Pop 8
Leo knocked on the office door like it owed him money.
"Come in," came the clipped voice of Dean Ricketts. “Have a seat.”
Leo stepped inside cautiously,
the fluorescent lights above him flickering like they knew something he didn’t.
The Dean was tapping furiously at her keyboard,
her silver bob perfectly still,
her glasses sliding halfway down her nose like they were
too exhausted to deal with him today.
“Good afternoon, Dean,” Leo said,
voice overly polite, like a child apologizing in advance.
He instinctively covered his student ID badge with his hand.
The Dean glanced up, one brow lifting as her gaze flicked—briefly
but unmistakably—to the blank barcode on his badge.
She went back to her keyboard.
Her tapping made Leo more anxious. It feels like forever, Leo starts to sweat.
“So, Leo. How’s everything going?” she asked, fingers still dancing over the keys.
Leo forced a smile.
His palms had already started sweating.
He stared down at his pants.
Fuck.
He’s even sweating down “there”
His thin white Nursing uniform pants left very little to the imagination.
He’s totally holy nervous to the highest level.
Really Fuck.
Leo instinctively covered himself with his backpack.
“I think… everything’s okay?” He shifted in his seat.
“Is there something I should, um, be worried about?”
Dean Ricketts smiled.
It was a wicked smile. Like she knew something.
Not the warm kind—more like the smile of a cat who’d already caught the mouse.
It was not mean. It’s just weird.
Her smile feels like that kind of smile that at any moment
someone’s going to jump at your back and suddenly cling wrap you and ditch you so you can’t be
found at who knows where.
And as you’re being hauled away, you knew that she’s still smiling.
As if time froze her lips to give you that kind of “smile.”
“I understand your situation.”
Leo’s soul left his body.
He’s totally fucked up. Or she will fuck him up.
“You… you do?” he whispered.
The Dean nodded, sighing as if carrying the weight of all barcoded burdens
in the nursing world. “I know what you’re going through.”
Leo’s heart cracked. That was it. She knew.
The barcode. The truth. Deportation, maybe.
Leo stared on the phone next to her computer.
Is she gonna make the call.
Or did she already made the “Call”
Instinctively Leo looked back at her office door.
Because it feels like at any moment an immigration agent would rush in and handcuff him.
A tear gathered in the corner of his eye.
“I see,” he whispered. “I don’t want to cause any trouble.
I understand how I put you on this difficult position. Honestly, it’s been a privilege—”
He started to rise dramatically, like a soldier walking into exile.
“I guess there’s nothing more to discuss. I’ll grab my stuffs from the locker and—
I guess you will need this”
Leo took off his ID badge.
“Leo, what are you doing?” Dean Ricketts cut in, clearly baffled.
She handed Leo his ID back
“You don’t have to pretend,” Leo said, turning with glassy eyes.
“The missing barcode? Everyone sees it. Everyone knows.
It’s obvious.” He paused, voice barely holding steady.
“I should go—while I still have a shred of dignity left to walk out with.”
The Dean blinked. “It’s probably a printer issue. You can retake the ID photo.
Do you want me to call the clerk?
Please Leo, take your seat back, let’s talk”
Leo froze. “Wait. So… you’re not kicking me out?”
Dean Ricketts leaned back in her chair and actually laughed.
“Leo, where did you get the slightest idea that I was kicking out my top nursing student?”
Leo stared at her, mouth open.
“Because… I don’t… I thought you said you understood my situation—”
“I do,” she said gently. “But that situation isn’t what you think it is.”
She leaned forward, her voice soft but steady.
“Leo, I know what’s going on. I get calls—every week—from the hospital.
Nurses. Former students of mine who’ve worked with you during your clinicals.
They’re proud of you. They’re recommending you to their supervisors.
They see a great nurse in you… and so do I.”
She paused, her gaze firm.
“You might not know this, but one of the patients you helped after surgery—
she called me. She said you stayed when everyone else forgot about her.
She was bleeding out in that operating room, and you caught it.
You saved her life, Leo.”
She smiled, almost tearing up.
“That eye for detail. That instinct to protect. That heart to serve.
That’s what makes a nurse. Not a barcode.”
Folding her hands over her keyboard. “With that said, I actually called you here to ask for a favor.”
Leo blinked twice. “A… favor?”
She nodded. “My nephew. He needs to pass his clinicals
this semester or he can’t take the state exam. He’s supposed to be here, but I don’t know
where he went, he’s always been like that ever since my sister….left…this life”
Leo tilted his head. “Sorry. It must been hard for him”
The Dean slowly nods as she stared at Leo with spacey eyes, “He was only two.”
The Dean opened a manila folder on her desk.
It practically exploded with glossy magazine clippings,
runway shots, and a very large, very shirtless poster folded in half.
“He’s a model” she said, completely deadpan.
Leo leaned forward slowly, eyes squinting.
The photos told the story before the Dean could.
Tristan—yes, that Tristan—staring smoldering into the camera, abs chiseled,
hair windswept, mid-lunge in a tight white briefs.
A few more pages revealed red carpet shots, influencer collabs,
and an editorial where Tristan was lying across a hospital gurney,
holding a stethoscope like it was edible.
He’s in his Nursing uniform.
“Don’t be fooled with those Nursey outfits, he’s just playing. To him this is all
a game.”
Leo looked up. “Okay, but it seems to me he built a really successful modeling career,
what’s wrong with that? He doesn’t have to be a Nurse if he doesn’t want to as he
already proved that modeling is his thing.”
The Dean sighed.
“That’s what I initially thought. But that doesn’t change that I made my sister a promise
on her death bed, you see Leo, she wanted him to become a nurse. I have to see it through.”
Leo nodded slowly, still absorbing the sheer number of shirtless Tristan photos in one folder.
“Last semester he failed clinicals,” she said. “Because of… an incident.”
Leo narrowed his eyes. “An incident? I hope nothing horrible like life and death horrible”
The Dean tilted her head. “No, nothing like that. Just… a minor disruption.
Some inappropriate flirting. With a patient. With a nurse. With a doctor. With the hospital clerk.
With the ambulance driver.”
“Oh it seems like he’s really big on flirting”
“So,” she continued, “I need your help, Leo. You’re patient. Responsible.
You scored highest in empathy and bedside manner.
If anyone can keep Tristan from flirting his way out of a license—it’s you.”
Leo swallowed. “So… you want me to be his handler?”
“I want you to guide him. Make sure he completes his clinical shifts.
Correct him if he goes into his flirty mode again.
Report back to me if he tries to skip. And maybe… teach him something along the way
like how to be a great Nurse.”
Leo looked down at the folder again. Tristan’s gaze from a cologne ad seemed to mock him.
“Ok I’ll do it,” he said finally. “I owe you Dean Ricketts, you’ve helped me a lot”
Dean Ricketts nodded, pleased. “You can keep the folder. It might help to know what you’re dealing with.
And here’s the key to his apartment,
from time to time please if it’s not too much to ask I like you to stay with him
or to just check up on him, for that you will be compensated”
Leo’s phone vibrated. The Dean smiled.
Fuck. She just sent him two thousand bucks.
“Leo, I trust that my nephew will be in good hands with you. And I promise to do things on my end like
regular 2K”
“But you don’t have to, I’ll do it without any compensation just having me on the Nursing program
is enough..it’s everything to me.”
Before Leo could continue to protest, the Dean’s phone rang. She smiled at Leo,
this time there’s kindness and sweetness on her smile. “Excuse me Leo, I have to take this, it’s from the school board”
she said, already reaching for the receiver.
Leo stood up slowly and turned toward the door, gripping the scandalous folder with all ten fingers.
“Oh, Leo?” the Dean called after him.
“Yes?”
“Tomorrow’s your clinicals right, can you check Tristan’s pocket for me, make sure he doesn’t bring
a condom again on his first day of Clinicals. He got into trouble for that last year.”
Leo blinked.
He blinked again, still in shock at how he found himself mixed up on this situation.
Make it stand out
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