriend. my everything.”
He pulled out an emerald necklace from his hoodie pocket
as he continue to monitor what Nurse Pam was doing, Tristan clumsily tried to fasten it around Olive’s neck.
He had trouble latching the necklace. Finally, he secured it at Olive’s neck.
“What’s this?” Olive whispered. “I told you Tristan, I’m not ready to go serious with you yet.
I’m still checking out what’s out there for me. I’m not yet your girlfriend. We’re not yet an item.”
“Olive, I got that. It’s ok, when I saw the necklace at the store,
I feel like, I’m seeing you. It’s just so you. You’re my emerald Olive. Rare, fierce, and priceless.”
Olive squinted at the stone. “Not sure about the fit though. Also, do you mind if I temporarily pawn this? Rent’s due
at this freaking place.”
“Of course, you can do anything you want. It’s yours.”
Tristan reached for his wallet, giving Nurse Pam a quick glance—
she was now seated on a stool, typing something into the medication database.
He handed Olive his debit card. “Use this.”
Olive’s eyes widened at the wad of hundreds inside his wallet.
“Would you mind if I took, like, a few of those?
Maybe buy myself something cute? A bag or I don’t know, something cute…like you know, a bag?”
“Of course,” Tristan smiled. “Anything for my honey-baby emerald.”
Suddenly, the pill room door clicked shut.
Nurse Pam had barely logged her final dosage when Sebastian burst in,
slamming her against the wall in a dramatic Kabedon.
“Sebastian?” Pam blinked, already tugging at her scrub buttons.
“You’re early. You’re rushing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m game for an early rush.”
“Pam, stop. I don’t have time for any sweet nonsense. I’m leaving Pam.”
“Leaving? What do you mean ‘leaving’? You just got here.”
“I’m going to Liberia.”
Pam gasped. “Liberia? Is this about that boyfriend again?
I thought we processed this. I sat through six therapy sessions where you cried over that barista. Six. Sessions.”
“It’s not about him, a boyfriend, or his girlfriend, or his girlfriend’s girlfriend!” Sebastian snapped.
“I’m in trouble, Pam. Real trouble. Military-Big Pharma-level trouble.”
“You’re dumping me... for government and pharma drama?”
Pam’s eyes welled. “Sebastian, I thought we have something going on.
We’re suppose to be the perfect match blessed by the powers of the universe.
What happened? Why are we talking about this right now?”
Pam starts unbuttoning Sebastian’s shirt.
She slides his lab coat off him, it dropped to the floor.
Sebastian kissed Pam.
Olive’s eyes are glued to the lab coat.
A small amber bottle slipped from the coat pocket—unnoticed—rolled across the tile floor.
It landed at Olive’s shocked face.
She quickly picked it up, squinting at the label:
CHRONO CELL RX: TEMPORAL REGEN FORMULA
Subject to instability. Do not ingest unless medically advised.
Olive raised a brow. “Instability is my middle name.”
She grab Tristan’s phone from his pocket,
which Tristan misinterpreted as Olive going for a quickie
she quickly AI search what the heck Chrono Cell Rx is all about.
She learned that it’s currently not yet in the market and still on the
testing phase, it promises to instantly reverse aging for five minutes per pop.
Olive’s eyes widened. She gasped in silence.
Nurse Pam reached for her boyfriend’s pants, she unzipped him.
As his pants fell to the floor, he continue to kiss Pam.
“Fuck going to Liberia. Just Liberia me now.”
Pam removed her Nursing scrub blouse and urge Sebastian to
cup her. “Go ahead honey, don’t be shy. I’m your Liberia visa right now.”
“Pam!” he snapped, grabbing her shoulders.
“I’m serious. I'm in trouble.”
Pam’s expression flickered. “Trouble? Like...Liberia trouble, like for real?”
“I have to leave for Liberia. Tonight. They’re sending me under a different identity. There’s no way out.”
Pam’s pants slid down around her ankles. “You’re seriously turning me on right now,” she muttered, half in awe.
Sebastian groaned. He snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Focus!”
“Rude.”
“Pam, listen to me— I got involved in something I can’t undo. I just came here to..see you.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to contact you again,
but I wanted you to know that if things had been different... I would’ve built a life with you. A real one.”
Pam slid dramatically down the wall like a melting painting.
“So this is it? It is true then, you have a Liberian boyfriend?”
“No!” Sebastian crouched beside her, tears swimming in his eyes.
“This isn’t about anyone else. I’m doing this for your safety. Please believe me.
I’m in deep shit, and I don’t want you to be on the same shit as I am right now”
Sebastian helped Pam to her feet.
She threw her arms around him in a half-hug, half-chokehold.
“Be happy in Liberia, you bastard. I won’t shed a single tear
for you. You’re not worth my tears.”
Suddenly her eyes flooded with tears.
He squeezed her back, kissed the side of her head, zipped his pants back,
grab his lab coat by the floor, then rushed out the door without another word.
Pam was sobbing when it closed.
Tristan looked at Olive. “So... are we gonna do something?”
Olive, now holding the Chrono Pill bottle, shrugged.
“Console her? She’s Nurse Pam. Give her thirty seconds.”
They peeked over the table.
Pam had already whipped out her phone and was adjusting her lighting ring on the counter.
Her tears vanished behind concealer in real time. She hit “go live” and beamed at the camera.
“Heyyyy guys! Sorry for the delay, I just had a mini mental breakdown—
but we’re back with another trauma-to-glam tutorial!”
she sniffled, dabbing under her eyes. “Let’s blend away the pain, shall we?”
Tristan stared in disbelief. “She’s doing a makeup tutorial?”
“Yep.”
“She’s technically a nutty, no that will be a compliment, I say, crazy as fuck.”
“Yep.”
Olive popped the cap on the pill bottle.
“What are you doing?” Tristan whispered.
“I wanna see what this does.”
“Olive are you serious, you don’t even know what that’s for—wait!”
“Relax daddy, I AI search it, my AI was like, the human testing resulted on 97.83 success rate.
I guess I can count on that.”
She tilted her head back and swallowed a single pill.
And in the blink of an eye—skin taut, cheeks flushed, hair thick and dark—
Olive transformed before his eyes.
She gasped, touching her face like she’d met herself for the first time in sixty years.
Tristan’s mouth dropped open. “You’re... you’re…”
Olive smirked, teeth like pearls. She quickly check herself under her blouse
to see if all is still there. Tristan was shocked.
“Young,” she said, and winked. “And now I need a bag to match this face.”
“You’re not really gonna pop another one, are you?—” Tristan began.
But Olive had already popped another pill.
“Holy shit,” Tristan whispered.
Olive smiled, now in the body of her 25-year-old self, cheekbones blazing.
“Ok, before we do anything hotel, I need to check with my parents first”
“But they’re like, six feet under?”
Olive smiled wickedly. “Exactly. Right now dream on lover boy, this bitch won’t go anywhere.
She will just stay here.”
Olive felt Tristan’s hand as she returned to her former self. She realized
that ten minutes was up. Each pill will only give her five minutes to stay young.
