The Three Of Us

Chapter Twenty-Six

                                                                                           Asher

  Throughout my short life of seventeen years, so far I’ve gotten used to change. It’s probably because of all the moving of cities I’ve been doing. Moving to a new home had always been exciting since I’d be able to meet new people and find out new things. However, every time I began leaving a place I had gotten used to, I find a little pain inside of my heart. Leaving all the people I had learned to love is quite an agonizing feeling that I don’t think I’ll ever become used to.

  However, sometimes change can be good. It can result in amazing, unexpected things.

  Avery went to all get us coffee and then we all sat by Janet. Kendra, Avery’s coworker, was giving us odd looks but didn’t seem to want to interrupt whatever she thought was going on with us right now. I ignored her and looked at Avery’s mother and then back at Avery.

  Out of all the people I have come to know of in my life, I never thought I’d be related to him. Avery Morrison, the fourteen year old that I had come to be friends with over the past few weeks was now a relative of mine. Shocker.

  And somehow Janet knew who Ronnie was. Not exactly just who she was, but her whole first and middle name as well. It was quite odd and I was eager to find out what this whole deal was exactly.

  “Alright,” Ronnie said, starting the conversation we were all waiting to happen. She looked into Janet’s eyes. “Janet… who are you exactly?”

  She took a sip of her coffee and them a puff of smoke from her cigarette. I did not want to know what coffee and tobacco tasted like together. “I’m Avery’s mother.”

   “Why’d you give me up?” Avery wondered.

  Janet sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I had you when I was only eighteen years old, Avery,” She explained. “Taking care of you was all I ever thought about, so all of my plans for college and university went down the drain. I had been planning to become a business woman, but I couldn’t take the courses with you being all alone.” She shook her head sadly. “If your father had stayed around to help me take care of you, I would have possibly been able to fulfill my dreams and I would have kept you. But no, once he found out that you were on your way, he ran away.”

  She took her straw and twirled it around in her coffee a little bit before continuing with her story. “He had been like this the first time he found out that I was pregnant. Scared and threatening to run away, but once he saw his children, he stayed.”

  I held up my index finger and narrowed my eyes. “Hold up… what do mean the first time you were pregnant?”

 Janet smiled at me. “I made the mistake of getting pregnant at the young age of fifteen years old. My father was furious with me and kicked me out of the house, but my mother became furious with him. She left him and came to join me. We lived in a little motel while I was pregnant since it was all we could find and afford.” The smile on her face faded away. “When I went to tell my boyfriend that we were both going to be parents, he had seemed terrified. I couldn’t blame him… he was supposed to be going big places, but it was my fault that he was going to be stuck here. As I was saying before, he threatened to leave me, and to be honest, he actually did…” She took another sip of coffee. “It was only when I gave birth and invited him to come see his kid that we got back together. He hadn’t been there to see me give birth, but once he arrived he was allowed to hold his son. It seemed as if all the scared feelings he had had were gone.”