Disclaimer: I do not own Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
This is my first attempt at a fan-fiction.
I was born and raised in England, so some of the words may be spelt the English way and not the American.
I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 7
Phoebe's POV
I look up at the clock and see that it is nearly 5:30pm; time to start getting ready for tonight. It's been a pretty boring day. I went to work and I was pretty happy when Frankie walked through the door. She said when she was in here to eat a couple of days ago, she then caught another one of the waitresses skimming from the cash register. Tabitha gave Frankie a trial run and she was a natural at it. Without any hesitation, Tabs hired her straight away. Well since Frankie wants to go into catering I shouldn't be that surprised. But the cheeky devil kept it as a surprise. Luckily, the girl that was fired was not well-liked so no-one really missed her presence. I love working with Frankie. Not only is she one of my best friends, she's a fun, bubbly girl to be around and you can't help but get swept up in her enthusiasm. I'm pleased she got this job.
That blonde bimbo walked in again today, but she was alone. She sat in a booth by herself, but kept her eyes on me. She is so unnerving. When I gave served her a fruit salad, she asked whether I had mentioned that I saw her to my father. I lied and said I completely forgot, but I will do it when I get home. To be honest it wasn't a complete lie, it's just I would rather not think about her. But I decide to mention it to my father, maybe he can offer some insight to the blonde bimbo. I finished work at 2:30, and Patterson drove us back to the house. We made pleasant travel conversation until we pull up the house and then of course it's all serious. I walked into the house and find my mom sat in the library. I joined her on one of the couches.
"Hey, mom" I say giving her a cuddle.
"Hey sweetie, how was your day?" she asks, smiling at me
"Boring" I think of asking her if she knows anything about the blonde bimbo, but I decide against it. "What're you reading?"
"Pride and Prejudice" she replies
"Again? Mom, how many times have you read that book? About 5 times that I know of"
"I can't help it, I love this book" she says.
"Whatever keeps you happy" I smile at her "Where's Dad, Ted and Ollie?" I ask.
"You're Dad, is busy trying to save a deal that has suddenly gone wrong. He's had to stay at the office today. Teddy decided that he wanted to see a few friends of his, and Ollie is in the television room watching football with some of his friends"
"Does this mean Dad is probably going to be busy all weekend" I say sadly. I don't like it when Dad has to work on the weekends. It means we barely see him.
"Maybe, sweetie" She replies giving me a sad smile. I sigh. Can't be helped I suppose. But, I wanted to tell my parents about me and Austin this weekend. Maybe it'll have to wait.
"Ok, well I'm going to swim for a bit, then get ready for tonight" I say standing up.
"Ok, honey. Are you ok? You look a little disappointed" she says. She doesn't miss a trick.
"I'll be fine, mom" I say giving a convincing smile. She nods and I walk out of the door and head to our indoor pool. It wasn't there until Teddy was about 8, when he started expressing his desire to take lessons. Dad went a step further and had one built in the house. The room itself has walls made of glass and let's lots of natural light into the room. It's my second favourite room, the first being my bedroom.
After doing a few lengths in the pool, I head back up into my bedroom. I look through my wardrobe. I have no fucking clue of what to wear. Just like every year, it's a masked ball. But my mask is plain black with some silver embellishment. I figure I can wear a dress with some silver on it so my mask will match. But I still don't know which dress to wear. I know Mom is wearing a dress designed by David Meister. It's a floor length nude dress that has gold sequins covering it. It has a seamed waist and a slightly flared skirt, so it's fairly easy to walk in. She has a nude mask with similar gold sequins on it to match. I know she is going to look absolutely flawless, as always. Dad, Ted and Ollie will be donning their black tuxes with a black mask each. That just leaves me. I have four evening dresses to choose from, but I've no idea which to go with. I decide to call my emergency fashion guru for advice.
"Hey Ava" I say, as soon as she picks up the phone.
"Hey Pheebs" she says
"I need your fashion advice"
"Oh, ok, how can I help?" she says.
"I have no idea what to wear tonight" I exclaim, exasperated.
"This always happens to you! Whenever we head to a party or a fundraiser, you ring me saying you don't know what to wear. I should have known that was what you were going to ask me" she says.
"Please, please just help me" I nearly beg down the phone.
"Ok, well... what about... no... that won't work" she says and this goes on for about 3 full minutes. "AH! what about your long black one, with the jeweled sides. Simple, yet elegant" she says in a posh tone of voice.
"Hmm. I like. Thank you for your advice" I say looking back at my wardrobe.
"No problem Pheebs, see you soon" she says
"Bye" I say hanging up.
I look back into my wardrobe and take my dress out. It's a blacks strapless floor-length dress with some nice embellishments on the side. Perfect. I get into the dress and finish up the rest of my outfit. 20 minutes later, I am ready. My hair falls in loose curls down my back. I have some silver strappy heels on, some long diamond earrings in and a thin silver bracelet on my wrist. Once I'm ready I grab my mask and head down the stairs.
I see my father, mother and brothers all sat in TV room, waiting for my appearance
"Finally" Ted says standing up. "If you told us you were going to be this late I would've drove myself" What? I look at the clock and see it is quarter to 7. Holy shit.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know what to wear" I say smiling sheepishly, looking at everyone. Dad smiles and shakes his head. He walks over to me and strokes my cheek.
"You look beautiful princess" he says softly.
"Thank you" I say looking back up at him. Ted not-so-subtly coughs, signalling he wants to go. We all head out of the door, to go the fundraiser.
[-xXx-]
It's now 11pm and the Coping Together fundraiser has gone extremely successfully again this year. The Grey Family were seated together again, but even in that we kind of divided ourselves. When the real party started, we all kind of floated off to different areas. I stayed with Ava for most of the evening, while Teddy and Ollie hanged out with our 16 and 14 year old cousins, Nathan and Liam. Mom and Dad stayed together. Ava, wore a dress similar to mine but it is pink and has a lot more detail to it. We're used to dressing up like this. At our prom a few months ago, a lot of the girls were so excited to wear a long dress and lots of expensive jewelry that it was the highlight of their night. But with a lifestyle like mine and Ava's, it's just a part of life.
It's been quite a fun watching all of the guys get turned down by Ava. Their faces where the embodiment of disappointment. I have a few people talk to me but no more than that. This is because every single time I talk to a boy, either my dad or Ted or Ollie would come over and introduce themselves. They give the boys I meet some weird eye signal and that makes them kind of shrivel up and stop talking to me.
"Hey" Ava says. "You want another drink?" We've been drinking soft drinks all night. I even turned down the one glass of champagne we were given.
"Sure. I'm just going to use the bathroom" I say, and get up to go upstairs. Like every year, my grandparents have ordered the use of luxurious portable toilets. But, I've always preferred the use of proper toilets. I asked my grandmother if it were ok to use the upstairs toilets and she said it was fine. I head upstairs and go into the bathroom that is down the hall from my father's old bedroom. After I finish I wash my hands. I look into the mirror, and something doesn't feel right. I begin to feel dizzy and stumble backwards. I go to grab hold of the sink to keep myself upright but I miss and fall straight to the floor, and everything just goes black.
[-xXx-]
"PHOEBE! Wake up! Phoebe!" I can hear a frightened voice shouting at me and I feel someone's hands on my shoulder. I open my eyes and all I can see is a blurry figure with blonde hair. I focus my eyes and then I see its Ava above me.
"Ava?" I say a little confused.
"God Pheebs! You scared the shit out of me! What the hell happened?" She says, panic still in her voice.
"I'm not sure" I say, attempting to sit up. Ava helps me to sit, then it sit on top of the toilet. I continue on, "I was washing my hands, then I started to feel dizzy. Guess I must have passed out"
"I'll go get Grandma Grace" Ava says, going to walk towards the door.
"NO!" I shout. Ava stops and turns around to look at me like I'm crazy. "I don't want to spoil her evening and besides I feel just fine now"
"But it might be something serious. People don't just pass out, Pheebs" she protests.
"Don't worry; I'm going to see a doctor on Monday about it"
"You've decided that you're already going? Has this happened before?" she interrogates me.
"Well, not this" I begin sheepishly. She looks at me to continue. I sigh knowing I'm defeated. "I've been throwing up lately. But it's weird like I don't feel sick beforehand"
"Anything else?"
"What?"
"Has anything else been out-of-the-ordinary?"
I scan my brain to look for anything that might have happened over the past couple of days. "Well, I've been crying over stupid stuff, but that's just down to me being a teenage girl"
"I see" Ava looks like she's contemplating something. "Maybe you're pregnant" she says jokingly, or at least I hope it's a joke.
"Don't be stupid" I scoff. I shake my head "Come on let's head downstairs, before our parents send out a search and rescue party. And, promise me, not a word of this to anyone" She sighs and I can tell she wants to tell someone.
"Ok. I won't tell anyone" she says.
"Thank you" I say and together we both walk down the stairs only to come face-to-face with my father.
"You girls have been gone for 25 minutes. Where were you?" he says, with a hint of anger in his voice. I'm silent. Fuck! I can't think of anything.
"I'm sorry Uncle Christian" Ava jumps in. "I was getting a headache from all the noise so I persuaded Phoebe to come with me while I take a break"
Dad looks at Ava, then at me, then back at Ava. Finally he breaks the silence. "Just tell us were you go next time, ok? I was getting worried. Ava, are you going to be ok?" he says looking at her.
"I'll be fine thank you Uncle Christian. I know that if I get worse I should go tell someone" she says, looking at me. OK, I get it. Dad nods, then turns to me.
"Princess, will you do me the honour of one dance with your old man?"
"Of course, Daddy" I say, smiling sweetly at him. I take his proffered hand and he leads me back to the ballroom, with Ava following us.
[-xXx-]
At a few minutes to midnight, we all head out into the garden for the firework display. I see Dad, Mom, Ted and Ollie and walk over to them. I go to stand beside Mom, I lean on her slightly, and she turns around and envelopes me in a cuddle.
"Are you ok, sweetie? You look a little pale" she says. She pulls a stray hair away from my face.
"I'm fine, mom, just tired"
"Well, we'll watch the display, then we'll all head home. Truth be told we are all tired" she keeps her hold on me as we turn to watch the display, though I can't focus on the dazzling light show in front of me. Ava's words from earlier are haunting me. 'Maybe you're pregnant'
At first I immediately dismissed the thought, as the last time I had sex, me and Austin used a condom. But now that I think about it, it makes sense. If I'm pregnant then crying would make sense because my hormones are all over the place. The turning my nose up at food would make sense, be.
The passing out would make sense, I have been extremely tired lately. The throwing up would make sense, its morning sickness. But we used a condom. Fuck, maybe something happened. I can't remember my last period because I'm so irregular. So it's useless to think of it like that. I'm vaguely aware that the MC is making an announcement.
"I would like to announce that the total raised for this year was three million, two hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars. Thank you everyone for your donations!" Just then there is the finale, and everyone starts clapping. I join along but my heart is not in it.
Fuck, I might be pregnant.
