2 am
I woke with a start as my cell phone vibrated on the desk. I sat up peeling a study sheet from my face and wiping drool from my mouth with the back of my hand before peering around my room that was now pitch black save for the naked 40 watt light bulb that protruded from my desk lamp.
How long had I been asleep?
Grabbing at the buzzing phone I hit the answer button and brought it to my ear. "ello?"
"CeCelia? Oh thank God, where are you?" Cat's voice rang through the receiver thick with worry.
"I'm at home..." I confessed flipping off the light and shuffling over to my bed before practically face planting into the fluffy pillows.
I heard a sigh of relief on Cat's end of the line. "Well, you are safe...at least there is that...I will be over first thing in the morning ...if Nick finds out you took off he will kill us both...I don't think he is due back until around 9."
"Mmm...kay." I acknowledged clicking end on my phone and tossing it onto the bedside table before surrendering back to sleep.
8:30 am
"I have been knocking forever!" Cat ranted as she entered my room and successfully pulled me from sleep. "Why are you still in bed, I told you I would be here first thing, Nicholas is due back any time."
"How did you get in the house?" I questioned slinging my legs off the bed and pulling my body up with a long yawn.
Cat flew around my room like a manic butterfly grabbing an outfit from my closet and shoving it in my direction. "Well, after pounding on the door for over ten minutes with no response from you or Joe I picked the lock."
I cocked a brow at Cat's confession, "Joe isn't here, it's just me...and did you just say you picked the lock?"
"Joe isn't here?" She repeated, her irritation level clearly peaking. "What do you mean he isn't here?"
"I mean he didn't come home last night, he's probably still with Professor Davies."
"You mean to tell me that you stayed here last night, all by yourself, with no adult?" Cat nearly screeched.
I rolled my eyes dismissing her obvious irritation. "You all act like I'm a baby; I studied and went to sleep...no adult supervision required."
I watched as a flare of anger...or maybe panic flashed in Cat's eyes. "Come on," she spat grabbing me by the arm and pulling me from the bed and toward the stairs, "we have to get out of here before Joe gets home and we have to get back to my house before Nicholas does...this stays our secret." The words had just barely fallen from her lips as we descended the last stair and the front door opened revealing my very surprised looking brother.
"Nicholas!" Cat squealed in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
I watched a smile spread across my brother's face, "I was about to ask you the same thing..."
"Oh...well" I watched Cat squirm as she tried to think of a reasonable explanation as to why we were both in the wrong house.
"How was your sleepover?" my youngest brother asked stepping toward Cat and sweeping her into a hug.
"Great," Cat offered immediately, a nervous smile plastered on her face as she pulled from the hug, "It was great, how was your trip?"
Half of me sighed in relief upon realizing that I was about to get away with my previous night's shenanigans, the other half however...had other plans. "She is lying!" I spat even surprising myself. I watched the smile drain from my brother's eyes as he looked at me, then to Cat, then back at me. "I took off last night."
Nick's eyes narrowed as I willingly threw myself under the bus, "What do you mean, you took off?"
"I didn't stay the night with Cat last night, I left around 10" I clarified, "I stayed here by myself and she is lying to you because she didn't want to look irresponsible..." Nick's eyes flew to Cat who confirmed my statement with her defeated sigh and slumped shoulders. "If you can't even handle me how are you going to handle a baby?"
My brother's eyes turned to a scary shade of black with anger, "CeCelia Marie! Go. to. your. room."
His tone left no room for argument as he jutted his finger toward the stairs and I knew better than to argue with him, lest I wanted to make my impending punishment worse.
Nick's POV
I watched as Cecelia turned and made her way up the stairs toward her room before turning my eyes back to Cat who looked sick with guilt. "Why didn't you call me the second she walked out the door?"
Her bottom lip slipped between her teeth and I watched it go white as she bit it nervously. "Well, I thought she just needed to cool off, it wasn't until curfew came and went that I realized she wasn't coming back."
"Babe, she is sixteen years old, you don't just let her leave without knowing where she is going, who she will be with and when she will be back...especially at ten o'clock at night!"
"I know I screwed up, I know that...I just..." Cat let out a defeated sigh, "I didn't call you because I didn't want you to think that I was irresponsible and couldn't be trusted...Cee was right, about everything...if I can't handle her how the hell am I going to handle a baby...what if I forget to feed it...or I don't burp it right or something...and what if I don't change it often enough and it gets a rash, I don't even know how much cream you are supposed to use...what if it hates me like she does..."
"Hey..." I said bringing my hands to Cat's shoulders and turning her to face me, "First of all, Cecelia is not right and she does not hate you, this isn't about you ...she is angry at me and is lashing out... compared to teenagers, babies are cake. You won't forget to feed the baby...trust me...they won't let you forget and burping them is easy...and no matter how often you change diapers the baby will eventually get a diaper rash it's pretty unavoidable... and as far as cream goes I'm fairly certain you will figure it out...you are new at this and things will take some getting used to but you are going to be a great mom and that little baby is going to love you."
Cat's lips, swollen from her nervous biting, curved into a small smile. "You think so?"
Pulling her in I placed a soft peck on her forehead, "I know so, now...if you will excuse me, I need to go deal with CeCelia."
**********
Hello Lovies! It has been forever....like seriously. This story, as well as the B&Boys series were put on an indefinite hiatus when I found out I was pregnant with baby #3 (we thought we were done having babies...God had other plans.) I have EXTREMELY high risk pregnancies so I immediately had to stop writing and focus all my time and energy into baking a baby who (with the help of high risk doctors,weekly injections and bed rest) was born full term YAY! She is everything I never knew was missing in our little family unit. Meet miss Finley Rose.
sidenote- This was from her first birthday (Breakfast at Tiffanys theme) we don't usually sport pearls and little black gloves on a daily basis.
Lets see...what else has happened since we last spoke...ah, we moved to our dream house in West Virginia...and then not even a year later,due to hubby accepting a new job, we made the cross country move to Arizona. As Finley approaches her second birthday I am finding that she is becoming (slightly) more independent (essentially the first 2 years of a baby you just walk around like a zombie all sleep deprived and have zero time for trivial things like day showers ,hot meals or sleep) and I am finding that I am having some time to do some writing. I have missed it.
This Chapter is a little shorter, a way to work you back into the story...BIG trouble coming for CeCelia. Since the other day you fabulous readers have brought Chilton out from the deep depths of the fanfiction category (i think it was ranked like 800 some? which i guess is not bad seeing as how it had been on hiatus, last I checked it had bumped up the charts like 400+ spots! Keep the voting up, if you have not yet please take the time to vote for each chapter, lets get Chilton back to the top 50! Updates will be EVERY SUNDAY. XOXO Molly