Songbird [H.S]

EIGHT

Five Weeks Later...

The Tomlinson house was always a whirlwind of chaos first thing in the morning and today was no different. It all started at five every morning when Louis was getting ready for work. The lad could never do anything quietly so as usual, he ended up waking the entire house with him. From the moment Marley was startled awake by Louis slamming the kitchen drawers as he made breakfast, she instantly knew her day was going to be shit.

Once she was awake, there was no hope of her falling back to sleep. Especially because there was no way she could ignore the mysterious illness that had been affecting her on and off for the past couple of weeks. Suddenly aware of the slight headache beginning to throb at the back of her head, the girl remained in bed trying to think of an excuse skip classes later that day. There was no way her father was going to let her stay off from college when she'd already been caught skipping numerous classes that month. She didn't plan to skip them, she just couldn't concentrate when she constantly felt sick. However, if she didn't want anyone to become suspicious, she'd have to find another way to stay home.

The rest of the house got up a couple of hours later, the sounds of the kitchen radio drifted up the stairs as Johannah cooked breakfast and the bathroom door slammed shut as their Dad went to get ready for the day. After he was done, she heard Rain hop in the shower, singing a random song that Marley didn't recognise. The teenager let out a groan of discomfort as her stomach lurched slightly, a slight wave of nausea beginning to set in like it had done for the past week or so.

It had all started with the occasional dizzy spell, something that could've been overlooked if it hadn't progressed into headaches and nausea. At first, the girl just assumed she'd caught a stomach bug but now it was becoming increasingly clearer she was wrong.

The smell of bacon wafting into her room was the final straw for Marley, sending her running for the bathroom and banging impatiently on the locked door for her sister to let her in. Her sister was infamous for taking hours to get ready so it only made sense she was in there when Marley desperately needed it free. It flung open a few moments later, Rain grumbling about being nearly done. She was instantly silenced when her sister shoved past her, falling to her knees in front of the toilet and emptying the contents of her stomach into the bowl.

"Marley! You're going to be late again!" Johannah yelled up the stairs, however, the teenager couldn't really answer back when she was slouched over the toilet. Honestly, she didn't really care about college at the moment, not when she had bigger things on her mind. Thankfully, her sister yelled back down on her behalf, pretending to go and wake Marley up while actually locking the bathroom door for privacy. She loitered around awkwardly waiting for Marley to feel better before starting the conversation that had been inevitable for the past few days.

The blonde girl had tried to hide her sickness from the family and it seemed to go pretty well. Louis was always out the house when she threw up so he never saw it and her parents were often too busy having breakfast and getting ready for work to hear anything. Not even Harry had noticed her unusual quietness when they hung out with each other which was probably because he was really stressed about an upcoming art assignment. However, Rain was very perceptive and had noticed her sister was acting strangely, instantly knowing something was wrong. She'd kept quiet at first, knowing how defensive her sister could get, but after that morning she knew she needed to talk some sense into her. It was obvious what was going on and it would only get worse the longer it was ignored.

Once the current wave of nausea had subsided, Marley flushed the toilet and sighed resting her head on the cupboard next to her, completely exhausted. Alarm bells were ringing in the back of her mind, getting harder and harder to ignore. The girl wasn't stupid, she'd noticed her body had been off a while. Accompanying the obvious signs of sickness, she'd also felt unusually tired and had gone off some of the food she usually loved not to mention random nosebleeds every so often. Everything seemed to be pointing to the idea she might be pregnant. It was just difficult for her to admit it to herself.