Chapter 1 Damn, damn, damn

"What do you mean we have to move? Seriously, this is shit at the very least", thinks Keith walking around his tiny room, "his mother had to be kidding".

Her mother was always paranoid about Keith, not in the sense that she thought someone was going to hurt her, but if she got sick, or had any kind of illness, she literally freaked out. And the outbreak was even worse if she had a fever, at these times she insisted that they should look for Keith's father, a father that Keith had never seen in his life, in fact Estela, Keith's mother, refused to talk about his father, only doing so when panics over something Keith is feeling.

And therein lies the problem, Keith has been constantly having a fever and a horrible headache for days. What she was sure had to be a virus or something like that, but Estela is in a panic, packing her bags and saying they are going to move. At these times Keith suspects that his father has some rare disease, and that his mother is afraid that she has inherited it.

But none of that mattered now, the only thing keeping her from screaming at the top of her lungs was that it wouldn't help at all, and she was still in danger of the headache coming back.

She remembers the tense conversation I had with her mother earlier, where she tried to argue every way she could, saying that she was in her last year of school, that classes had only started for a month, that she wanted to graduate with the people who he'd gone to school with her since elementary school, even told her mom about Kevin, who had been her friend for the last three years and now they were finally stepping out of the friend zone and into dating, not even when he reminded her that she would be turning eighteen three months from now and that I wanted to celebrate with my friends and Kevin, it helped her a bit.

Estela was adamant this time, and nothing Keith tried to change her mind.

She stops in front of the mirror and looks at herself, the image reflected there shows a tall brunette, with curly hair, golden brown eyes, she didn't think she was the magazine model type, her breasts are too big for her, she likes her thick, naturally shapely legs, and she thought a little more ass would do her good, in short she thought she was an average girl, perfectly average.

She was a difficult person to let go and make friends with, she felt that she didn't fit in anywhere but when they got closer and knew her better, they saw that she was a nice girl, not even talking about my difficulty in making friends helped to make Estela change her mind.

She touches the crescent-shaped birthmark on her neck, which is so perfect that she has been asked several times if it's a tattoo.

"Keith has finished packing, we're leaving in half an hour," says Estela downstairs.

Hearing her mother's voice, Keith couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy, as her voice shows weariness and concern.

She sighs and heads downstairs, determined to do something she's been avoiding doing, but now she has no choice but to make her mother see reason.

He walks into the kitchen and sees Estela crying, who quickly tries to hide it when he sees her, and Keith feels a twinge of regret, but his mother didn't give him a choice.

"Estela", she says, because whenever she is angry, she calls her mother by name, "since you insist on going looking for my father, then it's time to tell me how he abandoned you while you were pregnant, let you raise a daughter alone! He never even looked for me or you to find out if we were alive".

Estela shrinks all over, and Keith regrets talking so harshly to his mother, because every time she tried to bring up the subject, his mother shows so much pain that she simply gave up on knowing, after all, if my father didn't want her, she I didn't want him either.

Estela lets out a sigh, and starts to walk from one side to the small kitchen, their house was clean and organized but small in a bad neighborhood, because that was what Estela could afford.

Keith watches his mother without interrupting, because he knows Estela is debating with herself which is more important, to go find her father or hide the truth of Keith's existence.

Keith celebrates privately, as he has seen Estela have this internal struggle several times, and the winning side has always been hiding the truth.

"Okay," says her mother, surprising her, "but don't hate me when you find out the whole story."

Keith almost collapses on the floor, because that was not even remotely what she was expecting to hear from her, because since she was six years old, she tries to get some information about her father from her mother, but Estela has always refused to even touch the subject.

Keith is now conflicted, part of her wants her mother to give up on this moving thing, and another part really wants to know about her father, and what made him leave them.

"What does that mean, Mom? Are you really going to tell me about my father?" she asks Keith to make sure she didn't get it wrong.

"Yes, I will", replies Estela, walking back and forth, "but darling, you have to understand me", she says wringing her hands, "I did what I did out of ignorance, for being too young and above all for fear".

"Ok, ok, ok but what the heck is going on here" Keith thinks as he sits on the nearest chair because he fears his legs will give way.

"Better start then mom"

For Keith knew better than to delay, whatever the truth was, she would have to face it.

Estela stops walking for a moment, and looks at her daughter and the only thing she can think is Keith will forgive her when he finds out part of the story, because Estela couldn't tell everything, what really made her do it.

Sighing Estela sits down facing her daughter and says:

"OK let's start"