N O

S U C H    T H I N G

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"Hey mom?" I peer into her bedroom.

"What is it sweetie?" She stirs in her sleep.

"Do you, um, have the address to where Katrina is staying?" I purposely don't say the word dad.

"Oh your father? I think so, hang on." She finally pushes the duvet off her body as she slowly sits up. Once she stands up and out of bed, she walks over to her desk near the far side of her room and starts fiddling with a few pieces of paper.

"Ah, here it is. You going over there today?" She smiles while walking over to me and handing me the slip of paper with an address written across it.

"Yeah. I need to speak with him, and I wanted to apologize to Katrina for how I acted last night." I say with a sheepish smile.

"Well that's good honey, I'm glad you're being the bigger person. I'm proud of you." My mom smiles while rubbing at her tired eyes.

"You can go back to bed you know." I laugh.

"Oh, great! Night night." She softly pats my head before turning around and heading back to bed. She lays down and pulls the duvet over her body before mumbling a "drive safe", and then I hear her snoring again.

I playfully roll my eyes while walking away from her bedroom door and heading down stairs. I'm already dressed for the day so I snag a water bottle from the fridge and head out of the door. I pull my cell phone from my jeans pocket and plug the address into the GPS app.

Once it's set and ready to go, I get inside my car and head off for Katrina's house.

I find it insane how my dad managed to buy a house only twenty-five minutes away from where I live.

How long has he lived here? How long has he lived in the next neighborhood without me knowing? How long has he been so close, yet still so far?

I shake my head of my annoying thoughts, and after a while, I finally pull into their driveway.

It's a nice two-story home. White on the outside with dark brown trimmings. There are a few plants starting to grow near the front door, and there is a cute little "Welcome" mat lying just outside before you walk in.

It honestly looks similar to our house. Coincidence or not? I suppose I can answer that for myself.

I take a few breaths while I sit in my car. My nerves are sitting at an all-time high right now.

You can do this Skylar. I promise you can do this.

Finally, I push my car door open and get out. I head for the front door and before I can raise my hand to knock, it's suddenly pulled open.

I freeze with my hand mid-air, and slowly bring it back down as I face an older woman.

"Oh, hello. May I help you?" She speaks, her voice crystal clear and full of confidence.

I take note of her bright blue eyes, the same ones that match Katrina's.

"I'm looking for Todd." I say.

The woman gives me a confused look before stepping aside and letting me walk inside of their beautiful home.

I slowly walk past the woman who continues to eye me suspiciously.

"Todd, honey, you have a visitor!" She shouts and I almost jump at how loud she is.

"Who is it?" He replies as he rounds the corner. "I'm not expecting any-", but he cuts himself off as soon as he looks me directly in the eyes.

"Skylar? What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" He asks, taking a step toward me.

I slowly take a step back and give him an awkward smile.

"I was hoping we could talk. I probably should have called first, I'm sorry." I look down at my feet.

"Todd, who is this?" The woman asks, crossing her arms over her petite chest.

"Uh, sweetie, this is Skylar. M-my daughter." He says, however I don't think this is something he's mentioned to the woman before, because her eyes nearly bulge out from her sockets.

"Your what?" She slightly raises her voice.

"You know that I've been married previously Kassie. Well this is my daughter from that marriage." He explains, and it honestly feels weird to hear. "I told you I went over to her house last night to talk some things over."

"Well yeah, but I thought you meant you were talking with your ex-wife. You never mentioned having another daughter!" She exclaims.

I started to feel a little uncomfortable.

"Look, I can go if you two need to talk..." I began, but Todd instantly shook his head.

"Nonsense, come into the kitchen. Would you like some coffee or juice?" He smiles, motioning for me to follow.

"Um, coffee, thanks." I reply, slowly walking around Kassie and following him down the hallway.

As I sit at the dining room table, Todd pours me a mug of fresh coffee and sets it in front of me. He then places two packets of sugar beside it, and a bottle of creamer.

"I'm not sure how you take it, so here's everything." He smiles wearily.

"Thank you." I nod, pouring some creamer into my coffee and stirring it.

"Are you hungry? Kassie was just about to start breakfast."

"You don't have to do that, really." I say, but he waves me off.

"She's already started on the biscuits, they're in the oven." He points and that's when I notice the oven light is on and fresh biscuits are sitting inside.

"Okay, thanks." I smile, though it doesn't quite reach my eyes.

A few seconds go by, and Kassie strolls through the kitchen doors.

"Skylar, I'm sorry about my behavior earlier. This was just a bit of a shock. I'm sorry for being so rude." She frowns.

"It's okay, really. News like that shouldn't be taken lightly." I reply, though I can't seem to hide the fact that knowing my dad never mentioned me to his new family really hurt.

"You're welcome to stay as long as you need to. I'm going to finish up breakfast now." She smiles while heading over toward the island in the center of the big kitchen.

"So, Skylar, what was it that you wanted to talk about?" My dad asks, turning to face me.

"Well, I wanted to apologize for how I acted last night. I was completely out of line and I should have handled myself better." I begin to explain.

"You don't need to apologize to me, sweetie. I know you're angry and upset, I know I've treated you and your mother poorly. There's no excuse for that. You do not need to feel sorry for anything." He frowns.

I only nodded while taking a sip of my coffee.

As I set the mug onto the table, I heard footsteps coming from the stairs.

A few seconds later, Katrina walked into the kitchen and her eyes instantly found mind. She hurriedly ran over toward her mom and hid behind her long legs.

"Great. She hates me." I mumble, and Todd laughs.

"Come over here Kat." He said, but Katrina shook her head no.

"Please? Your sister wants to tell you something." He says, quickly looking at me for confirmation.

He must have known I wanted to apologize to her too.

"He's right, Kat." I try to smile, turning to face her.

Katrina slowly moves from behind her mom, and takes tiny steps over toward Todd and I. She stops beside Todd, and he places his arm around her shoulders.

"Do you mind if I take her for a little walk outside?" I asked Todd, and he looked back toward Kassie who smiled with nod.

"Sure, just be back in ten minutes for breakfast." He smiled.

"Hey Kat, wanna go outside with me?" I smile while standing up and holding my hand out.

She eyes me wearily, slightly scrunching her button nose. After a few seconds, she finally reaches out and places her delicate hand in my own.

"We'll be right back." I say to Todd.

"We'll be here." He smiles, gesturing to Kassie and himself.

I begin to walk Katrina outside, and once the door shuts, I turn around and bend down in front of her.

"How old are you Kat?" I ask.

She waits a few seconds before she mumbles out a cute "Six".

"Do you remember my name?" I ask.

She tilts her head for a moment, as if pondering my question. "Sky." She says louder this time, assuming she's becoming more comfortable with me.

I nod my head with a smile, and stand up straight again as I take her walking with me.

"Listen, I'm sorry about yesterday. You're too young to understand, but I was just mad at your dad, not at you." I try my best to explain. I've never had to talk to a six year old this way before.

"Daddy made you mad?" She looks up at me as we both walk down the sidewalk.

I nod. "Yeah, he did. But I'm not mad anymore." I smile down to her, and she smiles back.

"You're my sister?" She asks, her blue eyes shining brightly.

"Yep, it would appear so. How cool is that?" I smile down at her.

"So my daddy is your daddy?" She asks, and this time I'm not sure how to answer her, so I just keep it simple.

"Yes." I nod, though this time there is no smile on my face.

"Cool!" She shouts with a smile and I can't help but mimic her.

We stop at a small bench just down the street, and I pick her up and sit her down.

I decided I would wait until she's a little bit older, before I try to explain everything that happened between me and Todd. I don't want to confuse her right now. She's far too young to understand exactly what happened, and I don't want to unintentionally harm her relationship with her dad.

Right now, he is all she's ever known and I'm not going to make her feel the same way that I've felt over the years. I will try my best to explain it to her in due time.

Suddenly, Kat points to one of the bracelets on my wrist.

"Pretty." She smiles up at me.

"Thank you, I made them myself." I held my wrist out to her so she could look at them closer.

I made them out of old plastic material from one of my classes one year. I have a bunch of different colors. In fact, I have too many.

I notice how in love with them Kat is, so I slowly take a purple one from my wrist and pull it off.

"Hold out your wrist." I turn to Kat and she does as I ask.

I place it onto her wrist, and it's a little big, but not big enough to where it will fall off as the plastic material is kind of stretchy.

She begins to jiggle her wrist around, watching the bracelet move up and down her arm as she giggles.

I laugh at her, and the next thing I know she launches herself into my lap.

She hugs me as her head rests against my chest.

"Thanks sissy." She says, and I find myself hugging her back just as tight. One morning walk and this little girl has already taken a piece of my heart.

"You're welcome Kat." I smile, and then we spend the next few minutes talking about anything and everything. She told me all about first grade and how she's in charge of feeding the class goldfish Benny.

After a while, we head back to Todd's and breakfast is already set up on the dining room table.

"Just in time!" Kassie smiles, "Food is ready."

Katrina hurries over to her booster seat and jumps up into it. She turns her body to face the table and Kassie places a small plate of food in front of her.

Todd begins to make a plate of food up and when I think it's for him, he places it in front of me.

"You still like pancakes, right?" He sheepishly smiles.

A lump forms in my throat as I look down at my plate of chocolate chip pancakes.

Chocolate chip pancakes.

My eyes begin to water, but I quickly push the tears away before they're noticed.

"Yes, love them." I manage to say with a tight-lipped smile.

We spend the rest of the morning eating and talking about each other's lives and I tell Todd about school and my friends. For just one morning, it felt perfectly normal to be eating breakfast with Todd and talking to him about my life. It felt like this was how it was always supposed to be, but then I'm reminded why it wasn't and I start to close myself off again.

After breakfast, I hugged Katrina and told her and Todd that I would be back to visit soon. They both seemed sad that I was leaving, but Kassie told me that maybe some nights Katrina can stay over at my house with me, just so we can get to know each other more.

I agreed, and then I grabbed my bag and left.

_______

Later that afternoon, I decided I didn't want to spend my Saturday night alone, so I called Abby and Lena. I still haven't told them about what happened with Todd and my having a new little sister.

I knew they would freak out, and that's exactly what they did when I explained everything that happened to them.

"Wait, so your dad just shows up with no warning and is like, 'here you go Sky, you get a baby sister!' as if it's no big deal?" Abby says with pure astonishment on her face.

"Yep, pretty much." I sigh.

"Man, your life is like an MTV special gone wrong." Abby laughs and I immediately throw a pillow at her face.

"Thanks, you're such a great friend." I sarcastically smile.

"How are you feeling though?" Lena asks while leaning over to grab some chips from the bowl placed in front of us.

"Honestly, I'm okay. I never thought I would say those words, but I'm actually okay." I softly smile. The room grows quiet.

"I know I'm supposed to be mad at him for the rest of my life, after what he did to my mom and me... but after the morning we all had, I just think it would benefit everyone if I forgave and tried to forget." I shrugged.

"Wow, that's really big of you Sky." Lena smiles. "I'm proud." She dramatically holds her hand to her heart and fake sniffles.

"Baby steps." I laugh. "Oh, and something else happened that I haven't mentioned yet." I say, and both of their eyes widen.

"What else could have possibly happened, that's bigger than your dad and a new baby sister? Which by the way, we both would love to meet her." Lena asks with a smile, voicing her and Abby's thoughts out loud.

"So, when Todd dropped the bombshell yesterday, I sort of ran out of the house to think about it all." I sheepishly smile, as running is something they both know I'm best at.

"Well, I ran into Percy at the park, go figure." I take notice of Lena's face. Her nose scrunches up in disgust at the mention of Percy.

"Anyway, he told me he saw James riding around with some girl in his truck, so naturally I went over to see what the deal was since we're fake dating ya' know?" I begin to explain and they both nod.

"Well, it wasn't what I was expecting. Turns out James has a cousin, but that's beside the point."

"Can you just get on with the juicy stuff?" Abby sighs, clearly impatient.

"Okay, long story short, me and James got into an argument and then he sort of kissed me. Like for real kissed me, nothing fake about it." I say and the room grows silent again.

"HE KISSED YOU!" Lena squeals, and I jump in surprise at her high-pitched scream.

"About time. I've been waiting for that kid to man up and plant one on ya." Abby smirks and my cheeks begin to redden.

"Wait, let me guess, you ran?" Abby laughs and my eyes turn to slits.

"Oh she totally ran." Lena nods in agreement.

"Maybe I didn't run." I try to defend myself while crossing my arms over my chest.

Both Abby and Lena look at each other, and then give me an incredulous look.

"Okay, I ran." I sigh in defeat.

"Oh Sky, you poor, poor girl." Abby pretends to console me by patting the top of my head.

I swat her hand away and throw a chip at her, but her being the queen that she is; she catches it and pops it into her mouth.

"So does this mean your relationship is no longer fake?" Lena suddenly asks. Her face is a serious one now.

"Honestly, I have no idea. We never really confirmed nor denied that. I suppose I will know for sure on Monday." I shrug, having had an eventful weekend.

"Ian and I are going out to dinner next weekend, we could totally double." Lena smirks and I smile.

"Who knows, maybe we will." I wink at her.

"We just need to find someone for Abby." Lena says and Abby scoffs.

"Please, do you see all the drama surrounding your love lives? I'll steer clear of that mess, thanks." She laughs and both Lena and I shoot her dirty looks.

"One of these days Abigail... you're going to meet a guy and your entire world will shift." Lena points a finger at her.

"Mark my words."