Journey- Karl Jacobs

Chapter 16- The Day Before The Big Day

Before we continue. Firstly to my current readers I am so sorry for how long it has been. 100% honesty I was once again back in a dark place, I lost complete passion for writing and was going to give up on this story. I had a draft written out apologising for all you who wanted me to continue writing and tying up all loose ends of the story and how it was going to conclude. a few days before I was going to post that draft the world found out that Technoblade had sadly passed. He meant so much to so many people and should not have been taken from us at the young age that he was. After a few hours of being sad and rewatching the video multiple times it made me realise something. Now, I'm in no way trying to make Alex's passing about myself but it made me realise how horribly short life is and that we need to make the most of the time we have. It's cliché I know. But I don't care. So I picked up my laptop, ate a massive bowl of cereal and that's where we are now. So if you take one thing from this cheesy little speech I hope it's to take the jump, that risk, buy that thing you've been wanting, ask them out, tell people you love them, pick up that hobby you stopped, spend time with people. Do it. Because money and people and items come back, but time doesn't. This is all we've got. Once chance. Don't worry about 'using it wisely' or 'doing it right', just be happy, have fun and surround yourself with people who want that for you. One life. Don't waste it.

Rest in peace Technoblade, thank you for making so many of us happy.

And with that, on with the story ~

Music blasted in her ears as Ellie weaved through the noisy crowd of people inside the building. After dodging the drunk people from her trek back from the toilets,  she managed to find the booth her friends were sat at and slumped into the leather sofa next to Niki. 

"Who chose this place again?" Ellie raised her voice over the noise in the club and took a swig of her drink. 

"No idea! The booze is good though!" Niki shouted in her mildly drunken state. Ellie asked the next waitress that came over to close the tab so the other girls couldn't be too hungover in the wedding photos. After she came back to return Ellie's card, Ellie began to shuffle off of the bench and make her way to the back door where she bumped into Corry stumbling across the dance floor in her heels- also slightly intoxicated.

"Hey sis where you going?" she giggled, fancy mojito glass in hand which miraculously hadn't spilled. 

"Just to get some air and phone service, it's last orders at the bar before the tab closes." Ellie said in her ear so she could hear. Corry muttered something else which was inaudible due to the music but before Ellie could ask her to repeat it she had tottered off to the bar.

The cold evening breeze was refreshing on her face after being in the stuffy nightclub for a few hours. It's not that she wasn't enjoying her hen do, it was nice to have everyone back together, even if it was just for a little while. She also couldn't have anyone finding out. Nobody else had noticed yet but she didn't want to risk it. 

~one week ago~

It was the rehearsal dinner and she knew something was off, she hadn't felt great for a while and had been putting it down to pre-wedding jitters but something was very different. First it was the clothes. Then the sickness. Then the wine tasting awful. Mood swings. She'd been ignoring the obvious for over a week but couldn't leave it any longer.

Later in the evening Karl had invited the boys round for a little gaming session to chill out after work. Ellie was happy to make a basic assortment of finger foods for the boys despite Karl insisting she could chill and they could order food in. In reality though Ellie wanted to do the cooking for her own good, to try and distract her mind. 

Chandler, Chris, Jimmy, Nolan and Tareq arrived around 6 where they chilled out, played video games, played board games and ate food. About an hour later she excused herself to go to the bathroom and nobody thought anything of it.

She sat there on the cold bathroom floor, the test shaking nervously in her hands. Beep. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she slowly flipped the stick over to reveal the answer. Gazing down at the two straight lines she clapped a hand over her mouth so nobody downstairs would hear her cries as millions of questions raced through her mind.

What the hell was she going to tell Karl?

~~~~~~

There was a sudden noise of footsteps creaking up the stairs and Ellie shot up like a bullet, attempting to wipe the tears from her face before an unexpecting Chris opened the door, shocked to see her standing there. He made an attempt to apologise for coming in without knocking, but became concerned seeing her state.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He immediately wrapped her in a much-needed hug. She was going to try and play it off as she was being emotional as it was 'that time of the month' but knew there was no way she could lie. Pulling away from the hug, she bent down to the floor to pick up the test she had dropped and showed it to him, his eyes widening at the results. Ellie slumped back to the floor with her back against the bathtub with her shaking hands clutched to her chest; seeing her worried state Chris sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ellie asked, turning her tear-filled eyes to Chris.

"Of course you can." He rubbed her back hoping it would help ease her shaken self.

"How did you react when Katie told you she was pregnant?" She pushed her hair back away from her face and looked up to the ceiling hoping to stop the tears.

"Well, I was kinda hit in different stages. First, I was really shocked, we weren't particularly trying for a baby it just kinda, happened. I was a little bit scared because you know becoming a parent is going to be pretty scary for anyone for the first time. But after I got past all that something just kind of clicked, I instantly fell in love with this tiny human growing inside my wife and I truly believed our lives were going to change for the better. And I mean yeah being a parent is going to be hella daunting, there's going to be disagreements, arguments, stress, tears, but in the end, love overrules all of that, and I truly believe you and Karl can get through anything thrown at you." His words made so much sense, especially as it was a first-person view. Ellie leaned a little closer into Chris' shoulder and he moved his other arm across her chest, resting his cheek on the top of her head.

"Thank you." She sniffed, wiping away the last of the wetness on her cheeks.

"Do you want me to go and get Karl?" He asked, standing up and helping her off the floor too.

"No it's ok, I'll tell him later. He can have tonight." She giggled and with one last hug left the bathroom, leaving Chris to do his business. Ellie crossed the landing to go over to her bedroom, put the test in the bedside drawer, reapplied her makeup and went back downstairs to the boys, sitting herself on the couch next to her soon to be husband.

"You okay?" Karl turned to put his arm over her shoulders.

"Yeah, I'm good, I've got a surprise for you later." She smiled and Karl raised his brow, but Ellie gave nothing away, just took a slice of pizza and cuddled back into his shoulder.

~present day~

Long story short she chickened out. She wished she'd have told him then and there before all of the thoughts flooded her brain and she convinced herself not to tell him. That it would scare him off and ruin the wedding. So she hid the test in a secret kitchen drawer Karl hadn't figured out how to open, blamed the sickness on a stomach bug, wore slightly baggier clothes than usual and did her best pretending his cologne she once loved didn't want to make her violently puke. Luckily she always went to order drinks on her own at the bar so her cocktails were actually mocktails and 'champagne' was really just lemonade.

It was eating her up inside. Not telling Karl. She was about 3 months pregnant and her fiancé knew nothing about it. She kept telling herself she would tell him right after the wedding, as long as she could keep it a secret on on the day, the dress wasn't a skin tight one and she could drink lemonade again rather than champagne. She just had to keep it together for one more day.

One more day. 

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Thank you for reading <3