“Senna. Senna come on, get up!” Frowning a little, I scrunch my eyes closed more and flip over, dragging my thin pillow over my head. His voice still penetrates through though, telling me to wake up and get dressed. No matter how hard I try, I can’t ignore it. Finally, I throw the pillow in the direction of his voice and sit up, ignoring the head rush I get. “Good, you’re up! I have a surprise for you. Get dressed.”
He stands there, holding the pillow, watching me. I glare at him for a few moments, nearly expecting him to get a little bit frustrated and walk out. However, he doesn’t. Instead, he just picks out some random sweats and a t-shirt from my small dresser, and tosses them at my face.
“I’m not kidding, Senna. Get dressed.” I frown a little at his change of tone, but try not to upset him further. Gripping the clothes against my chest, I stand up and walk out of the room, heading towards the bathroom at the end of the hallway. Luckily, Caden doesn’t follow me to see if I follow his directions. He must already assume that’s what I’m doing, which is right.
As I take a quick shower and get re-dressed, dumping my clothes in the laundry room on the way back to my own room, I can only hope that his ‘surprise’ is good. There shouldn’t be any reason why he of all people should wake me up before breakfast unless it’s an emergency. Just as I get back to the room, the bell rings for breakfast. Caden pushes past me, tossing my pen and pad of paper at me as he does.
“Come on! Jeez, you are so slow.” He rolls his eyes, waiting for me at the top of the stairs. I pick up my fallen pen and paper from the floor where they landed, then walk as slow as I can over to where he is. “Oh very funny. Damn.” He takes off down the stairs, not waiting for me to catch up. A little bit afraid that I’ll lose him in the crowd of patients going to breakfast, I hurry my pace up and catch up to him at the doors of the cafeteria.
We get our food then sit down at our usual table. Caden practically inhales the oatmeal in front of him, and I fully expect him to choke on it. He doesn’t, however, and finishes in record time. I pick at the mush in front of me, scooping some onto my spoon and noting how it falls back to join the rest with a mushy plop. I barely get down a few bites before I begin to feel a little sick. I’m sure nothing is wrong with the food, it’s just the consistency. It’s very thick, and hard to swallow.
“Done? Good, come on.” He grabs both of our trays and dumps them, then leads me out of the room and into the hallway. I’m a little confused as to where we’re headed, until the path starts to get a little familiar.
Sun room?
I show him the words and he nods, not saying anything. His pace slows a little as we get closer, and he nods respectfully at some doctors that we pass on the way there, while I just roll my eyes and look straight ahead. When we get into the bright, sunlit room, I don’t expect to see Becca standing there, talking to Griffin, my previous doctor.
They both look up as Caden and I walk into the room. Becca smiles widely at us and Caden smiles back. Griffin just stands there looking a little un-interested at us both, then glances at his clipboard. I, however, just sit down in one of the chairs and wait for whatever is going to happen, to happen.
“Senna, God, stand up.” Caden says impatiently, before I can even get comfortable. I glare at him, about to bluntly refuse, but I see a glint in his eyes that makes me get up. He looks at me for a moment, and then back at Becca.
“I’m guessing you haven’t told her why she’s here?” Becca asks, and Caden shakes his head. “Well then this is going to be a surprise. Senna, as you know, Caden has taken a liking in your case. And well it’s kind of become our mission to get you better, at least as ‘better’ as you can be.” She pauses, as if to let the words sink in. I just look at her, eyebrows raised.
“Oh just get on with it.” Griffin mumbles, and for once I agree with him.
“You’re going outside today!!” Becca and Caden announce in unison, as if they’d rehearsed it. It takes a few moments for the words to take effect in my mind, but when they do, I’m shocked.
Outside? As in… with the trees and the grass? Not encased in walls made of concrete and glass? I can feel my eyes get wide, and my heart skips a few beats. My hand is shaking as I write something down on my piece of paper.
NO.
The two of them read it, and frown. “Well, I’m sorry to say but you have to. I’m asserting my right to tell you what to do as your doctor and psychologist. You are going outside whether you like it or not.” Becca states, a hard edge to her voice.
“I’m here just in case something goes wrong and you flip shit.” Griffin says, butting into the conversation, and then shutting up. I look over at Caden and he just looks back. I definitely won’t be getting any help from him then.
Fine.
With that one word, I’m pretty sure I just gave the two of them hopes that I probably will get better. If only it were true. If only I wasn’t going to just disappoint them in the end, like I’ve disappointed everyone else.
***
Hope you liked it!
My computer screwed itself over so I might not be able to make some updates for a while but I’ll attempt to do them on this computer, even though it’s sooooo slow.
Only like… 20 more days until summer, guys :3
- Lexi