"Will Kallie stay or will she go back to her real family?"
Kallie's heart raced.She held still.No one ever talked to her about her mom.
"Unfortunately, her mom was released from prison last year," her foster mother said, voice low and annoyed."She went right back to using."
Kallie froze.No one told her that her mom was out of prison.
"She doesn't want anything to do with Kallie," said her foster mom."Apparently, she told the caseworker she doesn't want to be a mother.Not now, not ever."
The neighbor clucked her tongue."Poor girl."
Poor girl?Kallie's throat tightened.
She stared at the dog, giving up on the hole and walking to the opposite end of the yard.Maybe the information her foster mom received was wrong.But deep down, she knew that was the truth.Her mother wasn't coming back for her.
Her mom didn't want her.
But hearing two women talk about her life so casually, like she was a burden no one wanted, broke something inside her.
She stood, not wanting to know anything more.Not wanting to hear her foster mother sigh dramatically and talk about a kid who came with too much baggage.Not wanting to hear the neighbor offer pity like a gift.
She slipped around the side of the house.The neighbor's dog barked once, then fell silent upon recognizing Kallie.
Her heart pounded.She sucked air into her lungs, unable to breathe.
She didn't even remember what her mom sounded like anymore.She couldn't picture her face without it blurring into something half-imagined.Six years was a long time to forget someone who was supposed to be unforgettable.
Anger burned hot in her chest.Her mom's choice to go back to using drugs was only an excuse to abandon.
Fisting her hands, she muffled a scream.She was angry at her mom, at the state, at every adult who promised things would get better.At every kid who teased her about her clothes, her hair, or her circumstances.
At every house that wasn't home.
At every adult who thought she was the way to get a new car.
"I hate this," she whispered."I hate all of it."
She hugged herself.A longing so sharp twisted inside of her, pulling at her to leave.To get away from everyone who hurt her.
Away from this life.
Away from this town.
Away from the endless cycle of being unwanted.
If she could go anywhere in the world, she'd go to Finn.Her chest ached for reasons she couldn't explain.Four years was a long time to go without seeing someone, but she remembered exactly how he looked at her.There was nothing frightening about him.He'd talked to her, invited her to eat at the restaurant, and offered her a vacant home in town, even though she was young.
During the time she was with him, she wasn't a problem to fix or a burden to carry.He'd offered her ways to feed herself without the foster care system paying him.
She remembered the town, too.The strange quietness.The men who watched her.The way the air had shifted when she'd stepped onto that road.
She remembered feeling...different there.Safe, in a way she'd never felt anywhere else.
She closed her eyes and tried to picture the road.The curve of it.The trees.The way the clouds covered the sky.She tried to summon the memory hard enough to make it real again.
"Please," she whispered."Just take me back."
She opened her eyes.
