Never Giving Up...

Chapter 11: Borrow Mine 'Till Yours Can Open Too.

Abigail sat on her bed as she thought of every wrong thing she has done to her best friend, Caroline. 

She felt as if she was the worst friend of them all, they always been there for each other but once she had her life finally perfect it seems to always go wrong. 

She gets distracted from her thoughts when there was a sudden knock on the door. 

"Can I come in?" Austin asked

Abigail sighed, "Yeah." 

She gets up and begins to look around her room for a paticular item. 

"Hey, just wanted to check up on you and say that Caroline's parents said that you can come to the hospital right away." Austin said as he looked at his daughter, curisoty struck him when he saw her digging under her bed, "What are you looking for?" 

"Something." She said

He nodded and sat on her desk chair and spun a few times with delight. 

"Really?" She asked him once she looked at him and he chuckled to himself. 

"We never did finish our talk that we were having in the kitchen." He said trying to bring up the subject once more.

"I know." Abigail said hoping he would just drop the subject. She saw the object at the corner of the room, "There you are!" She smiled and grabbed it. 

"What is it?" Austin asked 

"It's my photo album.." She says sighing as she sat on the floor leaning her body on the side of the bed. Austin sits next to her. Her hold foster parents gave it to her when the adoption was finalized, she never told anyone that she had it but she never did open it nor has she seen it since she was five. 

"photo album of what?" He asked as she placed her hands on the album feeling the old material that held on to good memories in her life, some that were too old for her to remember at her age. 

"Of the good 3 years of my life... Want to see?" She asked him and he nodded 

~Austin's POV~ 

I looked at Abigail as she kept staring at the photo on the cover, it was a photo of a baby. 

"So is that you?" I asked pointing to the photo of the baby. 

She nodded, "When I was just born." 

"I can see the hospital blanket," I smiled, "You were a gorgeous little baby." I say kissing the top of her head, "so why did you want to bring it out now?" 

"I'll show you in a minute.." she says as she flips to the first page, it was weird to see photos of her that I was not included in, I was seeing the world that she used to live before I even met her. I was living a different life while my daughter was just beginning hers with a different family that was her blood, but family doesn't end in blood and I know that now, "These are just baby photos of me." She says as I look at the gorgeous baby girl that is in the photos. 

I look at my daughter and can't believe how much she has grown, "You can go ahead and flip to the next page." She smiles and flips to the next page. 

She sighs as she looks at the photos, she clears her throat, "This is my first birthday." She says pointing to the photo of a woman holding her as she stared at a cake while some man sat next to them smiling at them, "and thats my mother.." She says pointing to the woman, "and.. um. my dad.." pointing to the man that was smiling at them. 

"You look a lot like your mother." I say and she smiles. 

"I've been told.." She sniffles a bit

"Hey, it's okay." I say hugging her, I then realized that I didn't know anything about her past. Like what happened to her mother or why she was sent to foster care. 

She flips through more pages, photos of birthdays or days at the park, first time riding a bike, all her firsts. 

"here it is! my first best friend!" She grabs the photo of a little girl with curly hair and a little girl with straight her. 

"I know the straight hair girl but who is the one with curls?" I ask 

"Caroline.. I got this photo album out so I can get this photo... It was our first photo together. Well the first that my mother had of us together, her mother has more before this. But this one is special." 

"Why is it so special?" 

"It was when she found out she was diagnosed with cancer.. We went out to get a hair cut, I had no idea what was going on but she had no more hair after they were done getting a hair cut and my mother explained to me that she was sick and she had to wear a wig, so I asked my mother while Caroline and her mother went to the store if I could cut my hair too because I wasn't gonna let my best friend go through it alone. So they cut it all off... Caroline's mother cried when they came back from the store to see me with short hair.." 

"Wow.." I say 

"So that's why I need to show her this photo... Because I let her down by not being there for her while I was here.. I need to show her that I am sorry.." I kiss the top of her head once again. 

"You are an amazing friend and I swear that you are not letting her down.." She nods, "Now let's go see her.." 

I get up and begin to walk towards the door, "Do you think she's gonna die?" I hear her choke out like she was trying to hold herself back from sobbing. 

I sigh, "I honestly don't know." She gets up from the floor

"She's the only person I have that knows about me.. That can deal with my problems and loosing her will be like losing a part of myself.. I can't lose her Austin." 

I walk over to her and hug her, "You're not going to lose her.. She's always gonna be with you."