*Emily's POV*
The alarm clock went off at 9:30 the following morning. I got up and got ready to go to work. 3 years and I'm still working at Dunkin Donuts. I wake Austin up.
"What." He groans.
"Get up and get ready. I need to go get Amanda and you need to watch her while I go to work."
"How long are you working till?"
"I get a break at 1:30."
"What time do you get off in general?"
"6:30. Justin is taking the night shift. Now come on I can't be late. They wanted me to be in earlier at 6 this morning." I say. He gets up and goes into the bathroom while I straighten my hair. I finish and I grab my makeup bag. I was about to open it when it was grabbed out of my hands. I turn my head to Austin.
"Excuse me I need that." I try grabbing it back from him.
"No you don't. You look better without it baby." He tells me.
"Yeah maybe when I'm around you, but I need to see a lot of people for hours Austin. I need that." I say. He gives it back to me and I take my mascara out and put it on. I put some eyeliner on and last some eye shadow.
"There that's all I'm using." I tell him giving him the bag back.
"Thank you." He says smiling. I roll my eyes and go get my phone and my wallet taking ten dollars out and putting it in my back pocket.
"I want to talk wedding stuff when you get home." He says looking at me.
"We got months babe. Hell why don't we wait a few years before we have a wedding? Were still young." I tell him.
"I know, but I wanna marry you now. I wanna call you Mrs. Mahone already like I promised a few years ago." He says.
"You can still call me that even if it's not official you know." I say going up against him and wrapping my arms around his neck. His arms find my waist and he gives me a sexual smirk. He rubs his hands up and down on my hips and starts kissing my neck.
"I would love to continue, but you got a toddler to watch and I got some place to be." I say pushing him away. He grabs my hand.
"Come on, I'll walk with you to get Amanda." He says. We put some shoes on and walk outside and a few houses down to Alex's. We knock on the door and Maria answers.
"Hey!" She says hugging me.
"Hey where's Amanda?" I ask
"Eating cereal. Come on in." She says letting us in, we step inside and she closes the door behind us.
"So how was last night?" She ask us.
"Amazing." Austin says and I smile.
"Why what happened?" She ask and I show her my hand and she gasp.
"What a beautiful ring, congratulations you two!" She says hugging us.
"How are things going with Alex?" Austin ask her. They been having some problems again lately.
"I don't even know what him and I are anymore. One minute he's in love with me and the next he wants nothing to do with me. I don't know." She says sighing.
"He might be going through something. Give him time. He should come back." Austin tells her and she nods.
"Maria who are you talking too?!" We hear Alex yell. We look at her and she nods her head slowly.
"My ex boyfriend." She yells.
"WHAT?" He yells running into the room. He sees us and his anger fades a bit.
"Really?" He asked her and she nods.
"Don't lie to me like that anymore, I hate that." He says and she rolls her eyes. Robert comes out with Amanda and they were holding hands.
"MOMMY DADDY!" She yells letting go of Robert's hand and running towards us hugging our legs. Austin leans down and picks her up.
"Was she good?" Austin ask
"She always is. Shes a little angel." Robert says.
"Thanks for watching her. It means a lot." I say as we get ready to leave.
"Anytime, someone is always here if you need someone to watch her." Alex says shrugging his shoulders. We say bye and thanks again and we leave.
"You going to be okay with her?" I ask as they walk with me to the car.
"Were gonna be fine, right Mandy?" Austin ask our 3 year old daughter.
"Dwont worry mwommy." She says and I smile.
"Behave for daddy. I'll see you guys later." I say kissing her cheek. Austin kisses me goodbye and we exchange our "I love yous." I get in the car and start it and drive off waving goodbye to them. I get to work and park the car walking inside.
"Morning Avery." I say going behind the counter.
"Morning Em. You ready for work?" She ask
"Yup. A nice long day ahead of us" I say making myself an ice coffee. Avery takes the first costumer and it gets busier throughout the day. Around 1 the door opens and the bell rings meaning we have a costumer. Avery was on her break so it was just me. I was standing at the cash register about to talk when Austin appears.
"Thought I'll come visit you at work." He says smiling.
"Where's the baby?" I ask. I see her raise her hand behind the counter.
"Well I get off work for a break in about 10 minutes." I say checking my phone.
"We can hang around. Right baby?" Austin ask and Amanda nods.
"Do you guys want anything? A donut, munchkin, babe a coffee?" I ask him.
"Actually give us two chocolate doughnuts." He says. I turn around and get them and put them in a bag and hand it to him, I scan my card putting a discount on it.
"How much is it?" He ask taking his wallet out.
"Don't worry I got it. Hey do you have change for a 10?" I ask and he nods handing me a five and five singles. I give him my ten and I pay for what's left over and put the change in the cup. Avery comes back out.
"Hey Av, I'm gonna take my break okay?" I ask her
"Yeah that's fine. Be back in an hour." She says. I take my apron off and hang it up walking out.
"Wanna go get something to eat?" He ask
"Sure I'm starving." I say. We all walk out the store and down a couple stores to the Chinese place. We walk in and Amanda goes and sits in a chair while we stand on line to order. We order our food and he tells us 10 minutes. We sit across from Amanda and she stares at us.
"What?" Austin ask breaking the silence.
"Iwm hwungy." She whines.
"They're making our food now." I tell her. He calls us and Austin gets up and grabs it and walks back to the table. He gives Amanda her food cutting up the wonton soup so she could eat it. He hands me my food and he takes his. We start eating and during our meal my phone vibrates. I take it out of my pocket to see its Maria.
"Excuse me. It's Maria." I say getting up and walking near the window and answering the call.
"What's wrong?" I ask her.
"Well I wasn't feeling well. My stomach was hurting a lot and I was throwing up. So Alex and I went to the doctor and he told me something..." She starts off.
"What did he say?" I ask
"I'm pregnant." She spats out.
"Aw congrats!" I say smiling. Austin looks over at me weirdly and I hold my finger up.
"Thanks, but the thing is, Alex. He isn't happy. He hasn't talked to me since." She says.
"How long ago did you go?" I ask her
"It's been a couple hours." She says and my mouth drops.
"Listen as soon as I'm off my break I'm sending Austin over to talk to this kid." I say annoyed.
"Don't cause it's gonna cause more problems." She begs
"No Maria what this kid is doing isn't right. He needs to man up. The boy is 22 years old."
"I know, but I just don't think he's ready for a kid." She says sighing.
"You're 23 and you're pregnant. I gave birth to Amanda at 18. I think you and Alex are more ready than me and Austin ever were. Alex needs to step his game up and he will support its kid whether he likes it or not." I tell her.
"I'm gonna try talking to him. Don't send Austin over until I text you saying I need you too." She says.
"Fine. Listen I gotta go. I'll call you later and we'll go out and talk" I tell him. We say bye and I hang up going back to the table.
"What was that about?" Austin ask me. I look at him and look at Amanda. She was in her own world eating. I lean over and whisper in his ear.
"Maria's pregnant and Alex is acting like his usual self. He hasn't talked to her and he isn't happy." I whisper. I pull away and he gives me a look.
"Something must be going on that he's hiding from all of us." He says.
"Shes going try talking to him. I might need you to go over there and talk to him since you guys are best friends." He nods.
"Relax I'll get everything out of him." He says wrapping an arm around my chair.
"Mwommy I'wm dwone." Amanda says
"Good girl you ate everything." I say and she smiles. I look at the time.
"My breaks over in 20 minutes."
"Wanna go get ice cream?" Austin ask. I agree and we get up and throw everything away. We walk out and to Austins car and he puts Amanda in her seat. He does her seatbelt and gets in the drivers seat, turning the car on and taking my hand. He drives to Carvel 5 minutes away and we get out leaving the car on. We walk inside and Amanda goes to decide what she wants. It was our turn to order and Austin looks at me.
"I don't want anything. I'll just take a tiny bit of yours if anything." I say. He gets what he wants and orders Amanda's. The worker hands it to him and he gives it to Amanda. He pays and we get back in the car.
"Amanda please don't drop that in daddy's car." Austin ask her.
"Austin shes 3. Shes bound to drop it." I say laughing a bit.
"I know, but I really hope she doesn't." He says sighing. We get back to my job.
"You wanna come in till she finishes that? That way she won't drop it in your precious car?" I ask
"That's a good idea. Hey Amanda can I have your ice cream. Were going inside mommys job so you can finish that." He ask turning around and she gives it to him. We get out and walk in. They sit at a table while I go back behind the counter. 15 minutes later Austin comes over.
"Alright were gonna go back home. She finished it and she needs a bath." He says. I look at her and she had chocolate all over her face.
"Austin! At least wipe the girls face." I say chuckling. He grabs some napkins and wets them with his water bottle and he wipes her face clean.
"Say bye to mommy. We need to go home and give you a bath." He says picking her up so I can say bye to her. She waves.
"Alright I'll see you in a few hours." He says and walks out. They leave and the day slowly drags on. Finally my shift ends. I take the apron off and sign out and leave saying bye to Justin. I get in my car turning it on and driving home. When I get home I get out and lock my car and walk inside.
"I'm home!" I yell into the condo. It was quiet, but Austins car was here. I walk into the house more putting my bag on the kitchen table. I hear laughter and I walk closer to it. I get to outside of the bathroom and hear more laughing, I open the door and peek my head in. Austin turns his head.
"Look who's here." He says.
"Mwommy!" She says. I walk in and sit on Austins lap. He wraps his arm around my waist.
"Hello baby." He says kissing my cheek.
"I can tell things are going good." I say.
"Mandy's good. What do you expect?" He ask
"We got blessed with a quiet baby and a little girl who listens." I tell him. I hold my hand out and she high fives it.
"I wanna talk to you later when she goes to bed." Austin whispers in my ear and I nod. We finish up with her bath and get her out putting pajamas on her. She goes and lays in her bed and we turn the tv on. We go back into our room and Austin closes the door. We sit on the bed and he looks at me.
"So I been thinking." He starts off
"I want another kid. I'm ready for another one." He gets straight to the point.
"Austin... I don't know." I tell him
"Please." He begs.
"Why do you want another one already?" I ask
"I miss when Mandy was a baby. She's growing up too fast for me." He says
"So is that what you're gonna tell me every few years after each kid? You want another baby cause you like them?" I ask
"No it's not like that. I love babies and kids. I only want like 3 or 4 kids though. Not like one after another. I want a couple year differnce on them." He says and I think.
"Listen before we do any baby making we need to talk to Amanda first. We need help opinion on another baby." I say getting up from the bed. He follows me. We go walk into her room and sit on her bed. Austin turns her tv off and she looks at us.
"Amanda, daddy and I have been talking."
"What would you do if you found out you were having a brother or sister?" Austin ask her. She smiles big.
"BWABIE!" She yells.
"No no baby yet. Would you want another baby?" I ask and she nods. I look at Austin and he smiles.
"Alright that's all we wanted to ask you. Go to bed kiddo. See you tomorrow." Austin says tucking her in. We both kiss her cheeks and walk out leaving her door open a bit. We go back in our room and go back on our bed.
"I think we got our answer." Austin sings.
"It's also up the one carrying the baby." I sing back and he smirks. He pushes me back and leans over me.
"Oh come on you know you can't resist this." He says running his hands down his body and taking his shirt off. I laugh and wrap my arms around his neck. I pull him down to me and I go to kiss him. At the last second I whisper in his ear.
"Actually I can" I say and unwrapping my arms. He puts his head back and gives me a look.
"You didn't..." He says
"Oh I did baby." I tell him. He kisses my neck and I run my hands all over his chest.
"Austin stop we can't do anything. She just went to sleep."
"I don't care. She won't hear us." He says not stopping. My phone rings and he groans pulling away. I sit up and grab my phone and look to see its Maria. I answer it.
"Hello?" I ask into the phone
"I need Austin to talk to Alex." She says. It sounded like she was crying.
"Maria what's wrong?!" I ask
"I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't listen. He yelled and then walked out." She explains.
"Alright listen I'm gonna send him over now and you come here and stay here the night." I say thinking fast.
"Alright let me pack a bag, I'll be there soon." She says hanging up. I sigh.
"Where am I going?" He ask getting up and putting shoes on.
"Go talk to the idiot you call a best friend named Alex. Find where he is and ask him why he's been acting fucked up in the head lately and Maria's coming over to stay the night. I'm taking her away from Alex for a bit." I tell him. He grabs a black sweatshirt throwing it on and grabbing his keys.
"Alright I'll be back. I'll call you or something." He says leaving. A few minutes pass and I hear the door open. I walk out of my room and to the door running into Maria and hugging her. She hugs me tighter.
"I swear everything that happened a few years ago with Sarah is happening again." She says crying.
"Where was Robert and Zach when this happened?"
"Out at some concert. I didn't want to go and Alex stayed behind with me so I wouldn't be alone." She tells me. We sit on the couch just talking for a half hour when the door opens. Austin walks in with Alex trailing behind him.
"Now, were all grown adults and were going to handle this like grown adults. Understand?" Austin says sitting Alex in the computer chair next to the couch and he sits down next to me.
"I wanna do this in private." Alex says. I look at Austin and he nods as we both get up.
"Alright you two have 5 minutes. We will be back in 5 minutes to see how you're doing." He says and we leave the room going to check on Amanda.
*Alex's POV*
I get up and go sit next to Maria and the couch. She moves over one and I sigh.
"Can we talk about this please?" I ask her
"I tried earlier. You just walked out on me." She says shooting me a glare.
"I know, I'm sorry. It just came so quick and I wasn't expecting to hear that. I'm 22 years old. I need to live my life. I can't do that now because we have a kid on the way. I didn't want to have a family until I got married-" I say and she cuts me off
"So you're basically saying you regret this?" She ask pointing to her stomach.
"No, not at all. I just thought you and I could wait until after I proposed to you to have a family and I wasn't planning on proposing for a while because were still young and I wanted us to live and enjoy our young life. Not being stuck in the house every weekend to watch the baby." I explain to her.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" She ask
"I didn't know what to say earlier. All these emotions came to me and the only thing I could do was just yell and walk out. Obviously I have some issues to take care of because of the way I reacted."
"If you don't want this baby-" she starts, but I interrupt her.
"No I want this baby and were going to have it and raise it." I tell her seriously.
"And weree back. Did you guys make up or nah?" Emily ask. I look at Maria and raise my eyebrow and shoulders. She smiles and nods. She leans over and hugs me.
"I'm going to take this as you made up." Austin says. I pull away and move over next to her wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"Yup, everything is fine." I say.
"Well now that everything is fine, MARIA what's that on your arm?" Emily ask then stops and changes her question. I look down at her arm and she hides it.
"It's nothing." She says pulling it away and hiding it. I grab her arm and roll her sleeve up.
"Really? It's nothing?" I ask her
"Please tell me you didn't cut yourself." Emily says
"I didn't. It's from Sugar. She scratched me. You know how she is." She says nervously. I look at her and she gives me a small smile.
"You're lying." Austin blurts out.
"How do you know?" Emily ask him
"Come on, I knew you guys for almost 7 years. I can tell shes lying. Sugar didnt do that." He says pointing to her scars.
"Yes she did! If I cut myself, the cuts would be longer and not this short!" She yells.
"She has a point, it could be from Sugar." Emily says
"Yeah, but when was the last time you saw that dog?" I ask her
"The other day ago. While you were out with the boys." She says and I think about the other day. All of us were out at the beach.
"Alright I'm gonna let you go with this. I better not find out you're actually cutting." Emily says and I nod agreeing.
"Now are you still staying here tonight?" She ask. I look at Maria and she looks at me.
"Yeah." She says.
"Whyy come backk." I ask her
"Nah. I wanna stay with Em for the night" she says.
"Why. We made up?" I ask her
"I know, but I wanna spend a night with my sister." She says.
"We live like a couple doors down." Austin laughs.
"Yeah you got a point. Okay Alex I'll come back with you." She says. I get up and grab her hand and we walk towards the door.
"Thanks for helping us out guys." I say opening the door and we leave. We walk back to the condo and walk in. I leave the door unlocked for when Zach and Robert come back. I pull her into our room and sit on the bed. We sit with our legs crossed acrossed from each other.
"You know I'm not stupid." I tell her
"I never said you were?" She says making it sound like a question.
"Maria I know those aren't from your dog. Also you didn't have those earlier when I left and you been wearing short sleeve shirts and tank tops." I tell her. I take her arm and turn it over and examine the cuts.
"These look like they're from a razor blade, not from a dog. Especially your dog." I say to her and she sighs.
"Alright I'll admit it. I cut earlier. The last time I did was when Luke said all those rude things to me years ago."
"So why did you do it again?"
"Because of you." She says softly and when she said that my heart just broke. I felt so guilty. I took her arm and kissed all her scars.
"I'm so sorry. I feel horrible, for making you do this." I say between kissing each scar. I'm the reason she did this. I'm horrible. She pulls her arm away.
"Listen I don't care. I'm not doing it anymore." She tells me
"Maybe you don't care, but I do. I'm your boyfriend and I made you cut yourself. Do you know how bad that makes me feel? To know I treated you like complete shit and made you cut? My heart is broken now." I tell her and she looks down. I pick her head up.
"I'm sorry, I really am." I say before slowly kissing her. My arms move to her waist as I lean back and lay down with her on top of me. Our lips still moving as I move my hands down to her ass. I keep them there as her hands stay on my shoulders. She pulls away and sits up.
"I forgive you. I can't stay mad at you. I was just stupid and I thought cutting would solve it."
"But I realized it doesn't." She continues and I smile. I sit up and hug her tight.
"I think I should explain why I been acting the way I have lately." I tell her.
"Yeah that would be nice to know." She says laughing a bit.
"I been stressed out. I been looking some rings up so you can take off this promise ring." I say holding her hand up.
"That and I wanted us to move out and get our own place cause were getting older" I continue.
"I love this ring so dont worry, I'll keep it on as long as I need too and that we might as well wait until after this kid is born." She says. I rub my hands up and down her legs.
"I'm gonna feel bad for Robert and Zach, that's why I want to leave before he or she is born so they don't keep them up all night with constant crying."
"We still got months. Let's just live in the present and when we get to the point where we need to start looking we will. In my opinion, I think another ring can wait. I say we look at another place first." She says.
"They're both gonna be really expensive." I sigh
"That's why we wait a year or so before making it official that we're getting married. Alex, anything can happen in the next few months. We could break up. There's no guarntee what anything is gonna be like."
"Yeah if you think I'm breaking up with you in the next few months you got it way wrong." I say and she gets off me.
"You say that now, but we don't know." She says
"What are you trying to say?" I say laughing.
"You could lose feelings, you could cheat, you could find someone better. Anything really." She says carelessly as she brushes her hair in the mirror. I get off the bed and go wrap my arms around her waist.
"Losing feelings, it's been almost 7 years, I don't think I can. Cheating, that only happened in the beginning of our relationship. Yeah there have been rumors, but those aren't true and finding someone better? That's really impossible. You're the best to have." I say kissing her shoulder blade.
"Someone's so touchy tonight."
"Yeah I may be a bit horny...." I trail
"Suckss." She drags and I give her a playful glare.
"Mhm yes it does." I kiss her neck. She gets out of my grip and lays back down in bed. Turning the tv on, I jump into bed next to her. I cuddle into her and fall asleep to her heartbeat and her fingertips trailing up and down my arms.