Okay before anyone of you who reviewed the last chapter read this one, GO BACK AND RE-READ CHAPTER 7!!! I editted chapter 7 (again) so that this chapter would make sense.

EastAngels2009

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Thanks for the reviews guys!!!

Chapter 8

Since it's normal for me to keep track of time, it had been 7 weeks since everything went down. This meant that (in order) I lost my baby, I caught my fiance cheating on me. Erm, correction. Ex-fiance recently. I felt so empty and guilty for losing the baby. I mean, I shouldn't have ran down the stairs just because I was shocked that Erik was cheating on me with Whitney. I was just so shocked that I couldn't even look at him. He hurt me and the sight of them kissing was just repulsive. It completely grosses me out. Also, these last few weeks I could not stop crying. I missed my baby and it made me really upset it was my fault that he/she was gone. I wanted my baby back more than anything in the world right now. I've been crying so much that my eyes were red and puffy as if I had really bad allergies. It's been really bad to the point where sometimes I had to ask someone to substitute for my class. I couldn't even think about facing Whitney or Erik right now because I was on the verge of using all the elements to kill Whitney and as for Erik.....well, I'll temporarily injure him.

Why me Nyx? Why did I have to lose my baby? I thought, looking down at both of my hands on my stomach. This made me burst into even more tears from when I cried about three hours ago. While I was sobbing, I heard a knock on my door.

"Go away." I cried, sniffing.

"It's just me." Stevie Rae whispered, shutting the door softly, "You poor thing."

"I just can't believe it's gone." I sobbed, still clutching my stomache, where my small fetus used to be about 7 weeks ago.

"Zoey, I know you're better than this. I'm staying with you until you're better." Stevie Rae replied, sitting next to me on the edge my bed.

"You don't have to." I muttered, hugging my knees to my chest.

"No, I am. That's what best friends do." She told me, sliding her boots off, "You've really got to stop crying, Z."

"I can't. It hurts too much Stevie Rae." I said, wiping my puffy eyes.

"I know it hurts that your baby's gone honey, but crying won't bring it back. I know you probably think that I don't understand but trust me, I understand what it's like to lose something." Stevie Rae explained, soothingly.

"I need to give you a hug." I mumbled, trying to smile. I held my best friend, smelling the scent of flowers from her element. I could only hope she was right about me getting better because I seriously doubted it.

Erik's POV

Well, right now, school just let out. All day I couldn't stop thinking about Zoey. The last time we talked was when the fight went down between Shaunee and Whitney, which was almost 7 entire weeks ago. I didn't know how much more of this I could take. I'm fucking pissed off! I miss her like crazy! I'm fucking pissed that homewrecker Whitney made my fiance pissed off at me. On the other hand, I'm mad because Zoey just made random assumptions that I was having sex with Whitney. She walked in on us at the last second, so she didn't even see that Whitney was forcing herself onto me.

I was so fucked up that I even started drinking more wine (just wine) than I normally do! I haven't had any sleep, I feel like someone took a semi truck and ran me over fifty different times, and most of all I'm fucking pissed that Zoey didn't let me explain what happened! Not even caring, I took another sip of wine from the bottle that was tightly in my hand. After a while, I saw Jayla padding her way over to me. She looked worried, sad, and concerned.

"I'm sorry, girl. I just don't know what to do anymore." I told her, as she "me-ooooowed" in a tone that was abnormal for her. It was really low and almost sounded like a whimper. I picked her up and sat her on my lap. She nuzzled her head on my cheek and started giving me her little cat kiss.

"Well, for right now, you're the only girl I need in my life." I smiled, kissing her nose.

Normal POV (Zoey's POV)

I finally grew the balls to go back to High Priestess and Equestrian duty. Though I wasn't too enthusiastic about it, the fledglings didn't deserve to suffer because of me. As I walked through the hallways to observe classes, I continued back to my previous thoughts. So far, I'd seen Erik at one point today but I didn't say anything. I had to pretend that sometimes I wasn't peeking glances at him. The only reason I saw him was because he needed to use my copier because the one in the library is being fixed.

I also observed that the gang was getting affected by the division between Erik and I. There had been times at lunch and dinner when the gang would try and start a conversation, but they had no progress aside from talking amongst themselves. I didn't want to be mean or anything but I wasn't going to lead Erik on by being buddy-buddy with him. That just wasn't happening. I didn't trust him and until I feel as though he's trustworthy, I'm going to keep ignoring him. Right now, it was lunch time. I was moving through the line to grab some of those little sherbert cups. And yes, I like sherbert. Anyway, as I got to our table, the gang (once again) was staring at me.

"We need to talk, Z." Erin said, sternly.

"Yeah, big time." Shaunee added, crossing her arms.

"Please, guys, I don't need this. I'm trying to get over this." I sighed, sitting in my chair.

"We think you need to talk to Erik, sweety." Damien replied, sincerely, "We don't mean to press but.....,"

"You and lover boy are giving us a headache with this crappy ass division!" Aphrodite exclaimed, beating Damien to the response, "You two need to kiss and make up. You both belong together and it irks me how the two of you are acting like buttwipes because of a little misunderstanding."

"It's not about that! It's about................" I argued, feeling really frustrated.

"About what?" Aphrodite questioned, raising an eyebrow, "That your anger is getting in the way of your common sense?" I had nothing to say. She was right. I think my anger was getting in the way of what had to be done. I didn't want to talk to Erik. He did me wrong. Not the other way around. I need my space and they didn't understand.

"Whatever." I mumbled, picking up my tray and heading to a table out on the balcony.

"Zoey, wait." Stevie Rae called, as I turned my back to all of them. They would never understand. I'm pissed! I'm the one who lost my baby! I'm the one who walked in on my ex-fiance cheating on me! It never happened to them! Not once!

"I'm sorry about what happened." Stevie Rae said, setting her tray down across from me.

"There's nothing to be sorry about. You didn't do anything wrong." I told her, dipping a french fry in some ketchup, "Plus, I know they're right but I just can't face him. I'm too angry and pissed off to talk to him."

"I understand, honey. Whenever you're ready to talk to him, then you do it when you're comfortable." She whispered, looking over at our table. The Twins and Damien were talking to Erik about something. It's not like I cared.

"Thanks. I don't know how I'd handle this without you." I smiled, taking a bite out of my burger.

"That's not good for you." She said, staring at my burger.

"I'm grieving leave me alone." I said, chomping on my burger.

"No, I'm serious, Z. Not that I'm a lesbian, but you're butt is getting huge." Stevie Rae told me, as I looked at my reflection on one of the glass doors. Oh my Goddess! My ass was getting huge! Well, let me go back to my diet over the last several weeks. I had burgers for lunch, burgers for dinner, and smores for a snack. Yikes! I had to watch out for this diet.

"Ah, hell." I whined, sitting back down, "This bites."

"Anyway, we're all having a nice dinner in the Twins' loft this weekend. They hired a chef for the evening. They wanted to know if you wanted to come." Stevie Rae continued, happily.

"Sure. Maybe they'll serve something healthy." I replied. Hopefully, this dinner would be as nice as Stevie Rae said it would be. After I was done eating my lunch, I threw my stuff in the trash but on the way there, I ran into Erik. I could feel everyone at our table suck in a breath.

"Oh shit." Shaunee mumbled, as I could see her and Erin in my periphrial vision.

"Oh, I think I dropped my fork. Could you guys help me find it?" Erin asked sarcastically, as everyone hid underneath the table.

"Hi, Zoey." Erik greeted, softly. Not saying a word, I slide my purse back on my shoulder and left. Like I said before, I had nothing to say to him. It's not because I'm still mad at him, it was really because I was so mad that I couldn't speak to him or even say hello back. I kept walking, not even turning my head back to glance either.

Something that brightened my mood a little bit was the fact that it was finally the weekend! I this morning reading a book about relationship building. I bought it while I was away from everyone when I was staying with Grandma. I was reading a chapter that talks about when men start cheating......mmmm what coincidence. While I was reading, Nala was hissing when Stevie Rae opened the door to my room.

"Hey! How are you?" Stevie Rae asked, shutting the door.

"Eh, the same old same old, pissed the fuck off." I replied plainly, putting my book down.

"I'm a little used to it. So, are you excited about tonight?" She asked, taking a piece of candy from my candy bowl.

"Wait, what's tonight?" I asked, twitching my eyes, "Oh crap! Is tonight the dinner at the Twins' loft?"

"Wow, Z. They've been talking about it for days." Stevie Rae giggled, picking up Nala.

"I'm sorry. I just haven't been myself lately." I mumbled, noticing that my hands were on my stomach again.

"Don't worry, you'll feel better, Zoey. I promise you'll get through it." Stevie Rae said, hugging me.

"Thanks. I hope you're right." I replied, scratching Nala's head.

"You know you can't ignore 'you know who' forever." Stevie Rae pointed out, modestly. I knew of course she was talking about Erik, since after all I had been ignoring him for seven weeks now. I don't know, I just didn't feel like I was ready to sit down and talk with him. I'm still pissed off at him even though I don't constantly show it when I'm in public.

"I know, it's just I'm still pissed. He cheated on me." I responded, fidgeting with my fingers, "If I even look at his face it makes me want to punch him or use the elements to torture him until I'm satisfied, but I know Nyx wouldn't want me to hurt him."

"Yeah, she probably wouldn't want that." Stevie Rae mumbled, giving her I'm hiding something really important look.

"What are you hiding?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at her.

"Nothing. Why would you ask that?" She questioned, starting to blush.

"Because I know that look. Now tell me." I answered, slapping her arm playfully.

"Well, the Twins didn't want me to tell you this but.....Erik's going to be at dinner tonight." Stevie said, looking down at the floor.

At first, I was speechless. If Stevie Rae hadn't told me, I'd be super pissed at the Twins for not telling me and super pissed because Stevie Rae would have known but never told me. Now that she had told me, I wasn't really mad at her because she told the truth, but I had to pry it out of her. I'm mad at the Twins because I guess this was another one of their plans to get Erik and I to talk.

"Are you serious? Why does he have to be there?" I whined, plopping myself back on my pillows.

"Well, just because you guys are in a fight doesn't mean we can't hang out with him. He's still our friend too, remember?" Stevie Rae explained, as Nala jumped out of her lap.

I kind of felt bad a little bit. Maybe the gang were pushing me so bad to talk to Erik because they felt that they had to pick a side to take and they didn't want to.

"Zoey, the whole reason they didn't want me to tell you is because they knew you'd react this way." Stevie Rae added, shrugging her shoulders, "I really shouldn't have said anything."

"No, no. It's okay really. It's my fault. I shouldn't have made it seem like you guys had to pick a side." I apologized, feeling rather horrible. I hadn't meant to imply that. Geez, I felt horrible.

"Well, if you really don't think that you should talk to him just yet, then just pretend he's not there. The Twins set this whole thing up so that we can spend some nice time together." Stevie Rae sighed, smiling, "But I really suggest you talk to him. That way you'll get his side of what happened."

"I guess." I mumbled. I got a bad feeling that this dinner is going to turn out to be a disaster. I glanced at my alarm clock, it was 11 p.m. It had only been a little while since I woke up. I didn't have too much to worry about until well.......probably 5 a.m.

"Well, I'll be in my loft getting my stuff set out. See ya!" She chirped, shutting my door.

"You know, sometimes, I wish I were you." I told Nala, scratching her head, "Well, just to kill time, I'm going shopping."

Once I started the shower in my bathroom, I rumaged through my make up drawers on the sides of my makeup dresser. Might as well get ready for the hell dinner. I set out my makeup that I wore with my glasses (I got some cool new frames!) I pulled out my navy blue dress that I wore (sadly) on my date with Erik a few months ago and another black dress I got a while back. Both were strapless. Both were fitted. The only difference was that one reminded me of him and one didn't, so I stuck with the black one.

Usually showers helped me calm down a little bit. As I lathered my body with my strawberry and raspberry body wash, my mind changed about somethings. Before, I found myself wanting to talk to Erik and be with him, but now that's changed to an all out pissed off me. At first, I wanted him to give me some sort of response as to why he did this to me, now I just don't give a damn what he has to say. It feels like he's dead to me, but there's part of me that wants to hold onto him.

After my long and soothing shower, I decided to call Grandma. I slipped into a pair of my light wash skinny jeans, my Harajuku Lovers mermaid shirt, and my glasses. Sitting closest to the phone near my living room couch, I dialed Grandma's number.

"Hello?" I heard Grandma ask, sweetly.

"Hey, Grandma, It's Zoey." I replied, happily. I enjoyed talking to Grandma since I never got to see her that often.

"Hi, Little Bird, how are you honey?" She asked, sounding as happy as I was.

"Not so good." I told her, shyly.

"What's wrong, baby?" Grandma asked, as I sensed the worry in her voice.

"It's about Erik." I answered, sadly, "I don't what to do Grandma. This whole separation is starting to affect my friends and they're trying to get me to talk to him and I really don't want to."

"Honey, I think that you need to talk to Erik. The last time we talked, you told me you haven't talked to him in weeks. I think Erik is a good boy and I don't think that he'd intentionally hurt you. You both need to sit down and talk about this. It's the best solution for the problem." Grandma told me, just as I feared, "I believe that the Goddess is very aware of the love you two share and she'd agree with me on this."

"I guess. But Grandma, what if he doesn't want to talk to me? What if he's just as mad as I am?" I asked, sounding like a ten year old version of me.

"Then you should talk to him anyway. If you don't talk to him, then you'll never know how he feels. Trust me, Zoeybird, he'll listen." Grandma responded, making me want to cry, "Let me know how it goes, honey."

"Thank you, Grandma. I love you." I told her, smiling as I hanged up the phone. I really wanted to take Grandma's advice, but I didn't know how to approach it.

After my conversation with Grandma (which was more than three hours ago), I slipped into my black, strapless dress. Since my makeup took the longest to do (which was only for special occasions), I sat down in front of my mirror and started applying my concealer since wearing my glasses casted dark circles on my eyes. I was hoping that this dinner wouldn't turn out to be a major disaster. Grandma and my friends insisted that I talk to Erik, but wouldn't that kind of make dinner awkward for everyone else because he could be mad at me if we talked.

"Well, Nala, we'll see how this dinner goes and then I'll talk to him." I said, as she purred in agreement. While I finished applying my foundation, I put my smokey grey and black eyeshadow on. I had to make up my mind. I was going to either talk to Erik or not. It can't go both ways. After I was done double checking my hair and makeup, I dimmed my lights so Nala wouldn't be scared.

As I walked down to the Twins loft, I noticed there was this couple kissing in one of the courtyards. Once they glanced in my direction, the jumped up mumbling sorry. I just waved them off because I honestly couldn't tell them to stop making out when not to long ago when Erik and I were students, we used to make out so who was I to judge? I finally approached the door to the Twins' loft. I took a couple deep breaths, that is until Damien opened the door.

"Oh! Hey, Z!" Damien chirped, pulling me into a hug.

"Damn, you look hot, even without our expertise." Shaunee said, hugging me next.

"I agree, Twin. We've been a positive influence on our Zoey." Erin added, as I just noticed that again, they were wearing matching dresses.

"Oh yeah, this is a Twin original." I replied, as they started grinning, "So what's for dinner?"

"The chef's, who are insanely hot, are cooking a seafood fest." Erin told me, after Damien shut the door.

"Don't you two have boyfriends?" I asked them, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, Cole and T.J. should be on their way with Erik." Shaunee said, looking at the time on her iPhone. As soon as she said Erik's name, my stomach started turning into knots.

"What did we just say about using the E word?" Stevie Rae asked, popping out of the kitchen. She was wearing a raspberry colored strapless dress and some killer stilletos (probably one's she borrowed from the Twins).

"That it's not to be spoken at dinner." Erin mumbled, trying to hide her embarassment.

"Thank you." Damien replied, agreeing with Stevie Rae.

"Oh my Goddess nerd herd, get over yourselves." Aphrodite said, twitching into the living room from the bathroom. She was wearing this slate gray dress and shiny heels, "By the way, Dorkamese Twins, I borrowed that Febreeze in the bathroom."

"By that you mean you're not giving it back?" Shaunee asked, crossing her arms.

"Exactly." Aphrodite answered, putting her purse behind the couch. She turned to me and said, "How are you?"

"I've been better." I told her, sighing. As I listened to Halo by Beyonce being played in the background on the Twins iHome, I heard a knock on the door. Ah crap.

"Hey, bae." Cole greeted, kissing Shaunee fully on her lips. I noticed that the both of them called each other "bae" instead of babe. I thought it was cute how Shaunee's eyes twinkled everytime he came.

"Hey." Shaunee smiled, hugging him. While T.J. greeted Erin, I noticed Erik in the background talking to Jack. He looked really stressed out and the light in his blue eyes completely faded. They were dull and foggy. From what I could see, he had bags underneath his eyes and cuts on his fists. What happened to him? I felt sorry for him, but I didn't know what to do.

"He looks so broken." Stevie Rae whispered, rubbing my shoulder.

"I know." I mumbled, sadly. I know that he had hurt me, but I didn't want Erik going out hurting himself.

"Hey, guys, dinner's ready." Erin announced, popping her head out of the kitchen.

"Good, just in time." T.J. said, as Erin laced her fingers through his. As I approached the way to the kitchen, I stood right next to Erik. We both stared at each other for a few seconds before I just moved past him. I knew that him staring at me had to hurt him, but instead he looked pissed off. As I sat closest to Stevie Rae, Damien sat right in between Erik and I.

"Goody, I love me some seafood." Stevie Rae perked up, as the waiters started placing dishes on the table.

"So, uh, T.J. how are you and my Twins' relationship going?" Shaunee asked, putting her serious face on.

"It's going great." T.J. answered, as he started passing the dish around. Yay! They made my other favorite, crab legs and butter sauce.

"Yeah, Twin, you don't have to get all protective." Erin said, rolling her eyes.

"So, Erik, how's life here going?" Cole asked, sipping his wine.

"Oh, it's...uh, going great." Erik muttered, picking at his lobster, "It's just certain people don't know how great something is because of certain obstacles."

Okay, I wasn't stupid. I knew he was talking about me. That made me put my fork on the side of my plate. I could feel everyone start to get tense.

"Well, I think maybe certain people should be considerate and care about those who lives are affected by their actions and maybe there wouldn't be any obstacles." I said, trying to sound polite, "I think if people have trust, then they can overcome any obstacles in their lives."

"Here it comes." Aphrodite muttered, sipping her wine nonchalantly.

"I have to disagree. For example, trust is something you have to build over time, not overnight. It's too bad certain people don't understand the concept." Erik added, as I could hear the acid in his voice.

"Well, it's too bad certain people don't understand that when they're in a relationship they're not supposed to let another girl make out with him when they're fiance was pregnant." I shouted, getting up from my chair.

"I think it's too bad certain people don't let the other person they're in a relationship explain what actually happened since that someone walked in on it at the last minute!" Erik yelled, getting up from his chair.

"What's there to explain? I saw you making out with another woman right in front of me!" I shouted back, starting to get really pissed.

"Was my question bad to ask?" Cole questioned, looking at Shaunee for help.

"You're a little late with that." Shaunee commented, quietly.

"Guys.......," Stevie Rae mumbled, attempting to calm us down.

"That's not what happened! If you'd just let me explain instead of running out, you would know and maybe we wouldn't be going through this!" Erik continued, balling his fists.

"Like I said! There's nothing to explain! You obviously didn't want to be committed to our relationship, or else you wouldn't have done what you did!" I shouted, not noticing that tears were leaking from my eyes.

"Guys! Calm down!" Damien shouted, rolling his eyes.

"Damien's right, you both need to take a couple deep breaths." Stevie Rae added, trying to keep the peace.

"Oh bullshit! You can't keep any peace with him in the room!" I exclaimed, crossing my arms.

"Obviously, you can't get through to her since she's so stubborn!" Erik added, sighing.

"Fine. Then I'll just leave!" I screamed, grabbing my purse and slamming the door to the Twins' loft. How dare he do that! We were so supposed to be at a civilized dinner for the Twins, not arguing over something he had no business talking about. All I did right now was walk off the House of Night campus. I just had to get away. After about thirty minutes of walking, I was in Utica Square. I walked to the park and sat in front of the pond near the huge tree in the middle of the park. I just sat there crying.

"It'll be okay." I heard Stevie Rae whispered, pulling me into a hug. I guess she must have followed me here (or took either Damien's car or the Twins'.) I just sat there, continuing to cry.

The next day I spent ignoring Erik, completely. I had nothing further to say to him. Since it was still the weekend, I took Nala for a walk around campus. It would be nice to get some fresh air and calm down after the fiasco from last night. I didn't even want to think about it.

"Well, Nala, be happy you weren't there to see what happened." I told her, as she "me-uff-ow"-ed in agreement. After about a couple more steps, I ran smack into someone. Unfortunately, it was the one human being I didn't want to see or talk to at the moment.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Erik said, before he knew it was me. After that, he just remained silent until he said, "Zoey, we need to talk."

"There's nothing more to talk about. You said everything you had to say last night." I replied, quietly as I tried to turn the opposite direction. That is, until Erik actually grabbed my wrist. Since my reflexes were automatic, I took my left hand and smacked him hard across the face. It was similar to the time a few years back when I heard Aphrodite's mom smack her across the face for losing her leadership over the Dark Daughters. All Erik could do was stand there. I just left him and continued my walk with Nala.

Since the walk didn't turn out too well and since Nala was getting grumpy, I carried her back to my loft. Why did I always keep running into Erik? Was this the Goddess' work? It's not as if it mattered now. Nala jumped out of my arms and ran threw her kitty door. Once I opened the door to my loft, I saw all my friends sitting in my living room. They weren't exactly happy, but they weren't upset. All of them just looked serious, I guess.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked them, not really understanding why they were here.

"Z, we need to talk." Damien said, sternly. Oh crap, it was probably about last night.

"Look, if it's about last ni-----," I started, right before Shaunee cut me off.

"It's not about last night. It's about what's been going on for almost two and a half months now." Shaunee added, trying not to sound pissed.

"She's right, Zoey." Erin agreed, plainly.

"What your nerd herd is trying to say is that you need to suck it up and talk to your man!" Aphrodite exclaimed, cutting everything short.

"Guys. I've had enough of this too, but I just can't bring myself to talk to him. He hurt me and our what used to be child." I told them, sitting in one of my comfy purple chairs.

"Z, you have to talk to him. You may not have noticed, but Erik's been starting to drink a lot more than he normally does, which is very rare considering he doesn't drink a lot." Stevie Rae explained, trying to be calm.

"Plus, I stopped by his loft the other day. Jack and I saw a huge hole in the wall of his living room." Damien said, quietly.

"The point they're trying to make is that you need to do something before things get out of hand. And by that I mean he could possibly turn abusive." Aphrodite told me, sounding more concerned.

Gosh. I really didn't know this was happening. I had no idea Erik started drinking or anything like that. I feel a little bad because it could possibly be my fault but again, what was I supposed to do? There was only one thing.

"Fine, I'll talk to him." I said, sighing.

"We didn't mean to bother you about it, but he really won't listen to any of us. Not even Cole or T.J. and their best friends." Shaunee replied, trying to smile.

"Ditto, Twin." Erin muttered, quietly.

"Okay then. Well, I'll go talk to him." I repeated, turning towards the door. I could only hope for the best when I talked to him.

Well, there you have it peeps! It took arguing at dinner and a heart to heart with her friends to get Zoey to talk to Erik. Next time: Well, Zoey decides to talk to Erik, but will the talk turn out good or bad? Will Zoey take him back? Also, Zoey contemplates firing Whitney after another heated fight between her and Shaunee. Will Shaunee come out on top a second time? R&R plz!!