A/N: Thank you for reading so far! I've been writing this for ages, and with school and everything I haven't had the chance to upload it until now. I have time to write now, because of the holidays, so there will be more updating and more stories on this and my other account. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and I apologise for any OOC-ness, it's just needed for the story, but I've tried to incorporate the future. I don't own anything but my OC's, the plot line and the language that was used. I just need to say that Neal is not dead! No, he is just sleeping and I refuse to acknowledge it, because of Swanfire. Apologies in advance for swearing and sexual references, but that was in the description. Any reviews, favourites, PMs or Follows are greatly appreciated, and I do take criticism on board. Anyways, let me know what you think and on with the chapter.
The sixteen year old's heart was racing, her head was spinning madly as she tried to think logically and about what she was supposed to do. Erin felt weak as she looked at her mother, gulping. Her mouth was glaggy, making it impossible for her to try to speak first. There was a clear awkward silence between the two women in existence as Erin avoided her mother's gaze, and Emma waited for her daughter to defend herself again, or to start to explain. Emma quickly glanced at the kitchen door, knowing Neal would come through at some point. "Erin, if you explain now, it'll make it easier when it comes to telling Henry and your father. He could walk in at any point." She shrugged, and looked at her sixteen year-old daughter.
"How much do I have to explain?" Erin asked in a small voice, as it was as much as she could physically muster.
"Start with failing school and stress." Emma replied, playing with Erin's hair.
"I don't know, it's pretty much what it sounds like Mom." The caramel haired girl replied.
Emma raised her eyebrows. "Why?" She corrected herself.
"Stress." Erin replied, as parents would generally say is the normal teenager stereotype. "I don't know. I can't focus, and everything goes blurry in my mind, because all the subjects I hate I don't bother to do anything in and just tune out, and the ones I do like just confuse me and I end up sick through them anyway."
"See, it wasn't that hard, was it?" Emma asked, before sighing. "So the workload contributes to the stress too?" She asked for confirmation.
Erin simply nodded, leaning back against the couch. "Yeah, it contributes to the stress." She replied quietly.
"We're here to help Erin…" Emma sighed, thinking about the last part of their conversation, and about how Erin had stated that she relationship issues, and a boyfriend.
"I know…" She sighed, and rolled her eyes weakly, wanting to get out of this conversation as soon as humanly possible.
There was a silence as the two stopped talking again. Each second that passed felt like a lifetime of agony to Erin. She gulped, and met her mother's eyes for a split second before looking back down at her lap. Her mind was going wild, there were too many voices, as if there was more than one person thinking and screaming at her to do something different. Each thought tried to compete with another, screaming louder at the young woman. Emma sighed, and continued to search for a way to approach the subject without sounding condescending, angry, disheartened, disappointed or as if she was joking.
After, who knows how long, Emma managed to find a way to express her questions. "Who's your boyfriend?" She asked casually, before inwardly swearing at the way that she'd approached the subject.
Erin looked at her mother weakly and sighed. "Nice Mom, that's how you be subtle." She rolled her eyes.
"Just answer the question Erin." Her mother sighed.
"It's complicated, and there's not enough time in the world to explain it." Erin responded.
Emma purely raised her eyebrow in disbelief, and looked at her daughter. "I have time, and I don't think it'll take that long."
"Daddy will hear me…" Erin muttered.
Emma shook her head and sighed. "No he won't he's busy with whatever he broke, and won't come in for a while." She replied, stroking her daughter's hair gently.
Erin sighed. "We're not exactly dating or anything, we just sleep with each other every now and-" She broke off her sentence, realising what she was saying.
Emma's eyebrows raised higher up her forehead, if that was possible. "You sleep together?" She asked. "Like a friends with benefits thing?"
"Mom!" Erin exclaimed. "Yes, we sometimes, anyway, no." She shook her head and groaned. "I told you it's complicated, and I really shouldn't be talking to you about my sex life."
"Try talking to your mother about one night stands, and she's the same age as you, and you don't realise that she's actually your mother." Muttered Emma under her breath.
"What?" Erin asked, as she hadn't heard what her mother had uttered.
"Nevermind." Her mother replied quickly, looking at her daughter. "Are you going to tell me about him?"
Erin shook her head. "No, I said it's complicated and I don't feel comfortable or well enough to discuss my love and sex lives Mom."
Emma rolled her eyes, and left the subject where it was. "Fine, I'll find out anyway. It'd probably just be easier if you told me though kid."
Emma thought for a minute before asking. "They're from over there right though?"
Erin sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Depends on your definition of 'from over there' Mom." She smirked slightly at her witty response.
Once again, Emma rolled her eyes, and laughed. "I mean born in the Enchanted Forest." She replied.
"Oh, then no." Erin replied.
Emma nodded, and looked at her daughter, contemplating for a second before guessing. "It's Daniel, isn't it?" She asked, presuming that her daughter's boyfriend, or whatever their relationship was, was Jade's boyfriend's best friend.
"Ew, no!" Erin replied, shaking her head.
"It wouldn't be William Herman, would it?" Emma asked.
Erin looked down at her nails, and nervously laughed. "What, no, he's my best boyfriend. Boy-friend. Friend… who's a boy." She tried to cover up her blunder as her mother smirked at her.
"Lying…" Emma chimed. "So you and Will are together?"
"Mom, stop." Erin begged. "I told you it's complicated, and now you know who I'm interested in. Can we stop talking now?" She whined.
There were a couple of rounds of arguing which the author will spare you the details of, because if one imagined an argument between a mother and a daughter over absolutely nothing, or over something completely stupid, for example; when two people dispute over whether or not they're arguing. Which is incredibly repetitive, yet extremely amusing to watch, however when one reads it, they get extremely bored and just give up on it, for a majority of the time. Erin ended up loosing said argument, and continued to stay put on the couch.
"It's just complicated Mom!" Erin sighed, and rolled her head back against the back of the couch. "He knows that, and it's less complicated than it was before, but it just is, can't you leave my love life alone please?"
Emma sighed, and looked at the product of her and Neal, twelve, almost thirteen years after Henry. "That's where you were this morning, wasn't it?"
Erin closed her eyes and groaned loudly, still trying to let her mother know that she was done talking about the subject. "Maybe. Pick another subject to talk about." She demanded weakly.
Emma rolled her eyes, the cogs in her brain were working hard trying to avoid what had happened previously into their discussion. "You know that you're quite similar to how I was when I was your age…" She started.
"I mean it, I can go to New York or Boston…" Erin mumbled, avoiding eye contact with her mother completely.
Emma chose to ignore Erin's statement, and continued. "I mean obviously everything's different now, you have a family, unlike I did…"
"Mom, get to the fucking point." Erin cut her off, sighing exasperatedly.
"Well these are different circumstances, but the point is that we're here, and you're not moving to Boston or New York." Emma said, stroking Erin's messy French braid.
"You're not mad?" Erin asked quietly.
"I'm upset that you lied to me, and didn't come and tell me after you found out, and I'm not overly happy about the fact that you're pregnant in the first place, but no." Emma replied.
"You don't want details?" Erin asked for verification.
"I want some details. Can I ask why?" Her mother asked.
"We'd had sex a couple of times, and we were dru- really bored, so we decided to do it again, several times. It's not as if we meant for this to happen." Erin covered up her tracks.
Time went on, and the conversation became slightly less awkward, and many details came out in that time. It was still incredibly awkward for Erin, and she kept her eyes away from her mother's gaze the entire time. As the conversation continued, Emma became more aware of the parallel between herself when she was seventeen and pregnant with Henry, and Erin now, she also noted the similarities and differences between them and wondered if, whether growing up with her family would've changed her that much. After about fifteen minutes, Emma was able to see that Erin was barely holding onto consciousness, and sent her to her bedroom, this brought thoughts about how to tell Neal, and not to mention Henry, however her thoughts were cut short.
Neal entered from the kitchen, and looked at his wife, raising his eyebrows. "What's going on?" He asked her gently, seeing that Erin had gone into her room once more, and considering that he generally was the one that Erin came to for advice, or he would have found out quicker than he had this time, not that he had any clue whatsoever what was going on anyway.