Love to Hate You

Chapter Nine

Lisa

"Look, Mom, she is maddening, but I will manage," I say down the line. "Cold showers are therapeutic, right?"

"Mmm, I'm not sure this living arrangement is healthy for your state of mind." I can practically see my mom's displeasure, even over the phone. "You have a stressful job. You don't need this on your plate."

"Mom, I'm fine. I'm busy working long hours at the hospital. You know, I had a few resuscitations today, so in the scheme of things, this is nothing. I don't even know why I brought it up. The next few months will fly by, and then I'll find a place of my own. Anyway, by the way this is tracking, she may even move out."

Jennie's pranks have been woefully amateur to date.

Cold shower. Whoop-de-do.

I spit out my special blend coffee. "Of all the..."

What the hell did she put in there? Salt?

"Are you okay?" asks Mom.

I sigh into the phone. "Fine, mom. Fine. Is Canny around? Can I talk to her?"

"Oh yeah, sure. I think she is upstairs. Just one second..."

Mom was a counselor, retired now, so she spent her life psychoanalyzing me. As a result, I would usually feed her the basics and skimp on detail, so it's surprising, even to myself, when I tattle on Jennie. Maybe I just need to offload. I've only been here for six weeks, so I haven't really established a circle of friends yet.

Sure, there's Jess and Destiny, also trainee doctors, down at the hospital. We have lunch together when we can, but they are just still acquaintances. It takes me a while to let people into my space.

My two best friends from home, Diana and Palisa, are backpacking around South America for six months. I can hardly pick up the phone and call them whenever I want. So, perhaps I'm a little lonely and am reaching out to Mom.

She helped me through my messy breakup with Samantha just over three months ago but was against me moving interstate because she thought I was just running away from my problems and not dealing with them. It is far from true, however, as I'm beginning to be at peace with my breakup. I'm still a little grumpy, but things are looking up.

It turns out that Samantha was just not my person; in fact, she was many persons. Her cheating with various town folk, the final straw in our relationship.

The first month was horrific. It was a real cryfest, and I spent most of the time cooped up at Mom's place.

When people meet me, they think I'm tough or, in some cases, prickly like a cactus, but I'm super soft inside, so I try to protect myself as much as I can.

Three months down from the breakup, and I'm a different person. I've realized that my relationship with Samantha had been shitty for a long time, and I had been spared from making the biggest mistake of my life.

So now it's my turn, my journey.

I am twenty-eight and have spent my whole entire life in Denver. It's time for me to spread my wings and find my feet, and if it means living with some frustrating, microwaving chatterbox with poorly pranks for the next four odd months, then so be it.

"Lis?" A sweet voice speaks into the phone, and I can't help but smile.

"Hey, Can," I say. "How's college?"

"Hellish. I hate all my teachers."

I laugh. "What? All of them? That's pretty dramatic."

"Every. Single. One."

Canny is my little sister. She is nineteen, and after dilly-dallying around, she has finally started her liberal arts degree. She was also diagnosed with MS last year. It has only made me work harder as a doctor and more passionate about health. At this stage, her main symptom is tiredness, but I know this can change in the blink of an eye, so I am always on top of the latest research and treatments.

Luckily being a doctor affords me a comfortable wage, so I put money aside each month for different types of therapy and specialists.

My mom raised us as a single mother after my dad passed away from a brain aneurysm when I was ten, and money has always been tight. I pay for Mom and Canny's medical insurance, but the MS is a whole other kettle of fish. It is incredibly expensive to manage.

I am actually looking into promising stem cell treatment in Russia, which is over a hundred thousand dollars, but it is taking a while to get there.

"When are you coming to visit?" asks Canny. "I miss you."

"Miss you too. In a few weeks. I found some new treatments to try and made a couple of appointments for you."

"Sounds thrilling," she says with all the enthusiasm of a wet blanket. "Can we just go to a bar and watch a band?"

Sometimes I forget that she doesn't want her whole life to be about her MS. She is a young woman, and she just wants to do normal things. But I just want to make her better. "No. Well, maybe after your appointments, okay?"

I can never say no to her.

"Okay. Anyway, I've got to run," she says. "I have a date with A. Love you! Bye!"

"You too. Make sure you take your - "

The phone goes dead. I tilt my face to the ceiling and exhale. God, I forget how annoying and self-involved teenagers can be. Even ones with MS. I'm pretty sure I was never like that.

~~~~~

A/N:

Another daily dose of L2HY ;)