"So...are you going to open it?"
Amy looked up from the white envelope she fingered in her shaky hands to gaze at her best friend. She chewed anxiously on her bottom lip. The two young women were sitting outside of the ice cream parlor just up the street from the university. A styrofoam cup of partially eaten strawberry ice cream sat before Amy, while a half eaten cup of chocolate ice cream sat in front of Courtney. "I-I don't know." She swallowed the lump in her throat, suddenly not feeling so hungry anymore.
Courtney wrapped her arm around her friend, giving it a comforting rub. "Come on girl. You have to get it over with. It's not going to kill you. It's not like there's a ticking time bomb waiting inside that envelope. Just open it already or you're going to start driving me crazy."
Her heart pounded in her chest. She willed herself to take a deep calming breath before she slipped her index finger under the seal and broke it. It felt as if everything were going in slow motion as she reached inside the envelope and pulled out the birth certificate tucked inside the letter. She didn't look at it yet. Instead, she turned her head away and handed it over to Courtney. "You look at it, I can't."
Courtney was hesitant but took the medium-sized piece of paper from her and fixed her gaze on it. She stole a glance at a peevish Amy. "Do you want me to tell you who your parents are?"
She stared at her for a long moment, not knowing what she should do until slowly nodding her head.
"Your mother's name is Danielle Fuller, and your father's name is Christian Troy."
Although she was still apprehensive about who exactly these people were, she felt some sort of relief now that she knew their names. She bit down on her bottom lip before a deep sigh escaped her. "Does...does it say anything about where they work? Their addresses?"
Courtney shook her head and handed the piece of paper back to her. "Nope. Sorry girl. I guess you'd have to do that on your own. It's not that hard really, you just have to call 4-1-1 and request their phone number. If you want their addresses, you could just look in the phone book...unless of course they're not listed, but hey, it's worth a shot. Everyone can do that. I mean, if you wanted to."
She held her gaze on the certificate in her hand, running the tips of her fingers over the signature of her father. Her heart beat a little faster at the thought that he could have been a better father to her than her adopted one. That is, if he actually had raised her himself. Maybe he would have been one of those fathers that treated their daughters like a princess. Maybe he would have been the type to read his daughter a bedtime story until she was a teenager. Perhaps he would have nutured his daughter instead of physically abusing her.
"What are you going to do?"
Her friend's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. She scowled deeply, her shoulders rising and falling in a shrug. "I don't know. Maybe...I'll call them. One of them. I'm still trying to let all of this sink in. I just can't help but think that if they find out about me...they won't want anything to do with me. They'll just reject me and tell me to go back to wherever it is I came from." She pursed her lips, holding the tears at bay.
"You don't know that. They might be happy to see you." Courtney shrugged. "They might feel bad that they even gave you up for adoption at all. You never know."
She was going to say something else when the door to the ice cream parlor opened and a thin young man with short brown hair, bushy brows, squinty brown eyes, and full lips strolled out. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his blue jeans, his head hung low. Both girls turned their heads to notice the boy.
"Hey Matt!" Courtney sprung up from her chair and walked over to the boy, a bright smile on her face.
"Courtney, hey. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, me and my friend, Amy, just stopped by to get some ice cream. Obviously." She slipped her hand under Matt's arm and urged him towards the inquisitive girl sitting at the patio table. When Amy saw the pair coming over, she slipped her birth certificate back into the envelope it had come in and set it aside. "Amy? This is Matt McNamara, Gretchen's cousin. Remember? I told you about him last week." She looked from Amy to Matt then back to Amy. "Matt? This is my best friend, Amy Gellar."
Amy sent him a light wave and a small smile. "Hi."
He returned the small smile with one of his own. "Hi. Nice to meet you Amy."
She nodded her head. "You too, Matt."
Courtney looked between the pair, arching her brows in surprise. "Oh-kay." She moved back into her seat beside Amy and gestured to the empty chair next to her. "Sit down and join us. You're more than welcome to."
Matt nodded his head gently. "Okay." He took the empty seat beside Courtney and looked between the two girls. "So, what's going on?"
Amy shrugged her shoulders, toying with the spoon in her ice cream and pushing it around in her cup. "Not a lot. We just got out of class. We thought we'd hang out here at the ice cream parlor."
Courtney grasped Matt's hand in hers and gave it a squeeze, leaning a little closer to him. "We could be hanging out at your place. When the heck are you going to invite me over?"
He shrugged with a light laugh. "I don't know. I have to wait until my parents aren't home."
Amy's brows furrowed in bafflement and looked up at the pair, wondering how on earth her friend could have been dating him and never mentioned it to her before. "Are you guys...?" Her voice trailed off, allowing them to put the pieces together.
He and Courtney exchanged a look. Before Courtney could speak, he spoke for the both of them. "Uh...no. We hang out from time to time. That's about it."
"Yeah. We hang out. Just last weekend we went to the movies and stopped by the beach." Courtney released Matt's hand and placed hers on his thigh, letting it run up towards his crouch. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, her action taking him by surprise. "He calls it 'hanging out,' but I call it dating. I mean, if you're with a member of the opposite sex, that's considered a date. Right?"
Amy's bewilderment grew the longer she watched the scene before her. She had a slight suspicion what Courtney was up to, but she wasn't going to say anything. At least not yet.
Matt swallowed the lump in his throat, lightly nodding his head at Courtney. "Yeah. I guess you could say that." He sent Amy a forced smile. "We're dating."
Courtney's hand started back up towards his crouch, but he took hold of it before it could get there and instead, gave it a squeeze. Leaning in, she placed a kiss to his neck and followed with another to his cheek. "Matt is great. I love being with him." She flashed a smile at him before turning to look at her awkward friend.
Amy nodded her head, her eyes shifting from Courtney to Matt. "So, tell me more about yourself, Matt. Courtney didn't tell me that much except that you're still in high school and cousins with Gretchen."
Moving her chair closer to him, Courtney placed another kiss along the curve of his neck. She stole a glance at Amy, "well, he's cute for one thing."
Matt's cheeks flushed bashfully, his eyes falling to his lap. "Well, I'm seventeen." He raised his eyes back up to look over at Amy. "I've lived in Miami my whole life. I don't have a job, but as soon as I get one, I'm planning on moving out. Maybe I'll move in with my uncle." He shrugged his shoulders. "Beyond that, my life really isn't that exciting."
She nodded in regard. "Oh," she laughed lightly. She sighed wearily, fiddling with her spoon once again. The next time she looked up, she saw the pair whispering to each other about God knew what. If she had to guess, it was definitely not a conversation that she belonged in. It did, however, make her feel neglected. Pushing up to her feet, she grabbed her cup of ice cream and disposed of it in the nearest trash bin. Neither Matt nor Courtney even realized she was gone until they turned and saw her pushing in her chair.
"Hey, are you leaving already?" Matt inquired.
She exchanged a look with Courtney before nodding her head. "Yeah. I should get home. My mom hates it when I'm out late." She grabbed the white envelope with her birth certificate and slipped it into her pink and black purse. "It was nice meeting you, Matt. Bye guys."
He nodded. "Yeah. You too."
She was already turning to leave when Courtney grabbed her arm to stop her. "Hey, wait up girl! Why are you leaving?"
Amy turned back to her friend with a weary sigh. "Look, it's obvious that I'm just being a third wheel to you and Matt. I should go home."
Courtney shook her head, her brows furrowing inquisitively. "You're not being a third wheel. I didn't even know he was going to show up here. It just...happened. Look, I know you've never had a boyfriend, but I really like Matt. I'm sorry if I seemed to rub your nose in it. That's not what I was trying to do. If you want to go home, you know, it's cool. I can walk back to the campus with Matt and get home."
She sighed softly, nodding her head. "Okay. Well, I'll just call you later." Courtney nodded in understanding. She sent Matt another wave before walking off towards her blue VW bug. Where was a real father when she needed one? She needed a father to help her through her boy dillemas. Neither her adoptive father or mother's boyfriend could help with that scenario. Maybe this Christian Troy would be the type of father to give her advice on boys. That was, if he actually wanted her back in his life. Only time would tell.
As she slipped behind the wheel of her vehicle, she couldn't help but wonder what her real father was doing at that very moment.