Timing is Everything

The Aftermath(Chapter 20)

* Your POV as Jughead *

You can't help but hold your side while walking slowly to the nurses office. Head down, focussing on the floor, you hear snickers around you from other students studying your injuries.

"Mr.Jones! I've been expecting you" the nurse walks out to greet you when you walk in to the office. "Mr.Woods filled me in a bit on the incident."

You force a small smile and sit down on the long medical table with your legs dangling below you.

"So Mr.Jones" the nurse holds a hand to your face to move back and forth to study, "What did that young man do to you?"

You huff, Reggie Mantle is not a young man. More like a monster disguised as a football jock.

"He first pushed me in the swimming pool.." you sigh but are interrupted by the nurse whose eyes widen.

"The swimming pool? Oh boy, I'm going to need to check your ears. Well start with that." She begins to walk to the medicine cabinet and reaches for a small light to shine in your ears. As she looks through your ear canal you hear her gasp lowly. "Mr. Jones, how do your ears feel right now?"

You rub your ears because they both have been bothering you quite a bit. "Actually, of all the things Reggie did to me, my ears hurt the most" you half laugh and bite your bottom lip to stop when you see the nurse is not laughing. "W-why? What does it look like in there?"

She sighs, "I don't want to jump to conclusions before I take another look but it looks like you have one heck of an ear infection." She quickly walks to the storage room and pulls out what looks like a set of headphone and a ball point pen.

You must have stared at it strangely because she smiled sweetly at you and rubbed your shoulder, "Don't worry Forsythe, it's just a hearing test I need to do. Sometimes ear infections can be pretty rough that they affect a person's hearing. The fact that this happened in the swimming pool which I've been on Mr.Wood's case about for cleaning ... I have a feeling you may have more than just an ear infection."

You swallow hard when she places the headphones on your head to cover your ears after cleaning it. She explains to you to click the pointer when you hear a beep from your headphones. Simple enough, right? But it wasn't. You were getting pretty frustrated at the lack of beeps you heard. You couldn't help but smile shyly at the nurse, wondering why she wasn't playing too many beeps.

The nurse nods at you to remove the headphones and you stare at her to explain what just took place. Nevertheless you couldn't help but ask her why she didn't play a lot of beeps.

"Actually Forsythe, I did play beeps....many times. You couldn't hear them, that's why you didn't click your pointer" She looks at you sympathetically and speaks softly while looking back inside your ear canal. "Jughead, everything will be ok. Your hearing loss is only temporary. Quite a bit of water penetrated through your ears, blocking you from hearing sound in both ears."

"What?" you blink a few times at her, "I was able to hear what you just said....I just don't understand.... I thought this would be a quick fix with drops, I've had ear infections in the past" you say softly with a hint of worry coming through.

The nurse cleans out your ears gently, "I still will prescribe drops for your ears. But in addition to that" she stops and looks at you in the eyes, "you will need to wear hearing aids as well."

You can't help but open your mouth while your eyes widen. "For how long?" You feel a knot of nerves form in your stomach.

"Not long, but as long as it takes for your hearing to fully come back. So, to get the hearing aids, I'm going to need to -" The nurse begins to explain the procedure but you can't help but interrupt her.

"I'm sorry, i'm sorry... But, who pays for this? The school? Reggie's family?" You begin to worry about all the things a high school kid should not think about when receiving this news. Living on the south side of town and being raised by the type of family you come from, you've learned the need to lay low in social situations like school. So this is really bothering you right now and you need some answers.

"Sweetie it'll be alright" the nurse takes a step back to study the worried expression on your face. "Let your parents worry about paying the bills!" she half laughs while filling out a referral for hearing aids after measuring the dimensions of your ears.

You want to explain to her that if you let your parents worry about things, you may not have made it this far. Instead you let out a small sigh and nervously adjust your beanie.

The nurse smiles at you, knowing you are beginning to feel nervous. "Ok so well get those hearing aids shipped to the school very soon." She takes a seat next to you and adds studying your face, "Then what happened after the swimming pool?"

You sigh and fidget with your hands, "Reggie punched my eye" you sarcastically smirk pointing to the purple bruise outlining the rim around your eye.

She quickly goes to the freezer and picks up a bag of ice covered with a towel to place over your eye. You wince from the cold and then close your eyes at the satisfaction of the coldness helping with the constant throbbing. "Thank you" you mumble while holding the ice.

"You're very welcome dear. While your eye and face has a good amount of bruises, those will go down in time. Just remember to ice it every day. At home, put some ice on it before bed, ok?"

You look down feeling embarrassed at the lack of resources you have in the trailer. Does this women realize she is talking with a Jones? "Umm... I don't want to be a burden, but can I come here for ice? You know, to bring home and use at school?" Your voice is shaky and pray the nurse doesn't suspect anything.

She looks at you clearly judging your behavior and writes something down on your form. "Alright Jughead, anything else you want to tell me?"

"What are you trying to insinuate?" you ask sarcastically. You curse yourself inside, not meaning for it to come out that way.

The nurse smiles knowingly at you, "Honey, about your injuries from the student, Reggie Mantle."

You laugh nervously, not appreciating all this attention. "O-ohh ok... ummm... yes, he punched at my sides and my ribs kind of hurt..."

"Ok" the nurse responds seriously, "Jughead, I'm going to need you to take a large breath for me now with my stethoscope." She puts a cold round metal piece on your back.

You take a deep breath and quickly begin to cough and wince from the pain in your ribs. The nurse notices you holding on to your ribs. She puts her hands at your ribs, "Take another deep breath for me please"

You groan but politely oblige causing you to begin violently coughing again. "I''m sorry..."

"Don't be sorry. You don't deserve any of this. Now, tell me.... do you have asthma? I don't see it listed on your file."

Your eyes widen "Asthma? No!" You roll your eyes, "Do we need to add this to the list too?"

The nurse rubs your shoulder, "Forsythe, it's ok. You're going to be ok. I was just wondering if Reggie had brought on or set off any asthmatic tendencies you may already have. However, just to be safe I am also going to prescribe you an inhaler to use until you begin to breath without alway reaching for your ribs in pain" She smiles small knowing you have been aching from all the breathing and talking.

You pull your shirt back down and watch her walk over to the phone. You sigh resting your hand on your palms, closing your eyes, waiting to hear her inform your English teacher why you were unable to make it to class.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs.Jones this is Nurse Smith. I'm going to need either one of you or the both of you to please come down to Riverdale High School to pick up your son. He is doing ok, but got into a bit of an accident."

You immediately open your eyes and feel your breathing pick up in pace. NO. JUST NO...