A Missed Opportunity

5

✧𝙽𝚘𝚊𝚑✧

My little sister cut contact with me for four years. Four years I went without speaking to the little girl I shared my childhood with. I spent half of it caring for her when my parents chose not to, which was a lot more often than it should have been.

I did what I could for her growing up, but once I turned seventeen, it all went downhill. At first, I grew absent minded, too busy with my new high school friends to really acknowledge the little girl who always wanted to be right beside me. By the time I was nineteen and being offered more and more drinks, she had already pulled away. And before I knew it, she was twenty and getting her heart broken for the final time by the one family member she could always turn to when she needed something—Anything.

When she first stopped answering my calls, I figured it'd blow over and I'd just give her time. But then the days started to turn to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months blended together until hardly anything changed about my drinking habits between a normal Monday morning and New Year's night.

It wasn't until I nearly drank myself to death that I realized I should probably try to fix what I destroyed. Then proceeded to stomp on. And burn.

Needless to say, it wasn't something I thought could be fixed. But somehow, she found it in her to forgive me for blowing her off when she really needed me and pretty much making it so all of her friends abandoned her because they decided she was terrible by association.

I'm still working to fully gain her trust. Something tells me that if all of her newer friends were women, she would've never introduced them to me. And even though they're guys, she still warned me not to sleep with any of them.

Which isn't a problem, because they're all idiots and...you know. Dudes.

It's been another four years since she chose to give me another chance, and she just introduced me to one of her newer friends who is a woman. And I assured her when she started telling me about this friend she met that I would see her as nothing more than my little sister's boring friend. She was a little hesitant to accept that, but ultimately did decide she was okay with it.

It really was my intention to see her as nothing but a boring friend—I'm serious. But that was before I learned that she's the mother of my seven year old son that I, apparently, have.

It's not like it's on purpose though. It's a terrible show of all of my karma that I built up over the years. My poor sister just got caught up in the crossfire. And she's going to be pissed.

Before I bite the bullet and tell her though, there are a few things I need to figure out. And, unfortunately for me, they're the most uncomfortable things that need to be figured out. It's a conversation I don't know if I'm ready to have, but one that needs to be had anyway.

She doesn't want to talk about this either. That's apparent with the way her shoulders sort of deflate a bit when she makes it to our table and realizes I'm here. I guess she was hoping I'd just skip out on this. Even still, she doesn't comment and takes a timid seat in the seat across from me.

I don't know what to say at first, so all I can muster up is a quiet "Hey." before I go quiet.

"Hey." Kiara returns. She takes a deep breath and looks down at the coffee shop table. "I was hoping you'd...I don't know. Ditch me or something." She admits awkwardly.

I can't help my little chuckle. She smiles weakly. "Yeah," I acknowledge. "I'll be honest, I thought about it." I offer with a short nod. She nods back at me as if she gets why. "But I couldn't do that. Not while I know you guys are just...out there." I shake my head.