CHAPTER SEVEN
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
A month had passed since Aria moved in with her mom. Living with Ella was great.
She brought Aria saltines when Aria was bent over the toilet every morning, and then Ella took a shower while Aria fixed her breakfast. After Aria's shower, they drove to school together. After school Ella dropped Aria off at work, and Ezra picked her up, came over and they all ate dinner. Nice and boring.
Aria was in the middle of her morning breakfast preparation, when Ella came in, holding two top. She looked flustered. "Which should I wear?"
Aria looked at her options; one was a cute purple top, form fitting, but with a high neck. The other was a plethora of colors, very sexy. For a moment Aria was confused. "Ummm, where are you going? It's Monday."
Ella blushed, "Well, Zach and I decided to play hooky today and go out."
Aria's jaw dropped. "I can't believe you! My mother is skipping school for a date!"
"Yeah yeah. But things are hard, with you know, the baby and the monotonous life, I just need a break."
Aria chuckled and pointed to the sexy top. "Wear that. Shows off the top a bit more" Aria winked and turned around. She just realized something and said, "Wait, mom I have a doctor's appointment today. Weren't you going to come?" Aria needed her. Ezra had meetings with the man he was ghost writing for, and her dad had kept her car.
"Well, I was, but I guess you can take my car." She said, coming back into the room, "But we should probably get you one of your own. You're going to need it when the baby comes."
"Yeah, but we don't exactly have the money for that, do we?" Aria said, rolling her eyes at her mom as she set her food down on the table.
"No, I guess we don't. But it must be driving you crazy. You have a lot of places to go."
Aria sighed, "Yes, it is driving me crazy. Maybe I can buy my car from dad. He's not giving it to Mike, is he?"
"No. I'll talk to your dad about it."
Aria was just grabbing her bag when her mom said, "Here are my keys. Drive safe."
Aria had just pulled into the parking lot when he phone buzzed. Hoping it was Ezra, she grabbed it as she walked toward the building. Unfortunately, it was a blocked ID. A. Or course. Wasn't ruining Aria's and Ezra's and a baby's enough? Sighing, she opened the text,
How are your boobies? – A
Aria angrily closed the message. Every few days, A texted her something relating to her pregnancy. Aria wasn't sure exactly what the point was; A only things like, "Tired yet" or "Gotta pee?" Nothing threatening. Aria hadn't told the girls about the pregnancy or A's text yet, but she knew she needed to.
Eventually, A was going to leak the secret. Aria winced, just thinking about it. She wanted to tell her friends in her own way. School was another problem that she didn't even want to think about yet.
Barely arriving to class on time, Aria rushed into her seat. She looked over at Spencer, who seemed confused. Spencer nodded towards the sub, and Aria understood her meaning. "It's a long story, I'll tell you after class."
As promised, when they stood around Emily's locker, Aria told them about her mom skipping school.
Hanna, of course, was playfully sexual, saying, "Ow, ow! Way to go Hot Momma!" Spencer rolled her eyes at her, and they all giggled.
By the time lunch rolled around, Aria was impatient to get out. She just wanted to go to the doctor and find out her baby was alright. Even though she knew she couln't see the baby yet, she still could see if he/she (she really did not want to call her precious baby 'it') was healthy.
Still, she could definitely feel the baby. A wasn't wrong; her "boobies" did hurt. Not thinking, she reached a hand down to adjust her bra. She'd just finished her task when she heard a cat call. It was Noel, mimicking her from across the courtyard to a giggling Jenna.
Normally Aria could handle that. But today wasn't a normal day. She was upset, and she couldn't handle it anymore. She grabbed her stuff, and walked over there. "Hey Noel," she said, standing dangerously in front of him, "Instead of looking at my chest, why don't you stare at Jenna's?" And then, channeling her inner Ali, she said, "Oh, that's right, because she doesn't have anything to stare at." And with that, she turned on her heel and went inside, leaving everyone in the courtyard staring in wonder.
After three more classes, Aria left for her doctor's appointment. She was nervous; this was her first official appointment… Although at this time, most women were just finding out they were expecting. It didn't matter. She was glad to know sooner than later.
What she was worried about was going alone. In the waiting room, she'd have to deal with all the women staring at her, judging her extra hard if they knew who the baby daddy was. Even though Ezra being there would encourage glares and whispers, she needed him.
She arrived in the waiting room just as it seemed to reach its peak. Pregnant women were everywhere; all of them were red-faced, with a variety of extreme emotions, ranging "sad, I think this baby is never going to be born" to "angry, I hate the man who did this to me," to "this is the best day of my life I can't wait for my baby."
The second Aria walked in, all of those faces changed to, "Dear God, a teenager, what a skank," and when a substitute teacher Aria vaguely recognized from Rosewood High gasped, those looks changed to pure horror. She was no longer no-named skank, but Aria, the girl who screwed her teacher and got knocked up.
Scowling, she sat down, which spawned the bitter middle aged woman with a plethora of kids to scoot down a few seats. At this point she didn't care. She knew that what these women didn't know the whole story. They didn't know how beautiful the love between Aria and Ezra truly was.
Angrily taking out her phone, she typed a quick message to Ezra. They tried to avoid talking about the dirty looks, but sometimes it got to be too much. Luckily, he replied quickly, saying,
I'm sorry baby, you and I know the real story. I love you. Come here when you get done. Xoxo Ezra
She smiled. Ezra could always make her feel better. Even though she knew he was bothered by it too, he was trying to be stronger for her. She loved him for it. Pausing to think, she decided it would be a bad idea. It was a Monday; she had school and work the next day. She should go home, do her homework, and relax in the tub with a good book.
Although, she wouldn't mind a massage…. She smiled, texting him back that he could come over, but she had to be able to get her work done. Within moments, he replied that of course she could get her work done.
She put her head back against the wall and dozed off, until her name was called. She went back, still a little sleepy, to see her doctor.
"Hi Aria, how's it going? I'm Dr. Jones." This was the woman her general doctor had suggested she go to for an OB/GYN. Immediately Aria could understand why. She was young and perky, someone who seemed non-judgmental.
"It's good." Aria bit her lip. She wanted to know when she'd get to see the baby, but she felt stupid asking.
"Well, today I'm just going to do the basics, draw some blood, and feel around, just to make sure everything's okay. And if anything hurts, feel free to tell me, okay?"
Aria laid down on the chair/table and tried to avoid looking at the stirrups that sat in front of her. A few minutes later, Aria couldn't help herself. When the doctor had finished taking her blood, she blurt out, "When can I see my baby?"
The doctor smiled at her, "I wondered when you were going to ask that. Well, you're 7 weeks pregnant, so you could see your baby's heartbeat today, if you'd like."
Aria had to literally stop herself from jumping out of the chair and hugging the doctor. "Of course I want to see it, absolutely… But the father's not here…" She said, suddenly frowning. She didn't blame Ezra; he thought they wouldn't be getting to hear the heartbeat for another few weeks.
"That's fine. How about I go down the hall and check on another patient and you get the father to come on up here?" Before she left the room, Aria was already dialing the phone.
15 minutes had passed when an excited Ezra darted into her room, followed closely by the doctor, who was chuckling softly. Aria couldn't help but chuckle too, crooning, "I think dad's excited to see you, little baby."
They shared a private smile, before the doctor said, being a complete buzz kill, that Aria would have to put her feet in the stirrups. As she instructed Aria to lift up her shirt, Ezra took her hand. Aria could feel the nerves tingling in him; she'd never seen him like this before. It was a great sight, seeing him excited over their baby. It had a nice ring to it, Aria thought, before she was pulled out of the blissful moment by some kind of extremely cold gel, obviously straight from the icy part of Hell to torture women, being poured onto her stomach.
Aria yelped, almost jumping off the table. The doctor smiled politely, saying, "Sorry, I should have warned you. It's a bit cold."
"Cold? It's like straight ice on my stomach… It's so cold it burns." Aria said, pouting slightly.
Ezra looked at her then leaned in close to her, giving her a kiss before saying, "Look at the screen."
Aria looked over and on the screen she saw a tiny little speck of white. She pointed a shaky finger at it and asked, "Is that… is that our baby?"
"Yes, it certainly is." The doctor said. She hit a button and a picture came out of a nearby machine. She handed the picture to Aria and Ezra and left the room.
For a moment they looked at the picture, and they shared a knowing look, and left the room. On their walk out, the picture tucked safely into Aria's purse, they both had the same words repeating in their heads, like a mantra.
I can't wait to have this baby.
AN: Sometimes I don't update for a while because I have terrible writer's block. But huzzah! I did it. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, feel free to leave me another one. XOXO, Emily
