Obscurity

Chapter 5: WTF?

Alma

"What the fuck is your problem?" I growl at her through gritted teeth.

She laughs and plays innocent. "What do you mean?" I can tell she's mocking me. There's nothing innocent about this girl.

"Sierra, you're immature and I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me alone." I say leveling my voice. What I really want to do is punch her, but I'm not going to give her that satisfaction.

She continues to pick up her cards, pushing behind my chair to reach for a couple that flew past my head when she let them rip a few moments ago.

I stand up and move out of the way. I glance up toward the nurses station to see Chris coming our way.

"Is there a problem, ladies?" He asks.

"No problem." Sierra replies back dismissively.

"Actually there is a problem," I say. "I need this girl to stay away from me."

"Aren't you both in room 5?"

We both respond at the same time, "Yes."

"Well that'll prove to be next to impossible, won't it?" he says quizzically.

I roll my eyes and cross my arms. Sierra finishes picking up her cards and turns to go back to her table.

"Do you need to talk?" Chris asks.

"I need to talk to my doctor."

"I'm not sure any of them are coming in today. It's nearly dinner time, and they typically don't come this late." He says apologetically.

I don't know quite how to take this new information. I had bet all my hopes on seeing my doctor today in order to get out of this place and it's looking like I'm going to be here another night or two.

Tears begin to well up in my eyes. I just stand there. I don't know what to do to stave the inevitable flood of emotion that's about to break the dam of a wall I've been holding up since I got here.

"How about we go to my office and talk?" Chris offers. He sees my frustration with this whole situation.

I nod, and he leads me to an office adjacent to the nurses station. It's just a small room with no windows save for the large one in the door he closes behind us. He directs me to a chair, and I sit down. He goes behind his desk and takes his seat.

"What are you feeling right now?" he asks.

With that, the dam breaks. I begin to cry, huge tears trailing down my face and landing on my sweater. I try to slow my breathing but its impossible. I hiccup and gasp for breath as the emotion floods out of me.

After a moment he pushes his box of tissues across the desk to me. I take one and begin to clean my face up. I level my breathing out enough to finally respond.

"I'm so extremely frustrated with this whole thing," I begin. "I end up being brought here, for what? I don't have the slightest idea. Now, my so-called room mate will not leave me alone. She's pestering me constantly. I just want to be left alone. I want to see my doctor, so he can put in my release so I can get back to my cat and my life." I ramble as tears still fall from my eyes.

"You don't know why you're here?" he asks skeptically. I get the impression he does know why I'm here.

I shake my head. "I swear I have no idea."

"In your file it says you were brought in for a mental health evaluation because someone phoned the police and informed them you were a risk to yourself and others. That you'd made threats in recent days and that's why you're here." He explains slowly. He's careful with his choice of words, but it's obvious he's giving me this information probably verbatim from my file.