Chapter 28

"Hey Charlie." Mrs. Von Batton smiled as she opened the door. "Come on in."

I gave her a polite smile as I stepped inside, shocked to see Mr. Von Batton sitting at the kitchen table with a woman I didn't recognize.

"This is Dawn from our adoption agency. I'm sure Elizabeth has told you we're considering adopting again." Mrs. Von Batton told me, looking more perky and happy than I'd ever seen her.

"Yeah, yeah she mentioned. Nice to meet you." I said happily, giving Dawn a little wave.

Little did she know, I'd been here at the same time as her before...

"Uh, is Elizabeth here?" I asked quietly, glancing at the stairs.

"Yeah she's upstairs doing some homework." Mrs. Von Batton told me. "This is Elizabeth's boyfriend, Charlie. He's the quarterback on the football team, quite talented."

Boyfriend.

What.

"Mom what are you doing?" Elizabeth said suddenly, bursting into the room as she stomped down the stairs.

She nearly ran into my with the force of her entrance and then put a massive smile on her face.

"Not my boyfriend, mom." Elizabeth gave her mother a forceful look. "And he's just over here to go over some plays for tonight. I'm ridiculously behind on the way that this team works and if I want to get any playing time..." Elizabeth trailed off.

"Oh, alright." Mrs. Von Batton gave me an apologetic smile.

I didn't know what to do.

What if this brought up the question.

The question of 'what are we'?

Elizabeth grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the stairs.

I didn't even have time to form a 'goodbye' or 'nice to meet you' before I was whisked away into Elizabeth's fast paced life.

She pulled me up into her room and quickly shut the door, leaning against it as she took a deep breath.

"I swear to God my mother is determined to ruin me." Elizabeth whispered, walking over to her dresser.

"Uh." I laughed, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

Elizabeth just shook her head, pulling her sweatshirt over her head. "It is a million fucking degrees in this house and everyone is hella stressed which only adds to the heat."

"I mean why put a shirt back on?" I laughed, leaning back on my elbows as I watched Elizabeth reach for a tank top from the top drawer.

"Because I look like a mushroom today." She replied, pulling the tank top over her head and covering up the masterpiece that was her body.

"Never." I whispered, shaking my head as she walked over to me.

Elizabeth let out a laugh, climbing up to straddle my lap without a second thought.

"Sorry about my mom dropping the 'boyfriend' word." Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "She totally doesn't understand that two people can be hanging out without dating." She laughed.

"Ah." I mumbled, my mind still unable to form coherent thoughts over what I even wanted us to be. "Yeah."

"But I mean whatever. She was probably just saying that to make it seem like they're chill with this or whatever." Elizabeth rolled her eyes again, shifting her hips against mine. "I mean they're all hyped up on trying to impress Dawn, it's driving me nuts. Tommy's lucky that he's out of all of this drama."

"You haven't really mentioned your thoughts on this new baby thing..." I said softly, resting my hands on her hips.

Elizabeth sighed, wincing as she leaning backwards.

"I don't really know, to be honest. I mean I get the whole 'empty-nest' shit because they're about to have two kids out of state at college but I think it's a bit early. I mean they're starting over from scratch right when they're supposedly done." Elizabeth sighed. "And of course I fucking love being the little princess of the family and now I'm going to have to share my love with some new kid? Fuck no."

"There's the attitude I was waiting for." I laughed, squeezing her hips.

Elizabeth sighed. "I can't exactly tell them that... They're already hella pissed at me for everything that happened back home. I'm on thin ice."

"What do you mean?" I frowned. "Your parents let you do whatever the fuck you want."

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Jesus, no. This is nothing compared to what it used to be like back home. They're totally hands off parents. I'd go days at a time without talking to them just because I'd be so busy." Elizabeth shook her head.

"And you think this is hands on?" I raised my eyebrows. "Elizabeth your parents have let you spend the night at my house and they haven't even met my parents."

"Because they think I'm a little old virgin who has never been kissed. I keep them so far in the dark they have no idea. They found out about the drugs last year because the school found out. But they think it was because I wasn't playing football and needed something to like replace the adrenaline or something." Elizabeth sighed. "It's totally dumb."

"Shit."

"Yeah, that's why dad told me I had to join the team here. He said he wouldn't let me quote 'waste my life away with that damn weed again'." Elizabeth rolled her eyes, putting her hands on my chest as she pushed me back against the bed. "But enough about that..."

"We have to leave for the game in fifteen minutes." I laughed. "And you're nowhere near ready."

"Then you better get moving." Elizabeth whispered, pressing her lips to mine with a hunger that sent my head spinning.

~*~*~

"Dude, we have to leave in less than two minutes if we want to make it on time." I said seriously, pulling my t-shirt over my head. "Get up."

Elizabeth was just laying on the bed, having stopped halfway through getting dressed. She was laying on her back with her arms over her head and a sick look on her face.

"I have a cramp." Elizabeth whispered. "Like really bad."

"You're joking." I laughed as I wiggled into my jeans. "What the hell?"

Elizabeth winced, shaking her head as she put her hand on her stomach.

"Like a stomach cramp? You're too out of shape to handle sex?" I teased, tossing her her athletic shorts from the floor. "Push through, we gotta go."

Elizabeth took a few more deep breaths before pushing herself into a seated position.

She shook her head a few times, rolled her shoulders, and then carried on as if nothing was wrong.

"We're good." She mumbled, pulling a sports bra over her head.

But on the drive towards school, she didn't say a single word and was totally checked out.

For the sake of not being obvious, I didn't get a chance to talk to her during warm up and the first half of the game but I had much more important things to worry about.

Halftime found us trailing by a field goal and our defense was losing their strength. The other team was running us down more than we anticipated and things had the potential to get messy.

"Captain." Coach Turner said, walking up behind me and startling me enough to make me jump.

"Shit, what?" I laughed. "I know, I know..." I quickly covered. "The defense is totally slacking on the-"

"Go make sure Elizabeth's okay." Coach Turner said. "She just puked again and I need to know if she's alright to play."

"What? She what?" I asked in shock, spinning around to find my red haired beauty.

Elizabeth was sitting on the bench, bouncing her knee anxiously as she held her helmet in her lap.

"Is puking during games like some nervous habit that you just never told us about?" I asked quietly, sitting down next to her. "Or is your stomach still bothering you?"

"I'm fine." Elizabeth sighed, glancing at me. "Go control your team, you're getting sloppy and missing easy tasks."

I sighed, wiping the rain off of my forehead as I scanned Elizabeth's face.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked quietly.

She turned to look at me, her eyebrows pulled together in discomfort.

She had a black bandana over her head and her hair in two braids down her back, which was all soaked from the rain.

"Listen, go finish your game, I'll be fine. I probably won't play anyways. Just let me sit here for a bit?" Elizabeth whispered.

"What's wrong with your stomach?" I said seriously. "Is it period cramps?"

"I'm not on my period." Elizabeth sighed. "And you know that."

"Then what could it-"

"My parents aren't here, okay? This is the first game of mine that they've ever missed and it's just weirding me out." Elizabeth said impatiently. "Stop worrying about me, please."

"Elizabeth, I care about you and I'm just-"

"Offense is up." Elizabeth pushed me up from the bench. "Leave me alone."

"American Flag!" Coach Turner called over to me, holding back Reggie as he was about to jog out onto the field.

Elizabeth cursed under her breath but stood up from the bench anyways, strapping on her helmet as she jogged out to the huddle on the field.

"How's the arm feeling?" I asked her with a laugh as we all stood in a circle.

She didn't even crack a smile, just staring straight ahead.

I knew she knew the play, but was she alright enough to play?

What was going on?

The play was complicated yet simple and effective.

We prepared to take a field goal but when the ball was snapped, Elizabeth caught it in her own hands and quickly laid off a twenty yard pass to Garret.

Garret was supposed to sidestep out of bounds and give us some time but the idiot turned, nearly got flattened by guys three times his size, but managed to maneuver himself into the endzone.

Elizabeth puked as soon as she came off the field but I stayed with the rest of the team, knowing that we still had a long way to go in just a few minutes.

We got the touchdown, still riding on the high of Elizabeth's successful play.

Coach pulled us all off the field before we ran out to take the extra point, calling a timeout and calling everyone over.

"Alright we're just taking a breather. We get this extra point and the game's in the bag, they don't have enough time to make any plays." Coach Turner said seriously. "So just take a breath and let's collect ourself. "Von Batton, you good to go?"

Elizabeth nodded, giving him a thumbs up.

"Is puking during games a normal thing for you? Because if-"

"You should've seen the monstrous plate of nachos I ate for lunch today, poor judgement on my part. I promise I'm good." Elizabeth laughed, holding up her hands in defense. "Won't happen again."

Coach Turner just shook his head in amusement. "You really are one of the guys, damn." Coach Turner laughed, rubbing his hands together. "As long as you can get us another point for the books, eat whatever the hell you want."

I watched Elizabeth carefully as she jogged out to the field, looking stiffer than usual.

Kurt was standing next to me, grumbling under his breath.

"So much for me keeping my starting position." Kurt said to me, a frown on his face.

"Save it, Kurt, it's wasted on me. She's what we need to go far in the league this year, deal with it." I snapped, resting my hands on my hips. "Come on Elizabeth..." I whispered as the ball was snapped.

It sailed straight through the posts, as perfectly as if she was on her A game.

I didn't believe her that everything was okay. She usually had more pep in her step.

But I left it alone until I was pulling into her driveway and Elizabeth hadn't said a single word all evening.

"I'm walking you in." I said seriously, putting the car into park.

"You don't have to." Elizabeth sighed, wincing as she opened the car door.

"Whatever the fuck is going on with you, I don't trust you to be alone right now." I told her seriously.

"Fine." Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she got out of the car.

She was noticeably slower walking up to the front door and I nervously stood behind her, actually getting concerned for her.

There was a note on the front door and Elizabeth groaned when she saw it.

"The fuckers went back to Jersey for the weekend, apparently Tommy's sick." Elizabeth muttered, crumpling up the note. "Looks like I'm home alone..."

"Then I'm staying." I told her, my hand on her back as I reached to push open the door. "No arguing."

"Fine by me, you're like a personal heating pad at night." Elizabeth laughed, stepping into her house. "Fuck." She whispered, her hand on her stomach.

"What the fuck is going on?" I demanded, turning on the lights.

"My stomach just hurts, it's nothing." Elizabeth waved me off. "I'm going to shower."

I followed her upstairs and just waited in her room while she was in the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, I heard a whimper from the bathroom.

"Elizabeth?" I called, standing up from the bed.

"Uh, Charlie?" She called back, her voice sounding strained.

"What happened?" I frowned, pushing open the door to the bathroom.

Elizabeth was sitting on the floor, wearing just some spandex and a t-shirt, her arms wrapped around her stomach and a pale look on her face. Her hair was still wet, just hanging loose around her shoulders.

"Something is seriously wrong." Elizabeth whispered, squeezing her stomach as she leaned forwards. "Like really wrong."

"That's it, I'm taking you to the hospital." I said seriously, not even waiting for an answer before I scooped her up from the bathroom floor.

"Holy fucking shit." Elizabeth groaned, squeezing my shoulder.

"You're fine, you're gonna be fine." I reassured her, wondering what the fuck was going on.

The hospital was 35 minutes away and I spent the entire drive on edge, constantly glancing over at Elizabeth to make sure she was okay.

"Charlie." She said quietly when we were stopped at a red light.

"Yeah?" I said softly, reaching over to push her hair back from her face. I couldn't tell if it was wet from her shower or sweat because her forehead was shiny.

"Thanks." She whispered, closing her eyes as she rested her head against the window. "Like really."

"Elizabeth, come on." I laughed. "Can't you tell by now that I'm here for you? Seriously."

Elizabeth just nodded, her hand tightening into a fist on her knee.

"We're almost there." I reassured her, reaching over to grab her hand. 

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What do you think it is? Hmm?

-E xx