Time Ahead

chapter forty-one

*two months later

Perrie's POV:

I slowly open my eyes and look around the dark room. Alex is still asleep next to me but light it shining from behind the curtains. I reach for my phone and see it's a little past nine. I get up quietly, shivering as the cold air hit my skin. I sneak out into the living room of our hotel room. We were in Dublin for a week because we were doing interviews and had two shows so management decided to give us each a separate suite. It was nice having space for our families but it's almost too quiet and I know all of us miss it. Knowing our team, we'll probably be back in a close space next week so that will be nice. I next in the group chat of us girls asking if anyone was awake. I waited for a few minutes waiting for a response and when there wasn't I put the phone on the counter and started the kettle. I miss not being able to drink coffee but tea is okay. I rub my slightly swollen stomach and whisper "Love you bean." Alex has insisted on calling the baby that until we have a name. 

Little footsteps came down the small hallway. "Mamy?" I hear a small voice ask. "Hey babe, how'd you sleep?" I ask Izzy, whose standing in front of me with her stuffed Bambi. "Good. Are we going anywhere today?" she asked. "I'm not sure, why?" I ask her. "I want to go swimming," she says. "It's a little early now, but I'm sure we can go at some point," I reassure her. "Do you want cereal?" I ask her. She nods and I grab the almost-empty Cherrio box from the cabinet. I quickly made her cereal and finished making my tea.

I sat next to Izzy at the table and looked at my phone. There was a message from Jesy who replied that she was awake and invited her and Sophie over to my room. After a few moments there was a knock on our door. I open the door and let Jesy and Sophie in. "Hey Izzy, do you want to take Sophie into your room and you guys can play?" I ask her. "Okay!" she says getting up from the table. Sophie runs after Izzy into her room. "What's up?" Jesy asked. "What do you mean?" I answer a little caught-off-guard. "It's 9AM and you're wide awake," she says. "I just woke up early early," I said. "You look like you've been awake for hours. And on top of that you invited me over before lunch time," she adds. "Okay, maybe I was awake a few hours ago but I fell back asleep. And I just wanted to spend time with you," I say. "Okay," Jesy says not believing me. I hear the girls giggling from the other room and a smile grows on both of our faces. "How's Sophie settling with you and Chris?" I ask. It's been a few months but we haven't really spoke about it. "Its been great. She really bonded with us and trusts us which I didn't expect her to do right away. I just adore her," Jesy says smiling. "Do you think you'll adopt any more?" I ask her. She shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe in the future but I'm pretty happy right now. I'm not in a rush," she says. "That's great," I say. "How about you?" she asks. "What?" I ask. "You're pregnant. You've got to be excited," she says. "I am. More worried than excited though," I say. "Why's that?" she asks. "I haven't had nay pregnancy symptoms. I'm not tired at all and have no morning sickness," I said. "Maybe it's too early to feel anything," she says. "No, I'm two months. You saw how sick Jade was but I'm fine. I wasn't that bad with Izzy but still," I say. "Is that what's been keeping you up?" she asks. "I guess. I didn't really notice it. I'm just worried something's wrong. We also haven't told Izzy so I don't know how she's going to react," I say. "Babes I'm sure everything's fine. And don't worry about Izzy, she'll be fine. When's your next scan?" I ask. "Oh crap, I have one today at four," I said realizing. "Good, we'll find out today then," she says grabbing my hand.

After chatting for an hour or two, we all eventually made our way down to the pool once Izzy started nagging me about it. Jade and Leigh are meeting us down there. We walked down the stairs together and through the corridor. Once we reached the pool, Izzy ran over to one of the chairs to take off her cover up. Once she finished taking it off, she ran and jumped in. "Wow Iz, you really wanted to go swimming," I said laughing. I scanned the deck for Jade and Leigh, seeing they weren't here yet Jesy and I picked a place to place our stuff. The pool was empty besides us, so it was nice not to have anyone taking pictures of us or us annoying them. Sophie followed Izzy into the pool once Jesy and I settled in our chairs. Both girls started playfully splashing each other and swimming around. All of a sudden I heard running footsteps down the hallway. Jaz and Jolie appeared from behind the gate. "Hey girls!" I say as they run over to us to take their shoes off. "Hi!" Jolie says while Jaz smiles and waves. They both jump in the pool and join Izzy and Sophie's game of tag. A few moments later, Jade and Leigh walked through the gate. "Girls, you can't run off like that," Jade says to the twins. They both apologized and went back to their game. Leigh helped get Rhea's floaties on and Jacob took her hand while they walked in. All of us started "awwing" at them. "That's so sweet," Leigh says.

The four of us laid back in our chairs chatting. "Where are we going after this again?" Jesy asked. "Switzerland, I think," Leigh answered. "I can't wait, I love Switzerland," I say. I look over at Jade and see her texting someone. "Who are you texting?" I ask. "Jed," she says. "How's that going?" Leigh asked. We haven't really talked about their relationship since they met last, especially after mine and Jade's little fight. "It's going really well. He is going to meet up with us in Switzerland. We've been texting and Facetiming for the past two months kind of trying to clear everything up but, I think it's working out," she says smiling. "That's really good," I say. She smiles in response. Kaiden started crying from the carrier next to her. She stands up and gets him out. "I'm going to go take him in for a little," she says, walking into the pool. "Where did the guys go?" Leigh asked. "I think Chris said something about going to the nearby stadium but I'm not sure," Jesy says. "So Perrie, do you think bean is a boy or a girl?" Leigh asks. I'm going to go with a boy. I can tell Alex wants another girl though, he just adores Izzy," I say. "But, i'll find out today." I look out into the pool. Izzy and Jaz are making u some sort of handshake, Sophie and Rhea are singing, and Jolie and Jacob are racing each other across the pool. I look over where Jade is, on the other side of the pool. Kaiden is in his inflated tube splashing around and laughing, which is making Jade laugh. I smile and place a hand on my small bump. Imagining of when I can do that again.

a/n: i'm back! the hurricane ended up not hitting us that much and we just had a lot of rain and wind. i also had school off for a few days so that was nice. i did kind of plan out  just about the rest of this book so i'm really excited about that! i'll probably end up posting another chapter tonight or tomorrow since i was gone for a while.