The Heartbreak Games

Fat Chance

I wasn't ready to see my mom. Somedays it felt as if I didn't have one anymore. A mom was supposed to reassure you in your times of struggle, not drop you off at a mental hospital for some nurse to be your caretaker now. A mean one at that. she surly shouldn't be in the medical field she was neither warm nor sweet at all. Unlike my shrink or my afternoon nurse. Just then like I was summoning her or something she was in my doorway with a familiar pasted on frown.

"Your mother is on the phone," she offered in a tone that I made me cringe.

"Okay thanks," I tried, following her to the visitation room to sit on a metal stool next to a phone with a 90's yellowing cord connected to it.

"Hello?" I started.

"Shane?" My mom sounded busy and I could hear voices in the background. She better not be throwing a welcome home party. I can see it now. 'Welcome home from the Looney Bin' and having people bombard me with questions that I don't care to answer.

"Who else?" I answered annoyingly thinking about the party she may or may not be planning.

"Glad to see that your positive attitude has stuck," she countered.

"Yeah I guess the electro shock therapy didn't work as well as you hoped," I laughed. She didn't think this was funny, at all.

"Are you kidding me?" she blurted.

"What are you calling for I thought you were picking me up?" I questioned. Let me guess she decided that it has been nice without me there so she adopted another daughter and is letting me stay in here.

"I still am, that's if you still want me too," she sounded hurt. "The doctors said that you have been progressing well. They haven't gave me any other news I guess you told them not to."

"Yeah I just wanted my problems to be mine,"

"Well I will be there in about an hour, I had to run some errands and things like that,"

"Okay,"

"Okay,"

"Bye,"

"Bye, love you."

"Yeah same," I ended the call. I could see the nurse give me a disapproving look. She was probably monitoring my phone call on the other side of that glass. I gave her an awkward smile as the nicer nurse lead me back to my room to pack up my belongings that I had brought here with me. most of it clothes that didn't fit me anymore so I was forced to wear scrubs because I refused to ask my mother to buy me new clothes. Plus that would just giver her satisfaction of me losing weight. I wanted it to be a surprise.

"Are you ready to go home?" Mrs. Mellissa asked folding my favorite sweatshirt into a nice neat square.

"I guess so, I kinda missed my room and not having to be chauffeured around like a pet." She gave me a look and I took that as a back off look. Due to her being probably the closest thing to a parent that I had since being admitted.

"Do you think that your mom will be surprised to see you?" she knew that she hadn't come to visit me and that our phone calls that we did share every so often were very brief.

"I think that she will be happy to not be the mother of a fat child." I answered bluntly.

"Well I think she will be delighted," she smiled in a sympathetic way.

"Fat chance,"

I saw my mother's car appear around the hedges that lines the parking lot. My heart beat fastened as she approached the doors. I clutched my bag with my right hand and held onto the waiting room chair like it was going to run away if I let go for even one second. She walked up to the front desk surpassing me.

"Hello I am here to pick up my daughter Shane Bender, she was in the east wing for-"

"Mom?" I said standing up for the first time in the fifteen minute wait for her.

"Shane?" she answered turning around. Her eyes widened as she stared me down. "What? You didn't-"

"I would have if you had come," I started. "Yeah I guess the topic never came up,"

"I can't believe it, you're smaller than me!"

"Yeah well I wanted to see you in person, and I didn't know when that would be so, here I am."

She just stood there and looked at me like I wasn't really me. Like she couldn't believe that I actually did it. Maybe she thought that she was going to pick up a daughter that was over 175 pounds when in reality I was 130. I couldn't help but feel a big sense of satisfaction.