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“How do you know this one will be better?” she whispers, doubt dripping from every word. “We’re either just a paycheck to them and they neglect us or we deal with shit like this.”
“It has to get better,” I declare, pushing as much hope and happiness into my voice as I can. Brushing my annoying hair out of my eyes, I smile down at her, enjoying the way her eyes light up when I do. “This is rock bottom, Allie cat. There’s just up from here.”
Alayna opens her mouth to speak as a young looking caseworker comes in, a sympathetic smile on her face. My blood runs cold as I look at her, knowing this isn’t my case worker or the one that was helping me get us out. The door opens again and Mr. Trenton enters, his briefcase in his hand and the normal take-no-shit asshole look on his face.
They’re going to separate us, I just know it.
“Mr. Hallows,” Mr. Trenton says before anyone else speaks. “Would you please come with me so we can get you to your new placement?”
“He’s not leaving me.” Alayna shouts out abruptly, her hands shaking in her lap as she looks between the two of them. “We’re going to the same placement so you can just tell us together.”
“Miss Morgan,” the young woman says, her voice kind and soft. “Alayna. Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of placements, especially for older kids, we have to split you up.”
My heart starts beating wildly in my chest, the panic at being separated so much stronger than I expected it to be. This whole time I thought I had prepared myself for this situation, but I didn’t do it well enough. We’re being torn apart and there’s no way I can just sit back and let it happen.
Chapter Three
“Like fuck you will,” I sneer, pulling back my shoulders and step ever so slightly in front of Allie. Everything about this situation has me in full protective mode. “You’ll separate us over my dead body.”
“Declan,” the man steps forward, his voice dripping in disapproval. That’s just super fucking awesome. As if his disappointment means anything to us. “That’s enough. You are both almost eighteen years old, start acting like it. You will be coming with me either willingly or by force. We don’t have time for this.”
The stare down between the social workers and us is causing tension in the room that isn’t going unnoticed by anyone. The old, greying man with his patchy salt and pepper beard expects me to come just because he snapped his fucking fingers. Just another adult thinking that we need to do whatever they say because they have some misplaced authority over us. It’s horseshit and I’m not doing it anymore.
This is all their fault. Every traumatic memory, every deep seeded scar, is because these people couldn’t do their jobs right. The system is so broken and every day it gets worse. The fact that ourtorturewent under the radar for this long, is unacceptable. I’m done trusting everyone except the sweet girl beside me.
They walk towards us, Allie’s scream of no shreds my heart into little ribbons as I desperately try to hold onto her. She’s pleading with them not to take her, the nurses and social workers not caring what they’re doing to us just like always.
“Don’t you fucking take her from me!” I scream, my voice deep and hoarse. Tears threaten to spill from my eyes, but I hold them back. No fucking way will I show weakness in front of these people.
“Declan!” The male social worker yells, trying to move my attention away from where they’re taking my Allie cat. “Declan, calm down right now.”
“Fuck you!” My anger flips to him, yet my eyes never leave Alayna’s beautiful grey ones. This could very well be the last time I see her, and I’m going to soak in every fucking inch of her that I can. I knew this was a possibility, that they would separate us, but I never imagined it would hurt this much. The pain I see reflected in Allie’s eyes, is the same agony tearing my heart out of my chest right now. They’re going to rip her away from me, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
This isn’t right. None of this is RIGHT! They can’t just tear us apart like this. Alayna needs me, almost as much as I need her. There is no way in fucking hell that I’ll calm down to make this easier on them. We may be out of that hell-hole of a foster house, but that doesn’t mean they can take her from me. We’re meant for each other. She’s the only person in this whole world that I actually care about. They can’t just rip her away from me.
My hand is still in hers as we both desperately fight to stay with each other. Alayna is turning hysterical as the nurses move toward her, my fighting getting even more frantic with the sound of her terrified screams filling the room. Our hands get torn apart, my fear for Alayna making my hands sweaty and causing me to lose the last connection I have with the love of my pitiful life.
The man comes behind me, pulling me backwards away from her, and effectively killing any will to live I had left in me. Helplessly, I watch as the nurses slide a needle into Alayna’s arm, taking away her fight and causing her to go limp in their arms. Alayna’s screaming pleas for me die out, her eyes closing in sleep.
The tears are falling freely down my cheek as I push and kick, just needing to hold her in her state of vulnerability. She hates being vulnerable. Every part of me is fighting so hard to reach her, but the stupid fucking social worker is holding me back as they take her from the room. I throw my elbow back into his gut, getting him to loosen his hold just as two nurses also grab me and hold me down to sedate me.
My eyes stay on her as long as they possibly can, tracing and memorizing every beautiful feature as the icy numbness of the drugs move through my system. This is it, the very last time I’ll get to see her. They stole everything from me in this fucked up system, why I ever thought I could hold onto her for any length of time is beyond me. Good things never happen to me, and if they do, it’s never for long.
The drugs hit me hard, knocking me back into unconsciousness. Not even the memory of Allie’s face is there to greet me, just the endless abyss of emptiness. It’s what my life is and what my future looks like. Nothing.
***************************************************
“The Millers are a nice family,” Mr. Trenton repeats for the hundredth time since we started this drive. He seems to think everything is fine, even after he tore me away from Alayna and drugged me to make me comply. “You’re very lucky we were able to find them on such short notice.”
Nodding blankly, I stare out the passenger window and pretend I’m not fantasizing about punching him in the face. How he could even think it’s okay to call any of this situation lucky is beyond me. The homes that came before this one were sure as hell not lucky. The fact that I had to bring the evidence to CPS and the cops just to make them save us was not fuckinglucky.
No one in this fucking system can be trusted, they’ve driven that point home so many times I’ve lost count. The shitty people have won and the lesson has been learned. Trusting anyone in this system, or the fucking world for that matter, is how I’ve turned into the person I am. Weak, pathetic, broken, and worthless.
This foster house won’t last long, not with my eighteenth birthday right around the corner. Tonight, I take matters into my own hands. Living on the streets has to be better than putting my life in some other asshole’s hands. The time for hope has long since passed.
“Please just try to make this work, Mr. Hallows. You are not my only case right now,” Mr. Trenton sighs, parking the car in front of a cookie cutter suburb house. “This family has been thoroughly vetted, you won’t have any issues here.”
“’Kay,” I murmur, undoing my seatbelt and pushing the door open without even a glance in his direction. My eyes take in the house a bit more, practically gagging on the stereotypical white picket fence family home. It looks so innocent from the outside, but so did most of the others. Lots of pretty packages can still contain horrible insides.
