Javier stared at her in disbelief "Suzie Miller?" he asked with wide eyes.
"It's been a long time, and as you can see i'm not a little girl anymore" she replied with a small smile.
"Is Katey here?" he asked looking around the room, "Did she come back too?"
Suzie looked away from him and bit her bottom lip. Javier stared at her for a moment furrowing his brows. He waited for her to give him an answer.
"Can we go some where more private please?" she asked
"What's going on?" he demanded.
Suzie took him by the arm and lead him outside the crowded club. A gentle breeze passed over them as they steped out into the cool empty street. Suzie rubbed her bare arms and looked off into the distance. She sighed as she turned to face Javier.
"This is a really hard conversation to have" she said softly.
Javier grabbed her arm "Suzie please tell me what's happend i can already tell it's bad from how you're acting, did she move on, get married, forget about me?" he asked
Suzie shook her pretty blonde head as her eyes began to glisten with tears. Javier pulled his hand away with a quick jerk as though he had been burnt.
"No, no, no it's not true" he kept repeating to himself shaking his head.
The tears had begun to fall from Suzie's eyes. Javier had seemed to age ten years after hearing the news.
Suzie nodded her head "I'm afraid it is"
"How did it.."he started "How did it happen?"
Suzie walked down the street a bit trying to clear her head. She needed to get things stright in her mind so she could break things to him gently. There was no easy way of breaking news like that and she knew there were still some more shocks to come. Javier's question had brought her back to that night when it had all happend and all of a sudden she felt like a young girl of twenty one sitting at her sisters bedside holding the five year olds twins. Alone and afraid.
"We need to go somewhere to talk, you should really be sitting down" she replied.
"We can go to my house" he told her.
As they walked towards Javiers house she smiled sadly to herself, thinking about how Katey would have loved to see this all again. Just one last time. She wiped her eyes and got lost in thought about her sister.
/Flashback/
Suzie walked into the church holding onto the young twins. Suddenly they were surrounded by people. All of the saying how sorry they were for their loss and how great a girl Katey had been. Suzie spotted her parents being greeted in the same way as her. The whole room became a blur and the words were now just noise in her head. She sat through the service in silence, not looking at anyone there. She walked up and placed a single white rose on the coffin before leaving the twins with her parents and running off. She couldn't stay there. It just wasn't fair, she knew it wasn't fair on anyone else who was there. Everyone was just as sad as she was, and she knew she should be thinking about them too but she couldn't. She sat down by a tree and cried. It seemed like all she had been doing latly was cry and cry some more. She wanted to stop but she couldn't. There were so many things she should do or wanted to do but she couldn't get anything right. Everything in her life had gone wrong. And now she was alone in the world and had her neice and nephew to bring up. Sure her parents could help out abit but both of them were busy people who had to work. Neither of them was as young as they used to be.
/end flashback/
Before Suzie knew it she was sat inside Javier's home with a cup of coffee infront of her. She took a sip of the steaming hot drink and sighed a heartfelt sigh. She looked up at Javier and practically hated herself for upsetting him like this but someone had to tell him. And Suzie was now the grown up. She had learned how to take on the role when she was just eighteen years old, the age Katie had been when she met Javier.
"Please Suzie tell me what happend" he begged her.
Suzie blinked back some tears and took a deep breathe. She knew she had to break thing's gently. That would be the fair thing to do. But in reality life wasn't fair, there was no right way of breaking the news she had to tell. So she would just have to get on with it and say it.
" Katie died a very long time ago Javier, we wanted to write but no one but Katie knew your address. I couldn't leave to come back here because of...well i'm getting to that part" She started " Katie was rushing home from work and she was involved in a car accident. Someone was on their phone and not concentrating, he just drove straight into the side of the car."
The tears had started to stream down Suzie cheeks and Javier was the same.
"That is not all you came to tell me is it?" he asked through his silent tears, "You said somthing kept you from comming back here"
"Javier there's not easy way of telling you this and it's going to be a shock to you so i'm just gonna have to say it" she explained " When we left here Katie was pregnant..with twins. They were just two years old when Katie had her accident. Mom wasn't talking to Katie, Dad was working oversea's and i was left to bring up Katie's children. Your children."
Javier stared at Suzie trying to speak but he couldn't get the words out. He stood up but immediatly sat down again. There was not strength left in him to hold himself up.
"She...she was pregnant" he said finally "I am a father?"
Suzie simply nodded her head.
"How old are they?" he asked
" sixteen years old, they were only young when it happend" she replied "Their names are Carlos and Marisa"
"Cuban names" he said with the smallest of smiles on his face "and the boy named after my brother"
Suzie placed a hand on Javiers arm "I know this is hard for you having to hear all of this at once and it's gonna take a long time for it to sink in, but if you want to meet your children then just let me know and i'll bring them here to see you, but i understand you've got a lot to think about"
"I can't believe she's gone" he said as his voice began to crack.
The tears welled up in his eyes and he clung onto Suzie. Suzie just embraced him and let him cry.