A Mom in Middle School

Meeting Opal

I tapped my foot nervously on the wood floor of the coffee shop. Any minute. She'd be here any minute. I took a deep breath and rubbed my belly, feeling the rolls and kicks of my little boy. I kept staring at that front door. I hadn't seen her since my graduation. I couldn't. It was too painful for me. It was better this way.

    An SUV pulled up to the front of the shop. My heart started to race. The driver was Ella-Mae. A red-headed teenager came out of the passenger's seat. It was her. This was my Opal. She came in the door and started looking around. We locked eyes and she slowly approached me.

    I closed my laptop and stood up. I don't know why I even brought that thing with me. I'd been there for twenty minutes and couldn't type a single word because I was so distracted.

    "Opal?" I asked. She smiled. I took a shaky breath. "It's so nice to finally see you again. I'd love to give you a hug, but it's okay if you don't want one."

    "No, it's okay," she said.

    I froze. She had my voice. She sounded just like me. I had no idea. I'd only seen pictures of her, never videos or audio recordings.

    I gave Opal a side-hug, since it was all I could manage with my big belly in the way. It felt surreal to have my two babies in the same room.

    "How about we get in line? You can get whatever you want. It's on me," I said.

    "Okay," said Opal. I could definitely feel her nervousness.

    I ordered another cinnamon bun. Opal ordered a large hot chocolate and a scone. We waited in silence for a bit, and when our stuff was ready, we sat back down at the table.

    "I was really excited when you told your mom you wanted to come meet me. I wasn't sure if this was ever going to happen, so this is really special," I said.

    "Mm-hmm," Opal said, stirring her hot chocolate. "My friends and I love your books, and when this last one came out, they started reading it and were like, 'Opal you gotta see this! It's about you!' I felt like now was the right time to finally meet."

    "Wow, you've read my other books?" I asked.

    "Yeah! Sarah Moore Times Four is my favorite! I like all your teen pregnancy stories, but that one is so different from the rest!"

    "Oh, uh, thank you," I said, blushing. "I like how your favorite book that I've written isn't the one about you. But enough about me! I want to hear about you. Are you happy with your mom and dad? I know you have a baby sister now, too."

    "Yeah. She's almost four already...I've had a great life with my mom and dad. I love my parents. Not to say that you wouldn't be a good mother or anything, but—"

    "No, it's okay! I wasn't ready. I was fourteen when you were born. I was just starting high school. I wasn't ready to be a mom. Hell, I'm in my late twenties and I don't even know if I'll be ready now!"

    "I think you will. You know a lot about babies, based on your books!"

    I chuckled. "I guess that's true. So, what do you want to do when you get out of high school? I got those pictures of you recently in your ROTC uniform."

    "Yup. My friend Arabella and I are in it together. We both want to become pilots in the Air Force!"

    "Really? That's so exciting! According to Ancestry, my grandpa, your great-grandfather, was a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War."

    "Seriously? Wow. I'd love to know a lot more about who I am. Where I really came from," she said.

    "It's okay. It doesn't really get very interesting much after that. Family is what you make it. Blood doesn't mean you're a family, and a family can look a lot of different ways," I said, pointing to my baby bump. "My immediate family is going to be pretty small, just me and him. I used a donor. I don't know who his father is."

    "Oh, speaking of that—"

    "I don't know. I'm so sorry, Opal," I said. "I was at a dark point in my life. I lived with a really restrictive family who controlled everything me and my sister did. I wanted to rebel in any way that I could. I'm honestly pretty ashamed of it. Thankfully I didn't get an STD or something."

    "Oh. Okay," she said, her eyes looking away from me. "My parents said they didn't know who my father was, but I thought that maybe you would."

    "Jake is your dad. And Marty, my adoptive father, is my dad. That's what matters."

    "Right, I see," she said.

    We chatted for a while. She told me about her favorite subjects in school. I liked how they were so different from the ones I liked. Opal was really into math. She had straight A's. She was on the cross country team. When I was her age, well, I was pregnant and sneaking into French Club.

    "I just have one last question," Opal said, grabbing her coat. "What is your next book going to be about?"

    "That's a good question. I actually don't know. I told my publisher I was going on a hiatus until the baby was born. After that, who knows? I'm going to see where life and parenthood takes me," I said.

    "Well, I hope it's somewhere good."

    "I hope the same for you too, Opal."

    She hugged me goodbye and asked if she could see me again sometime. I told her to make sure it was okay with her parents, and she left the store. I waved as she got into Ella Mae's car. They drove off, away and out of sight. I was so proud of her.

    "I love you, Opal," I said under my breath. The little one in my belly started to wiggle around and kick. I rubbed right where his little foot was pressing. "And I love you too, little buddy."

******

The end!

Thank you so much for reading! See you at the next one of my teen pregnancy books!

If you've read any other of my other books, how did you like this one compared to those?