surgeon, but I guess some folks ain’t never happy with how they look.
Barrett puts his hand on my knee, and I force myself to sit still.
“You know, if you’re nervous, we don’t have to do this,” he says, and I scrunch my forehead, trying to figure out what he’s going on about. Course I’m nervous; we’re talking about lasers on my face, but I’m doing this for him. He’s the most handsome, wonderful Daddy in the world, and he deserves someone on his arm he’s proud to show off. A few lasers on my skin are more than worth knowing it’s true when he calls me his pretty boy.
“I want this,” I tell him firmly.
He sighs, tightening his fingers against my knee and not saying another word. It’s weird, I thought he’d be more excited after I told him about a surgery that could make me look normal, but he don’t seem too thrilled about it.
“Mr. Davis?” The nurse in light pink scrubs calls my name, and I take a deep breath to calm my nerves before standing up. Barrett stands right along with me, twining his fingers through mine.
We head back through a set of doors and into an exam room that’s so white it’s almost blinding. I feel like I’m stepping inside a spaceship.
“What brings y’all in today?” she asks politely, fixing the blood pressure thingy around my arm, like she can’t see the giant red and purple splotch covering half my face.
“I wanna be taller,” I deadpan, earning another bland smile from the nurse and a snorted laugh from Barrett. “You from Texas?” I ask, noticing her accent.
“Sure am,” she answers, jotting some things down on my chart and taking the cuff off my arm. “All right honey, the doctor’ll be right in for ya.”
I fidget nervously on the table, crinkling the paper and anxiously watching the door while Barrett picks up a few of the pamphlets on the counter and flips through them.
I tried to read up about the procedure a bit before scheduling the consultation, but there were a lotta big words and stuff that I couldn’t make heads or tails of, so I ended up giving up. All I could figure was that they blast your skin with lasers until it starts to look right. As long as the doctor knows the rest, that’s good enough for me.
The door swings open and a man right around Barrett’s age steps into the room. He ain’t anywhere as handsome as my Daddy, but he ain’t bad looking neither with dark hair, kind eyes, and a square jaw that looks like it was straight off a Ken doll.
“Sterling, right?” he asks, stepping forward with his hand outstretched.
“Nice to meet ya.” I shake his hand and then point at Barrett. “I hope it’s okay my boyfriend is with me?”
“Of course,” Dr. Randall says, greeting him with a handshake too. “Now, let’s take a good look at what we’re working with.” He sits down on a rolling stool and slides in close, staring hard at my birthmark while I do my best not to squirm or duck my head. I glance at Barrett and find him watching sternly, like if the doctor does something to upset me, he’ll rip his arms right off. I suppress a giggle, some of my nerves floating away just knowing I got my Daddy right here with me.
“I love you,” I mouth at him silently, and he smiles, making my belly feel warm and fluttery.
“All right, so from what I’m seeing, we have a couple of options for various laser treatments, but I have to warn you, due to how dark the pigmentation is, I don’t expect we’ll get anywhere near fully removing it. I think a realistic expectation would be a thirty percent reduction, and over time, it may start to darken again.”
My stomach sinks so fast I might’ve collapsed if I wasn’t already sitting down. “Thirty percent?” I repeat, sure I heard him wrong.
He nods. “Could be less, might be more, but I’d rather we keep our expectations realistic. I’ll know more after the first treatment.”
“You…” I swallow around the large lump filling up my throat. “You can’t get rid of it?”
“With Nevus Flammeus, or port-wine birthmarks, it’s extremely rare that we can achieve full removal. Typically, only when they’re already fairly light and small to begin with,” he explains, and I bobble my head numbly. I shouldn’t’ve got my hopes up so high, but I did, and now I think I