League of Her Own (Carmichael Series #2)✔️

Calm Before the Storm

**I told myself I was going to write a lot over spring break. I got a single chapter written. And I have like three chapters that I didn't edit. I spent the entire spring break playing sims and I have no regrets (sims 3, not 4 because 4 is shitty and dumb). I hope you all had better spring breaks than I did and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

UPDATE: I have changed Chad and Greg's Last name. Sorry for any confusion!** 

Aurora's POV

Serenity. Peace. Tranquility. That's what I felt. After years of carrying the emotional burden, I felt like I could finally breathe easy. I didn't have to bear this heaviness all on my own anymore. There were people that genuinely cared about me and wanted nothing more than to help me and the ones I loved the most. I could cry with the relief I felt, but I was so sick and tired of doing just that; crying.

Sitting on the couch, I further curled myself into Troy's side. He'd fallen asleep about three hours ago, after we'd turned on the Hallmark channel and started watching some bullshit romance movie. I hadn't even realized that he'd fallen asleep until I'd first heard his snores reverberate through his chest.

Glancing up, I felt my heart constrict with an intense feeling of love and adoration. He had dark shadows underneath his eyes, and there were faint reminiscent lines of where his forehead was crinkled with worry earlier. Bringing my hand up, I just barely stroke his jaw with the tips of my fingers causing him to stirr eversosligthly in his sleep before releasing a deep sigh of content. His body readjusted, slightly jostling my own which was lying halfway on his chest and halfway on the couch, before he mindlessly brought his hand up and rubbed up and down my back a few times and then finally sneaking under my shirt and settling there for good.

I felt the same niggling feeling of helplessness from earlier coming back. I couldn't stand to watch him in so much pain knowing there wasn't anything I could do about the situation to make it better. I couldn't stand that I didn't know what to do to make him feel better, or get his mind off of it. Well - actually - I did, it just wasn't the most... appropriate thing to do at a time like this.

Feeling my eyelids beginning to droop, I rested my head against his chest once again and pulled the blanket - which I'd made fun of him for when I realized his mother has stitched it out of his old baby clothes - higher up around us. The quiet lull of his heartbeat was almost enough to put me to sleep, but we were both suddenly jerked away by the shrill ring of his phone. I couldn't help the giggle that bubbled from my chest at his completely disoriented look. His cropped hair was sticking up straight in some places, and he had a small trail of drool dribbling from the side of his mouth.

Grabbing his phone from where it'd fallen on the floor, he quickly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before answering.

"Hello?" His groggy voice called out, sending shivers down my spine. Bad Aurora! Do not think about jumping his bones at a time like this! I chastised myself. I was pulled from my own little world when I felt his entire body go rigid. "What?" He spat at the person on the other line. The phone slipped from his grip as a look of shock and disbelief encompassed his face. I caught the phone mid-air before it could drop back to the floor and raised it to my own ear.

"Hello?" I called out timidly, desperately trying to get Troy to look at me. He was really starting to scare me.

"Oh, Aurora. Sweetheart..." Came his mother's defeated voice. From the tone of her voice, I knew that this was the farthest thing from good.

"Hi, Poppy. What's going on?" I questioned, tears gathering in my eyes at the utterly defeated look on Troy's face.

"Oh, honey. I don't even know what to say...Chad, he - Lord give us strength." She muttered to herself before I heard her weeping quietly on the other end. My breath caught in my throat at what she could possibly be implying. Please, no!