THE MISTAKE

Nathan Seth Hughes was born at 4:34 in the morning exactly 6 years ago. He was born to a 17 year old girl, the father didn't even know she was pregnant, let alone giving birth.

The problem was, the father had been the girls best friend growing up. In the heat of the moment on the boys 17th birthday they forgot the idea of protection, and 9 months later, the girl was giving birth in a hospital.

Alex Hughes was a gorgeous girl, smart, irreverent and headstrong. She dreamed of moving away from the seaside town she lived at, and settling in London. She had huge dreams, enormous in fact. She wanted to marry her best friend and go to university and teach school children.

But her dreams were shattered when she went to the pharmacy about 2 weeks after she had lost her virginity to Simon Minter, her best friend since childhood. She asked the woman at the pharmacist, who happened to be about 2 years older than her and studying at the local community college, "I'm feeling super ill, and I've been like it for 2 weeks now, what do you recommend?"

"Had sex lately?" The girl asked asked, looking the girl on the other side of the counter up and down.

"Yeah...About 2 weeks and a bit ago...why?" Alex asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Did you use protection?" The other girl asked back.

"Urm,"

"Did you miss a period?"

"Oh fuck," Alex muttered, watching as the girl pulled a pregnancy test off the shelf.

"Fuck, fuckering, fucking hell!" Alex says.

"Theres a toilet here..." The girl suggests, waving the pregnancy test box at her.

"Fuck," She mutters, snatching the pregnancy test from the older girl.

Alex walks into the toilet and takes 10 minutes to complete the test, pace around for a few minutes and then look at the test.

"FUCK!" She shouts.

"Oh god," The girl standing outside the door says.

Alex leaves the room carrying her pregnancy test.

"So...?" The girl asks.

"I'm pregnant..." Alex whispers, her words are hardly audible, she can barely believe it.

"Well...How old are you?"

"17," She replies and the girl frowns.

"Good luck, honey," She says and Alex gives her a soft smile.

"Whats your name?"

"Hannah," The girl replies and Alex nods.

"Thank you, Hannah," She says before paying for the test and leaving the pharmacy.

That was 6 years and a bit ago. Nathan Seth Hughes turned 6 years old today. Alex, still living in that little seaside town above a flower store, had arranged for a little Nathan to have a fun filled birthday. She woke up at 6am, heading down the hallway of her little one floor apartment type home. She loved where she lived, the little 2 bedroom home was hers, and she liked living above a flower shop, the flower shop was actually her aunts. The smell of fresh flowers drifted through their windows every morning, and Alex loved that.

She begins by hanging large 'Happy Birthday' sides from the walls and blowing up balloons using a pump. She throws the balloons around and then pulls an old recipe book off the shelf.

Cake baking time. Alex was never a spectacular chef, but she could whisk up a good chocolate cake when she wanted. She fixed up the cake, putting the cake mix filled tray into the oven just as it turned 8am.

Thats when she heard shuffling from her sons bedroom.

"Mommmmm?" She hears and a smile instantly forms on her face.

"Coming!" She calls and she heads down the hallway and opens her sons door.

"What's up kiddo?" She asks, seeing him sat at his little desk.

"I made you something!" He says and she smiles.

"Lets see then," She says and he holds the piece of paper close to his chest.

"Close your eyes," He whispers and she closes her eyes, holding out her hands.

She feels the paper gently rest against on her palms.

"Open them!" He claps and her eyes flicker open, looking at the drawing.

"Oh..." She says, seeing the three figures that he had drawn.

"You don't like it?" He asks, looking disheartened.

"No! No, I love it!" She counters, smiling, a lump forming in her throat.

"Yay!" He says and she smiles.

"Come with me," She says and she leads her son into the joint kitchen living room.

A stack of neatly wrapped presents sat on the coffee table awaiting the young birthday boy.

Alex places the drawing on the fridge, using a magnet to hold it up.

She stares for a moment at the drawing. A woman with brown hair labelled 'mommy', a little boy with blonde hair named 'Nathan' and a taller man, with blonde hair called 'daddy'.

She tears her eyes away and looks at her son.

"Breakfast and then presents okay?" Alex says, smiling at her son.

"Okay, mom," He sighs, getting up and sitting at the kitchen island.

"What would my little prince like?" She asks, leaning her elbows on the counter.

"Coco pops!" He smiles and she grins at the cute little boy.

He looked so much like him. It scared her how much he looked like his father. The father that didn't even know he existed. Every time she thought about getting in touch with him, she told herself no, don't bother, he won't care anyway. But Nathan was starting to question why all the other boys and girls at school had dads dropping them off or picking them up.

She pours her son his usual cocopops and then pours over some milk, handing the bowl to him along with a spoon.

"Thanks mommy," He smiles, before spooning the cereal into his mouth quickly, excited to get his presents.

Alex watches with a small, satisfied smile on her lips. She pours herself a fresh cup of coffee, turning to see Nathan sitting in the arm chair, waiting.

"You ate that quickly, I bet if it was a school day you'd still be eating it," Alex chuckles, walking over to sit down on the two seater sofa.

Nathan looks at his presents with excitement.

"Go ahead," Alex says, grinning as her son reaches for the largest one, which happened to be off his grandparents.

He rips off the paper and finds a massive nerf gun that he'd begged for.

"YAY!" He grins, looking at his mother, his face a sight of complete bliss.

"Thank your nan and grandad, not me, they got it you," She says and Nathan smiles.

He reaches for the next one, opening it to find a hoodie with a Minecraft Creeper on it.

"Thank you mommy!" He grins, pulling the hoodie on quickly before kissing his mother on the cheek.

He opens the last 3 presents to find a smaller nerf gun, a box of his favourite chocolates and a new DVD he wanted a few months back.

"Thanks mom," He says and he hugs her tightly.

"Go get washed and dressed, birthday boy," She says, and he nods before rushing off to get ready.

Alex gets up and takes the cake out of the oven. She leaves it to cool, moving on to make buttercream. She spreads buttercream on one side of the sponge cake before placing the other half on top. She then covers the rest of the cake with buttercream and then putting 6 candles into the cake.

She hears her son coming down the hall just as she lights the final candle.

She turns round holding the chocolate cake with red icing and she smiles.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Nathan, Happy Birthday to you!" She sings, grinning as her son looks on in happy shock.

He grins, clapping as he walks forwards. His mother holds out the cake and he blows out his 6 blue candles. Alex places down the cake and smiles.

"Thank you mommy!" He says, hugging her tightly.

"No problem, Nate," She says, hugging him back.

"Now, how about we cut this up, and take a slice down to the beach?" She asks and he grins, clapping excitedly.

"Yay!" He grins, smiling brightly.

She watches as he runs off to get on his trainers, leaving her to cut the cake, and to avoid looking at the crayon drawing that sat on the fridge beside her.

_______________

AYEEEEEE!

First chapter!!!!!!
IM EXCITED I HOPE YOU ARE TOO!!!!

Thank you for reading!

~KatnissBajanCanadian❤