GUYS I'VE FINALLY WRITTEN THE PART I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT FOR ABOUT 10 CHAPTERS. Except it doesn't happen until the next chapter. Sorry all. ;)
I had a huge writing spree today and got so much done. I'm currently finishing off chapter 15.
I know that some stuff happens in this chapter but not a huge amount but believe me, the next two chapters are VERY intense, with the planned plot twist in chapter 13 and something even more crazy (only in PLL land could this be a thing) in chapter 14. Lots of angst and drama and OMG moments.
Oh and in other news I do have someone specific in mind for 'A'.
Hope you all had a good Tuesday.
Kisses -C
Chapter Twelve
Neither Ella nor Ashley spoke another word after Ashley's final comment. They had both simply smiled at one another and then Ella had returned to her earlier position laying against Ashley's chest, and they had fallen back asleep. It was nearly midday before they woke up. Ella was first and even then it was only her stomach that pulled her from her sleep.
"Not again" was all she managed to say as she crawled out from Ashley's arms and raced towards the bathroom. This in turn woke up the older woman, who followed her friend into the bathroom and returned to her usual position of holding Ella's hair out of her face until she was done. The brunette washed her teeth, tied her hair up, and then mumbled "coffee" before heading back into the living room and collapsing back onto the sofa.
Ashley happily obliged and returned with a hot mug of coffee (a first for her) and a cookie.
"Food, really?" Ella pulled a face.
"You need to line your stomach."
Still unconvinced Ella took the cookie and looking at it suspiciously asked "did you make it?"
"In under five minutes? Strangely not. I bought them yesterday while I was out. They're ginger. It'll help with your morning sickness."
Ella was touched by Ashley's thoughtfulness and could feel her eyes becoming damp. "That was really sweet. Thank you." She took a bite. "Mmmm yum. You're right, you definitely didn't bake these."
Ashley laughed and hit her playfully. "Hey play nice or you don't get another one. Oh and I phoned up work for you and let them know you weren't feeling great. Another stomach bug. You're going to have to start ordering take out from somewhere else."
"Thank you." Ella sunk back onto the chair. "I don't know how much more of this morning sickness I can take"
Ashley chuckled. "That's exactly how I felt during mine. Did you not get it with your other two then?"
Ella shook her head. "No. I've never had morning sickness before."
AE - AE - AE
"Aria can I please talk to you."
The shorter brunette looked up from her work. "Why of course you may Spencer. Is there a reason we're being so formal or is it just because we're in the library and that's basically your Holy ground?"
Spencer checked that there was no one close enough to hear them and then sat down opposite her friend. "It's just… there's something I need to ask you. 'A'… sent me a text."
"You're still being targeted? I thought 'A' had left us all alone now?"
"Apparently not. I got a text telling me… Aria are you pregnant?" Spencer hissed the last bit so quietly it took Aria a moment to make sure she'd heard her correctly.
"Excuse me?"
"The text… it basically suggested that Ezra…"
"That he got me pregnant? No Spencer we're not stupid. We know how to use a condom."
"Accidents happen…"
"Spencer I'm not pregnant. Now unless you have anything important to add, I have a ton of math work to get through."
"Fine" Spencer walked away sadly. She hated having to upset her friend but she knew it would have been far worse if Jenna had done it. And it wasn't like she could point that out to Aria. It was bad enough that she knew Spencer had thought she might be pregnant, without her knowing Jenna was involved too.
But if her friend was telling the truth, which Spencer knew she was, then that meant that the capital 'E' referred to someone else. Well that's if it meant anything at all…
Her phone went off and she groaned.
Close, but not close enough. Try again bitches -A
She hated jumping every time her phone… "oh for goodness sake not again" she mumbled to herself as her phone vibrated for a second time.
Not Aria then. Could Mr F be cheating? Close but not close enough suggests we're on the right track… J
Spencer shook her head and replied.
No way. If she isn't then it's not his. Maybe it's another male teacher whose name begins with 'E'? S x
AE - AE - AE
"Hanna comes back tomorrow" Ashley said a little nervously. It was the following Saturday and the pair were eating take out curled up on the sofa.
Ella had to be convinced to eat. She was now getting morning sickness for most of the day. She'd just about managed to get through the week teaching, but it had been a struggle and she'd had to duck out of class a couple of times. It also wasn't helping with her mood. Ashley had spent most days barely speaking incase she had her head bitten off again. She had so many questions about the baby that she wanted to ask but there was just no way of doing it until Ella's mood improved. She'd hoped being the weekend it might have been better today, but there hadn't really been much change. With no choice when her daughter was returning the following day, Ashley had been forced to brace herself and bring up the topic she'd been needing to since the beginning of the week.
"I know."
"Have you decided whether you want to stay with me or not?"
Ella shook her head. "I can't Ashley. It's hard enough to hide this baby at school, there's no way Hanna wouldn't notice me throwing up for hours every morning if we lived in the same house. But I'm not letting you send her to Caleb's either. That will cause just as many questions. Questions I'm just not ready to answer that. I'll be fine here, you need to go home to your daughter."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay" Ashley replied without argument. The advantage to waiting so long was that she'd had enough time to consider what she'd do when Ella refused her offers. Normally she'd argue but she knew better. Antagonising her wouldn't help, not with the mood she was in. And aggravating her wasn't going to do the baby any good. The older woman had a different plan, one which was likely to have a much higher success rate.
"Right, well…" Ella wasn't sure what to say. It wasn't surprising that Ashley wanted to be away from her. She wasn't exactly the easiest person to live with at the moment. But she'd still expected the redhead to put up a little more of a fight, and it hurt a lot that she hadn't. Not that she could have accepted either of her offers anyway, but… it would still have been nice for her friend to fight for her a little bit.
AE - AE - AE
"You're back" Jenna said when the door opened and Spencer walked in.
"How do you know it's me?" the taller girl asked.
"No one else visits me and Toby's working" came the reply, and Spencer felt a little bit bad for her. It must be hard enough to have lost your sight, without having to deal with it alone. It wasn't like Jenna hadn't had friends when it happened. Although she'd not long arrived in Rosewood she was still remarkably popular. But teenage girls move on quickly, and by the time Jenna had returned they'd all gone on without her. Feeling guilty Spencer vowed to be nicer to her.
"I need to talk this through with someone and you're the only other person that knows."
"Okay. Drink?"
Spencer shook her head and then corrected herself "no, thanks". She really needed to get used to saying yes and no out loud.
They both walked through to the kitchen and Spencer sat down. "There's no way that Ezra would be able to cheat on Aria. She practically lives with him these days. So if he isn't the 'E' who else could it be?"
Over an hour later Spencer left having decided to think about it over night and see if she could come up with anything.
Less than five minutes later Toby had arrived at the house and Jenna text Spencer saying they had to be more careful. Toby finding out Spencer had been there would result in far too many questions. Questions that could lead him straight into harms way.
AE - AE - AE
The following morning after an awkward twelve hours Ashley packed up her things, gave Ella a quick hug, and walked out of the door without even looking back.
Fighting the tears that were now falling down her cheeks Ella collapsed against the door. Five minuets later her morning sickness kicked in again and she moved to the bathroom; where she sat alone for over two hours until it had passed enough for her to go back to her room. She spotted Ashley's glass of water that had been sitting on her bedside table for over a week. Picking it up she threw it across the room where it smashed into the opposite wall.
Ella curled up on her bed and cried.
AE - AE - AE
"It's a good job Toby's working so much" Spencer said as she headed back into Jenna's kitchen.
"I know, we really need to be more careful you only just missed him yesterday."
"Well if we work this out then I won't have to keep coming round and it won't be a problem."
Jenna nodded. "I can't see that happening any time soon though. Do you have any idea who it could be?"
"No. But let's go through what we do know. It's someone who's name relates to the letter 'E' somehow. Someone that has either gotten someone pregnant they shouldn't, or is pregnant when they shouldn't be. Or with someone they shouldn't have."
"And we're sure that it's not Aria and Mr Fitz?"
"Yes, and I'm not asking her again. She's got enough on her plate at the moment without me constantly harassing her. 'A' said we were wrong anyway."
"What's wrong with Aria? Sick of having to sneak around with her English teacher behind everyone's back?"
"None of your business" Spencer snapped and then felt guilty. "Sorry, I know you have plenty of reason not to trust us, but she says she's not and I believe her. I know what's at stake here, I'm not going to rule anyone out unless I'm completely positive. 'A' and Aria both say it's not her, so it's not."
"Okay. But just for the record it's 'A' I believe not Aria. And if there's any sign that 'A' was lying when they said we were wrong about her, I don't care what boyfriend trouble she's having I will ask her myself."
Spencer was getting frustrated now. "She's not having boyfriend trouble, she's just worried about Mrs Montgomery."
"Why is she worried about her? She seems fine to me. I know she was off sick the other day but a stomach bug never killed anyone."
"It's not just that."
"Then what is it?"
Spencer wanted to tell her that it was none of her business again but she figured it was quicker and easier to just answer her questions. "She's been acting really strangely for the past few weeks. Distant. She spent like four weeks not leaving the house other than work. Then she left the house again but kept getting text messages in class. She walked out of one of our lessons this week for like ten minutes, and apparently she's left one of her other…" Spencer suddenly went silent. "Oh no… no no no no."
"What?"
"She's getting texts. She's been acting really strangely since she broke things off with Zack. She's off sick and then keeps leaving class even when she is in…"
Both phones went off.
Sherlock Spencer gets it right again. I hope Ella feels better soon. Morning sickness is a bitch. Kisses -A
AE - AE - AE
It was quarter past midnight and Ella was fighting the temptation to open a bottle of wine. Surely one glass wouldn't hurt the baby. Maybe even two. It must be safer for the baby if she had a bit to drink rather than was up all night unable to sleep…
"Arggggh" she shouted out in frustration. It had been hard enough to sleep before Ashley stayed, now she had even more going round her head. Not only did she have the baby to contend with, but she couldn't get away from how hurt she was that her friend had just packed up and left her. She'd been so kind over the past week. So sweet and thoughtful and understanding. It was as though she genuinely cared about her.
Obviously Ella had been wrong.
She pulled their blanket a little higher over herself. She could still smell Ashley's perfume on it. Tears of frustration and anger and hurt were now beginning to trickle down her cheek. Should she have accepted Ashley's offer? No. Not when her friend so clearly hadn't meant it. Not when she'd been so quick to just take no for an answer and walk away from her.
Crying was making her feel sick again. She wanted to have another of the ginger biscuits that Ashley had been feeding her, but couldn't bring herself to do it. A couple of minutes later and she stumbled towards the bathroom. She was sick until there was nothing left inside her, and then with a smear of it still down her chin and across her cheek, she went back to the living room and sat back under the blanket.
There was a sound in the hallway and Ella felt her heart begin to race. No one else had a key to her apartment so whoever it was must have broken in. Of course, 'A' would now know that Ella was alone and was coming to… she didn't even know. Shaking she stood up and just as she reached the door and leant to pick up the heaviest thing in the room, the door stop, it swung open and she screamed.
Please keep letting me know what you think.
And also whether you're ready for the bombshells that I'm about to drop on you. Shall I post another part tomorrow morning (it's like 10pm here) or shall I wait a few days and drag it out? ;)
Sleep tight chicks.