Stumbling Through It {C.H}

Chapter 23

The office was boring as usual. Giana didn't have much work for me today, as she was doing an over the phone interview. I occupied myself by spinning back and forth on an office swivel chair like a little kid. The buzz of my phone stopped me, as I pulled it out to check my texts.

Livi
Do you guys want to come over later? The guys are going out so I've got nothing to do

Over the last month I had managed to become pretty good friends with the 5sos wives, as I called them. We hung out as a group so much that we all just kind of clicked. Now we had a running group chat which was usually used to make plans, tell stories, or send memes. We may have been in our twenties, but we certainly weren't adults. Our favorite thing to do was to find cringeworthy fetus photos of 5sos and give them stupid captions. It was silly, but hilarious.

Ellie
Yeah sure. I get out of work in an hour I'll be over then

Katie
Yaayy girls night!

Emma
Woo!

Emma
Did you guys ever notice that all your names end in an "ee" sound?

Ellie
Haha you're not part of our "ee" name club

Katie
You can't sit with us

Livi
Oh my god Katie, you can't just quote a movie that's almost 20 years old

Emma
MEAN GIRLS IS ALMOST 20?! HOLY SHIT WE'RE SO OLD!

I tried not to burst out laughing at our stupid conversation. The door to the office opened. I quickly sat up and put a straight face on as Giana entered. I shoved my phone in my pocket and tried to ignore the constant vibrating as the group chat kept texting.

"Sorry about that. You must have been pretty bored just sitting there." Giana said.

"Oh trust me, it wasn't that bad."

=

"Hey Ellie!" The girls chorused in greeting as I walked in the kitchen to Michael and Livi's house. Emma leaned against the granite counter and Katie sat on top of it. Livi sat at the island in the center of the kitchen eating potato chips straight out of the bag.

I squinted to read the bag, "Cheddar bacon ranch chips?" I chuckled.

"Im hungry and I'm pregnant, don't judge my choices." Livi stuck her tongue out.

"So what should we do?" Katie asked, swinging her legs.

I shrugged, "Should we stay in, or go out?"

We all exchanged glances then said in unison, "Go out."

"Where should we go?" Livi asked. She hopped off the bar stool and turned to put the chips away and licked the cheese dust off her fingers.

"I don't know we could-" Katie started. Livi turned back to us and Katie gasped.

Livi froze looking scared, "What?" She looked over her shoulders in case there was someone behind her.

"YOU'RE SHOWING!" Katie squealed.

"Showing what?" Livi was still confused. She inspected her body to make sure she hadn't flashed anyone or something like that.

"You have a baby bump!" Emma told her.

Livi looked down and the confusion on her face washed away, "Oh yeah, that."

The slight bump of her stomach would probably not have been visible if she hadn't been wearing a tight shirt, but it was certainly there.

"Does it look like I'm fat?" She asked, looking at her reflection in the glass of the oven door, "I don't have any maternity clothes yet. This was the stretchiest shirt I have." She rubbed her stomach.

"You look fine!" I said encouragingly.

Livi looked at me skeptically, "Fine is what people say when they are lying."

I was worried that she was actually mad at me, but she cracked a smile and I knew she was kidding. I had just made these friends and I didn't want to insult them.

"Well I know what we can do now!" Emma smiled, "Shopping!"

=

The four of us gathered in a maternity store, picking out clothes for Livi. Her face was bright red, kind of embarrassed at all the attention she was getting. Her arms were covered in clothes that we had picked out for her, so much that she started looking more like a clothing rack.

"Ooh! This would look so good on you!" Katie threw a black and white striped shirt at Livi.

"Oh my god, look at these!" Emma held up a pair of jeans with the largest elastic waistband I had ever seen. We burst out laughing.

"Am I really going to be that fat?!" Livi gawked at the pants. "I'm only 13 weeks in. Imagine me after 30!" She shuttered. "I can't believe Amy ever went through this." They laughed at first, but it died down and all eyes came to me.

"Sorry Ellie." Emma said, "That must be awkward for you. We won't mention her." She said, talking about Calum's ex wife.

I shook my head, "It's fine, I don't care. I didn't know her anyway. Did you guys like her?"

They each made a face, "Hell no, she was the worst!" Livi said.

"We tried to get along with her. She acted nice when Calum was around but every time he left she turned into a witch." Katie told me, "I don't think she ever even wanted the baby. I think she just went through with it to anchor herself to Calum."

"Really? Why did Calum stay with her?" I asked. It didn't sound like him to stay with someone who was so bad.

"He was in love." Livi said, "He only saw her good side. We tried to warn him but she would deny doing anything."

"She would make fun of the other band members, she hated their music, and she would say rude things about us." Emma said.

"She insulted me once, and I literally had to hold back Michael because he was about ready to punch her in the face." Livi said.

"Yeah, she was terrible. We are so glad he is dating you know. You're so much nicer and better for him." Katie told me, with a nudge.

"Oh yeah, we love you!" Emma smiled widely.

My chest filled with a warm feeling. A sense of inclusion and belonging. I went from this geeky teenage girl with only a couple real life friends, to this. It felt good and I didn't want anything else. Maybe my life wasn't so bad after all.

=

Sorry if this was a bad chapter. I had some writers block but I wanted to update since I've been gone for so long. I didn't reread this yet so sorry if there are any typos lol