Hi! I’m April. This is gonna be a story of my first love
which is now a taboo subject in my family. Everything started a few months ago and it
seems like I'm going to be disappointed, shocked, and frustrated for the rest of my life. I feel like I still love the guy and I deeply
hate myself for it. Jackson moved to our town six months ago. He was born here actually, but when his mom
died in a car accident many years ago, Jackson’s dad decided to get a fresh start in another
city. They traveled through almost the whole country,
when his dad’s job finally brought them back down here again. Anyway, soon afterward, he started going to
our school and we became friends, but then we both agreed that we were attracted to each
other in a romantic sense and decided to begin dating. Jackson’s cool, you know. He rides a motorcycle and looks really mysterious
and wise. I mean, there was hardly any chance of me
not falling in love with him. Once he had the idea to go their family’s
lake house and spend the whole weekend there. We had not been dating for that long yet,
and my parents actually had no idea that he had a motorcycle, otherwise they wouldn’t
even let me talk to him, you know. That’s why I lied to them and told them
that I was going to spend the weekend at my friend Angelica’s country house. I didn’t feel great about having lied to
my parents. And I had a bit of an unpleasant feeling inside,
even though I was pretty excited about spending two days with my love. That unpleasant and worrisome feeling began
growing soon after Jackson and I set out for our top-secret trip. At first, we got a flat tire; then, while
Jackson was trying to fix it, a huge truck passed by and sloshed us with water and mud. I thought that this had to be enough trouble
for one day, but as they say, bad things come in threes, so when we finally arrived at the
lake house, dirty and exhausted, it turned out that Jackson had taken the wrong set of
keys. We had nothing to do but to break into the
house, obviously damaging the lock. A couple of hours later when we had finally
changed our clothes and ate our dinner, Jackson and I were sitting next to the fireplace looking
through an old family album. He was telling me about his mom, showing me
her photos, and I felt like even though he could barely remember her, he missed her a
lot. Suddenly we came across a picture of Jackson’s
young mom sitting next to… my young mom! I was so surprised that I even screamed. Jackson, on the other hand, didn't recognize
the woman next to his mom, but when I told him who she actually was, he turned pale. We rushed to look through the rest of the
photos and found another interesting picture. Even though this photo had been taken many
years ago when I probably wasn’t even born yet, I could bet I knew that man. Even though he didn’t have a mustache and
his hair was long, I was pretty sure this was my mom’s brother – my uncle Henry. Of course, I told Jackson this and he was
no less surprised and confused than I was. We couldn’t wait until the morning to go
back home and ask our parents about everything, so we just decided to return immediately that
night. Jackson’s dad was out of town, so I had
to be the first one to begin the investigation. Of course, I had to confess to my parents
that I had lied to them. Because it was already 1 A.M. when I returned
home, while they weren't expecting me until the next evening. Dad was already sleeping and the talk with
my mom wasn’t nice at all. She didn’t want to hear any explanation
for why I had lied to her and how come I’d even dared to date a guy with a motorcycle,
so she’d severely grounded me for that. And when I showed her the pictures of these
photos on my cell phone and explained everything to her, she looked like she had just seen
a ghost. She yelled at me, and told me that I was no
longer allowed to see Jackson and that he’d better stay out of our family. I was devastated and I didn’t understand
anything. At first I thought that my mom didn’t mean
it, about me not seeing Jackson at all, and that she was just disappointed in my lies. But the next day she literally wouldn’t
let me out of the house, constantly asking me to do something for her. Then, when the week started and I had to go
to school, I wasn’t really expecting that mom would ask dad to come and pick me after
my classes. So I basically had no chance to hang out with
Jackson and I was totally confused because nobody would explain anything to me. By the way, Jackson managed to ask his dad
about these photos, but the information he’d gotten explained nothing. He said that this was Jackson’s mom’s
album so he only knew that this girl in the photo used to be her best friend, but right
before their wedding the two of them had a falling out and he’d never actually seen
her. This was all he knew, or at least all he’d
told Jackson he knew. This uncertainty lasted for a whole week,
when I decided to take a chance and beg my mom once again to explain everything. My mom probably decided to give up and tell
me everything when I promised to run away with Jackson because I said we loved each
other and that we were going to get married. I’d probably exaggerated a bit, but everything
worked out. Mom looked totally exhausted and sad, and
it seemed to be very hard for her to talk about everything. And when she was finally done with the explanation,
I understood why. Jackson’s mom really was my mom’s best
friend since the first grade. When they were about 18 years old, she met
his dad and soon after he’d proposed, because she happened to unexpectedly get pregnant. But a few days before the wedding my mom had
accidentally seen her brother with Jackson’s mom. It turned out that the two of them were in
love and that she was actually pregnant with his baby, but he himself was already married. Of course, she didn’t want anybody to know
anything, and my mom had to promise to keep it a secret, but this drove a wedge in between
them and they couldn’t be friends anymore. It’s been two weeks now since I’ve known
that my boyfriend turned out to be my cousin. Mom asked me not to reveal this secret to
Jackson, because now, since that many years have passed, nobody knows what could happen
and too many people could get involved and hurt. I promised her that I wouldn't tell anyone,
but it’s really hard to keep silent. Even though I really feel that I had fallen
in love with him, there's no way that we can be together and we’ll never be able to. Living with this and not knowing what to do
is torture. I only hope that someday I’d stop thinking
about Jackson all the time, but I know I’ll never be able to forget him. Have you ever happened to fall in love with
somebody who was totally inappropriate for you? Talk about your experiences and thoughts on
this in the comments to this video. And feel free to share it with your friends
so they know how cruel life can be.
