Second Chances {ACM}

Chapter 45

Emily's POV

I decided to give myself a Mani Pedi. I sat on the lounge chair in the corner of the bedroom and did my nails before kicking my slippers off. I grabbed the nail polish and went to bend down, but stopped.

I must be an idiot with short term memory loss that kept forgetting their stomach was a barricade for anything waist down. So, I set the bottle down.

The nail polish was mocking me. All gold and sparkly, just waiting to be used. After a few minutes of glaring at the bottle, I grinned evilly.

"Austin!" I yelled.

I heard footsteps on the stairs. "What?" He asked, poking his head in the room.

"Wanna be a peach and paint my toenails for me?" I asked sweetly.

He stared at me for a second before ducking back out of the room. "Austin." I warned.

He appeared in the doorway again. "Do I have to?" He whined. "It's a girl thing. Plus, I just shaved your legs for you!"

"Aww, come on, we've been best friends for how long? It's just painting my toes. I already painted my nails. It won't take long!" I promised. "Please? I can't reach."

He sighed, coming into the room. "Fine."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed.

"Uh huh." He mumbled, grabbing the nail polish before sitting on the ground in front of me. "I don't see why you can't get Taylor to do it. Or why you didn't get her to shave your legs for you instead of getting me to do it."

"She lives on the other side of Miami, Austin, I wouldn't tell her to come all the way down here to paint my toes and shave my legs."

"You wanted her to come over when you thought there was a serial killer in the basement." He pointed out, shaking the bottle.

"That's comparing death to beauty necessities. Take your pick." I snapped, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Now, I have no experience with painting nails, even when Bella was little," Austin warned. Bella was his sixteen year old cousin, but she lived in Colorado, so they rarely saw each other, even though they were really close. I'd seen her a few times. She was also his only girl cousin.

"That's okay." I said. I put my feet on his lap, wiggling my toes. "Make them beautiful!"

"I'll try my best, Ems." Austin told me as he got to work.

My phone rang, so I grabbed it. The caller ID was Unknown. I shuddered, remembering my nightmare.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Emily Smith?" Came a lady's voice on the other line.

"That's me." I replied.

"Oh, perfect, I was hoping I had the right number! This is Elle Meadows calling from the Make It Right foundation. How are you?"

"Oh, hi! I'm hanging in there, how about you?"

She chuckled. "I'll bet. And I'm good, thanks. I was calling to make sure you were still willing to do the video shoot for the campaign?"

"Oh yes, absolutely!" I told her.

"Quit moving your feet, Emily, I'm on a roll!" Austin exclaimed happily from the ground. "And I don't want you to ruin it now!"

"Austin, I'm on the phone." I glared before putting the phone back to my ear. "Sorry about that."

"No worries, dear. So, as agreed, we will start shooting after your baby is born, there's no rush to get it done. As soon as you're ready to go, give me a call and we'll set shooting days up." Elle explained.

"Sounds good. Thanks so much, Elle, I'll have that song ready!"

She laughed. "Alright, perfect. Talk to you soon, Emily."

"Bye." I said before hanging up.

"Who was that?" Austin asked.

"Elle Meadows from MIR." I said.

"About your shoot?"

"Yep, just checking if I can still do it." I replied.

"Oh, okay." We made small talk for a bit before he closed the bottle and set it down on the ground. "Finished."

"I'll be the judge of that." I told him. He shrugged and grabbed my foot, holding it up so I could see. A few toes had nail polish on them, but other than that, it was actually pretty good.

"Wow, I'm impressed." I said. "You did good. See? That wasn't so bad."

"Thank god I'm done." he said. "But thanks!"

"Done? You're not done. You still need to do another coat!" I exclaimed. "And when you're done with that, you need to remove the polish you got on my toes with nail polish remover."

"Noooo!" He complained. "Get Pancakes to do it."

"Seriously, Austin? Pancakes? No, it's one more coat, you'll survive." I said firmly.

"You so owe me big time for this." He glared as he opened the bottle again.

After he finished and walked out of the bedroom grumbling about why girls were so "girlish," I waited until my nails dried. When they did, I slipped my slippers back on.

Part of me was wishing this baby would just pop out now. Then I could go back to being a normal teenager.

Even though I knew my life would never be the same again.