Little Misunderstandings [Sequel to Little Steps]

I stared at the haunting book in my lap. I couldn’t do anything but. Nate and Nicolette were fast asleep beside me, full from a big lunch. I rubbed my eyes stressfully, trying to put the pieces together somehow. I didn’t understand where Scarlett fit into this huge puzzle. She was clever back then. She knew so much about me while as she hadn’t let me know too much of anything about her. I knew about Scarlett, just about the amount that everyone else knew.

Except for the notes.

Not that they were surely from Scarlett, but the fact that the sender called me “Ri” in the note made me so sure it was her. No one else ever called me Ri. Ever. I tried to recall a time someone else had ever called my Ri, and suddenly, it hit me like a ton of monkeys rushing out of their zoo cages.

Jace. He had called me Ri when we had our telephone conversation just the other day.

“So, when you gonna come back around California and see me?” Jace asked.

“Someday,” I laughed, trying to remain on a light mood.

“I’ll talk to you later, then?”

“Yeah,” I smiled. “Talk later. Bye, Jace.”

“Bye, Ri.”

How had I not noticed earlier?

Maybe Niall was right about Jace being a different person. Still, how could he have gotten my mother’s phone to text me? God, use your head Aria. He could have possibly had contact with my mother after Scarlett died, and somehow gotten her phone that way.

This just made shit worse.

What if Jace was helping my dad? What if Jace was helping Scarlett get her so called revenge? My body shook at the thought of it. No, Jace would never do that. He wouldn’t do it. He changed Scarlett for the better. He taught her that life wasn’t all too bad. HIs personality was so pure and kind, and there was not a thing he had ever done to make me think differently of him.

Jace was innocent.

So who wasn’t?

I literally grabbed a paper and began making a list of people who could possibly be behind this ridiculous case.

-Scarlett

And that’s all I could think of. I couldn’t imagine anyone else in the position of shooting someone and breaking through a window, the way I could imagine Scarlett doing so. God, I felt so terrible.
But what about Jace? He had called me Ri when no one else had but Scarlett. He had dissappeared for eighteen years of my life and suddenly appeared right in front of my eyes at Disneyland. He had acted as if nothing mattered to him after Scarlett “died” in that car accident. Plus, whoever was behind all this had to have a way of knowing my every move. Everything I talked about, every place I went to.

This was hurting my head way too much.

Nothing made sense anymore, when I thought about it. How could Scarlett even be alive? The police had found her dead. There were even pictures of her dead. Not that I knew where those pictures were now, but I was so sure it was her. I doubted the Scarlett was clever enough to plan her own fake death and have it be a success.

Yet somewhere deep down, I knew it was most definitely possible.

If she could figure out more than a million ways to sneak out of our apartment to go smoke with her friends, and always come back to the apartment before my parents woke up, it meant she had studied them well. Too well. Maybe I had underestimated my sister.

I flipped through the scrapbook, looking at the pictures of Scarlett and I together. In most, we were smiling, arms around each other’s shoulder. But as I flipped towards the end of the scrapbook, Scarlett would start to stand further away from me, sometimes scowling at me. It may have just been in the moment that I had done something to piss her off, but it still scared me. My phone vibrated, and I nearly screamed. I got frightened by every little sound now. It was pathetic, but who wouldn’t feel that way after seeing their next door neighbor get shot in the leg?
I picked up my phone and read the screen.


New message from: Niall
Hey, make sure the house is clean ;)

I frowned wondering why the house had to clean. Not that it was much of a mess.

To: Niall
Why? I don’t feel like getting out of bed.

From: Niall
Just do it. I think you’ll be happy you did. Then again, I guess it won’t matter.

To: Niall
You’re weird. You’re lucky I love you.

From: Niall
You bet I’m lucky :) Okay, well I’m going to go eat dinner. I’ll call you after, cause I’m starving. Bye!

My nose scrunched at his randomness, but one thing about him would never change - his love for food. Whatever, I still wasn’t going to clean up. If Niall had told me it didn’t matter, then I was going for the option with less work involved.

So, I wasn’t surprised when the doorbell rang an hour later. Nate and Nicolette were still fast asleep, so I pulled the covers over them and went to the front door. I looked through the peephole to make sure there wasn’t some killer on the other side. Instead, I saw a short little blonde lady whom I loved dearly.

I quickly unlocked the door and pulled Maura into a hug, squealing in delight.

“Maura!”

“Aria!” she squealed back. I couldn't decide whether she was mocking me, or if she was simply as excited as me.

Damn it. I should’ve cleaned up the place.

“Surprise,” Maura laughed ,stepping inside. I closed the door and made sure to lock it again before the grin took over my face for the second time.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” I breathed. “It’s been really lonely without Niall around.”

“I bet,” Maura chuckled. I took the suitcase from her hands and led her to the guestroom, where she always crashes when she comes over.

“So, where are the children?” Maura asked as we headed upstairs.

I pressed a finger to my lip and gave her a wink. Once her suitcase was in the guestroom, we both went into the master bedroom where Nate and Nicolette were fast asleep.

“On the count of three,” I whispered. Maura nodded and circled around the bed to where they were asleep.

“One,” I counted. “Two...three.”

“Surprise!”

Nicolette mumbled something and opened her eyes. When she saw Maura standing in front of her, she screamed and sat up, trying to get up. Her bandaged arm made it harder for her, so Maura just picked her up and hugged her while giving me a questioning look. I had forgotten to tell Maura about the window incident.

Nate slowly rolled over to see what all the commotion was. When he saw Maura hugging Nicolette, he literally grabbed Nicolette’s leg in attempt to get Nicolette off of Maura so he could hug her.

Jealous child.

While my kids had their reunion with their grandmother, I stepped outside of the room and dialed Niall’s number. However, right as I dialed the number, the power on the phone went off. What the hell? It had been on charge for over eight hours until thirty minutes ago. I held down the power on button and waited for the phone to turn on again. After the lock screen flashed, I typed in the password and everything seemed to running fine again.

That was weird.

So once again, I dialed Niall’s number and held the phone up to my ear, ready to rant at his pretty little face.

“Ello?”

“I love you,” I squealed, grinning as the words left my mouth.

“Guess my mum came?” he chuckled. It sounded like he was eating something.

“WHy didn’t you tell me she was coming? God dammit. I would have atleast attempted to get up and clean. The kitchen is a mess and there are crayons and coloring books all over the living room floor. Oh my god, what is your other going to think of me? She’s going to think I don’t know how to keep a house tidy. NIall, when are we going to tell her I’m pregnant? Oh my god, I totally forgot about that? Shes going to wonder why we want a third child when I can’t even handle a house with two children in it. Fuck, I’m a terrible mother.”

“Woah,” Niall laughed. “Calm the fuck down, Aria.”

“Sorry,” I gushed.

“I think what we should do is Skype in about an hour or so, and we can tell her together.”

“That’s sounds like a plan,” I smiled to myself, wondering what Maura’s reaction might be.

“Now, go spend some time with my mum,” Niall laughed into the telephone. “She’s been dying to see your face.”

“Are you dying to see my face?” I smirked, a snort escaping my nose. Niall sighed. I could picture his expression dropping.

“You don’t know how much I want to see your face, not just over Skype, but for real.”

“I miss your face too,” I laughed. “I’m going to go now.”

“Noooo, don’t leave.” Niall begged.

“Calm yourself. We’ll Skype in a bit anyways.”

“Fine,” Niall sighed. “See you soon.”

“Love you.”

I ended the call before Niall could stall me again and entered the room again to find Maura watching Nate and Colette play some hand game.

“Patta-cake, patta-cake, baker’s man,” Nicolette sung.

“Bake me a cake as fast as you can.” Nate continued.

Maura looked up at me with adoration in her eyes. I felt more than happy to have a supportive mother in law. She was honestly like my mother, since my real mother had been shot and killed.

“So,” Maura announced, interrupting the kid’s game. “I brought presents!”

“Presents?” Nate and Colette asked together. They’re eyes shined with curiosity as to what Maura could have gotten them.

“You didn’t have to,” I nudged gently. Maura looked at me and scoffed.

“Nonsense! These kids deserve presents!”

“Yeah!” Colette yelled. Maura led the two of them into the guest room and unzipped her suitcase. She pulled out a white bag that was on top of everything else. From inside the white bad, she pulled out two present bags, filled with the kids’ gifts. She handed each one of them a bag. Nicolette ripped the tissue paper from the bag and peered inside. She looked up and nearly screamed with joy.

“Barbies!”

I almost gasped from how shocked I was. Nicolette was excited about Barbies? That was the last thing I’d ever think Nicolette would like were Barbie dolls.

“Now I can go cut it’s hair and draw on it!” she squealed happily.

Oh, well that makes more sense.

“Woah, grandma.” Nate gasped. “This is cool.” He held up a mega art set with a set of pencils, crayons, and paint. He set the box down and went to give her a tight hug. Atleast one of my children had manners.

The kids went off to their individual rooms and I grabbed Maura’s hand and dragged her downstairs to where the laptop was sitting on the kitchen island.

“We are going to Skype Niall,” I grinned, logging into Skype. I pulled up the Skype page to see that Niall was online. I clicked on his name and waited for the video call to start up. Maura stood beside me, just as excited to see Niall as I was.

NIall’s face appeared on the screen. He wasn’t wearing a god damn shirt, to which I would consult him about later.

“Look,” Niall grinned. “It’s my two favorite ladies in the world!”

“Hello, sweetheart,” Maura cooed, blowing a kiss to the screen. Niall smiled wider and blew a kiss back.

“Hi, mum. Is Aria treating you alright?”

“What?” I snorted. “She just got here!”

“Oh don’t worry, babe,” Maura laughed to Niall. “Youre wife is a fine host.”

“She better be,” Niall winked. I slightly nodded my head at Niall who nodded back at me and opened his mouth to speak.

“Mum,” he cleared his throat. “Aria and I have some news for you.”

Maura’s expression became concerned at the words. She turned to me and then to Niall on the screen. I could tell she thought the news was bad.

When the silence became too much, Maura exclaimed, “Well, go on!”

“You wanna tell her?” Niall asked with a small smile.

“No, “ I laughed. “You go ahead. I told her last time, I believe.”

“Last time?” Maura questioned. I think she realized what was going on just as Niall spilled the news.

“We’re having a baby!” Niall cheered. Maura’s hand covered her mouth in an instant. She squealed and grabbed my body, hugging me to her way too tight to be comfortable.

“My lord!” she gasped. “Five grandchildren already! You two are making me feel so old.”

Niall and I both laughed at Maura’s comment. She seemed extremely happy, which ignited a bubbly feeling inside me. Her being happy made me even happier. Then again, just Maura’s face could make someone smile. She was such a loveable person, just like her youngest son.

“Does Greg know?” Maura questioned excitedly, gripping the edge of the counter. “I bet Noah is going to be just as excited.”

Ah, Noah. I remembered the days where he would burp in Niall’s face and love me to bits. He was around six or seven now, in school with a bunch of friends. The social blood just kind of ran in the Horan family. Theo, Noah’s younger brother was probably going to grow up just as popular. He was definitely the giggler of the two, always keeping Greg and Denise busy.

“We haven’t told anyone else yet, really,” Niall replied. “The only people who know are Harry and Cory, and they honestly found out by mistake.”

“Speaking of those two, aren’t they supposed to be getting married soon?” Maura asked. Bringing up the topic of Corryn and Harry’s wedding reminded me that I needed to call her afterward and ask exactly where she was with that. When Harry first proposed to her, she was ecstatic about absolutely everything, from the dress, to the people, to the cake.

“Don’t know, mum,” Niall shrugged. “Harry hasn’t told any of us much about it. I think we’re just all overly busy with work right now.”

“That’s a shame,” Maura sighed. “So Niall hon, I take it you won’t be there for the kids’ birthday?”

“Sadly no,” Niall pouted, running his fingers through his hair. Niall noticed that I was being quiet and called me out. “Aria, you okay?”

I quickly nodded and put on a grin for him. It wasn’t that I was mad or anything, I just got caught up in my thoughts. I wondered if I should tell Niall about the scrapbook now. Better late than never, right? Only problem was, Maura was standing right beside me with a huge smile on her face that I would never want to rip off.

“By the way, don’t worry about getting the kids their presents,” Niall informed.

“Why not?” I asked, suspicion arousing my mind. Niall simply winked and didn’t say anything more until Maura spoke again.

“So, what are you planning on naming the child?”

“Well, we don’t know the sex yet.” I told her.

“It’s going to be a boy!” Niall hollered from the other end of the video chat.

“He’s all caught up in this one being a boy,” I snorted, rolling my eyes. “He won’t come off it. It’s quite annoying.”

“I am not annoying,” Niall scoffed, slapping a hand to his chest with a proud look on his face.

“Yes you are, son.” Maura said gently. She had a small smirk on her face that made me crack up. Niall gasped in mock hurt and hid his face in his arms. He fake cried until his act became too boring.

“You’re going to regret saying that, mum.” he pointed a finger at the camera and gave her this look that I thought was extremely sexy, even though I’m sure he was trying to look serious. Maura laughed and made a heart with her hands.

“Love you, hon.”

Niall sulked in his seat and smiled a little. “I love you more, mum.” Then he sat up straighter and looked straight into the camera. “Where's Nathan and Nicolette? I wanna see them.”

“They’re actually playing with the presents Maura bought them.” I giggled. “Wait, scratch that. Nicolette is ruining her present.”

Niall thought for a moment and then grinned. “Was it a doll of some sort?”

“Barbie.” Maura and I said together. Niall chuckled and tilted the camera up so the light hit his features perfectly.

“Can’t wait until she shows me the finished product.” he joked. “It’s probably going to have black hair and scribbles for tattoos.”

The three of us continued our long Skype session over a period of three hours. We argues over who Nate had gotten his art skills from and in the end, we all agreed the skills had come from Nate spending so much time with Zayn when he was little. Zayn and Perrie used to help out alot with the twins before they had Jordan. I almost threw a laughing fit when Niall said it was himself who gave Nate the art skills.

The best thing Niall could draw was a circle.

Even his circles sucked.

It was nice, being able to talk to Niall for a good two hours with Maura right beside me. It almost felt like he was at home, even though he was honestly miles and miles away.



No one’s P.O.V.

Niall and Aria were both so caught up in talking to each other with Maura’s occasional comments that neither of them noticed something they should have. Something that would have been so obvious if if were two different people who weren’t so eager to see each other.

The video call had been tapped.

Notes

Oh my god.

OMFG.

GUYS THIS IS SCARING ME AND IM THE FRICKIN WRITER.

Omg this is intense......