A Broken Life

Chapter 19

"I'm-I'm Josh. I'm, uh, I'm your brother."

"My what?" My head starts hurting again, and Jackson scoffs at what the guy says. "I'm sorry I don't have a brother, you must have the wrong person." I go to close the door, but what he says stops me in my tracks.

"My parents are Jonathan and Christine Cosman, and my birthday is May 24, 1999 and I am your brother."

"May 24? That mean you wouldn't just be her brother, you'd be-"

"You'd be my twin." I state, staring blankly at the floor. I look at him, and he has my dad's brown hair, and my mom's chocolate brown eyes. He literally looks like me but in male form. "How?"

"Well, our parents put me up for adoption once we were born. They told me they couldn't take care of two children or something, and they thought it'd be easier to take care of a baby girl than a boy. I don't know, they tried explaining it to me two years ago but-"

"Wait, two years ago?"

"Yeah, on my- our birthday, they came and adopted me."

Jackson buds in now, "And when they explained how they chose your twin over you, you never once thought about how your twin wasn't with them?"

"Yeah, no I realized that. I asked and well, they uh," He rubs the back of his neck, "they said you died."

I'm speechless. I'm so utterly confused, and hurt I can't even speak. I lean back into Jackson, and he keeps me steady.

"I know, it's late and I'm sorry, I was going to stay at a hotel and come back tomorrow or something, but uh, my car oh-so-conveniently broke down out front." He makes this awkward expression on his face, like I do whenever something doesn't happen the way I intended.

I find my voice, "Yeah no it's, uh it's fine. If you have your stuff, you can stay in the guest room. My aunt's gone, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind." He thanks me and goes to grab his stuff from his car. I turn to Jackson to see him ready to argue with me about Josh staying here.

"Can you stay with me?" I blurt out before he can say anything, and he pauses.

He holds my hands facing me, and smiles, "Of course."

I smooth out the black and white sheets, "Well here you go. Um, I you get hungry," I point out towards the kitchen, "food."

He smiles at this, "Ok, thank you."

I smile politely, "No problem. Uh, I'll make breakfast tomorrow, there's a shower next door, and maybe tomorrow we can talk about, stuff..." I stand there awkwardly not sure how to handle the situation. He probably thinks I'm such a freak.

He smiles, "Yeah, of course." I nod my head and walk towards the door, "Oh, and Giselle."

I turn to face him. He runs his hand through his light brown hair, "Congrats." He motions his head to refer to my large stomach.

I smile a small smile placing my hand on my stomach, "Thanks." With that I close his door and head to my room. Jackson sits on the bed, leaning against the headboard.

"So this Josh guy. You really trust him?" He hugs me as I join him under my black sheets.

I sigh and he rubs my arm soothingly, "I think knowing my parents, and the same birthday, and the very similar looks can't be a coincidence. And I think that tomorrow I'll talk to him more to get answers, but yeah, I think I believe him." Jackson nods understandingly and we lay down. He switches the lamp on my nightstand off, and hugs me from behind gently resting his hand on my stomach.

My eyes start to droop, and Jackson whispers barely audible, "I love you."

I smile and close my eyes, "I love you to Jackson."