All For Us (On Hold)

i. finding out

( chapter one. ) FINDING OUT.
❝ I HATE VOMITING. ❞

      IRENE WOKE UP AS A SUDDEN WAVE OF NAUSEA WASHED OVER HER, making her tumble out of bed and rush to the bathroom. She ran past Mindy who was brushing her teeth while leaning on the kitchen counter and looking through her phone.

Mindy watched as she ran past her with furrowed brows. Her eyes widened when she heard the girl heaving into the toilet. She put her phone down and walked into the bathroom, making her way over to help the girl hold her braids so they didn't fall into the now vomit-filled toilet. She rubbed her friend's back, grimacing as she continued to puke.

When Irene finished, she groaned and slumped against the toilet. Mindy let go of her hair and quickly finished up brushing her teeth, "You good Ree?" She asked as she put her toothbrush into its holder.

Irene looked up at her, eyes teary from vomiting, "I don't know... Fuck, I hate vomiting."

Mindy nodded, "Who doesn't." Her face turned serious with concern, "Are you sick? People don't normally puke their brains out for no reason."

"I probably ate something that didn't sit well with me." Irene dismissed. She was sure it was nothing.

"If you say so..." Mindy was unconvinced but she let it go for the most part, "I could get Chad to get some soup for you or something."

Irene nodded, "Yeah, that sounds good."

"Alright, I'll go call him." Mindy walked out of the bathroom to get her phone which she left on the kitchen counter.

Irene eased herself off the toilet and flushed it, getting up to brush her teeth. She grabbed her toothbrush out of its holder and opened the cupboard thing to grab the toothpaste. When she reached for the toothpaste, her hand knocked a box of tampons to the floor. She groaned as she bent down to pick it up. She went to put it back but paused. Her brows furrowed, when was the last time she had her period? She pursed her lips and put back the box, deciding to check her Flo app after she brushed her teeth.

Irene stared at her phone screen in confusion. She hasn't had her period for two and a half months. She would write it off as just having an irregular cycle but her period has never been irregular since the day it came. And she missed three periods. Something was definitely wrong.

She sat there for a while thinking of possible reasons why this could be happening. Maybe she was pregnant. She grimaced at the thought. She couldn't be pregnant... could she? She sighed, ultimately deciding that she needed to take a test to be sure.

Mindy was staying at her girlfriend Anika's dorm for the night so Irene just put on a jacket and her shoes and walked briskly to a convenience store close to campus. The bell rang as she pushed the door open and she walked in, walking straight over to the aisle where the drugstore items were located. She didn't really do any research on the brands to see which ones were more accurate so she grabbed three boxes with different brands and walked up to the cashier.

The store was basically empty so she got to the front of the line quickly and put them down for them to be cashed. The cashier, who seemed to be in her late 50s, looked at her with a raised brow, "Aren't you a little too young to be checking if you're pregnant?" She asked as she scanned the items.

Irene narrowed her eyes, "Aren't you a little too old to be sticking your nose into other people's business?" She was suddenly in a bad mood.

The woman looked offended but said nothing else as she continued doing her job. Irene paid for her things and grabbed the bag from the woman, walking out of the store with attitude.

She walked to campus quickly, not wanting to be outside in the dark by herself any longer. She made it to her dorm and closed the door, heading straight to the bathroom to take the tests.

She read the instructions and did what they said to a T, not wanting any mistakes to happen. She washed her hands and sat on the toilet, waiting anxiously for them to be ready. Her heart raced as she thought about all the possible outcomes of this. The tests could be negative and she would have been doing this for nothing or they could be positive and she was actually pregnant.

The alarm she set went off, startling her. She took a deep breath and turned over the first test with shaky hands.

Positive.

She gasped as she saw this and rushed to turn over the others.

All of them were positive.

The girl could've collapsed from stress at that moment. She was pregnant. She felt like crying until she made a river of her tears and drowned herself in it. Irene had never thought of killing herself, but she was damn well near it right now.

She wasn't ready to be a mother — for fuck's sake she basically just started college! This could not be happening. But after a while of trying to make sense of her situation, she slowly became more comfortable with the idea. Maybe she wasn't ready to be a mother, but she was willing to try. She knew she had her friends' support no matter what and that was comforting.

And then she remembered something. She wasn't the only one responsible for this. She grabbed her phone and opened the call app, pressing a contact. It went straight to voicemail. She huffed as she hung up and called again, "Ethan Landry, if you don't answer your phone right now I'm going to kill you."

Unbeknownst to her, a figure stood outside of the bathroom in a black robe with a mask covering their face. They tilted their head as they watched the scene unfold in front of them. They watched her for a while then quietly walked out of the dorm like nothing happened.

This was going to be good.