New York Surprises (Tayvin - AU)

Part 1/ Background

TAYLOR POV

Every summer, since I was 10 years old, I had attended Camp Pinerock in Maine for 6 weeks. And every summer I would see my best friend Adam there. We had met on my first day of camp in my first year; I was sitting alone and he came over to talk to me since he had been coming to camp for 3 years already and knew the ropes. He was a couple of years older than me so we didn't get to do any of the compulsory activities together, but when we had choice activity time we would make sure we did the same things and all our free time was spent together. It was always just a summer friendship with no contact during the year, since I would go back home to Nashville after camp and Adam lived all the way in Scotland, but it was always the best part of camp.

In Adam's last year at camp, something changed. I don't know whether we were just growing up or something, I don't know if it had always been there. Our usual summer friendship became less friendship-y and more relationship-y. Within the first week of camp we had snuck off twice and would never be far from each other. By the last night of camp, we had spent multiple nights staring at the stars together from the camp dock, and had snuck into the boat house multiple times. That's where it happened. That's where I slept with Adam.... It is weird to even think about the fact my first time was with my best friend, the boy I would think of all the time but never see, at 16 in our summer camp's boathouse.

The next day we had to go our separate ways, promising to keep in touch. I felt immediately lost. I had his contact details, but that didn't feel like enough to me. I tried to push it out of my mind as much as possible, thinking naively that he would call me or something. The call never came.

It took me about 3 months to realise what I had gotten myself into. It was when I couldn't fit into some of my clothes anymore and had been nauseous for a few weeks, basically non-stop, that my best friend Abi asked me if there was any chance whatsoever that I might be pregnant.

That's when my life changed. I was 16, almost 17, and pregnant. They make TV shows about people like me. My parents were extremely disappointed but luckily very supportive. They encouraged me to call Adam, but that didn't go well. I knew he had had family problems and had spoken many times about wanting to get away from home, but when I called I was told in no uncertain terms that his name would never be said in that house again and no they didn't have his contact details or those of any of his friends. I couldn't get in touch with him. So I was alone....and pregnant.

The second shock came when the doctor told me that I was pregnant with fraternal twins, one boy and one girl. How was I going to cope with two babies? One was scary enough, but two? My friends and family were my rocks throughout the whole pregnancy, but I wanted Adam there more than anything. The worst part to me were the looks I got at school and when we went out. I was determined to finish school, but was only in my junior year. I begged my mom to let me be home-schooled from March break onwards, and luckily my parents agreed to it. I had always done quite well at school and actually got through the work faster being home-schooled. My tutor told me I could probably graduate at the same time as my class, or even before really, despite having twins to look after.

I gave birth to the twins on the 15th of May, and they were like a little troublemaking tag team from day one, but their little faces made everything worthwhile. I named them James Richard Swift and Eliana Addie Swift. I wanted them both to have a part of their father, despite there being an extremely small likelihood of them ever meeting. Richard is Adam's middle name and Addie sounds like a female version of Adam, so they will always have more than just his DNA. I just called them Jay and Lia. They were the little lights of my life.

By the time they were 14 months old we had moved out of my parents' house and moved into our own apartment. I started studying music journalism, while looking after the twins and working at a local café. I had always been passionate about music, but also loved writing and talking to people, so decided to go with my gut and combine the two.