CALL ME BACK? || Noah Centineo AU (3rd Book)

F I V E

Noah:

I'm at the grocery store getting some things I saw missing in the fridge, Chris have been here a couple of days and he has been having some minimal progress into getting Valerie to talk.

At least she talked to him, even if it was just a little.

But I still needed to keep trying. I needed my Valerie back. And Chris was one of the few ways I could try to get her to open up.

I have let them talk and be alone. I have been to the office and therapy group, lastly I stopped on  the store and I sighed when I notice Tara waving at me from the other side of the hall.

She walks closer to say hi and I have to hide my surprise when I see the bump in  her belly, she looks about 5 months pregnant. Valerie was 5 months when she had the emergency C-section…

“Noah it is so nice to see you, it's been awhile” she smiles warmly, I smile back and I try to keep my eyes on her face and not look down at her belly. I don't want to bring any attention into her pregnancy. I needed to avoid that topic right now.

“yeah Tara, wow, I haven't seen you in a long time, you look great” I try to compliment her, not really knowing what to say, she laughed and rolled her eyes.

“I'm a whale, but it's okay, I don't really mind” she shrugged smiling and I chuckled nervously scratching the back of my neck. How do you not bring it up when you see someone pregnant?

“I'll get going to the cashier, bye Tara, it was nice to see you” I say quickly, really needing to leave that hall, she looked confused but nodded either way and waved

“oh well, bye Noah, say hi to Valerie, I miss her so much , ohh I heard she's expecting too” she said rubbing on her belly and smiling sweetly, her resentment for me dissapeared, my heart was breaking at her words, she didn't meant it but she still mentioned it. I felt the tears rushing to my eyes and I could only wave and quickly turn around rubbing my eyes harshly with my hands. Didn't realize how the mere mention of it would upset me so much. I just brought my hand up to wave as I quickly walked away from her

Minutes later I'm done with everything I needed and I just pay at the cashier. I'm quick to leave the place and I drive back home with tears in my eyes regretting going to the grocery store. I'm emotionally drained by the time I reach the apartment.

I sigh as I walk to the door, before I open it, I brace myself to what's going next, her everyday rejection is something that affects me more and more everyday, and I have to take a deep breath everyday and give myself a peptalk before seeing her, just to remind myself that this isn't her fault, she just doesn't know how to handle her grief and her feelings.

I walk in the house and I heard voices in the guest room, I head towards there and peek my head on the door frame. Chris looks at me and smiles sweetly “Noah sweetie, welcome home ”

“hi guys, how was your day?” I ask looking at them both, Chris turned to look at Valery with an stern look and a raised eyebrow, Valerie sighed and turned to look at me

“hi Noah” she said smiling weakly. I smiled brightly to her because at least she was trying to be nice to me. I walked to the bed both of them were laying on and sat in the end of it, trying to just feel a little closer to Valerie.

‘oh you must be starving, Noah, you guys stay here, I'll go serve the dinner we made” Chris said looking at Valerie and me and we both nodded, he left the room leaving us alone.

Valerie bit her lip as she looked at me, she didn't seem as angry at me as she did a couple of days ago. And it relieved me. She stood up for the side of the bed she was laying and walked to me, she sat down on my lap without giving me any warning and wrapped her arms around me hugging me tightly.