AN: okay, I know it's been a while. Finals are around the corner and I'm super busy. I'll try make more time, though. Enjoy!
My friends.
Hanging out at Jessica's place was just what I needed to get over all the pregnancy stress and work issues. For a while I could just be there with a group of friends and just talk. Friday night, Jessica's living room practically had no space left, not even for a single person. Mike, Eric and Ben from the floor below us at the building then Kate, Angela and myself were all sitting in her tiny apartment living room eating pizza, drinking cheap wine (well, except me, of course. I was having soda) and playing a few games. I never told Angela this because she'd probably strangle me, but I loved being at Jessica's place, sometimes more than her place. It was just so stylishly furnished, decorated and arranged yet managed to be comfortable beyond all reason. Her blue, white and green colour scheme was perfect, the way I wanted my place when I was a teenager.
It'd been a long week at work and I couldn't wait for tomorrow to come. Jacob would be flying in from CA so I set up an appointment with Dr Jenks for eleven that day. After that we would go looking at a few places that Jacob had already looked up online. He would be here a whole week so there was no rush.
Aro had announced to the rest of the office that I'd be using the three pages of La Donna that had once had Tanya's by line at the very bottom. I needed to think about whether I would change the nature of the article or stick to giving advice, but I still had another week for that. I had a few ideas though.
After ordering yet another two pizzas, Ben had been telling us about this one guy he knew in school who turned out to be a crazy psychopath and ended up shooting out a whole grocery store for no apparent reason. "No one knew he was a nut case. We missed all the signs, even in school!" He was animated and gesturing with his hands as he told us the story. I really liked Ben. He was a great guy, quite the looker, and the only one of Angela's boyfriends I had actually approved of a hundred percent when they were going out. It's too bad it didn't work out for them. They were just too different but at least they'd managed to stay friends without any weirdness.
"Speaking of signs, what I want to know is why Ms Swan over here," Kate tilted the rim of her glass towards me and glared with sharp blue eyes, "has been acting so weird lately."
Then Jessica added, "Yeah! And by lately, I think you mean the past few weeks because I've noticed it too."
My brow wrinkled and I rolled my eyes. "What are you guys on about?"
Kate folded her arms stuck her face right next to mine. "You've been different and I want to know what's up? Don't deny it, I knew something was up when you turned down the cheap wine."
Hey! She made me sound like a low budget alcoholic! And as far as I know, I haven't been acting any different from my normal behaviour. "What do you mean I've been acting weird?"
"You're on the phone a lot now," Jessica started with a mouth full of pizza and Kate nodding beside her, "you seem distracted at work, you've become way moody . . . If you were married, I'd say you were having an affair."
And at that I had to threw my head back and laughed like I'd heard the funniest thing.
"Damn, don't tell her boyfriend that," Angela mumbled and I immediately stopped laughing to throw a confused look at her. Boyfriend? What the hell? The room went quiet and after a while, everyone was staring at me. I just sat there, blinking back at them.
"You have a boyfriend?"
"I didn't know that," Mike muttered, looking down at his lap and I felt bad and angry at Angela. She was watching way too much of that god damned soap opera!
What do I say now? I turned to Angela and scowl at her, fist clenched around my glass of grape soda. "Care to explain?"
She shrugged and humphed through a mouth full of pizza. "They were going to find out soon enough." What the hell was she talking about?
"So wait, do we know this guy? How long has this been going on?"
"Quite a while now." What in the name of all that existed was Angela doing. Where in the hell did she come up with a fictional boyfriend.
"It's Jessica's fault," Ben piped up playfully. "He's probably so ugly Jess would make fun of him."
"Or so good looking," Eric added, "that Jessica would always flirt with him!"
The two boys gawfed with each other like the complete morons they had the tendency of being.
"Remember when Mike first got here?" Kate added, thinking about the time Jessica had had the hots for shy old Mike Newton, who was so red right now, I thought his head might explode. "She was all over him!" Unlucky for Jess that Mike just wasn't interested.
Momentarily, the attention was off me and on Jessica so I mouthed "what are you doing!" at Angela.
"Helping you" she mouthed back but before I could ask her in what insane delusional world was this helping before Jessica managed to return to me with a frown. " So what is he like?"
"Oh my god, he's gorgeous," Angela gushed as I was about to say some thing. "He's tall, dark and handsome. And he's rich. Like, I mean, he is loaded!"
"Bella, I didn't know you were that type of girl." Ben squeaked and fluttered his lashes at me. "Is he your sugar daddy?"
Angela smacked him at the back of his head. "Shut up, broke and ugly. For your information, they have chemistry."
I thought that maybe Angela was in the wrong profession. She should be a writer like the rest of us. This talent she had for making up stories on the spot was getting on my last nervem
"Tough break, buddy. Maybe next time," Eric laughed while Ben rubbed the back of his head and grinned at Angela.
"Well, Bella, we want to meet him. Get him over here!"
I tried to think of something but couldn't, so I used the truth instead. "Erm, uh, it's a long distance relationship?" Was this a question? "He lives in California." Damn Angela was getting me in trouble.
"But don't you have any pictures on you?" Kate's hand flashed for my cell phone and I was too slow to get at it before her.
"Hey! Give that back!"
The truth was, I had no pictures on my phone except the few pictures with my parents and brother, Riley.
"I hope you don't have any naked pictures on there, Bella. Otherwise I might just have to confiscate them. Hey, Mike, I know what I'm giving you on Christmas! Ouch! Hey!"
Angela smacked him at the back of the head again while Mike looked away from my general direction.
Jessica leaned over to see what Kate was doing and they both frowned when they found nothing. "No picture? What kind of girlfriend are you?"
"Doesn't matter. Give the phone back!"
Of course, they ignored me and continued going through the phone. I had nothing on there to see so instead of stressing myself I sighed and rolled my eyes.
"Ooooooh, Bellaaaaa . . ." Kate called my name in a long song note while Jessica giggled besides her. I cringed, wondering what they found.
"I knew it! Let me see!" Ben exclaimed and dodged Angela's hand this time.
"No way! Me too! Lemme see!" Eric piped in and they both flocked over to Kate, who flicked their foreheads with her long finger nails and held the phone away from them.
"No naked pictures, you perves! Go sit down or I'll ask Angela to make you sit down." Both boys sat back down, rubbing their brows like little kids.
"So Bella, who's Jacob, hmmm?" Kate asked raising her platinum blonde eyebrows at me. Oh good god of all that is holy! "Is he your boyfriend cause it looks like he calls you every day. It's him isn't it? Hmmm?"
"Hey! How did this turn into girls' night in? Can we talk about something else?" Mike spoke for the first time in ages.
"Mike's right." Eric nodded. "If this doesn't stop now, we'll end up watching The Notebook or Titanic or some thing. New topic everybody!"
"Oh shut up!" Kate snapped.
I was all for the boys's idea. I was more than happy to get off the subject and talk about something else but Kate and Jessica were having fun ignoring me.
And then, to my complete horror, the phone in Kate's hands started ringing.
"Oh look who's calling, Jess! It's the mysterious Jacob!"
I jumped to my feet with a screech the same time Kate did and lunged for the still ringing in her hand. But she was too fast. "Kate, I swear if you don't give that back right now, you will regret it."
"Maybe I should answer," she mocked me from the other side of Jessica's couch.
"Don't you dare!"
She went ahead anyway and answered the phone. "Isabella Swan's phone, how may I help you!"
"Kate!" I yelled and chased her around the sofa. "Kate, give me my phone!"
She ignored me. "Bella's a little busy right now but if you want I could leave a message. But first, I wanna ask you,"
"Kate!"
"Is Bella good in bed?"
"Kate, I'm going to kill you!"Angela and Jessica were laughing their lungs out while the boys snickered. I threw a cushion at her but she dodged it so I threw two more at the same time. One pillow caught her in the side of her head. When she didn't react I grabbed the knife Mike had used to cut the pizzas and threatened her with it. "Kate, so help me God, I will stab you! Give me the phone!"
"Oh look! She just walked in! I'll give her the phone!" At that she tossed the phone in my direction and I had to drop the knife to catch it.
I walked out of the room with one last glare at Kate and put the phone to my ear. "Hello?"
The bastard's voice sounded amused. "Uh, hi. What was that all about?"
"Yeah, sorry about that. My friend's wanted to know who my mystery boyfriend was, courtesy of Angela."
"Hi, Jacob!" Angela yelled from the living room.
He laughed "So, am I your boyfriend now?" he asked playfully.
"That's what they think."
"Hmmm. I don't know how I feel about that . . ."
"Listen here," I said firmly but with a smile, "considering the circumstances, you should be my husband. You're lucky you're still at boyfriend stage. Until you meet my dad."
He scoffed. "Pffft! I'm not afraid of your dad! I'm easy to like. I'm a pro at likable."
He was feeling cocky today. "I hope you good with cops. No one handles a shotgun the Charlie does. He never misses."
Silence on the other end. Bet he didn't see that coming. "Oh. Damn, that changes everything. Erm, well maybe you could put in a good word for me before hand, you know. Butter him up?"
"Don't bet on it. You're a pro at likable, remember."
I loved how, just by talking on the phone every night, we'd become so casual and comfortable with each other, like we'd become close friends. It was perfect. I didn't want the baby growing inside of me to have parents who meant nothing to each other. At this point, I did care for Jacob and I could only hope that he felt the same for me. This way the whole situation worked out perfectly for everybody, including baby.
"I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm nervous and excited at the same time."
"You sound like you think he or she won't like you. I feel the same, though."
"Just promise me you'll take care of yourself," he reminded me like he did in every phone call. "Don't stay up too late."
"Yes, mom," I joked and he laughed. "I will."
"Alright then. See you in the morning."
"See you. Sleep well."
"You too."
And then the line went dead. I bit my lip and stood there for a moment, smiling to myself until Mike called out. "Bella, get back in here! Ben's taking all the pizza!"
As I made my way back into the living room, I realised that the two new pizzas had arrived and already had been half devoured by Ben and Eric. The smell of extra cheese and avocado strong in the room. I took my place next to Angela and watched Ben and Eric wrestle over the last slice of chicken and mushroom pizza. They were animals.
"Here, Bella, before the gremlins finish this one too." Angela handed me two slices on a plate, the smell so strong it caught me off guard and slapped me in the face with nausea. My stomach heaved and I shoved the plate back into Angela's hands and jumped to my feet. I dashed like mad to the bathroom and once it was safe, I threw my guts up. All the pizza and soda and other stuff I'd had before was coming back. Angela and Kate were beside me the, holding my hair back and patting my back. I could hear the others standing at the bathroom door watching. When the heaving stopped, I leaned my head against my arm and breathed through my mouth.
"Bella, are you alright?" Someone asked. With the uncomfortable feeling of my twisted stomach, burning throat and a mouth that tasted like shit, my mood had suddenly changed for the worst and I just snapped with abrupt irritation. Unthinking, I grumbled out loud, "God, I fucking hate pregnancy!"
Ooops!
AN: Tell me what you are thinking!