Chapter contains mild sexual situations. Mostly in a humorous way though. So, do with it what you will.
When I woke up the next morning the room was empty. On the door to the bathroom Sean had left me a note, "Tracker woke up. We tried to haul you out of bed; it didn't work. See you at the hospital. P.S. Call Emma." I wasn't sure if the Emma thing was a crack at me or not but I desperately wanted to call her, so I did. The call ran straight through to voicemail and I became furious all over again. Last night we were laughing and playing games and. If you've never watched a pregnant Emma twist dollar bills through a stripper's thong, you haven't lived.
"Ellie," I said when she answered her phone, "where are you?"
"At the hospital."
"With Sean?"
"No, Sean is with Tracker. I'm up with Emma."
"Emma's not with Sean?"
"Nope. The doctors are running some tests on the baby."
I panicked, "Tests? What kind of tests?"
"Calculus mostly."
"You're not cute."
"Really? Cause I remember a certain boy nearly swallowing his tongue at my purple dress last night. But you're probably right. I could get a little work done."
"Seriously, Elle…she's okay?"
"They're checking the enzymes. It's a totally normal thing. Routine check-up stuff. Of course, I'm sitting in the waiting room on Emma's phone with Papa Hogart and he thinks it shouldn't be taking this long so—what, Jay, you did too say that—the baby is fine—I'm not asking him, the baby IS FINE—Craig, Jay wants you to promise you'll take Emma back to T.O. if the baby isn't okay."
"Of course, man, I promise."
Ellie lowered her voice to my decibel, "Dude, he promises, fist pound. But you're totally gonna have to let him borrow your Harley one night."
Ellie does the worst impression of me. "Seriously, Elle, that was supposed to be me? It needs work." I tuned out her response and checked to see what I looked like in the mirror. Did I warrant a shower? I pulled my sweatpants off and decided to just throw on my black jeans. If I could ever find them, "How'd she get an appointment so soon?" I asked pulling my t-shirt over my head.
"Appointments are for amateurs. Emma passed out in the hallway…straight to the front of the line."
"SHE PASSED OUT," I shouted stumbling over the tangle of clothes.
"Chill, Casanova, she's fine, just dehydrated. ANYWAY, Tracker's awake and looking good too, if I may say so myself—I never slept with Tracker, Jay. That would be low by even, well, YOUR standards—SO, CRAIG, Sean's really relieved…I don't think he could bear the thought of losing him."
"You think he'll leave with us if we ask him?" I questioned giving up the search for my jeans and settling onto my bed.
"What is this, the Craig and Sean reunion tour?"
"Oh fuck you, Ellie."
"Well how could I resist when you ask so sweet. How about tonight?"
My eyes traveled down to my boxers and I watch the shiver run through my abdomen: this conversation is getting way off course. "Only if you wear those edible panties I know you have somewhere."
"What is it with you and my panties, Craig? I mean…you sure do spend an awful lot of time thinking about them."
God was that true. I needed a hobby. Hobbies. One hobby would not keep my from watching for faint lines under her clothes that would tell me just what her underwear looked like today. I wonder if it was red. She used to wear a lot of red panties, with little embellishments everywhere, hearts, stars, teddy bears. "I think maybe you are projecting your fantasies onto me. It's not true just because you want it to be, Elle-Belle."
"Well," she swooned, "I just can't help but dream of you. So manly. So tall, and tainted, and twisty." Oh. Her tone was light and I could tell she was just continuing the joke. I could tell she had no clue I was sitting on my bed in my underwear trying to figure out if I could get her voice to drop into that raspy whisper she sometimes got. "I mean, a girl only has so much will power, Craig." And there is was. She had to know. She had to have been fucking with me. And it would serve her right if I just reached down and—
"What, not witty exchange from your side? I guess that makes it Nash 2, Manning 0."
I mean a few gargling noises as I tried to readjust my thought patterns. I couldn't tell you the number of times I had done this in rehab, touched myself while she talked…even to her answering machine a few times, just hanging up and calling back again and again until I'd finished the job.
"Oh GROSS, no way, Jay. Craig, you're not jerking off to this, are you?"
I told myself to sound offended, and quick, "WHAT? Of course not. I put the phone down while I was getting dressed. I, like, just picked it up. Christ, what do you take me for?"
"Hey, technically, Jay's your accuser."
"Well Jay doesn't know shit. I wouldn't do that without asking you first, alright?"
"Oh, so…not like when you were in detox, then?"
I gasped, "You knew?"
"Your middle name is Albert…not discrete."
"That is the single worst retort you've ever had."
"Oh, Craig. Oh. I'm not wearing anything. Mm. Just those earrings you bought me at the airport in Aruba…and I'm hot for you, Craig. Don't you want to play with me?"
"So, I have to go now. The maid is here. To clean the room. I'll see you shortly at the airport."
"Hospital."
"What?"
"No one is at the airport. You'll see me shortly at the hospital."
"Whatever." The last thing I heard before I hung up with her light laughter.
Yeah. I am so screwed. Whose idea was this road trip anyway? Craig, remember the girl that used to fuck you so hard your body ached for days? Want to live out of a van with her and watch her eat, watch her sleep, coexist with her until you can't tell up from down anymore? I threw on the closest clothes I could find. I was going to not think about Ellie at all. Ever. Unless is was mean, horrible, disgusting things. About her picking her nose. "Right, Craig," I said to myself as I pulled the van out of the parking lot, "except she doesn't pick her nose. She just smiles and tilts her head to the side and is generally perfect." And now I was talking to myself. PERFECT.
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Okay, so, what did you think? It's shorter than most other chapters. But that's because it's all dirty. (Yum.) Basically, it will only get worse at some point. And then there's going to be the whole manner of Jay and Emma once he flies—I mean. What? Jay is far away. FAAAAR away. Emma is definitely all alone.
Regardless, this fic is rated M starting soon. Shoulda done it a long time ago…if I had, maybe Ellie and Craig would be together by now. I'll leave this chapter as is, but you'll have to start looking for Verse in the Ma-ture section of FF soon. That's all folks. Leave some love (Or I'm gonna start taking mine back, ya hear?!).