The Only Direction

Chapter Twenty- One

“You’re pregnant?”

I heard a small noise on the other end. Was she sobbing?

“Ya. I’m pregnant,” she said, now clearly crying.

“Geesh Aria how’d that happen,” I teased, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.

I heard her giggle a bit on the other end and knew that it had worked.

“Harry, I think you should talk to your mommy and daddy about those things,” she said, still giggling. I heard Alison laughing on the other line.

I chuckled. “I don’t need to learn from my Mum and Dad, I heard you two in the action”. I heard Aria gasp-clearly shocked- when I said this. It made Alison laugh even harder.

“I know you can’t see me right now, Harry. But I’m severely glaring at you”.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure you are. Have you told Niall yet?”

“No…”

“Are you planning to any time soon?”

“No…”

“Aria!”

“What?”

“You can’t hide something like that from Niall!”

“Why not? He’ll never find out if you and Ali keep it a damn secret!”

I hear someone else grab the phone.

“See, babe, this is why we called you. She has this insanely irrational idea that she can hide her pregnancy from Niall. You’re on speaker now so say whatever you can to snap her out of this belief”.

“Aria I want you to listen VERY carefully to the next thing I say. Can you please do that for me?”

“Uh huh”.

“Ok. You cannot hide your pregnancy from Niall. One way or another you are going to have to tell him”.

“I already told you, Harry. If all of us don’t say anything-“

Oh my goodness. If I thought this girl was downright stubborn before, I was completely wrong. Pregnant Aria made regular, non-pregnant Aria seem like a completely sane, not at all persistent blessing from above.

“Aria, can you please tell Dr. Harry what are the symptoms of a pregnant woman? All the way from the first month to the last month, please”.

“Morning sickness, enlarged breasts, swollen feet and ankles, increased appetite, nausea and aversions to certain food and scents, cravings, mood swings, the uterus expands essentially making the stomach billow out, the baby kicks after a few months, and ummm during the last month the belly button sticks out like a sore thumb. I think I got everything right”.

“Now tell me Aria, what happens when you’re vomiting every morning because of morning sickness? What happens when your feet and ankles swell up? What happens when you’re eating everything in sight and have insane cravings? What happens when you can’t stand to be around the scents and foods you once adored? What happens when you’re mood swings go crazy and are all over the place. What happens when your stomach grows? What happens when your belly button sticks out? What’s going to happen when the baby kicks you and you’re in pain, and Niall won’t understand why? And most importantly, what happens when you go into labor?”

I heard her sobbing on the other line and instantly felt bad.

“Harry, you should have put that slightly more gently,” Alison said on the other line.