Electric Current: Not Past

Please Don't Go...Go!

The next morning, I didn't fight the nurses when they said that my mom was here. I took my medicine and ate without complaint, ready to be away from the chemical smell. I don't know why they think bleach can hide the smell of sickness.

"Here, I brought you some clothes."

Mom tosses a bag on the made bed and leaves the room to give me privacy. I didn't expect her to pack my binder, but I still felt disappointment upon seeing the regular bra in the bag. I shove the clothes on quickly and grab Nura's gift bag before leaving the room.

Mom was chatting with one of the nurses at the front table, but she walked over when she saw me. She pulled me into a hug and I wanted to melt into the floor just to get out of it. She wasn't squeezing too tightly or suffocating me, it was just her...

A lot of my views on my parents changed that night. I never thought they would hurt me and they did, both mentally and physically. What was worse was they weren't even really sorry. They didn't believe what they did was wrong and nothing I said would change that.

"You ready to go? I thought we could stop by and get some actual food on the way."

"No thank you. Can you just drop me off at the school and I'll walk home in a bit."

She looks down at the gift in my lap and nods, switching lanes so we could head to the school. School was already out, but Nura was a busybody. I already knew for a fact that she'd be there, either labeling and shelving books or reading.

Mom didn't even come to a complete stop before I jumped out of the car and shut the door, running toward the middle cafeteria doors. They were locked, but when I looked through them, I saw the library lights on.

Denki: I'll be at the school in a few minutes.

I put my phone back in my pocket and hide around the corner of a stone column. Fast footsteps approach and the lock jiggles. When she opens the door to check if she unlocked it, I jump out of my hiding spot. "Boo!"

She squealed before pulling me into a hug. 

"I'm so glad you feel better. Don't you ever do anything like that again!"

"I will." I say softly, rubbing her back. 

We pull away and she leads me inside, past the cafeteria and to the empty library. She looks at me excitedly when I sit down and motions towards the unopened gift. With deliberate slowness, I start taking out the colored tissue paper, making sure that I can't see what's inside.

"Real mature..." Nura says playfully.

I eventually get to the point where there is no tissue paper left—only the mystery gift. My hand brushed against it a couple times while I was removing the colored paper, so I knew that it was some type of fabric. Clothes, maybe.

Tears start falling down my cheeks when I pull the cloth out. It was a binder in almost the exact color as my skin. Christa and I had searched for an hour and we couldn't find anything close enough to my fair skin. Nura pulls me into a hug and runs her fingers over my spiky hair.

"I showed my granddaughter a picture of you and she helped me find it. If it's not the right size, then I still have the receipt. I had to estimate."

"Can I go try it on?"

"Of course!"

I rush to the bathroom and put the straps over my shoulders, snapping the small metal clasps in the front. It was almost a perfect fit and, after rearranging the cloth a bit, my chest was completely flat. My other binder still made a little dip, but this didn't even have a wrinkle.