"So how did this happen?" Lita asked after she got over the initial shock. She really didn't want to know but at the same time, she did. Curiosity got the best of her. She actually went to the bathroom so she could secretly call Trish telling her to call her in ten minutes pretending she needed her back home without telling the blonde what she just learned. She was anxiously waiting for that phone call so she could get out of there as soon as possible. She felt so uncomfortable and out of place.
"Well," Maria started to say, "I called him over a month ago because I missed him so much and realized I really shouldn't have had broken up with him. I love him and I was being insecure for no reason whatsoever." She glanced at John before she continued. "He was ignoring me at first but I'm really glad he called me back." John simply rolled his eyes. "So anyways we just got back together and actually been spending a lot of time together, you know, getting to know one another again. Things have been perfect ever since and they just got even better last night," Maria finished squealing in excitement.
"You just got back together a month ago and you already asked her to marry you?" Lita asked and then immediately thought that she might have sounded a bit judgey, but she could care less at the moment.
"Yea. I also missed her and I do love her. I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her." He then turned his attention to Maria who just giggled. He didn't know how badly those words effected Lita. She was more than ready to leave now.
"So why... Why didn't you tell me before that you got back together?"
John shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it was one of those things you want to keep to yourself sometimes because it's good and you don't want anything to ruin it." She just nodded not being able to say or do anything else. This sucked. She wanted to be happy for him but she couldn't. She saw how happy he was which made her want to cry.
She heard her phone ring and was relieved when answering it. This was her way out. "Hey."
"What's wrong? Why did you have me call you?" Trish asked from the other line.
"Oh. Are you sure you really need me right now?" Lita asked while having her own conversation ignoring everything her friend asked her.
"Li, what the hell happened?"
"Okay that's fine. I'm coming. Bye."
"Lita. You tell me what's going on bef-" she didn't let her friend finish the statement as she hung up the phone and put it on silent before turning her attention to the newly engaged couple sitting across from her.
"That was Trish. She needs me home for some reason, so I'll be going now," she said getting up from the couch.
"You just got here." Okay, Maria was totally confusing her. They never really got along well and now she wanted her to stay for longer? Yea, not gonna happen.
"Yea but Trish needs me. Congratulations once again. I'm happy for you both." No I'm not, Lita thought making her way to the door.
"Wait," John said stopping her before she could leave. "You said you wanted to tell me something which is why you came here in the first place. What is it?"
Shit. "I don't remember. It probably wasn't important." She tried to think of something to change the subject. "But um, don't forget, birthing and parenting classes start tomorrow. Six to eight. Birthing class is first, then the parenting class is the last hour. Same hospital. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for three weeks."
"Yea. I remember."
"Alright, I have to get going so I'll see you then. Bye." She smiled weakly at the duo and left. It didn't take very long for her eyes to start getting watery. That happened the moment the door shut behind her. She didn't want to start already. She wanted to get to her house, or at least her car before it started, but she couldn't help it anymore. She almost made it to the elevator until she bumped into someone she really didn't want to bump into.
"Lita, nice to see you here." Candice said smiling smugly. "Isn't it great? Maria and John are getting married!" She didn't let the pregnant woman reply and just continued. "Oh, sorry. Why would you be happy about this? You'll probably go home and cry yourself to sleep. Looks like you already started the crying process." Lita had enough and tried to walk past Maria's best-friend who didn't allow it by blocking her path. "That's rude. I'm still talking to you. I know you're in love with John. You may be able to fool others, but you can't fool me. I have seen the way you look at him. I also see the way you look at Maria with envy when they're together. It'll be fun watching you at their wedding." She then moved her gaze to Lita's belly. "Aw, but what's going to happen to your babies? You really think he's going to pay any attention to you or your offspring when he gets married?" Lita tried leaving again but was once again stopped when Candice grabbed her arm. "I get it. You only asked him for his sperm so you could make him stuck with you forever. Aw sweety, that's really pathetic."
"Get the hell off of me," Lita said forcing her arm out of Candice's grasp. "You're so close to getting your ass kicked."
"I don't think so. You wouldn't want something to happen to your bastards like what happened to your fetus when you were pregnant with Christian's kid, do you?" She laughed when she saw the shocked expression on Lita's face. "He was drunk and told me about you being pregnant before we, you know, had a little fun. And then when you lost your fetus, we slept together. Again. Surprise surprise. You know he actually told me I'm better than you which doesn't surprise me. After all, you did get pregnant by John getting off on himself. You obviously couldn't turn him on either." Lita finally had enough with the way Candice was talking about her babies and when she brought up her previous pregnancy and relationship with Christian. This bitch was the skank who her ex-boyfriend cheated on her with. Why would he sleep with her of all people when he knew how much she disliked her before any of that even happened? Did he really want to hurt her that bad? She couldn't control herself anymore and slapped the other woman as hard as she could. Candice immediately lifted her hand to the cheek Lita just slapped and got closer to her. "You bitch." She looked like she was going to do something to Lita until they heard someone near them.
"Oh no. No you don't," the intruder said as he got in between the two woman.
"She just slapped me."
Randy rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised she didn't punch you. It's been a long time coming. You probably deserved it. Were you really about to hit a pregnant woman?" He didn't wait for any response from Candice before he continued. "Pregnant or not, Lita could kick your ass so you should probably leave before she does it." He waited until she left and turned his attention to Lita. "Why did you do that?"
"Like you said, she deserved it."
He rolled his eyes at her vague answer. "Would you like to elaborate?"
"Not really. I would like to leave though. So if you wouldn't mind." She tried leaving but he wouldn't let her when he blocked her path.
"So I'm guessing you heard what happened."
"Yea."
"I'm sorry."
"Whatever."
"Li-"
"Move out of the way. I want to leave."
"Are you okay? I know... I know how you feel about him," he said cautiously. This was the first time either of them acknowledged that he knew the truth of her feelings to some extent.
"Well, that obviously doesn't matter anymore. Let me leave. Please." He finally moved out of her way allowing for her to leave. He didn't know what John was thinking when he proposed to Maria. He just hoped things wouldn't end up bad for any of them, so far no good. He could clearly see Lita was hurting.
"Hey Li." Trish called out when she realized the red-head was finally home. Lita just ignored her and made her way up to her room with Trish calling her from behind her. "Lili, what's wrong? What happened?" Trish started following her to her room but she was stopped when Lita closed the door. That wouldn't stop her from entering the room, but the door was locked. Okay, this is not good. Something obviously happened. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard loud music coming from her room. Yup, something happened. She knew she wasn't going to get any answers from her and she couldn't just call John up and ask him what happened. So she decided she would do the best next thing and call Randy to see if he knew something. She went in her own room and called him. "Randy, what happened? Something is wrong with Li. She made me call her when she was at your place earlier saying she needed to get out of there. Do you know what happened?" Trish bombarded him once he answered the phone.
"He's engaged." Randy replied.
"What?" Trish asked in shock. What the hell did he just say?
"He got back together with Maria a month ago and now they're engaged."
"Shit." Trish said after she gathered what Randy just told her. "You know she actually went over there to tell John how she really feels about it."
"No wonder she was really upset. I mean, I always had a suspicion, but she actually went there to talk to him about it and he just told her he's engaged. That's messed up."
Trish nodded even though Randy couldn't see her. "I know. She just locked herself in her room."
"He's over here real happy about what happened and she's over there upset."
Trish sighed. She knew nothing good could come out of this but she really wished that somehow, all of this would get better.
It had been one week since John and Maria announced their engagement. Randy and Candice along with both the engaged couples parents were throwing their respective best-friends and child an engagement party in about two more weeks. They were originally planning to wait another month or so but that was around the time the babies were due, John wanted her there, and Maria wanted to get married within a few months, so they decided to have it a bit earlier. Lita was dreading the party for many reasons including the fact that she didn't want to see Candice again because she would probably end up punching her this time if she said anything. She also didn't want to be around the engaged couple. She tried to ignore John's calls when he called her, but she couldn't avoid him that much since she had to see him at least three times a week for the birthing and parenting classes.
The two actually discussed Maria's role in their children's lives after they got married. Lita knew that Maria was going to be in John's life and she couldn't really do anything about it, so she said Maria could be around their children but she had a right to prevent Maria from being around them if she didn't treat them the right way. It made her upset that they would be a little small happy family when the children would be with John and Maria. She hated that so much.
She was home alone at the moment, she didn't know where Trish was, but she assumed she was running some last minute errand for the baby shower she was throwing her the next day along with Victoria. She was finishing up a draft of a contract Stephanie needed within the next hour. It was Saturday, but she still found herself doing work for her boss sometimes on Saturdays. She looked over it once or twice and then emailed it to Stephanie hoping she wouldn't ask for her to do anymore work. She didn't mind doing work on the weekend but she really didn't want to right now. She just wanted a break, not just from work, but from everyone around her. Everyone was starting to piss her off even though they didn't do anything. She was tired of being pregnant. She just wanted the babies out of her but she knew she still had a little less than two months left, or maybe even less. Dr. Moretti told her it was likely for the babies to be born early because she was having twins so it increased chances of premature birth.
She heard a knock on her door and then heard it open. She thought it was Trish and found herself partially correct when she looked up to see who it was. Trish wasn't alone, John was next to her. Damn it. "Hi," she greeted them then turning her attention back to her laptop reading the email Stephanie just sent her telling her the draft was perfect and she had no other work for her.
"Here," John said handing her a bag. "Trish called me and told me how I had to get you a dress for your baby shower tomorrow. So I got you one," he answered when he saw the questioning look on her face.
"That wasn't necessary."
"Don't feel so special Li, he got me one too." John rolled his eyes. "Okay, actually, he told me he needed help picking one out for you so I told him he had to get me one too. Great deal huh?"
"Sure," Lita said clearly not interested in this conversation.
"Try it on," John said. "We want to see how it looks."
"Then just wait until tomorrow."
"I thought I didn't have to come."
"You don't," Trish answered for her, "Anyways, he was putting it nicely. We want to see if got the right size."
"Fine," Lita said getting up grabbing the bag. "You two can wait here, I'll just change in my closet." She went into her walk in closet, which was big enough to be another room if she wanted it to be, and pulled out the dress. It was a white maxi dress. She turned to look in the mirror after she finally had it on. It was a perfect fit. She just stared at herself in the mirror thinking how she was pregnant with her best-friend's babies, she was in love with him but he was engaged to another woman who was going to be at the baby shower at his request. She thought of how screwed up all that sounded and started to cry. Her emotions got the best of her throughout her pregnancy but especially so in the last trimester.
"Lili," Trish said opening the door, "What's takin-" she stopped herself when she saw Lita was actually crying. "Oh sweety," she closed the door behind her after calling out to John to give them a few minutes, she was going to help Lita with the dress. She went over to her friend and tried to console her. "Hey, it'll be okay."
"He's marrying someone else Trish. I'm pregnant with his babies because I asked him to help me. And now, I'm in love with him and he's getting married to someone else. Nothing is going to be okay. This is not right."
"I'm sorry."
"You were right. I shouldn't have asked him."
"I never said that. I just wanted to know if you thought you were doing the right thing."
"Well, I obviously didn't do the right thing."
"Don't say that. But, why did you ask him?"
"I already told you. Because he's one of my closest friends and I trust him the most and I didn't want to use a sperm bank."
"Not because you're in love with him?"
"Trish, seriously. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't, I don't know. But this whole pregnancy has actually made me fall in love with him, or if I did before, it just made me open my eyes seeing how caring and awesome he has been throughout all of this." It was quiet for a moment before she spoke up again. "I'm really happy I'm about to be a mom but why did I have to ask him?" Trish pulled her in for a hug when she knew her friend needed one. "Ugh, I can't keep thinking about it. I guess this is how my life was supposed to be. I love my babies and I don't regret this at all, but I hate this.," Lita said as she ended the hug and wiped away some tears. "Okay, tell him it's perfect. I want to change." Trish nodded and left Lita so she could change back into her normal clothes and out of the dress.
"Wow, it's so nice. Thanks." Lita said as she looked around Victoria and Dave's living room which was transformed into baby shower central. Trish and Victoria held the shower at Victoria's place so they could surprise Lita with the theme which was Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss' 'The Cat in the Hat', so everything was red, white, and blue. "Oh my God." Lita said picking up two onesies, one that said 'Thing 1' and the other that said 'Thing 2', as well as similar plush toys. They also decided to use Victoria's place since the living room and dinning room was connected so it was more spacious. "This is so cute!"
"I'm glad you like it. It was actually Trish's idea," Victoria smiled.
"No wonder you had John get me a white dress," Lita said referring to the red, white, and blue theme. "I love it. Thanks you two," she said hugging her two best-friends.
The next half hour or so was just spent with everyone introducing themselves. It was an all female baby shower with both Lita and John's mothers, Olivia and Carol, as well as some of Lita's and John's friends and family. Unfortunately, Maria was also there, no one really questioned anything because they all already knew how Lita was having these babies. She didn't really hide it if anyone asked her. She knew people would ask her questions, but she had no problems with explaining any of this to anyone, well, anyone who was worth explaining it to.
"Okay. Time for games everyone!" Trish exclaimed excitedly clapping her hands together. "Victoria is passing out yarns and scissors. Everyone cut out a length of yarn that you think will go around Lita's belly and then we'll see how big she is."
"Excuse me? That's demeaning."
"No it's not," Maria spoke up which made Lita want to slap her for no reason whatsoever except for the fact she opened her mouth, she really didn't like her. "It's done at like probably all baby showers. It's all for fun."
"Yes, it's all for fun. Get over it." Trish continued, "There will be a prize for all game winners." Everyone was looking at Lita trying to estimate the size of her belly. Few were kind of afraid of her reaction if they guessed a lot over the actual size. When everyone was done, they went up to Lita to see whose estimation was the best. Stacy, a friend of Lita's from work, actually estimated the best getting it spot on.
"Time for the next game," Victoria said laying out three diapers at a nearby table in the room while Trish passed out pencils and blank papers to every guest.
"Ew, what in the world?"
Olivia chuckled. "Sweety, it's just melted chocolate. Plus, you do realize you're going to be changing a lot of dirty diapers, correct?" Lita nodded, her mom did have a point, it was just a shock because she wasn't expecting to see that.
"Come up and try to figure out what type of chocolate is on the diaper." Victoria said finishing up the directions for the game. Three of the guest guessed two of the three chocolates correctly while Lita actually guessed all of them correctly.
"Last game! So we all have heard of pin the tail on the donkey, this is just like that game," Trish started to explain as Victoria placed a poster-sized picture of Lita in which she was standing in with her pregnant and hanging it up against the wall. "So everyone gets a chance to place the babies on her belly. Yes, we are playing with two babies because she is having twins. And it makes it more fun. But obviously, you will be blindfolded and I will spin you around a couple of times. The person closest to getting it accurate wins!" A couple of people opted to stay out of this particular game because they were prone to get dizzy even though Trish promised she wouldn't spin them around to much. Victoria was the one who actually won the game.
"So that's all the games. As a reminder, there are onesies on the table," Victoria said pointing to the table set as a craft table, "along with fabric paint and other baby-safe decorative things that you can make a nice fun onsies for the babies if you want too. A few people actually already did some and they are very creative and cute. Great work. Also, there's food set up in the dining room, so help yourselves."
"Can I get you something?" Olivia asked her daughter.
"Those cupcakes look good." Lita replied.
Carol smiled. "I see your sweet tooth is still the same."
"That will never change." Trish replied making her way over to the trio. "I"ll handle Lili." The two woman smiled and made their way to the connecting dinning room.
"Get me two cupcakes." The red-head continued when she saw the look the blonde was giving her. "I would feel like I'm discriminating against them if I take the one that says 'Thing 1' and not the one that says 'Thing 2' or vice-versa. I don't want to to hurt the cupcakes feelings, so it'll be good if you get me two."
Trish rolled her eyes. "Wow. Great reasoning," she said sarcastically.
"So did you and John think of names yet?" Christy asked Lita after some time.
"Yup."
"And...?"
"Well, we narrowed it down to three names each."
"And...?"
Lita was a bit hesitant. "I don't know."
"If you have it narrowed down, it should be fine for you to tell us."
"Okay," Lita conceded quickly. "Just the first names, I'm not going to be telling any of the potential middle names. So, for our girl, Brooke, Audrey, or Ava. And for our boy, Logan, Mason, or Andrew."
"Mason is a cute name," Maria said which made Lita puke inside. She really didn't like the fact that Maria was there.
That takes Mason out of the running. "Yea, that's my least favorite of the three," Lita lied, that was actually her favorite. And now she wasn't going to name her son that name just because Maria liked it, she realized that was childish of herself but she really couldn't stand Maria. "My mom really likes the name Audrey, Carol really likes Ava, and I love the name Brooke."
"So which one do you think it's going to be?" Lita's cousin asked.
Lita shrugged. "I don't know. We'll see."
"You are such a liar," Trish said as she and Lita made their way back to their house. "You love the name Mason, you're not going to name your baby that now just because Maria likes that name."
"Whatever."
"That was kind of rude but funny at the same time how you told her that was your least favorite name."
"I don't care."
"So did you have fun?"
Lita smiled. "Yes I did. Thanks so much."
"I had fun planning it! I think Vicki might have gotten annoyed with me at times. Anyways, don't forget to write out and send the thank you notes for the gifts and thanking them for coming. Send them on time. And by on time, I mean soon. And by soon, I mean like this month."
"Ugh. Do I have to?" Lita pouted.
"Yes, stop being lazy."
"Do I really have to though? I mean, we gave them party favors. Isn't that 'thank you' enough? And I said it in person."
"No it's not."
"Fine, I'll make John do it, I don't want to do it."
"It would be better if you do it since you know everyone and you were there, but whatever, just make sure it's done."
"Okay mommy." Trish merely shook her head at her friend. She was just happy she was in a better mood than she was a week ago. She just hoped that wouldn't change.
Thanks for reading. Thanks for the reviews.
Well, I did warn you guys Maria was going to be back. I guess you never actually thought about how she was going to be back.
Check out:
"Poetry in Motion" and "College Life" by alliewash17. Both with Lita/Jeff pairing which isn't as weird as I thought it would be. Still tryna get over that pairing. But, both are a great read so far.