It was May outside, though you wouldn't know it. The rain outside was frozen and the wind was blowing so fiercely that the trees were bending over and people were chasing after lost umbrellas. Of course, Eve would have preferred to be outside rather than sitting in the Emergency Room of the large hospital. Her parents sat on either side of her with concerned expressions engraved on their faces. Peppy nurses bounced past them with blue scrubs and swinging pony tails, they occaisionally stared at Eve and her parents, as if they were asking why the normal looking family was there. Old dying people decorated the walls, in bed being shielded from the world by the metal rails and thin blankets. Eve sighed and started to play with her orange hair, looking at the ends and trying to find the lighter hairs.
The young girl sitting next to Eve had her arm in a sling. There were tears in her eyes and her father was standing over her with a protective aura surrounding him. Eve smiled at the girl and asked her what happened. They made small talk until the girl was brought up to the main counter. Another half an hour passed.
Eve's mother looked over at her with tired eyes. "Are you okay honey?" She asked.
Eve looked up and forced herself to make eye contact with her mother, she nodded and glanced at her father who was studying them like animals. Her parents were older than most parents. Since Eve was the youngest of two children, she was used to having older parents and never really thought they were old, until that day. She noticed how every single wrinkled was deepened with worry and sadness.
"Remember," Eve's father stated, "We are just here to get you help."
Nodding again, Eve kept herself from screaming. The smell of the antiseptic and the reflection of the fluorescant lights attacked all of her senses. After about an hour of sitting in the room, watching all of the people who were either in pain or hypocondriachs, Eve and her family were finally brought up to the main desk. There was an older nurse with frizzy hair and too much makeup hiding behind a wall of plastic and Eve looked at her with discomfort.
"So what brings you in today?"
Eve glanced at her mother who started to speak, "My daughter's depression," Her mother placed a hand on Eve's shoulder, "She was referred by the counsellor we were seeing."
The frizzy nurse nodded sympathetically and Eve looked down at her hands which looked colourful under the lights. They were like purple, pink, and green granite. A large machine stood next to where Eve was sitting and the nurse walked over and started to press the buttons. If this were a different situation, Eve would be curious about how the machine works and what it does, but she noticed that if she tried to hard to think about things, Eve's mind would implode.
"You seem physically fine dear," The nurse said with a nasally voice, "You can head into the examination room with your family now."
After all of the manual tests were done, Eve and her family were brought through a labrynthe of halls to a room with a large glass window and no furniture. The main point in the room was the bed, which was the same as all of the other beds in the hospital. The peppy nurse who led the left closed the curtain out side of the window so they could have more privacy, and Eve and her family were immersed in an intense green colour. The walls were cracked and the paint was peeling, even though it didn't look clean at all, it reeked of anitisepctic. Eve could imagine all of the crazy people who were put in that room so that the doctors didn't have to deal with them until they had to.
"So are you doing okay?"
I'm stuck in a hospital because some stupid man with glasses forced me into it even though being suicidal is perfectly normal for me, Eve thought, so yes mother, I'm completely fine.
Eve just nodded. She walked over to the plain bed that was in the middle of the room and sat down, exhaustion was creeping up on her but she forced herself to fight it. It was a little past nine on a Monday and everything that Eve did was seasoned with tiredness.
It was hours before someone came in to talk to Eve's family. The man who came in was small and loud, he was clad in the usual nurse's scrubs. Eve's mother started to talk to him, even though Eve was tuned out, she caught words like depressed, help, and admit.
Fear struck Eve in her core. She didn't want to be admitted into a hospital, that was for the really crazy people. All she did was try to kill herself... Again. It wasn't a really big deal to her, but if her family thought that she needed to go there, then she had to. It wasn't exactly her choice.
People laughed whenever she mentioned her trust issues, but how can you question her? The first person she truly confided in about thinking about jumping in front of a subway train, spilled all of her inner most secrets to her parents. Eve thought the point of having a therapist, or "counsellor", is to have someone to talk to without them telling anyone. But all that the counsellor did was betray her and send her to a hospital. So, trust issues.
A hand in front of her face brought Eve back to the real world.
"We're going to leave, okay?" Eve's mother looked at her with sad eyes, eyes that loved her and made Eve squirm.
Her dad nodded and looked over at Eve's mother, "I will be out in the hall and your mother will be outside having a smoke."
Eve nodded and looked down, she felt really guilty to have to bring them together on such bad circumstances. Even though they had been divorced for a long time, they still obviously didn't feel comfortable around each other.
As her parents left, Eve watched a tall man come into the small, decrepit room. Her parents stopped for a minute to murmur with him, before they left the room. The man leaned against the wall and sank to the floor, he looked over at Eve with tired eyes. All of the eyes that Eve had seen in the hospital so far were either sad or tired. Even the peppy nurses seemed to be putting on an exhausted act.
"So what's going on? Why are you in here, dude?" This man was obviously trained to talk to kids, or "youth". It was surprising to Eve that he thought he could get her to completely open up to him just because he said "dude".
Eve looked at the man in great disbelief. It was as if the awful sound of him saying "dude" brought her back into reality.
"Don't call me dude." She said, in a voice that made the man laugh in surprise.
