She would persevere

Chapter 4

We've come to far,
To give up who we are
So let's raise the bar
And our cups to the stars

It was Sunday morning when we came back home. Aubrey had driven a large portion of the way and I took over after dinner. Aubrey is the best person I have ever come across and I was so lucky to call her my friend.

It took me hours to sort of accept the fact that after 3 years I had seen my father again. And that I hadn't heard his voice for 6 years. He had not seen me in 8 years. But the fact that he had not recognized me. His own daughter. I didn't know how to deal with that, so the only thing I could do was cry whilst eating a bucket of ice cream that Aubrey got on the way. Aubrey had also told the other girls in the car that I needed a moment to myself and that they shouldn't worry. 3 hours later the crying had finally stopped.

I was able to calm down and make a mental note to talk to my therapist about it.

Yes, I have a therapist. Thanks to Aunt Bec. She was the one who helped me with it. She was the one that convinced me to go.

I don't think I would still be alive if it wasn't for aunt Bec.

One day I got sick, years ago wasn't because of a simple fever. My body was shutting down. My mother had made me forcefully addicted to drugs and the supplements I had stolen from Jason had run out.

Aunt Bec knew someone who was able to get me supplements that would normally be given to children that were born from drug addicts and with that I was able to get clean.

At 14 years old, I was finally clean from drugs. Aunt Bec and Aubrey were there for me every step of the way.

We were now getting the table ready for Dinner. Aunt Bec had made Ratatouille. The Sinclair's were French from origin. Aunt Bec had moved to America together with Aubrey's father, who had died years ago in a car accident. She had been thinking of moving back when Aubrey was done with high school, but didn't know for sure yet.

Sitting at the dining table, Aunt Bec was asking questions about the weekend, how the game was and what we did before and after, to which Aubrey told her all the glorious fun we had.

"North, do you wanna tell her, or do you want me to do it?" Aubrey asked me.

"Tell me what? Did something happen?" Aunt Bec asked, concern written all over her face.

"I need to tell her Riri."

"Before you start, young lady, if you are going to tell me you did the down and dirty without protection, you better start running." Aunt Bec said sternly.

As a joke I made a fake move as if to get up. With that Aubrey started to laugh uncontrollably and Aunt Bec's shocked face was hilarious.

"No, nothing like that happened. I didn't get into any trouble. The opposing school we were playing against was a school from Los angeles. And... one of the players... uhm... Aquila was one of the players." I started to choke up.

"He didn't recognize me, like, at all. And the next day... the next.." I couldn't say the words. Actually getting the words out would make what happened realistically real and I didn't know if I could handle the reality of what happened. Yes, it happened. Yes i cried, but to utter the words, would make it true, it would no longer only have happened in my mind, my memories. It would be real to the point that it was a past event that had happened. Aubrey saw me choke up and asked if I wanted her to tell her mother. I simply looked down at my wringing hands and nodded. Giving her the okay.