The next morning, I woke up extremely early. It was still dark outside, so I groggily reached over to look at the time on the digital clock. Five am. I groaned quietly and sat up, then got off the bed. My stomach growled and I then realized that I was starving. I rubbed my eyes and made my way into the kitchen, holding my hands out so I wouldn’t bump into anything because of how dark it was. I flipped on the kitchen light and started going through the cupboards, looking for pickles. I went through every top cupboard and started on the bottom drawers, trying to find the jar of pickles that I just knew we had.

Hold up. Why the hell was I looking for pickles? I hated pickles. I hated they’re ugly green color and their taste, but it seemed to be that pickles were all my stomach wanted. Finally, I looked in the bottom drawer by the refrigerator and found two jars of pickles.

I grinned and grabbed them out of the cupboard, shutting the cupboard door behind me. I sat down at the breakfast table and eagerly opened the jars of pickles, shoving one into my mouth. I thought about how perverted that could be, and snorted to myself, chewing on the pickle. My new aversion to pickles was a bit strange, but I knew it had to do with my pregnancy. When I had been pregnant with Nicolette and Nate, I had a food craving for olives covered with butter.

Yeah, pickles weren’t so bad.

I switched the television on and put the volume on low. The news was on, something about a tragic car crash somewhere around Knightsbridge, London. Wait, that’s where we were. I listened in closely in hopes that it was no one that I knew for our neighborhood. The news reporter stated a few names of the people in the car, none of which I recognized.

“Princess?”

I turned around, completely startled. Niall stood at the entrance to the kitchen, looking incredibly confused.

“Why are you eating pickles?” he asked. He still had his morning voice, and I felt guilty because I must have woken him up. “I thought you hated pickles.”

“Food cravings. I’m pregnant, after all.” I shrugged, blushing a bit. Niall smiled and laughed gently, then stretched his arms and yawned loudly.

“Why are you up so early?” he asked, coming towards me. He pulled a chair out and sat beside me at the table.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I kind of just woke up and instantly craved pickles.”

Niall laughed again. “You’re funny. I like you.”

I tried to smile at him, but I couldn’t help but feel pissed at him still. I normally didn’t hold grudges this long, as in overnight. Normally, when I slept on it, I found it easier to forgive a person, but it hadn’t worked this time.

“Aria, listen,” Niall placed one of his hands on mine as I chewed a pickle. “I really need to tell you something. Or, a lot of things.”

“I wasn’t asleep last night, Niall.” I whispered, making mild eye contact with him. He seemed clueless for a second, but slowly his cheeks reddened and he bit his lip.

“Oh.”

“Sorry,” I sighed. “I just couldn’t fall asleep, but then after your incredibly large rant, everything went better. I understand that you fuck up. I fuck up too, but I hate it when you don’t think about what you say. You only realize how hurtful your words can be after they’ve done the damage.”

“I know, Aria.” Niall nodded, keeping his voice soft.

“I’m still kind of pissed at you.” I smirked a bit, watching as Niall’s face fell. “But it’s hard not to forgive you.”

He looked up with a hopeful smile. “Please forgive me, Aria. I swear I won’t piss you off ever again.”

“You can’t promise me that,” I laughed. “Twelve weeks from now, I’ll get pissed off if you forget to make me breakfast every morning.”

Niall grinned and held his arms out. I stood up and went over to sit in his lap. Niall looked especially content that I had forgiven him. The small, barely unnoticeable dimples in his smile seemed much bigger from how wide his grin was. I noticed a small scar near his right temple and ran my finger over it lightly.

“What is this scar from?” I questioned, looking at his eyes. I don’t think I would ever get over how sexy his blue eyes were. Niall’s eyes darkened to answer my question. We had never talked about that day since we had gotten out of the hospital. I knew that if we did, I would end up having nightmares and getting up in the middle of the night screaming. The pain my father had caused me and Niall, and everyone close to us was unforgettable.

My thoughts were interrupted by a cry coming from upstairs. It sounded like Nicolette. Niall and I looked at each other before getting up in a rush. I almost tripped, running up the stairs. We both entered our bedroom, where Nicolette was sleeping because of the broken window in her room. Now however, she was crying loudly, her hand over the bandage on her arm.

I rushed to her side while Niall switched the lights on. She was shaking and her teeth were clenched in pain.

“Baby, what happened?” I asked, trying to calm her down with a soothing voice.

“I-It hurts.” She hiccupped, kicking her feet under the cover.

“Niall, go get some Tylenol.” I directed. “It’s in the top cupboard on the left next to the refrigerator, second self.”

Niall came back with a bottle of Advil in his hand and I almost grabbed his head and smashed it against a wall because the twenty five year old dumbass apparently didn’t know how to read for our daughter’s life. I told him how Tylenol was spelled and he came back a second time with the correct medicine.

I was worried he might one day hand the kid’s beer instead of apple juice.

Niall comforted Nicolette as I stared at him, wondering what went through that brain of his instead of how to read a medicine label correctly. Niall’s voice slowly made Nicolette nod off. She mumbled things that neither Niall or I could understand, but she was asleep and pain-free, which is all I was worried about at the moment.

We closed the door on Nicolette and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, so I followed Niall into his office. Niall closed the door and sat down in his spinny chair, spinning around until I got dizzy from watching him. Then he stopped and stared at me.

“Hello.”

I snorted and walked towards his, sitting on his desk. I was quite aware that my butt was on a bunch of his papers. I picked up one of the hundred trophies on his desk and held it in his face.

“What’s this one for?”

“MTV awards, princess,” Niall says with a cocky look. “Like it says on the trophy.”

“Oh, the one I was your date to?”

“Yep.”

“The one where a million girls threw shoes and wine glasses at me?”

Niall looked uncomfortable. “Er, yes princess.”

“Huh,” I huffed, setting the trophy down. Niall tilted his head, trying to get a look at my face, maybe.

“You alright?” He asked, scooting his chair closer to his desk on which I was seated on. He reached out and grabbed one of my hands, tugging on it so I would look at him.

“Am I a terrible person?”

Niall narrowed his eyes at me. “Babe, I’m trying my best to decipher your words, but I’m seriously confused.”

“I don’t even know,” I groaned.

“Okay,” Niall scratched his chin. He continued to stare at me until I just couldn’t take it anymore. The guilt was driving me crazy, not to mention Niall’s stare. God, it was almost like he knew.

“The person who broke the window left a picture and a note,” I blurted, hiding my face in my hands. Oh how I wish my hands were bigger.

“What?”

“Are you deaf or something?” I scolded, clenching my hair.

“Okay, you’re practically pulling your hair off, so I assume this picture and note are a bad thing.” Niall took my confession step by step in the incredibly slow mind of his. “What did the note say?”

“That there was a hidden page in the scrapbook.”

“Wait, Scarlett’s scrapbook?”

“No,” I scoffed with a roll of my eyes. “The other damn scrapbook.”

“Okay, first of all, lose the attitude, or sarcasm, or PMSing or whatever is nicest.” Niall said, sitting up straighter in the chair. “Was there a hidden page in the scrapbook?”

“Yes, there was, and I can’t PMS smartass. I’m won’t be getting my period for nine months.”

“Jeez, Aria.” Niall sighed. “Sorry, I’m not trying to be rude.”

“Everything is pissing me off,” I groaned. “I just want to eat.”

So I got up and went to the kitchen.

I grabbed the jar of pickles off the table along with a glass of milk, Oreo’s and a leftover bowl of pasta. I shoved five Oreo cookies into my mouth and sat down at the breakfast table. Once the Oreo’s had been digested, I chugged down half the glass of milk, then started on the bowl of pasta. It took a bit longer to eat all the pasta, but once I finished, my stomach still seemed to have space for the pickles.

I began shoving pickles into my mouth when I heard a smirk. Niall had come into the kitchen and was very amused at the scene he was seeing.

“Why are you following me?” I asked, though with my mouth full, it sounded more like, “wa ah oo owowing eee?”

“To make sure you don’t choke and die over whatever you’re consuming.” Niall smirked. “By the way, that pickle in your mouth can be interpreted in many different ways.

I gulped down the pickles and rolled my eyes. “Perv.”

“Aria,” Niall took a deep breath. “I’ve got a confession and I know it’s not the best time, but I probably won’t tell you if not now.”

I stood up and walked the empty pasta dish to the dishwasher, then looked up at him and waited for him to go on.

“I’ve got to go to America for a few months to work on photo shoots and promos for our next album.”

“Exactly how many months?” I asked slowly.

“Only two,” he squeaked out, trying to sound convincing. “It won’t be that long. It’ll fly by.”

“Not when I’m pregnant,” My voice grew louder. I then remembered about my sleeping children and calmed myself.

“I promise it won’t be long, princess.” Niall said. He looked a little desperate for my approval, but we both knew that I couldn’t stop him from going.

I’d never done this, been alone while pregnant, with two crazy, obnoxious three year olds. Speaking of…

“You do realize that you’re going to miss Nicolette’s and Nathan’s birthday.” I stated, giving him a “are you for real” look.

“I know I am,” I sighed. “And once I explain to them, they will understand.”

“For fuck’s sake Niall, they are not going to understand. When you go on tour, they believe that an alien spaceship has taken you away for testing. Literally.”

“Well, they’re a year older now,” Niall reasoned. “I think they’ll understand a bit better. Both of them are pretty clever after all.”

“Look, Niall.” I sighed, running my fingers through my hair in a stressful manner. “This isn’t about whether the kids understand or not, this is about me. I’m going to be three months pregnant when you come back plus I’ll have two kids to handle. It’s just going to be so hard.” I was on the verge of tears. Niall came around the kitchen island and slowly pulled me to his body by my hips.

“I know you can do this,” he whispered. “I just know it. You’ve always been a strong person, and I know you will always be strong.”

“I’m not strong now.” I whispered weakly, hiding my face in his shoulder. “I’m just going to get weaker the farther along in my pregnancy.”

“Maybe you could call a friend to help out.” Niall suggested softly, rubbing my back.

“Corryn?” I questioned, reading his mind. “You have to remember that she’s pregnant, too. And I haven’t exactly told her about my pregnancy.”

“You haven’t? I thought you guys were close.”

“I know,” I sighed. “We are, but I just haven’t got around to talking to her lately. With everything that’s been going on, it slipped my mind to call her.”

“How about Chrissy? She could help babysit.”

“I guess.”

I was crying now, trying to contain myself. I probably looked pathetic. Niall whispered in my ear, telling me not to cry, that I would be fine. But I was feeling abnormally hormonal and all I wanted was to cuddle with someone, anyone, preferably Niall. I held onto him as tight as I could, and I could feel my already slightly bulging stomach pressing against his abs. Thank god my prego belly wasn’t noticeable yet.

After a quiet moment of embracing, Niall and I started on breakfast. I made the eggs while Niall toasted the bread and spread butter over the newly crisped wheat.

“Nicolette is the one who doesn’t like salt, right?” I asked, holding a saltshaker over the portion of eggs on one plate.

“No,” Niall shook his head. “Nicolette doesn’t like pepper and Nate doesn’t like salt. They also both hate when the scrambled eggs are too creamy.”

“Gotcha.”

After a while, I asked, “Why doesn’t Nicolette like pepper?”

Niall laughed, setting the buttered bread slices on the plates. “She thinks that the pepper looks like ants and she loves ants, so the thought of eating ‘beautiful bugs’ makes her feel guilty.”

I giggled at the reason behind Colette’s hatred for pepper and started pouring milk into Nicolette and Nate’s special plastic cups. They were both still three and were not to be trusted with glass.

Once breakfast was ready, we placed the plates in the microwave to keep the food warm and went upstairs to wake the kids up. Niall went into our bedroom to get Nicolette out of bed while I stepped into Nate’s room. He was fast asleep, mouth wide open. There was drool on his pillow, which was pressed against his cheek. He looked especially adorable when he was asleep. I honestly hated waking him up, because you could tell he was tired but he always tried to act okay with being woken up.

“Nate,” I coed softly, sitting down on the bed. “You have to wake up. Breakfast is ready.”

“I’m not hungry,” he murmured, turning on his side so his back was to me.

“I’ll give you a new set of crayons,” I whispered. Nate’s eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly.

“Can you get me the Crayola ones?” he asked with wide eyes. He looked adorable when tired, but the topic of crayons definitely knocked some energy into him. “The big boxes have uh-hundred crayons and I want them all.”

“Sure,” I laughed, silently wondering where the hell I was going to find a box of one hundred crayons.

I helped Nate get a quick shower before I took him downstairs. Niall and Nicolette were already at the breakfast table, staring at each other. Nicolette’s eyes were starting to tear up and I wondered what they were even doing.

“Um, Ni?” I coughed, trying to get his attention.

“Sh,” he hissed. “We’re having a staring contest.”

“Sorry, but some of us would really appreciate breakfast right about now.” I smirked, sitting down once Nate had success climbed onto his chair.

Niall groaned and blinked while Nicolette burst into a shout of victory. It was quite obvious that he didn’t really care, but he glared at me anyway. I just grinned and dug into breakfast.

Notes

Filler Chapter. It sucks. I suck. God the world sucks. So much homework it's not even funny. I don't even know what life is anymore. Like what even. I hate school and I hate homework and I want to go stab a wall with my fist and die or something. Okay I'm not going to rant because then I won't be able to stop and if I can't stop, that would be a problem because no one would take the time to read it anyway. Lol. I'm sorry that this chapter couldn't be better and it had such a shitty ending, like I don't even know where that came from. But it's late, and I couldn't think of anything else to wrap up the chapter so I just kind of ended it. I hope it doesn't suck as much as I think it does, though it probably does. So did you guys see that selfie of Niall in a beanie. Ermehgerd his eyes and his face, and dat boy don't need no filters to look hotiful even if he says he does. #insecurenialler. OMG I'm ranting because I'm so tired and I'm writing instead of doing homework but writing just clears my mind and brings me to like some sort of calm state where I can actually take a second to breathe. Additionally it's like ten at night over here and I still haven't eaten dinner so I'm freaking starving like poo and I need to get some nutrition into my body if a want to write a chapter for Our Place, and finish my homework. Ugh. Geez my face is going to look ugly and tired tommorow for school like legit. I promised that I wouldn't rant but I did anyway so suck it up. JUS KIDDIN. LURVE YOU GUYS. Show me you love meeee!!! Vote and comment!!!!!!! Haven't gotten comments in a while, maybe that's because I haven't uploaded, but stilllll ;)