Cry Until You Bleed

22- Surprises

Weekends are always the best part of the week here at Bernard’s and that is especially so this weekend. The big reason being the fact that I won’t have to face Dr. Lombardi until Monday when she starts asking me questions and nagging at me about how I handled Honesty Circle yesterday. It obviously wasn’t my fault that I had to throw a tantrum but I don’t think that she will have the same perspective on things as I do.

The other reason that this weekend is particularly going to be a good weekend is because, now that Dr. Lombardi has recognized that my relationship with Niles isn’t a bad thing, Sophie isn’t restricting his backstage pass to the crazy house anymore and I talked to him yesterday over the phone. He said that he’s going to stop by today and we can hang out for a little while. It’s been a little while since I’ve actually seen him in person, so this should be interesting.

“Okay, so tell me again how you didn’t get in trouble for leaving your honesty circle?” Mia wonders incredulously as we’re having breakfast on Saturday morning.

I just shrug. “I don’t know. I just told the nurse that I stormed out and she just took me to go see my brother, who was waiting in the visiting area for me. She didn’t even give me a disappointed look or anything. I was surprised by it too.”

“Maybe she’s just going to let your therapist have at it,” Mia suggests. “You’re really going to get it.”

“I know that,” I sigh. “It’s their fault though. They’re the ones who forced me to contribute to the circle and look at what happened when I did that- everybody just freaked out. Mainly me. It’s really just not my thing, this whole honesty circle thing. It’s so stupid.”

“I like it,” She tells me with a small shrug. “But I guess it’s different for everybody. It is really stupid that they forced you to tell your story though, they don’t usually do that.”

“Well, Dr. Lombardi didn’t really force me, she just told me that I wouldn’t have to go back if I really tried. I just really tried and it blew up in my face so I won’t be trying that again,” I explain to her. “Maybe she’ll take sympathy on me and not make me go to honesty circle again even though I broke the deal.”

“You didn’t break it,” Mia defends. “You did what you said that you would do, didn’t you? You gave it an effort.”

“Well, yeah, but I also left forty minutes early,” I say. “But I don’t know. I guess I’ll see what happens on Monday.”

“Oh hey, look who it is,” Mia says randomly, eyeing something behind my back. I turn around to see what she’s looking at and I notice Niles walking into the busy cafeteria, his eyes roaming around the large, loud room. “Your not-boyfriend.”

“It’s a much faster way to just say ‘friend’, you know,” I remind her, rolling my eyes at her. When he looks in our direction, I offer him a small wave. He waves back and then starts heading towards us.

“Nope. He’s still way too attractive to only be a friend,” She tells me with a playful smirk.

“I still think that’s really judgmental to base your opinion only on looks,” I remind her with a long sigh. “But if you refuse to acknowledge him as just a friend, you could try calling him by his name.”

“Call who by name?” Of course, Niles chooses this moment in time to interrupt our conversation as he sits down on the seat beside mine.

“Nobody,” I say quickly, motioning towards Mia, who is sitting across from me, nibbling on her pancakes now. “This is my friend, Mia, and this is Niles. I don’t know if you guys know each other or not.”

“No, I don’t think we’ve met. But hi, it’s nice to meet you,” Niles tells Mia with a friendly smile before returning his attention to me. “When you’re done eating, meet me outside. I have something to tell you.”