Life As A Motto. Sequel to Bad Things Happen!

"You!"

It had been about a week and a half since Laurens and Eliza ran away. They missed the last few days of classes after almost getting seen by Lafayette. It was getting serious. Their parents were beginning to panic about their missing children.

Laurens just came out of the shower. He grabbed his clothes and took the trash bag off of his arm. (Showers, the worst part about having a cast.)
Eliza saw him come out of the room and stopped him.

"Let me see." She said.

Laurens rolled up the sleeve of his sweatshirt. No fresh cuts. He then lifted his shirt up. No fresh cuts.

"Ok," She nodded. She fiddled with her ring finger. Laurens noticed how red and irritated it was. More importantly, he noticed something was gone. Eliza had no ring around her finger. Everyday when she woke up, she would redraw the ring with a marker like she had done on her wedding day. Now it was gone.

"You scrubbed the sharpie ring off." Laurens stated.

"Yeah. He clearly wasn't being honest when we got married, so why should I be honest and keep to my vows?" Eliza whimpered.

Laurens wrapped his arm around her. "I'm sorry."

The sweet best friends moment was broken when there was a knock at the door. Eliza assumed it was the take out they had ordered and went to open it.

"Huh. Out of all the people I know, you were the last person I imagined to find us first." Eliza glared.

"I need to talk to you."

"Oh, I think you've done enough. What could your words possibly mean to me now?" Eliza got harsh.

"Please. I need you to give me a chance."

"Fine! You have five minutes." Eliza let them inside the room. "Maria."

Laurens looked over at her. "Why are you here?"

"Eliza, I need to talk with you." Maria said, sorta blowing him off.

"No! I need to talk to you!" Eliza spoke harshly. "You were supposed to be my friend! You went behind my back with my husband!!! You are sick!!!"

"You don't understand. I had just found out I was pregnant, James saw me talking to Alexander, and he made me do it." Maria whimpered.

"How did he make you!"

"He said he would make me get an abortion if I didn't. I should've told you. I'm sorry."

"Wait what?" Eliza asked. "I thought James was happy when he found out he was gonna be a father."

"No, he didn't care about Susie until after she was born. He thought he was too young, and he is. But I wanted to give our child a chance at life." Maria explained.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Eliza whispered. "I'm still mad that you didn't tell me. But I didn't know what all was going on."

"I swear. The only reason I agreed is because I thought Alexander wouldn't do it." Maria sighed. "I should probably get going. I don't have the money to leave my car air conditioning on any longer."

"Why is it on?" Laurens chimed in on the conversation.

"Right! The daycare found out about this, and now they won't take Susie anymore." Maria explained. "They didn't want a baby who's mother cheated on her boyfriend while pregnant with her."

"Oh my gosh! I wasn't even thinking how this would effect you." Eliza gasped.

"That's not even the worst part. My mother disowned me and now I don't even have a job." Maria sighed. "My apartment in gonna kick me out tomorrow too."

"Go get Susan and bring her here. I can help you out." Eliza stated. "You can stay in my family's summer home for at least a week."

"I couldn't ask you..."

"No! Alexander has ruined my life, I won't let him ruin yours." Eliza interrupted. Maria smiled and went down to get the baby. She was wearing some of the little baby clothes Peggy got her. She had on a little onesie that said "Work!" It was adorable.

"Hi baby!" Eliza smiled. Babies always made her happy. No matter what she was dealing with. "Give me!" Eliza held her hands out and Maria passed the infant to her.

"Just because you have a cute baby does not mean I have forgiven you for lying to me." Eliza smirked. It was the first time she had shown any sign of happiness since the Reynolds Pamphlet came out. It was nice to see her like this again. Maria smiled at her.

"Ok. But it helps, right?" Maria joked.

"Maybe a little." Eliza nodded. "Come, sit down. Do you have a phone on you? We had to get rid of all technology."

"Yes, here." Maria handed Eliza her cell phone. Eliza pulled up the maps app and typed in the address of the vacation home Laurens stayed at when he ran away from his father.

"How come you aren't staying here? This home looks alot better than a hotel." Maria questioned.

"My family would look there first. I can't be too predictable. I just need to be away from all of that right now." Eliza explained. "Now everything is free, but if you want to stay there with the baby, you have to promise you won't tell anyone you saw us."

Maria nodded. "Ok."

"The key is in a secret box under the rock painted to look like a ladybug." Eliza said.

"Thank you." Maria got up and took Susan back from Eliza. "I'm sorry all of this happened to you. I had such guilt for so long, but I needed to protect my baby."

"I know. I'll understand better when I have kids. But I don't think that you were selfish in doing this."

Maria gave Eliza a hug and Eliza began to cry again. "Why would he do this to me?" Eliza cried.

"I don't know. I honestly thought that he wouldn't do it. He did seem to feel guilty as soon as I told him what James was doing." Maria answered. "One more thing. Why is he here?" She chuckled and pointed to Laurens.

"Well, my brother cheated on her and her sister cheated on me." Laurens explained.

"Oh." Maria replied. "I'm sorry John."

"Don't sweat it." Laurens responded. "I just want to isolate myself for the rest of my life. No big deal."

"Thank you again, Eliza. For everything."

"Yeah yeah. Be glad you have a kid." Eliza was still very upset.

"And I'm sorry again."

Eliza nodded and Maria left.