บททั้งหมดของ The Used Checkup: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 8

The smell of alcohol reached me before Brandon Kaiser even walked through the door.I set my phone and the bill side by side on the coffee table.He paused and glanced at me. Without saying a word, he crossed the room, sat down on the couch, and pinched the bridge of his nose."About your mom's membership card…"He leaned back and rubbed his temples before continuing in a casual tone, "When Goldie came down with acute gastroenteritis, Alana panicked and called me. I happened to have the card with me, so I used it.""That was my card," I said. "I got it for my mom.""Your mom hadn't arrived yet. There was no point letting the card go unused," he countered.My grip tightened around my phone."She went to the hospital today. The nurse told her there was no coverage left on the card, so she paid 398 dollars out of pocket. All she received was the basic exam. They didn't even check her bone density."Brandon looked up at me. His lips parted as though he wanted to say something, but

That weekend, I took Mom to another Juniper Hospital location and paid out of pocket to add a bone density scan and tumor marker screening to her exam.While she was in the examination room, I waited on a bench in the hallway.A large screen was built into the wall across from me, playing promotional videos for the company's various facilities on a continuous loop.When it reached the segment about Juniper Pet Center, the video switched to a live stream titled, "Behind the Scenes at Juniper Pet Center with Alana."Alana sat on an examination table with Goldie in her arms. Brandon stood beside her, holding an ultrasound probe as he explained the cat's digestive tract to the camera.Comments scrolled down the screen, overlapping so quickly that they were almost impossible to follow."The boyfie really knows his stuff!""The boyfie looks so good today!""Look at how sweet he is with Goldie!"Alana smiled into the camera. "Stop calling him that! He has a girlfriend."Rather than

Brandon had the morning shift the next day.I heard him leave. The lock clicked behind him, and his footsteps gradually faded down the hallway.When I sat up, a narrow strip of sunlight slipped through the curtains and fell across the receipt on the nightstand. It lay open on the surface, the printed figure of 398 dollars nearly bleached out by the morning sun.I got out of bed and started packing.Everything in the closet went straight into cardboard boxes. I didn't sort anything by season or color. T-shirts were crammed in beside puffy winter coats.The bag of apples was still sitting on a shelf in the refrigerator. The bag had been tied with a loose knot, and the apple skins were already beginning to wrinkle.I took it out, turned the bag over to check the other side, and then tucked it into the bottom of my backpack and zipped it shut.My best friend, Megan Cooper, arrived at 10:00 am carrying a roll of packing tape and a fresh pack of trash bags.The first thing she notice

Juniper Group circulated its internal disciplinary notice on Thursday.Megan forwarded it to me, first sending a screenshot and then adding, "Serves him right."I clicked on the image and skimmed the notice."Former director of the Marketing Department, Brandon Kaiser, has received a formal reprimand for misusing internal access privileges to charge a customer's account and provide company resources to a third party."He'll be transferred out of the Marketing Department, demoted, and placed on disciplinary probation."I enlarged the screenshot and read it again, checking every line to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Once I was certain, I closed it.Alana released her apology statement 12 hours later.By the time it appeared in my feed, it had already received well over a hundred thousand views. She had written three long paragraphs, but they all boiled down to one excuse."I had no idea. Someone else arranged it for me."She never mentioned Brandon by name. Throughout the