Capturing Ella

(Releasing Joe) Chapter 63 - Joe

It had just turned half seven in the morning, and the house was still dead. Ella and Phee had both been out at Costa for an hour and a half now leaving me alone in this house of my future in laws who I was fairly convinced didn't like me. Ella pointed out before she left it was more her fault they seemed uneasy with me because they all knew how resistant she was to the idea of meeting me out of her imagined fear of ruining me. However, thankfully for us, Zed , Xav and Crystal all took the news of the baby amazingly well. In fact, we had even woken up to a card slid under the bedroom door from Xav and Crystal. It was quite a simple card; white with a delicate printed silver boarder with a stalk carrying a cream coloured blanket. "Congratulations" was above the stalk in cursive golden writing. Inside, the card was marked out to both Ella and myself – something I didn't think they would be doing so soon, and it said congratulations once again, further apologising for Xav's quite crappy reception (well, the way Ella phrased it seemed a crappy first response) and was signed off by both of them. Underneath said "We had this tucked away just in case of Diamond – but you beat her too it!". I think her family might be okay with me – eventually.

I rolled over and grabbed my iPhone from her beside cabinet and looked – sure enough, no signal so no texts. Not that that really bothered me. However, I quickly checked Facebook. I wasn't a social media junkie –it never appealed to me. Maybe once a week I would log on and see what had been happening, maybe even reply to a few messages but that's it. My profile remained dead as ever. Last time I actively used it was probably five years, and even my profile picture was of the leavers do in Year 11. Hell yeah, I was that outdated. The second my feed loaded up, I saw I had sixteen unread inboxes from various people and opened up the tab.

Out of the sixteen, eleven were girls who I used to know conveniently checking up on me and seeing if I was still single. The comment that made my stomach churn the most was from a busty brunette called Nicole. She constantly hung around by my side for months trying to get my attention but she was just so fake that I never even looked twice. I mean, who wears short shorts a bralet to a charity event promoting safe driving?

"Hey Joe, sexy," The message read and I pulled a face. I didn't think three words could make me want to throw up any more than those did. Ella could probably pull off saying it, but Nicole couldn't. "I haven't seen you in a while," I wonder why. "Well, actually I saw you walking around the supermarket with a little girl – is she your cousin or brothers girlfriend?" I frowned – the only person I've been shopping with was Ella, and Nicole's comment sparked anger. "Talking of girlfriends, you still single? We should meet up and go for a drink. See you then, sexy."

I never realised how much I wanted to punch someone and vomit at the same time.

"Hey Nicole, sorry for the somewhat tardy reply, I have been busy over the last few months. I'm also afraid I have to decline your drink as the person you saw me shopping with was my girlfriend. Well, now fiancé. I am perfectly happy with her and we're even thinking about starting a family." I sent and felt a pang of guilt but got too caught up with my anger to think about my response. Really shouldn't have told her we were thinking about starting a family.

By the time I had replied to all the other messages, Nicole had already come back online and replied to my some what bitter message.

"What do you mean you're engaged. You're like twenty, you're pissing your life away," she replied and I rolled my eyes.

"Firstly, 21. And no, I'm not pissing my life away. I love Ella to pieces and honestly, it doesn't even concern you in the slightest."

"Who is this slut?"