Roomies - The Baby Years

Chapter 10

Aftera bunch of signings and meet and greets with what felt like the most part of England population, I had gone back home with Ben. Niall, whose tour had ended was with us too, as we had decided. He would stay at the house through september with myself and Ben and when I went to Canada in October, he'd stay in the house with Ben. He was looking for his own place though, but we had said that we didn't want Ben to have to move back and forth, which is why we were both staying in the house.

It was kind of strange, having Niall so close but yet so incredibly far away. He slept in the guestroom, barely spoke a single word to me during the day and I couldn't remember the last time I saw him smile; if it wasn't because of Benjamin. To be honest, it was actually kind of like when we lived back in the old flat. Except now he wasn't bringing home a new girl every night.

It had been a few days since I got back from London and the thing I was most concerned about was why Eli still hadn't answered my text about him not being my driver for hire in Canada. Even Keli had become unpatient because she wanted to know what he had answered and when I told her that he hadn't, she got confused. Today was thursday and it was my day to drop of Ben at kindergarden. He had started again only a few days ago and he had loved being back and was telling us all about what he and Sophie had been doing, which I found even more strange because I hadn't seen Eli on drop off's or pick ups.

Today though, I was going to wait at the parkinglot to see if I could catch him, because I really wanted to speak with him and since he didn't answer texts anymore, the least I could do was stalk him outside my kid's kindergarden. Yeah I realized how crazy that sounded.

I dropped off Ben and then went back outside. As I was walking towards my car, I heard a familiar laugh in front of me and looked up from my hands where I had been fidling with the keys. It was Sophie, but it wasn't Eli dropping her off, it was Willa. I thought for a quick second about hiding behind a car so she wouldn't see me, then I realized I was to old for that behaviour so I went over and said hello.

"Hi Sophie, willa. How are you today?" I looked at her little girl whom just smiled and said "good thank you."

Willa was trying to burn a hole through my skull, or at least it felt like it judging by the way she was staring at me.

"Isn't Eli the one who usually drops off Sophie?" Willa nodded, and kept her mouth in a firm pout,

"Yes, he is."
"So where is he?" I asked, probably a bit out of line,

"I don't know. I thought he was with you." She answered in a tone I could only take as both surprised and angry.

"No...why would he be with me?"
"Oh come on, Stella. I know he told you, about the divorce." She rolled her eyes when she realized that I wasn't following,

"He filed for divorce, a couple of days ago. Haven't seen him since, only when he's dropping off Sophie at home after kindergarden. He insists on picking her up in the afternoon." Ok so at least he was alive.
"I'm sorry, Willa. I had no idea." I said, not lying but also not wanting to continue this conversation in front of Sophie.

"I have to get back home, I hope thing's settles. Bye bye." I walked away before she could say another word, and I could have sworn I heard her make a "ugh" sound as I walked away. I didn't care. Now I knew that he was alive and just ignoring me.

I came back home and Niall was vacuuming the stairs. He didn't hear me when I walked through the doors and I stood there for a minute and looked at him. This was probably not the first time he vacuumed, but something was different. He looked different, he looked good.