Before He Met Her

Chapter Thirty

Several weeks have gone by now and school would be starting up soon. My parents were supposed to come in today for a meeting with my assigned therapist to discuss some things. I was feeling very anxious about them coming to talk about things.

"So, are you gonna eat your lunch?" The cook asked Hilary. "Oh, right." Hilary said to the cook as she began to pick up her fork. I on the other hand wasn't feeling too well at all. I couldn't even stomach the feeling of having a full stomach right now. I didn't want to eat, I couldn't even mange to take a bite.

  "May I please be excused?" I asked as I shoved my tray aside. "You haven't eaten anything though." My nurse said to me. "I can't, I feel queasy." I said to her. "I'll take you to the exam room then." She said to me. "Is that really necessary, I'm sure it will pass." I said to her. "What's going on here?" Mark The one that caught me purging in the lobby bathroom that night said to us.

"He refused to eat lunch and he feels sick to his stomach, so I thought I'd take him to the exam room." The nurse explained to Mark. "Before you do that, I'd like to talk to him in private." Mark told the nurse as he walked with me to my room. "You can talk to me, I won't judge you Thomas." Mark told me. I nodded my head as I tried to think of where to begin.

"Was it your lunch that made you feel overwhelmed?" Mark asked me. "We'll that's part of the problem." I said to Mark. "What else is it?" Mark asked me. "My parents are coming in for a meeting to see if I'm going to be ready to go back to school or whatever." I told Mark. "Well that's, good I mean isn't it?" He asked me. "Depends on how you put it." I said to Mark. "What do you mean by that?" He asked confused.

"Well, it's just that I don't know if I'm ready yet." I said anxiously. "You've been improving so much lately though Thomas." Mark tried reassuring me. "Thanks." I said nervously. "I just hope that you don't feel pressured to go home if you don't think you're ready yet." Mark said to me. "Well, I mean I guess I'll have to see what they say today." I said to Mark.

"Try to relax somehow and just be patient with yourself and keep on fighting your disease, I believe in you Thomas." Mark said to me. "I'll try my best to take your advice and try to beat this." I said to him. "That's what I like to hear." He said to me cheerfully.

"So tell me what was it about your lunch that has you feeling overwhelmed?" Mark asked me. "The whole milk because it's full of fat." I explained as I nervously bite my nails. "Is that all?" He then asked me. "Pretty much, yeah I mean I've pretty much gotten used to everything else except full fat stuff and sugary foods, certain carbs I'm okay with eating now." I explained to Mark.

"Thomas, everything that you just told me I'm proud of you, it seems like your list of fear foods is somewhat shrinking." Mark explained to me happily. "I guess, I mean I didn't really think of that but I think you're right." I said to Mark. "I've been keeping everything down for weeks now." I explained. "That's an even bigger improvement." Mark said with a big smile on his face.

"So If I take you back to the cafeteria will you try to eat something off of your tray?" Mark asked me curiously. "Sure, I can try to eat something I suppose." I replied to Mark. "All right." Mark said as he took me to the cafeteria back to my seat. "You good man?" My roommate asked me. "Yeah, I'm fine." I said to my roommate as I began to eat my apple slices.

****** Later on that day ******

I was in the conference room with my parents and my therapist. They were discussing how I've been doing since the last meeting. I was zoning out on and off and tapping my foot and leg up and down. It was a habit that I picked up when everything happened to me and I ended up here.

"So, I talked to the wrestling coach and I'm sorry but he feels that it would be best for you to not return until you've fully recovered." My father told me. "I see." I said sadly. "There are plenty of other things that you can do until then." My mom said to me. "I know, but that was my favorite thing to do." I said to her.