N.E Heartbreak

Chapter 40

This chapter is dedicated to @candired9 who was one of the first people to comment on the story and to tell me how unique the story was. She was one of the first to put a smile on my face for this story. Plus she's from New Orleans!! Gotta show love for my NOLA fam! Thank you.

Chapter 40
Kim 

2016

"So what's so big that you had to talk to us separate?" I ask my mom and aunts as Lucy, JJ, and I sit at Aunt Steph's house in her personal living room after eating lunch. They sent our uncles and dads away from the house along with our brothers and cousins.

"What we're about to tell you is something that will not only help you portray us in the movie but is extremely important to our and your lives." Auntie Jacque says.

We wait for them to continue. When they do, we stare at them as if they were crazy. I start laughing at the same time that Lucy and JJ do. "That was funny." Lucy says in between forced giggles.

"We're serious. We can show you our birth certificates from 1999." Mom says and we stop laughing.

"So what?" JJ jumps up. "So what about Lynn, Annie, and Andra? Who are they? Are they you?"

"No. They are themselves. I know it's hard to wrap your head around at first, but it gets easier. When we were put in 1985 they were put in our places in 2017. When we decided to stay, they were born in our places in '98 and '99." Auntie Jacque answers.

"Do they know who they are— were?" I ask.

Mom nods. "They remember. God gave them that. He wanted them to remember what He gave them and what they could've had. But they've grown up in the early 2000s. It's hard to act like you don't know, that you aren't any different from the rest when you've lived through the time."

"Fuck," JJ curses.

"Watch your mouth." Auntie Steph snaps. JJ ignores her.

"That's why y'all favor them," Lucy continues. "They're you and you're them. You have an understanding with them that we'll never have with you."

"It's not like that," Auntie Jacque shakes her head. "They need someone to guide them through this. It's still new to them. They remember a lot of their childhood in the '80s but it gets mixed in with the '00s. It's harder for them."

We roll our eyes. "Does Daddy and Uncles know? Our cousins?" I ask.

"Your dads and uncles yes. I'm sure they're telling the boys." Mom answers.

"So what now?" Lucy asks. "We act as if we don't know this?"

"You use it for the movie. We...we had to tell Abdul about this in order for him to get an idea of how our lives went. He's under a contract that keeps him from talking about it to anyone. We had to approve the script before Chris ever saw it to make sure it didn't contain anything about us. It's why we have a more hands-on approach than NE." Auntie Jacque says.

"The way Abdul has written the script keeps our secret. But there are times when we act...strange. Those are the times when our secret affected us a lot. We would jump through time. We would skip hours, days, months, years one time. But things would still be going on. We would respond and everything. But we couldn't remember those times," Auntie Steph sighs. "Except for when I felt things."

"So we use this secret to portray you as accurately as we can?" I ask for confirmation.

They nod. "It's why we didn't want Andra, Lynn, and Annie playing us. It would have felt too real to them. Sure, it would have let them live out the life they should have the first time, but it would have been like stabbing them in the heart because it's not real enough." Mom sighs.