Chapter 16

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Everyone was getting ready for our little Halloween party we were having. It's become a tradition that each year, one of the five of us picks a theme and we all have to have a costume that relates to it. This year it was Haley's turn to choose and she decided on Disney characters. It was probably one of the best themes we had over the years considering there was no complaining about it.

Haley was excited because she was going to be Jessie from Toy Story. Max had chosen Sully from Monsters Inc. which I thought was great because the costume was adorable. Cole and I were going to be Ariel and Prince Eric and as far as I knew Ella had chosen Cinderella since it was fitting to her own name.

I was quite happy with the costume I picked. I decided to go with the pink dress because it was kind of puffy and would hide my small bump so we would be able to tell everyone about the baby without them seeing first. I checked myself in the mirror then turned away when I was good to go. "You almost ready there, my prince?" I laughed and Cole came out of the bathroom.

"Yep, I'm all good to go--oh wow." He stopped in his tracks when he looked at me.

"It's a Halloween costume, Cole. It's not like I'm all dolled up." I said as I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah but, the red hair. It's kinda hot." He smirked and walked over to me. He wrapped his arms around me and before I could stop him, his lips found mine. Soon enough, I had to stop him.

"As much as I'm enjoying this, we have to get downstairs. The family's going to be here soon."

"Fine but we're finishing this later." He backed up and pointed his finger at me.

I shook my head and smiled. "Just go downstairs and get the door." Half a second later we heard the doorbell.

Cole looked at me suspiciously. "How'd you do that?"

"It's Halloween, babe. Maybe I'm a witch or something tonight." I raised my eyebrows playfully.

"Just tonight?" He mumbled quietly, probably thinking that I wouldn't hear him.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"Oh nothing."

"You better watch it or we won't be finishing anything later." I told him and within a second he went silent and left the room so he wouldn't get himself into trouble with me. I went to walk out of the room and was almost run over by Max running down the hallway. "Whoa Max, slow down."

He did as I said then stopped all the way, turning back around. "I'm not Max, I'm Sully!"

"Oh, sorry. You look awesome though. Why don't you go show Daddy?"

"Okay!" He took off running toward the stairs.

"I said slow down!" I heard his feet slow down but speed up again as soon as he was out of sight. I shook my head and went to see if Haley and Ella were already downstairs. I peeked into Haley's room because her light was still on. "Haley?" No answer. Apparently she'd gone down without shutting the light off. After shutting it off, I went to go back down the hallway when I saw Ella hurrying her way to the stairs. "Um, where do you think you're going?"

"Out trick-or-treating with Kelsey and Sam like you said I could." She answered me without stopping.

"Not like that you aren't. Are you crazy? Get back over here."

She sighed and came back over where I was. "You said that I could go. What's the big deal now?"

"Going out with your friends isn't the problem here. Going out with your friends looking like this is the problem."

"What's wrong with how I look?" She asked me.

"Don't play stupid, Ella. You had to know that I wouldn't approve of this costume. The skirt is way too short." I kept my voice calm. I didn't need Cole coming upstairs to see what the problem was.

"But you said that I could get my own costume online."

"You're right, I did. But I said that you could only get it online if you knew it would fit."

"And it does fit. I'm still not seeing a problem." She crossed her arms and looked at me.

"Having a skirt that is that far above your knees does not count as fitting you. You need to change." I pointed toward her room but she protested again.

"Why do I need to go change? This is the same kind of costume Kelsey and Sam are wearing."

"Really? Well, if I know their parents like I think I do, they won't be making it out of the house like this either so go change. I'm sure you've got another blue skirt you can put on that'll match the top."

"But--"

"But nothing, Ella. Go change. Trust me, I'm saving you from the wrath of your father. You know he'd freak if he knew you were dressed like this. I won't even tell him about the costume as long as you go change now and throw out that short skirt afterwards." I said sternly.

She finally gave up and went back to her room to change. I sighed and went downstairs. Most of the family was already here including Cole's mom who called to me as soon as I hit the bottom step. "Happy Halloween, Bridgette!"

"Happy Halloween to you too, Mom. It's good to see you." I gave her hug then stepped away from the stairs because I heard Ella coming down. I was going to thank her for listening but she didn't turn around to look at me before heading out the door so I continued my conversation with Cole's mom. "No costume for you?"

"What makes you think that? I've got a costume. I'm a mother and grandmother who knows she was lied to so she'd come to a Halloween party for the kids when in reality it's because someone has a big secret to tell." When she put 'for the kids' in air quotes, I knew I was busted so I pulled her away from everyone else.

"Okay, what do you know?"

"I don't know anything for sure but I've got a hunch."

"Okay, then what's your hunch." I asked while laughing.

"Are you pregnant?" She asked me.

I smiled and nodded. I knew she was about to get really excited so I hushed her. "Cole and I figured you'd be excited but we've got to stay quiet. I don't want Cole to know I told you already."

"Too late." I heard Cole's voice behind me. I scrunched my nose up and cursed because I got caught.

"How do you always catch me when I'm telling something that I shouldn't be?"

"It's Halloween, babe. Maybe I've got some of that witch power from you." He gave me his smart remark and chuckled.

I shook my head at him and shot him a look, telling him to watch it for the second time tonight. Then I went onto defend myself. "I had to tell her. She practically knew anyway."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that you were too excited to wait one more hour to tell everyone at the same time." He stared at me and I looked down, trying to avoid the eye contact with him.

"I kind of guilted her into telling me too." His mom defended me and I looked back up with a smile.

"It was the 'for the kids' thing, wasn't it?" He started laughing at me. "I told you that you can only get away with that for so many things."

"Hey, go ahead and laugh but I still got everyone here, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did. I suppose we should get back to that party that you got everyone here for. That is, if you can keep quiet a little bit longer." Cole laughed at me again.

His mom smacked his arm. "Be nice to her, Cole."

I laughed and smacked his chest. "Yeah, be nice to me."


I'm slowly getting back into the swing of this story. It's been taking me a while to write chapters for this one because I haven't been finding the right words. But I'm glad I got a chapter posted for you today! What do you think about everyone's costumes? I thought it'd be cute for them to have a theme that they all had to fit into. Cole's mom knows about the baby now. Next chapter, they will tell everyone else too. Leave your predictions please! Thanks for reading :)

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