Please Like Me (Lauren/You)

Ham

"Have you spent time with your mom while she's elevated before?", the nurse asks me.
"Yeah, I think so", I stammer, following the lady around the white calm corridors.
"So you're okay, you know what to expect", she makes sure, glancing at me from time to time, which actually makes me start to feel quite anxious as I shove my hands inside my pockets.
"I thought I did until we had this chat."

We reach the designated doors, and while the nurse lady allows the entrance with her card, I deeply sigh and fidget with the 'visitor' sticker on my coat, bracing myself.
As soon as the nurse begins pushing the door, before I'm even inside, I hear mom yell, in a high pitched voice, "Whoo, ooh, sweetie!"

I see mom jumping towards me while the nurse shuts the door behind me. I look around the room, it looks quite dead. Except for mom, of course. There is a fare share of beds around, each with a side table and a curtain around, a couple of them with tired people lying down.
I look back up, as mom runs over, shaky hands holding a cup of tea, smiling excitedly.

"Ooh, this is Y/N!", she yells to some of nurses around, "Didn't I tell you about her? Didn't I say she was beautiful? Oh, hi, oh, sweetie"
She hugs me tightly, as I hesitantly put my arms around her back.

"I'm sorry about my hair", she chuckles, pulling away, "They won't let us have a hair-dryer in here."
I nod, as mom looks around the room, frowning, "No, it looks fine, it looks good. It looks normal", I assure her.
"Or phone chargers", mom goes on, "or cords at all, like, just in case we...", she motions her hands above her head, as if she was hanging herself, "you know", she laughs.

I let out an awkward giggle, removing mom's hand from my head as she tries to comb it with her fingers, "Erm, what are you feeling, how are you doing?"
"Good, I'm great!", she perks up, "I'm really, really good!"

She laughs at herself for a short while, before pointing at an old lady sitting on one of the beds, "Yeah, I'm better than her", the old lady eyes mom, looking outraged, "because she tried to commit suicide and that's why she's in here. I mean, she's gotta be at least 80, why don't you just let her go?", mom faces a nurse.
"I'm 86", the old lady slowly speaks up, as mom silently gawks at her, before grabbing me by the coat and pulling me to another corner.

I uncomfortably follow mom, putting my hands back into my pocket, as she enthusiastically keeps on talking, "Y/NN, the food is so good! We had pavlova last night and then there's cake every night, like, there's every single night we can get cake!"
"Like Marie Antoinette", I mumble and mom laughs, "Erm, they're taking you out of here today."

Mom's eyes go wide and her eyebrows go up, as she sighs in relief, "Oh, gre- oh, great! Oh, cause I'm feeling really good, Y/NN! Better than ever, honestly, really, really."
She's rapidly shaking my hand, as I awkwardly try to cut in, "No, mom-"
"We should do something to celebrate!"
"No, mom, no, they're just letting you out of ICU", I calmly tell her, placing my hand on her shoulder, as she frowns at me, "They're sending you into the other part, just to the regular part..."

Mom's face suddenly turns very pleading and she starts mumbling my name in a whiny voice, while grabbing my rim of my coat, "No, no... Y/N, no! Y/NN, please..."

And as I uncomfortably stand still, not quite knowing what to do, mom slowly melts down to the floor, getting on her knees and hugging my legs, whining in a baby voice "Please, let me come home, please! Please, let me come home!"
"Okay, okay, Rose", a nurse steps in, removing mom's arms from my legs and holding her by the shoulders, "Rose, Rose, listen to me."

I subtly step away from mom and the nurse, cornering myself into a wall, as I quietly watch mom sob grabbing the lady's hand. As I start anxiously sweating, I unconsciously cross my arms agains my chest, leaning onto the wall and looking out at the window.