Perfect Chemistry

Chapter 9 ( R-Rated )

*** Gabriela's POV ***

The sunlight hits my face through the window, and caused me to wake up with watery eyes. I reached my hand to touch Cash who was supposed to be next to me, but what I grabbed instead was the sheet. He was gone. I started to think that maybe it was all a dream; we didn't spend the night together. Anyway, I jumped out of the bed to go take a cold shower. The water was going down over my whole body, taking away all the weaknesses that were inside of me, and suddenly an image popped in my head. It was the face of Mrs. Coleman. Unintentionally, what I grabbed was the pendant necklace that my mother grabbed me. It was always on me except that time I thought that I lost it, but thanks to Cash I had it back. I always touched it in any situation where I felt like I missed my mother. Here I did it again. And, this time I didn't miss my mother. It's because Mrs. Coleman reminded me of her. I started to get different pictures coming through my head. I ended up to find out that Mrs. Coleman looked exactly like my mother. Tears were filling up my eyes. I've never felt that panicked. What if that lady was my mother? I ran out of the shower, put some clothes and ran downstairs. Sasha was about to go out of that same exact time, so I profited to take a ride from her. She dropped me in front of the school and promised to come pick me up once she's done with her nails.

I took a deep breath and made my way to that lady's office. I knocked. She called out for me to come in. Even her voice sounded familiar. Maybe, if she was not my mother, it was official that I was starting to lose my damn mind. She smiled as soon as she saw that it was me. Check. I tried to smile back.

-" Do you have everything that I asked you to bring me?" Mrs. Coleman asked. I nodded and handed the papers to her. She took a look at them carefully.

-" I want that job, but what I really want is to know more about you. Who are-you? Why you're reminding me of someone whom I'm missing deeply?" I asked, fighting with the tears.

-" Who are-you missing? Your mother?" The lady asked. I nodded. How did-she knows that I was referring to my mom.

-" Yes. How you know? Was-it a guess or are-you her?" Crazy or not, inappropriate or not, I had to ask her.

-" No. It was not a guess and I'm not your mother. But, I do know who your mother was. At that exact moment I laid my eyes on you, I saw her into you and I recognized that last name." She confessed.

-" How you knew my mother? Why you look so much like her?" I asked.

-" I'm Raquel Coleman. Your mother's twin sister. I'm your aunt. I've heard a lot about you." My mouth dropped. That lady was my auntie. Increíble !!

-" What? I don't remember having ever heard one word about you." I honestly said.

-" I know. Your mother and I weren't the best friends' type of twins. She was the hotty and me the notty. We didn't have much in common. She got pregnant of you right before we graduated high school, senior year. Meanwhile she was going though some hard time, I took a flight to New York and never looked back to home. The only one that I used to spoke with, but still rarely was your grandmother." I remember my grandma always crying that her children were all everywhere that was far from her. I thought it was because mommy never accepted to have us moving there with her. I was naive.

-" Why you never visited us? Where's grandma? My dad told me she was in a better place. Is-she dead? Do you have any other siblings?" I asked plenty of questions. It's silly that my mother never shared nothing about her family with me. She was said that we were each other's family; just the two of us.

-" There's plenty of us from my dad's side, I don't talk to them often too; maybe twice a year. The only one that I'm close to is your uncle; my parents first child, Reggie. After my dad's death, his whole family turned their back to my mom and the three of us because she was the home wrecker, and us the kids outside of his marriage. My mother had to do two jobs and stopped to watch after us. At a time, she didn't care about us. All she did was paying bills, and put food in the refrigerator. Reggie was four years older and considered to be the babysitter. After he graduated high school, he left us to go to the army. He would barely come home and after a while, he forgot about us all. It was just your mom and I. She was too popular to stay home with her nerd sister. I would see her coming through the bedroom's door in the morning when my mom had the night off. A couple of weeks before graduation, a pregnant Latina girl came to our house to fight her. That's when I found out that she was actually pregnant for that girl's boyfriend. Ruth could no longer hide her belly that was already showing. Your father's family kicked my mom out of there home because they didn't want their son to marry a black female. They preferred the white girl. They even said that you were some other guy's kid. He married that Latina girl. His family actually forced him too. I would see him coming to the house at night, crying to your mother. One night, my mom saw Ruth sharing a kiss with him and kicked her out of the house. In the next day, I left Atlanta for New York. I heard from my mother about your premature birth. I didn't congratulate Ruth. I sincerely thought she deserved everything that happened to her for all the times she humiliated me when I tried to tell her what was wrong with her lifestyle. Ruth exclaimed that nobody deserved to be around her daughter. Looking at you now, I can see that she was right. You looked nothing like a mixed child. You looked everything like a Mexican kid. Maybe, they shut their mouth after seeing you. Maybe, it was too late." Raquel told me her side of the story, which made me realize why my mother didn't want to be around her family. They didn't support her. They weren't supportive at all.