The Truth

5

"You look so good." Sharon coos.

"Oh, thanks I guess." She sighs. 

"Shall we go?" Lori inquires.

"Um, yeah let me just get my purse and put my shoes on." She nods. 

"Do I get the height from Ms. Nicks or was my biological father short too?" Kinsley blurts.

"Baby your dad's five-ten...it's definitely from your mom." Lori smiles. 

"I think she actually has those boots." Sharon points out.

"Probably not...I got them at Payless." She states.

"Well something similar." Sharon shrugs.

"Your lunch is on me." Lori states.

"Oh no I..." Kinsley starts.

"No, I don't want to hear it, I'm paying for your lunch. Sharon, you're shit outta luck." Lori states.

"Of course I am...let's go I'm starving." Sharon pushes them out of the room. 

***

When they get down to the restaurant they're given a table and menus and Kinsley  just scans it. It's expensive. When you add everything together it's expensive and she didn't want Lori to pay that much money so she just looks at the menu and bites her lip. 

"I think I'm just going to get garlic fries." She sighs.

"What kind of lunch is that." Sharon asks.

"It's a little bit expensive and I don't want to put Lori out in anyway." She shakes her head.

"Oh shut up...I make so much money it's stupid. And besides Chris has his own Graphic Design Studio...Jessica, and I are set for life." Lori explains. 

"Jessica?" 

"My daughter...she was born in 1991, She'll be 21." Lori explains. 

"Oh" She looks down sheepishly. 

"Alright, what's the matter?" Sharon falls back into the chair.

"What?" Kinsley inquires.

"You're just like your mom. I can read her like a book and I can read you like a book. Something's going on." Sharon expresses.

"I don't know, I just...I have mixed feelings. Part of me wants to meet her and find out about my life you know, but the other part of me is saying to run as far as I can, as fast as I can." Kinsley shrugs.

"She said last night after the show, that you guys hadn't come." Sharon looks at her.

"What do you mean?" She asks.

"We were in the elevator going up to the top floor and she said, 'those girls didn't come.' I proceeded to ask what girls and she kind of softened a little bit and said, 'Kinsley and Kitty.' She's not usually one to remember names, but your names are kind of unique." Sharon explains. 

"Well Kitty is actually Katherine, but I get what you mean." Kinsley nods.

"So what made you decide to try and track her down?" Lori inquires.

"My adoptive father is an abusive ass hole. When my adoptive mother finally put him in jail for life, she hooked up with a meth head. They divorced when I was ten, he was sentenced when I was eleven. She started dating the meth head when I was twelve. I came home from school and she was in the middle of a withdrawal and I asked her if she was okay and she just went off on me how she should've never adopted me and I was a worthless sack of shit...I didn't take it personally because I knew she was withdrawing, but I did ask my grandmother if I was adopted. She told me yes, and that was it. When I was sixteen she overdosed and I moved in with my grandmother. She died about fourteen months later and I was given a shit ton of money in her will and her trailer. I'm twenty-five and there's so much that I don't know. I don't want her money, I won't even be apart of her life if she doesn't want me to, I just want answers." 

"What kind of answers?" Lori asks.

"I had a genetic history done when I was sixteen...whose responsible for the heart problems on both sides of my family, what are the heart problems on both sides of my family...did I inherit any of them? Is there drug dependency...Kitty told me that yes there definitely was drug dependency when I told her who my birth mother was...she's a much bigger fan of Stevie Nicks than I am.  I wanted to know who I got my height from, I get it from my mom, who I got my hair from, my eyes, why I like the moon so much, why am I so good at English. Why did she give me up, whose my dad, do I have any extended family left...what was she like when she was my age...did she love my dad or was it a one night stand, why couldn't she abort me...what was so different about me that she couldn't terminate me...why am I drawn to water, why am I such a good swimmer. Why did out of the blue I decide I wanted to be a RN." 

"You're a nurse?" Sharon cuts her off.

"I am...a registered nurse...I was working at the prison that my dad was housed in, but I quit...he had gotten into a fight in the yard and when I treated him he hit on me so I got the heebie jeebies and I walked out that very afternoon...That's another thing...why am I such an empath?" 

"Well. I can tell you that Stevie and my husband both have a prolapsed heart valve. They got it from their mother. Barbara was her name, she died in December. She was in her 80s. Jess, their father died in 2005. I know your father's side of the family has a history of heart attacks. Both of his parents are dead. His middle brother is too. His older one's still alive though. As for extended family all you really have is me, Jessica, and Chris." Lori explains.

"I have a prolapsed heart valve too." She looks down at her Pepsi. 

"See you're turning more into your mom as we speak...now you're not just getting fries for lunch, so pick something." Lori instructs.