Hey, you

Chapter 32 - The months gone by

The summer air was now almost absent as Los Angeles advanced back into the winter months. Ellie's baby-bump was well and truly out there for all to see. Even the so-called simple things in life were beginning to become more effort than they were worth. These days, Ellie's routine consisted of sitting on the sofa, scrolling through social media whilst she ignored the TV in the background. Occasionally, she would have the courage to get off the sofa and have a little waddle around the apartment, usually to get snacks, before going back to her former place in front of the TV. Everything was so tiring. The thought of filming a scene where she would be jumping off the top of buildings, whilst firing a shotgun, was all but a distant memory to Ellie now. In fact, her whole career seemed a distant memory.

It had felt so long since she'd last been in front of the camera, doing what she loved. Still, she wasn't missing the 'celebrity' side of life. As she hardly left the apartment these days, there wasn't too much jostling through crowds of paparazzi to avoid having her picture taken. She was enjoying her privacy, her time away from the limelight. And yet, even though she seemed much happier than she had done before, there was still a large part of her life missing.

Will hadn't been in touch in over three months. In fact, the last time Ellie had spoken to him, she was telling him that she needed time away from him. A decision she now regretted deeply after allowing herself to be manipulated by someone who she thought was her friend.

Ellie was just settling into her third hot cocoa that afternoon when she heard the door to the apartment being unlocked followed by the sound of giggling coming from the other side.

'Hey!' said Luke as he waltzed into the apartment - with a spring in his step, followed by a beautiful girl with long brunette hair and large brown eyes.

'Hi...' said Ellie, who felt like she was looking in a mirror. The girl was almost a spitting image of her. 'Who's your friend?' Ellie asked politely, now relaxing back into the sofa having given up attempting to reach the mug of cocoa that was surely getting cold by now.

'Ellie, this is Mia, Mia this is...'

'Ellie Greene... oh my God, you are my idol! I loved you when you were on Awakening!' gasped Mia, a little star-struck but also confused by seeing the famous Ellie Greene, but with a rather large baby-bump.

'Yeah, that's me... the ex-star of a successful TV show, now here, waiting to be a single Mom in the city...' Ellie joked whilst Mia laughed nervously. 'Your not a reporter are you?'

'No, I work in catering, why?'

'Huh...' sighed Ellie, instantly spotting the coincidence, 'well it's a shame you're not because here's the shot of your exclusive...' she joked, reaching out for the mug of cocoa once more.

'Here, let me help you with that,' said Luke, racing over to the coffee table to Ellie's aid.

'You don't want to know how long it's taken me to get that...' said Ellie finally relaxing and with a cream moustache above her lip, whilst trying to avoid either of her pigtails from dipping into her mug.

'Thank you,' said Ellie, letting out a deep breath.

'I've been such a fan of Luke for so long, ever since I saw his first movie I've wanted to meet him...' Mia continued, 'and now we're together! I couldn't have imagined that in my wildest dreams when I came to L.A. looking for him!'

'Yeah, that seems to happen a lot around here...' Ellie responded before taking another sip out of her mug.

'So, Luke?' Mia looked extremely confused by the situation that she'd found herself in. 'What's going on here, if you don't mind?'

'Oh, yeah ha!' Luke looked a little hot under the collar when he realised that he hadn't informed his new girlfriend that he was living with his pregnant ex co-star.

'I moved in with Ellie a couple of months ago, you know, to help her out with the pregnancy stuff - it mainly consists of passing her food and helping her on and off the sofa, but it's cool - we have fun... even the sofa is beginning to feel like a cosy bed!'

'Okay, makes sense... I gotta ask though, are you the...?'

'Oh God no!' gasped Luke knowing exactly what Mia was about to ask, 'no, he's...' Luke glanced at Ellie who was trying to lick off her cream moustache. 'Well, he's not around at the moment.'

'That's putting it lightly,' Ellie groaned. 'He disappeared from off the face of the Earth if you ask me!'

It was something that on the face of it, Ellie felt was easier to joke about. But the truth of the matter was that she felt hurt by Will's disappearance. She just wanted to see him, to know that he was okay.

'That may not necessarily be the case,' Luke said slowly pulling out an envelope from under his jacket.

'What do you mean?' insisted Ellie, continuing to lick away at her cream moustache that appeared to regenerate every time she took a fresh sip of cocoa.

'It was taped to the door of your old trailer... well my new trailer...' boasted Luke.

The envelope had the name 'El' written on the front. Ellie instantly recognised the handwriting to be Will's. She ripped open the seal quicker than she had any of the chocolate bars that day. Inside she found a note that read;

'Hey, you. This feels like old times, talking to you through the most traditional way of communication. Word has it that the cops are still on the lookout for me. I've been motel hopping for the past few months so I've not seen much news. I thought they might be watching me again, so rather than calling you I got my trusty friend Joe to drop off a letter outside your trailer. He has his uses after all...

I know you said you needed time, but I'd love to see you - if you'd like? I think we both know where the best place for us to meet is. I'll be there tonight, around 8:30. I thought that it's probably best that we meet at night? There's less chance of us being seen. I'll wait around for you. I really can't wait to see you again... hopefully see you soon, El... I love you x'

'Is it from him?' asked Luke whilst he sat on the arm of the sofa, joined by Mia who leaned closer to him.

Ellie slowly nodded, 'Yeah, it's from him...'

'So what are you gonna do?'

'I have no idea, I mean, I don't hear from him for weeks and now he thinks he can just turn up out of the blue? Especially as I feel like I'm almost ready to pop!'

Ellie threw the letter from Will onto the coffee table in frustration. She'd been praying he'd show up, showing her that he was okay, but yet somehow now she knew he was, it frustrated her.

'He's stupid for coming back here anyway,' she snapped folding her arms and resting them on the top of her bump.

Luke slowly moved to sit on the coffee table opposite Ellie. He knew to proceed with caution, but it turned out that Luke's opinion was one of the only ones Ellie really valued these days.

'I've seen the way you've been this past couple of months, checking your phone every five minutes to see if he'd called. It's been driving you crazy, the not knowing. Now he's in L.A., are you really not going to go and see him? Maybe he has a plan? A way out? Maybe you can get away from here for good? That's what you wanted, right?'

Ellie did not speak. She was just in deep thought. As normal, Luke was probably right. But she couldn't help feeling a little furious at Will for allowing her to come this far through her pregnancy on her own, and to have to rely on the help of her best friend to get by.

She pulled out the locket from the pocket of her navy sweatpants and opened it to look at the picture of her and Will, thinking of how she'd missed him so much over the months that had gone by, whilst still being none the wiser on what she was going to do...