Mr. Iero

Chapter 4

A/N: Shorter chapter, I know.  It's pretty much just filler

*Ashley's POV*

History the next day was... interesting.

Actually, it went no different than any other class.  And that is what bothered me.

Mr. Iero took attendance, doing the usual glancing up at me and nodding when I responded with, "Here."  Once, maybe twice, he called on me to answer a question.

If anything, it almost felt like he was ignoring me.

Did he hate me? He couldn't.  Just yesterday we were...yeah.  Maybe he just needed to get that out of his system and was now trying to go back to being professional.  That made sense.  Or maybe he didn't want to hint towards anything so that nobody would get the idea that anything had happened, hence his lack of attention to me.

A few weeks later, I found everything going exactly the same as it had before.  It was almost as if nothing had happened.

One day, we were watching a war documentary when suddenly it felt like my stomach dropped.  It was a horribly familiar feeling.  I had to throw up.

I raised my hand and Mr. Iero motioned for me to come over to his desk.  I quickly got up and asked, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Mr. Iero nodded.  "Just write out a pass first."

"I can't," I said, inching my way to the door.

"What are you talking about-"

I couldn't wait any longer.  I ran out the door and raced down the hall.  I turned a corner and, thank god, the bathroom was there.  I pushed the door open, ran into a stall, and made it just in time to throw up into a toilet.  I pulled my hair back as I vomited out the rest of whatever was in my system.

Thirty seconds later, I heard the bathroom door open.  "Hey, you know, you can't just run out of class like that," a voice said.  It was Mr. Iero.

I got up off of my knees and wiped my mouth off with some toilet paper.  I flushed the toilet and then walked back out of the stall.  When I looked up and saw Mr. Iero standing at the door right outside of the bathroom, I saw his annoyed look go away.  It was probably because my face looked as great as I felt at the moment.

"Are you okay?" he asked.  I nodded and made my way to a sink to wash my hands.  Mr. Iero let go of the door and walked into the bathroom.  "No you're not; you look awful."

I washed out my mouth and then spit into the sink.  "It's probably just a bug," I said as I grabbed a paper towel.

"You should go to the nurse," he suggested.  "Do you need someone to walk you down?"

I was about to say no, but then I thought I'd be doing Hallie a favor by taking her out of class.  "I'll just ask Hallie to take me."

Mr. Iero nodded.  "Okay, let's get back to class."

We walked back to the classroom, walking a reasonable distance apart, might I add.  Mr. Iero walked to his desk and wrote out a pass to let me to the nurse while I packed up my books into a bag.

"What just happened?" Hallie whispered to me.

"I'm sick, so I'm going to the nurse.  Do you want to walk me there?"

"Sure," she said, getting up and walking back to Mr. Iero's desk with me.  He handed me a pass and then offered me a small smile, "Feel better."

"Thank you," I said as I walked out of the room with Hallie.

We walked for a moment in silence.  "So you threw up?" she asked.

"Yeah," I answered.  "They're gonna make me go home and won't let me go to school tomorrow."

"Why do you think you threw up?"

"I don't know," I said.  "I didn't eat anything weird for lunch or anything."

Hallie raised an eyebrow and nudged me in the side.  "You aren't pregnant, are you?" I looked at her in shock.  She didn't know about me doing anything with anyone.  "Calm down," she said with a chuckle.  "I'm just kidding."

"Oh yeah," I forced a laugh.

When I got to the nurse, Hallie gave me a hug and told me to get better soon.  I told the nurse what had happened and she gave me a pass to leave school and go home.

I got out to my car and called my mom.  "Hello?" her voice said on the other end of the line.

"Hi, mom," I said.  "So I just threw up and was sent home.  I'm just letting you know that I'm about to leave school."

"Why did you throw up?" she asked.

I just went with what I told Mr. Iero.  "Just a bug, probably.  But the nurse told me to stay home tomorrow."

"Okay.  Well you come on home and I'll have some soup ready for you, how about that?"

I smiled at the offer.  "Thanks, Mom.  I'll see you in ten minutes, okay?"

"Okay.  Love you, Ashley."

"Love you, too."