“It’s nothing serious, but I have to go to the hospital later.”

Tom and Jess stood at their post behind the sales counter.  Business was slow, anyway.  Tom could have taken the whole day and his coworker would have easily handled the registers.

“Oh, are you okay?” Jess asked, turning toward him, concern widening her eyes.

“Yeah, fine.”

“Did your mono come back?”

Tom looked at her for a moment, unsure of how to respond.  “I’ve never had mono,” he finally told her.

“Really?” She shifted her weight and made a face that reflected deeper thought or memory diving.  “I thought you did.”

He shook his head, leaning against the counter.  His fingers ran over the keys of his register, tracing a line of random numbers.  “I’m just going to see a friend.”

This kind of thing happened to Tom all the time.  Whether he was visiting a hospital or making the most of his youth out in public, people tended to assume that the young man was dying.  Some time last year, he’d gone to brighten a friend’s day after a procedure.  He’d sat waiting under the bright, ghastly hospital lights, skimming a newspaper to pass the time until he could go through the swinging doors.  An elderly woman had approached him and stood over his waiting room chair for a moment.  When he’d looked up from his article, she’d smiled sadly.  “You’re so brave.  Bless you.”

Jess laughed as Tom told her the story.  “What did you say to her?”

He shrugged.  “Nothing.  I didn’t know how to respond!  She just walked away after that.”

“That’s wild,” Jess verified.  They paused their conversation as a customer came up to the counter, used book in hand.

“Have a nice day,” Tom chimed as the patron walked away with his new purchase.  “It’s terrible,” he then told his coworker.  “I could be standing at the vending machines with a bag of Cheetos and I’d get a million sympathetic glances.”

“I’m guessing that’s not a hypothetical situation?”

“Nope,” he replied.  “That’s also happened.”  Jess grinned, but Tom sighed.  “I mean… I’m a healthy guy.  The most I’ve ever dealt with was an ear infection I had when I was ten.”

“Well,” Jess admitted.  “Your appearance is a little deceiving.”

“I can’t help being thin.”

“Yeah, but a bodysuit would look baggy on you.”

“Gee, thanks.”  Tom absentmindedly rubbed the sharp angles of his wrists.  He wouldn’t mind embodying an extreme of the human physique if people didn’t so constantly express their discomfort with his form.

Jess tended to a customer, then looked back to her coworker.  A faint smile remained on her lips, but she sounded sincere when she said, “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t make fun.”

Tom shrugged again, more conscious of his bony shoulders than before.  “No, I mean… it’s fine.  I’m used to it by now.”
...

At the hospital, a total of eight people held doors open for Tom as he walked through the building.  He wished he could chalk it up to common courtesy, but the concerned shine in each person’s eyes betrayed each projecting hypochondriac’s true motivations.  Tom couldn’t help but glance at his tall reflection in the glass of a darkened hospital room as he passed by.

By the time he got to Sylvia’s room, he was relieved to at least see a face that wouldn’t crinkle with undue sympathy immediately upon seeing him.  He tried to return the favor as he neared her hospital bed.  She looked basically normal, healthy.  She even smiled slightly as Tom approached.

“Hey, Sylvie,” he greeted.  They high-fived gently, as was their custom, though now they were both conscious of her rounded but bandaged wrists.

“Good to see you.”

Tom sat down on the edge of the bed, folding a coarse white blanket aside.  “Are you holding up?”

She nodded.  “How about you?”

He also nodded.  “Guess how many people held doors for me.”

Sylvia had been in on this joke for quite a while; she’d even been present for several similar incidents.  “Five, maybe?”

“Eight,” he told her.

“Wow,” she replied with a slight grin.  Then she sighed and reached for Tom’s thin fingers.  “Isn’t it weird how backwards people are?”

“So many assumptions,” Tom agreed.  “And all the wrong ones, it turns out.”

Once more, Sylvia nodded.  They sat in silence for a moment longer before a nurse stepped into the room, a sympathetic smile fixed on her cherry red lips.