The Creep.

Chapter 27- Fresh Starts

                                                                        -One Week and a Half Later-

We pull up at the house. It still looks about the same as I left it. A memory of all the things I did while my parents were gone, flash through my mind. I push it all out of my mind. "It's time for fresh starts", I say to myself. I see a Malibu in the driveway, but it's newer than mine was. I immediately get a moment of reminiscence and ask my dad "did y'all get me a new Malibu??" And he immediately goes "No.. that's your Mom's. Remember? You and her both had Malibu's. You think we would have a brand new car waiting for you after you almost DIED in the hospital because OF a car wreck?? You're funny." He laughs, and I roll my eyes, and playfully say "Well I was getting tired of the Malibu anyways." I laugh so that he knows I didn't mean it in a disrespectful way, that I was just joking around, but I'm telling the truth, I was in fact tired of the Malibu. I still love and appreciate my baby, she got me everywhere I needed to go, but she was definitely tired- and underpowered-.

We get out of the car, and walk inside and I'm on edge. I don't know why because I've walked into this house so many times, I can't even count it. I've lived here my whole life. Actually, I do know why I'm so nervous. My Mom's here. That would make sense. I immediately decide to walk to my room, and when I walk in, my room is... different. It's clear that someone changed something around. I say to my Dad "what happened to my room?" He responds with "Ask your Mother.." with a condescending tone in his voice. I say in my head "Yeah, no thanks, I don't really want to face her yet.." but unfortunately, to my dismay, she pops around the corner, and looks me up and down. Dramatic, much? Didn't really need to sneak around the corner like that, we all know you were probably listening to the whole thing.

She says "I changed your room around, because it needed a change. I also needed to get rid of all the "triggers" in your room." I get a confused look on my face and say "....triggers..?" And she says "Yep. Triggers. Homosexual triggers. There was plenty of them in here. Let me walk you through them. The cheetah print blanket is gone, into the trash..." I wait for a pause and say "Uh... I'm pretty sure you bought that for me, though. I originally didn't want it.." I say it carefully hoping not to set her off, but she just ignores me and continues " Your Apple TV is gone, it's replaced with a Amazon Fire Stick with parental controls on it, because your Apple TV was too fancy, and I couldn't figure out how to change the settings." My eyes go wide and I say "You threw it away..? I paid for it, with my money though.." She cuts me off ands says "Doesn't matter, you brought it into this house. What was wrong with your old Roku? I was just beginning to figure out how to work it, why'd you switch?" I think to myself in my head: "You just answered your own question, but let me hush." I say out loud "...Okay. Are you going to pay me for the Apple TV?" She glares at me then says "How much was it?" I say "$60." She immediately says "No." without hesitation, and I just shrug and think to myself "Well, that's done." 

She continues on with her rant of the many things she got rid of, and all I can think of is how soon it'll be before I can drive again. I'm not staying in this house. I'm already starting to suffocate in her overbearing personality, again. When she's finally done, I just say "Okay" and go to crack my door so that it's almost closed, but not fully closed, like I always do. I know that she wants to say more, but I'm at my breaking point, so I need to get away from her, before I explode. I think to myself "Let me figure out when I can drive." 20 minutes later, I come out of my room and grab the keys to my Dad's car, and unlock it, and grab all of the medical papers from the passenger seat that I left, when I came home. 

I lock my Dad's car, and take those papers inside, and grab my phone and dial the number with my doctor's name next it. It rings for a bit, and then finally I hear the familiar nurse from the front desk's nurse and I brief her on who I was and asked to speak to the doctor. To my surprise, she remembers me, and asks how I'm getting settled in, and immediately forwards me to the doctor's line. It rings for awhile and I'm a second away from hanging up, but then I hear his voice say "Hello" which catches me off guard. I repeat my same speech of briefing him on who I was, and then once he finally remembers my case (or pulls it up in his case files, probably) he finally asks me how I was feeling, and what I had a question about. I say "Well, I know it's probably too soon, but I was wondering when could I start driving again?" He's silent for a moment, then finally responds with "Well, if your mind to it, you could technically drive... today. You're healed enough for it, but also, driving is really complex, and you have been in a coma, so your reaction times might have gotten slower, and you might feel some discomfort. Also, psychologically, driving, right this moment, might not be the best, as you could have some triggers. Is there any reason why you might want to drive so soon? Is it emotionally-related, or are you simply just asking out of curiosity?

After that slew of words, I'm pretty much speechless and it takes me a second to respond. I finally say "Um.. no. Well, yes... It's complicated. I was, in fact, curious, but I just... need to feel like I can breathe again, and that's how I feel whenever I drive." He's silent for a moment then finally says "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you would benefit from a referral to maybe a therapist. Just hearing you right now, gives me the sense that there's a lot going on, but you can't really say, or don't want to say, and I don't blame you. How does that sound?" I sit there in silence, thinking about it so long that he says "Hello? You still there?" I snap out of my trance and say "Yeah, I'm still here, Uh.. I'm just thinking about it." He says "How about I just send you the information on a trusted therapist that I know personally, and you can set up a booking with him, if you would like." I finally say "Sure, that works." He says "Okay, I'll send it to your email."

He pauses for a moment and says "Also, Mark?" I wait for his response and he says "... I'd give it about 2 days to a week before I'd start, okay?" I smile and say "You're the doc, so okay." He laughs and I finally get off the phone with him, and sit in my room, and look around at all these unfamiliar surroundings. This is definitely new. Not exactly what I had in mind though when I was thinking about fresh starts, but looks like I gotta play this game with my parents, to my advantage. 

Game time.