'Til We Meet Again Book 2

Chapter 43

I perch from my dining room seat to my phone laying face down on the table and grab it. I dial Cole's number and nervously wait for him to pick up. After a few rings, he answers. It sounds like he is at work, I hear muttering in the background, and the printer/copier beeping "Hey what's up?" Cole asks me "Not much, am I interrupting?" I ask him "I'm about to have a meeting soon so what is it you need to tell me?" Cole asks me "I have been thinking about us" I say and I hear him groan as he sits  "And?" Cole asks me "I want to give us a chance" I smile "Finally, you have no idea how much I missed you" Cole sounds happy "I missed you more" I giggle "I'm going on Up In Smoke Tour and I'll be back on August, around the 22nd" I tell Cole "Then we can talk about us" I continue

"Aren't you coming home before you go on tour?" Cole asks me "wish I could but Aubrey needs me" I sigh "You're a good sister-in-law-" I smile at his compliment "Thank you" I hear yelling "I have to
go, I'm being called up for the meeting" Cole says "Good luck" I giggle "Gonna need it, if I fall asleep I'm gonna get fired" Cole laughs "See ya babe" I smile "See ya" Cole hangs up the phone. Aubrey walks into the kitchen with a binder "What's that?" I ask her "'Funeral arrangements" Aubrey sniffles and sits down beside me.

She places the binder on the table and opens it, immediately her eyes fill up with tears "Come here" I pull her in for a hug "This is so hard, planning his funeral makes it official that he'll never come back"
Aubrey says as she pulls away from the hug and looks at the first page of the binder. We spent the whole day planning his funeral and setting the date, we cried over his death whilst planning, and we laughed at the memories of Ian. This funeral makes it so real that he is never coming back, I thought this was a dream, the longest dream of my life, I thought that I would wake up and Aubrey tells me Ian is bugging her about the baby stroller to fit in their SUV since he couldn't fit it in, I thought I would hear Aubrey telling me he is cracking jokes with the baby as the baby rests in the womb but none of that will ever be because this is real.

1 Month Later

The slowest one month of my life, we had the funeral and everything was set up beautifully and his send-off was emotional. Deshaun came to the funeral with Sharonda, they had stayed with me almost all day to make sure I'm okay and Marshall came with D12, Kristy, Cole, Nancy, and Phillip flew out for the funeral and left on Tuesday, the funeral was on Saturday. Marshall and I did not exchange words at all, it was awkward between us, I didn't care, I was burying my brother. Aubrey spent the majority of the funeral completely alone, she didn't feel like talking to anyone at the reception, and she didn't even wanna talk to me.

I'm moving out of Aubrey's house since Aubrey wants me out so Bridget can move in. I'm in my room packing my stuff and I hear a knock on the door, I look over my shoulder at Aubrey leaning against the door frame and I turn my head back around "I know it seems like I'm doing an awful, unfair thing but I just can't have you live here
anymore" I nod "Yeah" I say "I get it" I say as I take my suitcase and walk out of the guestroom "No you don't get it" She grabs my arm and stands in front of me "Every time I look at you, I'm reminded of him
and I just can't have that which is why I can't have you live with me" I glare at her "I lost my brother, the only family I have left beside Kristy and you were the closest thing I have to Ian and now you are
throwing me out because you can't stand to see me, how selfish could you be"

I push past her "Amanda, you think this isn't hard for me?" Aubrey yells "It's so hard and seeing you makes it even harder" Aubrey power walks to me as I walk to the door "I'm supposed to be moving on from all of this, I can't do that if you leave hating me" She looks up at me with tears in her eyes "I don't hate you, Aubrey, I get it, I get it very well, believe me," I sigh "When you asked me to move out, I didn't put up much of a fight, you need to move on, you don't need me to be a reminder of Ian" Aubrey glares at me "That's not fair" Aubrey sounds offended "I'm just helping you move on, take it or leave it" I leave her house with a door slam.

I get back to my apartment and begin to unpack my stuff in my room, I miss my apartment I'll admit that but living with Aubrey was less lonely and fun, now I'm back in square one lonely as hell in a state I
never wanted to be back. I get this wave of nausea and all of a sudden I find myself racing to the bathroom, dropping all my clothes on the floor from when I was unpacking, I kneel to the toilet bowl, puking my guts out. This happened yesterday in the morning and Aubrey sweat me off, she just thinks I have the bug but I was normal all day after puking.

I noticed my period is late and my period is always on time and I get them at the beginning of the month, today is 11th May 2000, I was supposed to get them on the 8th. I'm mortified to think I could be
pregnant since Marshall and I slept together last month, I'm terrified to believe I'm carrying Marshall's child. I pick myself up and wipe my
mouth, I gurgle water, I spit it out and grab my purse from the nightstand in my bedroom and grab my keys from the coffee table in my living room. I leave the apartment and rush quickly to the nearest drug store.

I look around the aisle in the drug store and grab a random pregnancy test, I purchase the pregnancy test which was $3.47. I race back home and hurried to my bathroom, I pee on the test and wait for two minutes. Two minutes have painfully slow pass by, I pick it up and gasp; I'm pregnant.