what came next

nineteen - taylor

"Oh my god." I sighed as Heather and I sat down. "I can't believe my mom ever told us about you."

"Well your mother and I never got along and when she turned eighteen she moved out and never spoke to me again." Heather said.

"Why?"

"Because..." Heather sighed. "God, it's not a good story. I wasn't a planned baby since our parents only wanted one kid, and she just always hated me for that. It was awful but our mom very obviously had a favorite child, and it was me. What really did it was when we found out that I was only her half-sister, because out mom had cheated on our dad with some random guy." She shook her head. "I never blamed her for it because I loved her so much, but Andrea hated me even more and she told me I'd never be her sister."

"I'm so sorry." I whispered, and she shrugged.

"The only thing that I regret is not knowing you sooner." She said. "So tell me about you. I want to know everything."

"Oh that's one hell of a story too." I laughed nervously. "Okay, well, I have a brother. His name is Austin, and he's younger than me, but we don't get on. Our dad left just before I turned ten to marry some young woman, so I never really had a relationship with him. My mom and I were really close most of my life, but at the end of high school everything went to complete shit."

I almost didn't want to tell Heather all of this, but I could already feel a bond forming between us and I wanted to know her. She was my aunt, family at last, and she seemed so incredible. Maybe she'd judge me for what I was about to tell her, but that was okay. Most people did.

"I took a summer school course to make up for my failed classes, and I ended up in a relationship with my teacher." I admitted.

"No!" Heather's eyes widened, but not in disapproval. "Oh my god, how old was he?"

"He was twenty eight." I told her. "I was nineteen. And it was just messing around, but we ended up dating before they found out and fired him. He broke it off." I sighed. "And a little while later I found out I was pregnant."

"You had a baby?" Heather whispered.

"Yes." I nodded. "I had her by myself in New York and I raised her by myself. She's just turned four, and her name is Bella." I smiled. "Then I bumped into my teacher from high school again and it took a while, but eventually we got back together. He has a son as well who's almost eleven, and we got engaged and moved back here a few days ago."

"Travis was the teacher?" Heather realized, and I nodded. "Oh my god." She leaned back in her chair. "That's one hell of a love story. So you're...twenty three, engaged, with pretty much two kids?"

"Yeah I guess so."

"Wow." She whispered. "That's so incredible. You look so happy."

"I am." I nodded.

Heather and I talked for hours, and she told me all about her as I told her all about me. She wrote for a local newspaper and did part time catering management, and she sounded incredible. I loved everything she told me about her little apartment, her two cats that kept her company, her friends. She seemed just as interested in my life as I was in hers, and we went through a few cups of coffee as we sat there. Time slipped away from us, but it was so amazing. 

We eventually had to leave because the cafe was closing, but I really didn't want our time to be over. Heather was ten years younger than my mom, which only made her thirty five now since my mom had me young. She was only twelve years older than me, so it felt more like a sister or cousin bond than an aunt. But it was the most incredible bond I'd ever felt with family. She was family.