New Heights

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I was hoping for a nice chilled out morning, being lazy with Nathan. But things instead decided to take a turn for the worse. 

When I got up Nathan's side of the bed was empty meaning he was already awake and on the go. It kind of surprised me as usually he wasn't much of a morning person. I sat up and stretched before pulling the cosy duvet off leaving me exposed to the chilly air. I grabbed my blue fluffy dressing gown from the back of the bedroom door and slid it on removing the draft. I quickly found my slippers and put those on too before walking out the room to find Nathan.

"Well can't we do anything about it? There has to be something we can do!" Nathan's frustrated voice rang through the kitchen. I had no idea who he was talking too though I presumed it was over the phone. I stood outside the door and eavesdropped, I know it was wrong of me but I just couldn’t stop myself from doing it. “Fine, bye” he muttered angrily and I took a few steps back making some noise so he would know I was coming. I was intrigued to know what got him so worked up.

“Morning” I said smiling though Nathan didn’t mirror me, his face was as far from smiling as it could be. “Nathan what’s wrong?” I asked and walked closer towards him, he sat down on one of the chairs and I followed suit sitting on one opposite him. “You’re not going to like it Lauren” he warned but I still wanted to know. “Okay, tell me please” I said and he sighed but nodded.

“It seems that we – or I – was recognized, when we went to Ikea” he started and I looked at him waiting for him to carry on. “And?” I urged him to continue. “A fan took some photos of us looking round the children’s section, there’s a picture of us looking at a crib. Rumours are spreading that you’re pregnant Lau” And then I felt like I’d been hit round the face. I wanted to keep it a secret for as long as I could, to avoid all this publicity I knew we were going get, or getting as it now seems. I didn’t want to deal with the pregnancy in the spotlight and now all hopes of that were ruined.

“How did you find out about it all?” I asked, still annoyed at the fact our secret was now out. It didn’t take long; I mean we’d only just told the others. “Well when my phone kept vibrating this morning I knew something was up, I had a lot of missed calls, texts and my Twitter mentions were going crazy so I looked at the pictures people we’re sending me and they were of us” he said an I nodded still not happy with the whole thing. I would have to hibernate for nine months.

“What are we going to do?” No doubt management had already told him, I guess that was who he was on the phone to when I first came down. “They’ve set up a press conference for later today, I know you don’t like all that stuff so if you just sit by me I’ll do all the talking, I promise it won’t be as bad as it seems” he got up and kissed me on the cheek before switching the kettle on, I smiled even though I wanted to jump back into bed and never get out, so much for my lazy day. “Okay, don’t go into a lot of details though” he nodded and put down a cup of tea in-front of me. “I won’t, don’t worry about it” he kissed my forehead before walking out the room.

“What time is it at?” I shouted at his retreating figure, “1:30” was all he said, I looked up at the clock and saw it was just past eleven. Grabbing my mug of tea I carried it upstairs and set in on the bedside table, I smiled when I heard Nathan singing in the shower and removed my dressing down, my pyjamas and slippers followed soon after. I didn’t hesitate to open the bathroom door and climb in the shower with him. He jumped when my hands first made contact with his skin but a cheeky smile formed when he realized I was showering with him. We both needed to shower and since there wasn’t that long it was the quickest way. Well that’s what I thought at first, obviously we both ended up a little distracted, but returned to washing each other soon after. It was one of the nicest showers I’d had in a long time.

I didn’t like the press; I thought they were a bunch of nosy rats not caring about the person behind the story but on how many papers or magazines they sold instead. That’s why Nathan picked an outfit out for me, I would have just worn something comfortable but instead I had to look my best for this stupid press conference; I wasn’t looking forward to it one bit.

“I’m taking you out for dinner after, is there anywhere you want to go?” he asked me , I thought about it for a minute before shaking my head, “surprize me” he smirked and nodded already knowing where he was going to take me. I wasn’t fussed as long as we got food.

I finished getting ready, putting on a blue dress that fit me loosely so my bump didn’t show, I wore it with a black blazer and plain black pumps. I dried my hair and used my hair straighteners to add a few curls before pinning the sides back and clipping them down. Once I was satisfied I looked alright I moved on to my make-up. I added a touch more than usual as there would be cameras and I didn’t want to look like a blank canvas. “Are you ready?” Nathan shouted, I looked at the clock and saw we had forty-five minutes until we had to face the cameras, we had to get there first and that took a good half an hour. “Yes, one minute” I ran into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, once I was satisfied they were clean enough I put some chap-stick on grabbed my bag off the chair before going to meet Nathan.

“You look amazing as always” he said handing me my coat, I put it on and followed him out to the car. He was wearing black jeans, a logo graphic tee and black blazer like me; for once he wasn’t wearing a cap which I was kind of grateful for, he always seemed to have one on him.

None of us said anything on the way to where the conference was being held, Nathan was too busy driving and I pulled out my phone logging onto Twitter. If we were going to be asked about the pictures I wanted all my bases covered (even though I was pretty sure Nathan was going to be the one talking) I wanted to look at the pictures that had gone viral.

The pictures weren’t the most flattering but they weren’t the worse pictures of me, they did show we were looking at baby items pretty clearly so I could see why we would have to tell everyone now. It was just annoying that our privacy would be thrown out the window.

By the time we pulled up to the back exit of the conference building we had ten minutes until it was due to start, Jayne and Big Kev were already there and as soon as they saw us they gave us a briefing. Apparently it would only last fifteen minutes and if we didn’t want to answer a question we just had to say ‘no comment’. I nodded my head and sang a song in my head to distract myself, not only was there a baby in my stomach, butterflies were too, and they were swarming.

“Stop worrying, it won’t-“ he started but I rolled my eyes and finished the sentence for him “do me or the baby any good, I know” he chuckled and took my hand. “Good, let’s get this out the way” he said and led me towards a door Big Kev was stood in-front of. “Off you go” he opened the door and that’s when the flashes started almost blinding me, I gripped Nathan’s hand as he led me towards two chairs by a table. The flashes never stopped even as we were walking.

When we sat down I looked at crowds of men with cameras, all pointing in our direction. It was kind of intimidating, like a rabbit surrounded by a gang of wild dogs ready to pounce on their prey. “First question” Nathan said, he cleared his throat and I watched as hands darted up. My eyes ran across them and Nathan nodded signally me to pick one of them. I pointed to a man wearing a red woollen jumper; he didn’t seem as intimidating as the others. He smiled and pointed his camera at us; I still didn’t like it though, being under the spotlight this much.

“Is it true you are having a baby?” Nathan took my hand under the table, no-one else could see this but it made me smile. I squeezed it and he took it as his queue to speak. “Yes” he said quietly before speaking again louder this time. “Yes, I am proud to announce that Lauren and I are expecting a baby” he smiled and I couldn’t help but smile too, I knew right now this would be the last moment we could really enjoy it, before all the hate started flying at us.

Nathan answered the questions we deemed alright and didn’t answer the more private ones, luckily I didn’t have to speak and just smiled. As we finished I looked at Nathan and he turned to me, we both chuckled, I’m not sure why. But we just laughed, our last bit of freedom before everything changed for good.

A/N – Hope you liked it! Sorry it took me so long to update, I’ve had a lot of stuff on since its Christmas! Comment, vote and fan if you haven’t and Merry Christmas wherever you are! I hope you have a really good day and get lots of nice things! See you next Friday for the last update of 2012! S x