My Yearning Heart

Chapter 30

Getting Back to Work

Note: So who knew I would have made this story into a 30 chapter story. Just letting you guys know that this story is approaching its end. However, there are things that still need to happen before then so I hope you enjoy this update and the rest that are to come. Thank you so much for reading.

A few more days have gone by and things were going okay. Unfortunately, that was best word that I could use: Okay. Cinder was a wonderful host. She allowed me to continue sleeping in her bed. Of course, I wasn't particularly comfortable with this so some nights, I went into the living room to check on her and noticed that she looked perfectly fine. This put my mind at ease a little. If I were to make her suffer on that couch, I couldn't keep living there.

Aside from that, my phone's been pretty busy. However, it was only busy on one end of it. It was my end. I called Blake every day to say good morning and good night. At this point, I knew that was all she needed to hear and that was all I needed to say.

Living with Cinder, I learned that she was bartender. I thought she just really liked bars. Surprisingly, she didn't seem like an alcoholic. Whenever she came home from work, she still had on her perfume and I know that she leaves her perfume at home. As for me, I was waiting until the summer staff meetings to start. I wasn't too excited about it, but it would finally get me off my butt since sitting around at home was a little too boring for me.

Finally, I received word of the first summer meeting so I prepared myself as best I could and showed up with the same bit of optimism as I always do. Before I went to school, I decided to visit the house just to see. I knew Blake wouldn't be there, but just having that resolve would make me feel better. I walked inside and it was quiet and cold… Exactly how I imagined it being. I walked up to Blake's room and it was exactly the same as that night from before. Just visiting her room was enough for me. I shut the door behind me and headed to school.

When I arrived at the school office, we all filed into the staff room and sat down for the lovely conference meeting between the staff members. Since I was the school nurse, there wasn't much that I had to do.

"So our overall grades have been great, but the state is starting to increase the competition so we need to make our classes harder."

"So I'm guessing we're going to be doing a lot more collaborations like this one."

"Yes. We need to coordinate with each other so we're not falling behind." Everyone nodded their heads. "But we'll discuss more about that at our next meeting. Let's see… We've already went over curriculum. Dress code, behavior, clubs… I think that's it. Does anybody have any questions?"

"Well, it looked like there's nothing for me again," I said to myself.

"Oh wait, before I forget. There is something that I need to address before this gets out of hand." The principal cleared her throat as if she was making the presidential address. "Relationships between teachers and students are strictly forbidden." At that moment, I gulped. She wasn't looking at me, but I could feel that that comment was only directed at me. I don't talk to the other teachers a lot, but I doubt they would do something like that. "Now I think that is it. I'll see you all next week for another meeting." I got from my chair and headed towards the door when one of the teachers I knew most stopped me before I could.

"Hey Alex, that was a weird last comment, right?" How did I know this was going to happen?

"Yeah, it was." I said that so nervously that I was afraid he might have seen through me.

"Alright, well, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay bye." He walked out first and tried to follow behind him, but I was stopped by the principal's voice.

"Alex, can I talk to you in private?" I turned around and saw her head into her office. I took a deep breath and followed not far behind her. When I got in her room, I immediately felt the tense atmosphere that she was giving off. "Go ahead and sit down." I gently sat down in the chair in front of her desk and awaited this talk. "Do you know why I called you in here?"

"No," I said nervously.

"A couple of weeks ago, I received word from one of my advisors saying that you left one of the student's home late at night. Would you care to explain?" My worst fears were realized. I didn't think anyone knew about it, but apparently, that wasn't true. I had to think quickly, but I didn't know what to say. There wasn't anything I could say. Whatever that person saw was the complete truth. I had to come clean.

"I…"

"You know that that comment from the meeting was about you right?" I shut my eyes and dropped my head.

"Yes… I do."

"Regardless of the true nature of that situation, we can't have our students engage in those things. With you being the school nurse, it makes our job a lot tougher so, this is the only thing we can." Even though I didn't want to hear it, I kind of had a feeling I knew what she was going to say. "This is the last year we're asking you to come back. The staff and the school board decided that this was the only thing we could do. The child hasn't gone to the authorities so we know that it's not something serious. However, we can't leave this alone. I hope you understand. We care for our students and we want them to have a bright future."

"I understand."

"Also, you don't have to worry about coming to the upcoming meeting. We'll be bringing the new nurse up to speed on how we do things. I'm sorry." She stood up and left the room. Meanwhile, I was still sitting on the chair looking at the ground. That was it. There goes the end of my career. Now how was I supposed to face Blake? Her senior year was coming up and that means that she'd be leaving for college soon. Things just coming up my way. I slowly rose from her chair and headed back to Cinder's place.

The day was still pretty young. It was about 3pm so I wasn't expecting Cinder to be back home since bar work usually goes until late. I opened up the door and looked around. It was empty. I closed the door behind me and stood in the middle of the room. At that moment, I just lost it. I collapsed onto my knees and let out all of the pent up emotion from all of this time. I pressed my hands against my head and let the tears fall like rain. However, just as that started, Cinder came busting out of her room in panic.

"Oh my God, what's wrong?" I couldn't respond. I just continued to drown in my tears as I knelt down in the middle of the room. It didn't take long for Cinder to come to my side and wrap her arms around me. "Hey, hey, it's alright. Calm down. Sshhh." Her voice was so soothing, but I just couldn't calm down. Everything horrible in my life was coming back to haunt me and drag me down to hell. It was impossible for me to calm down so my cries got louder and my tears got heavier.

I don't know how much time went by, but for me, it felt like an eternity. After crying so much, I managed to calm myself down to where I just made soft whimpers. However, the pain was still there. Cinder didn't ask any other questions since she knew that I was unresponsive. She just remained by my side and kept me close.

"It's alright. I'm here. Just breathe." I took slow, deep breaths and things quickly felt better. "See? It's not that bad when you concentrate."

"Haha, yeah." Those were the first I managed to speak in a while.

"You okay now?"

"I… I think so."

"If you're not ready, I won't ask." Right as I was about to speak, there was a knock on the door. "Hold on just a second." She stood up and walked towards the front door. When she opened it up, I immediately heard Yang's voice.

"Hey Cinder, I was wondering if you heard anything from Alex. I'm kind of worried about her." Things just weren't going my way having Yang show up now of all times.

"Really? She hasn't let me know about anything, but I'll be sure to let you know if I hear anything."

"Alright. Is it alright if I come in?"

"Sorry. I'm kind of doing some home redecorations and I don't want anyone seeing the planning process."

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yeah. Bye." She closed the door and walked back to me. As she did, I had a face of amazement on. Did she really just save me from a dire situation?

"Why did you do that?"

"What? That? I thought you needed some alone time. Did you want to see her?" I immediately shook my head and waved my hands at her.

"Oh no. It's alright. I just… Thank you. I know I'm causing you a lot of trouble, but that's all I can do. I'm such a horrible person." She grabbed me and pulled her into her body.

"No you're not. This world is a tough place. I don't blame you for anything that's been going on. If you're not having problems, then I'd be worried about you."

"You know… I'm thankful for meeting you at that bar on that day. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here."

"Don't worry about it. I don't mind at all."

You don't mind at all? Why is that?

After some more time, I was finally able to return to my normal self. I was a complete mess so I went in the shower and tried to relax underneath the hot water. Unfortunately, it didn't work. My mind continued to think about what I've lost and where everything will end up once the pieces are in place. This caused my shower to longer than usual, but when I finished, Cinder had a smile on her face as if she didn't even notice it.

By now, it was already late. I waited in Cinder's room while she took a shower. I wanted all of this to just stop. I wanted to go back home and be with Blake. Unfortunately, I was just a fool at heart. That wouldn't be able to happen. As I continued to think to myself, Cinder exited the bathroom and made her way to the couch. I followed her out and I never actually realized it, but it was one of those couches that turned into beds. That was pretty cool. However, that wasn't the reason why I followed her.

"Hey Cinder, don't take this the wrong way, but would you mind sleeping with me tonight?" At first, she had a weird look on her face. "I don't know if I'm ready to handle this on my own." Still, Cinder had a strange look on her face. "I'm sorry. I was being weird. Just ignore that comment."

"No, no, it's fine. If you don't mind, sure." She grabbed her pillow and headed into her room. Without wasting any time, she jumped onto bed and pulled the blankets for me to crawl under.

"Thank you for doing this."

"Stop with the thank you this, thank you that. It's only making you feel worse. Just say: I'm over it and tomorrow will be a new day. How does that sound?"

"Alright."

"Good." She turned off the lights and turned around. "Good night."

"Good night."

End of Chapter 30