“Hey.” The doctor had this ugly mustache on his oily face. It was so horrendous that I couldn’t even look at it. I instantly turned my gaze to the checkered floor. The devil smiled at me calmly.
“Would you mind taking a seat on that bed right there?” The doctor nodded to a leathery bed. Well, leathery was the wrong word. Sure, it could’ve been made of leather, but it didn’t feel like it. It was hard and cold, like ice. How could there be ice in hell?
The devil was still smiling, although her lips were lying. She didn’t want to do this to me, I knew. Mom wouldn’t suddenly throw me into the car and drive me here. There had to be some kind of an explanation. I sat on the bed.
“My name is Dr. Florez. Right here,” he pointed to the woman next to him, “is Meranda Briggs. She’s a nutritionist and she’s here to help us, ah, you.” I looked coldly at the woman. She was pretty. Meranda Briggs had blonde hair pulled back into a bun. Her blue eyes twinkled and churned my stomach. Oh, gosh. I could not be falling for a twenty-something year old lady.
“Hello,” Meranda Briggs said. “I’m here to help you. That’s all. I just want to be your friend. May I be your friend?”
I’m not a first grader, you idiot!
I nodded, but otherwise kept silent.
“Okay,” she said smiling. She looked down at a clipboard that she was holding. I noticed her fingernails. They were painted blue with black swirls. It kinda reminded me of the ocean. Man, I hadn’t been to the ocean for ages!
“Well, before we begin we need to discuss your goals.” I must’ve looked blank or something, because she added, “Goals are things that you want to accomplish. I know that being overweight nowadays can be really challenging. You get called names at school. You get made fun of constantly. Life’s no fun. Nobody likes it. Do you? Do you like being overweight?”
What kind of a question was that? I could feel hot tears begin forming behind my eyes. This was exactly why I didn’t like going to the doctors. They were such freaking hypocrites! I was sure they didn’t eat all of their stupid fruits and vegetables. They probably pigged out when they got home. I swiftly glanced at the doctor. He wasn’t exactly thin either.
Hypocrites. That’s all they were.
“No,” I answered curtly. The devil shifted in her chair.
“Well, then, would you like to lose weight?”
All eyes were focused on me.
“Yeah.”
Meranda Briggs stared at me for the longest time. Her eyes – those wonderful blue gems – seemed to dig into my brain and extract all of the answers she wanted from me. But that wasn’t enough for her. Oh, no. She wanted to humiliate me by making me admit I was fat.
“I see. Would you commit yourself to healthy eating habits and regular exercising?” Meranda never lost eye contact with me.
I shrugged. “I guess…” I was blushing and knew it. I anxiously looked around the room, trying to find something other than Meranda Briggs.
“Well, Dr. Florez and I have come up with a chart that you could keep. If you’d like, I’ll give it to you.” She held out a paper in her hands. I glanced at it with mild interest. The devil stared at me and cleared her throat. I took the paper.
Bringing it closer to me, I saw a chart. There were a bunch of different lines and boxes with empty spaces.
“In the middle there,” Meranda said and stood up from her chair. She walked over to the bed I was on and pointed to a middle box. “In the middle, you put your goal. On all of these arms that extend out of your goal, you put specific things that you can do to reach your goal.”
“Oh,” I said and bit my lip.
“Here, I have a pencil. Go ahead a put your goal in.”
I shakily took the pen the Meranda Briggs lent me and scribbled: lose weight. Meranda seemed satisfied with my answer. She sat back in her seat, leaving me with the pencil. The devil shifted again to read what I had written. I swear I saw a smirk on her face as she read it.
I hid my answer with my hand.
“Okay,” Meranda Briggs continued. “Now list five things you can do to lose weight. It’s not that hard. I can name a couple if you’d like.”
Oh, yes. Oh, yes, I would.
“You could run around the block every morning.” I quickly scribbled that into an arm that extended from my goal. I looked back up to her, expectantly.
“Um, let’s see… you can eat an apple for breakfast, and fruit with your lunch.” Again, I scribbled her answer. “Now you can think of three more.”
I signed inwardly. What else was there? I got the two basic ones, right? Eat healthy and exercise. What more was there?
“How about no soda?” Dr. Florez recommended. I nodded.
“And no ice cream,” the devil added. I glared coldly at her.
Meranda Briggs smiled politely. “I think that it would be better if he answered these himself.”
The devil said, “Oh, yes. Of course. Sorry.”
“There,” I muttered and set the pencil down. My goal was to lose weight and my five other things were running around the block, eating apples, no soda and no ice cream.
I sighed. These were all of the things that I couldn’t do. What about the things that I could do? I mean, I would have to eat something! Was everything off-limits?
I raised the paper up for Meranda to take, but she refused. “No, that’s yours to take home. It’s your goals. I’m going to set a challenge for you now, okay? Do you feel up for a challenge?”
I nodded vacuously.
“I want you to work on this goal for one week. That’s not too bad. One week isn’t that bad at all. All you have to do is follow all of the things that you listed. Before you know it, you’ll be dropping the pounds like they were flies.”
My doctors’ appointment ended about there. Dr. Florez didn’t say anything. He just gave me these weird looks and examined my body the entire time. I sorta liked Meranda Briggs. Just a little though ‘cause she was that likable kind of person.
But on the ride home with the devil, she said she was sorely disappointed in me. She also said that I didn’t need dinner. She told me I had eaten enough for lunch as it was.
I locked myself in the bathroom that night. I was trembling. Everything that had happened was so wrong. I was fat. I wanted it to go away right then and the only was to do it was to flush it down the toilet.
My hands were trembling as I raised them to my mouth. It was all suddenly very vague as I stuck my fingers down my throat. Then I was gagging. Gagging, gagging, gagging. It wouldn’t come up. Why wouldn’t it come up? All of the fat was in my stomach. If it went down the toilet, then I wouldn’t be fat anymore.
I jerked my hands out of my mouth and clutched the toilet seat. C’mon. I have to do this.
Taking deep breaths, I did it again. I stuck my two longest fingers in my mouth and gagged. Come up. Come up, you freaking barf.
Before I could even comprehend what was going on, it flowed out of my mouth like a river. The hot and spicy puke burned my tongue, leaving a horrible aftertaste.
I wiped my mouth and stared into the bowl. My fat was in there now, swimming. With a look of disgust, I flushed and it disappeared.
I lifted up my shirt and realized I was still fat.
<== The only bawling smilie I could find. Still doesn't cut it!
I should pay attention to that next time I go. 
The mom doesn't even act like a mom. It bothers me so much. 
Maybe drop it to just Meranda, though? To show his crush on her, going for a first-name basis. It works well either way, though.
