The Foster Kid (GirlxGirl)

Chapter Thirty Two

~Dani~

The month before Beca's eighteenth birthday was one of the longest of my life.

I hated thinking it, but having to tread lightly around her at all times was difficult and tiring. I knew it was terrible of me to compare the difficult time that Beca was having to my experience simply caring for her, but it was the truth. Her state varied from extremely hostile to scarily quiet to bitter and sarcastic, and it was really hard to keep up with.

Every once and a while though, the Beca that I had seen before she was sent back into her group home resurfaced and made me smile, and that was hard to overlook. I meant every word that I had said to her. I wanted to be with her, both physically and in a relationship sense, and I didn't have a problem with waiting until she was ready. I knew it would probably crush me if it got to a point where she'd never be ready for both of those things, but that was something that I forced myself not to worry about.

I couldn't do anything the week before Beca's birthday except think about the fact that she was turning eighteen and finally aging out of that damned house that seemed to be driving her insane. Even after Daya aged out, she was clearly still having a lot of trouble mentally and I wasn't sure why. I had to assume that it had something to do with Quinn, the girl she'd mentioned twice now, but she clearly didn't want to tell me what had happened so I was more or less left in the dark.

When Saturday finally came, I woke up, went to the gym and then slugged around my apartment until I could head to Beca's group home. She had given me a specific time to show up, a time that apparently all the girls were usually occupied during so that we didn't have to worry much about someone seeing me and getting skeptical. Almost as soon as I pulled up, Beca was throwing her bags in my backseat and hopping into the front, sighing heavily.

"I'm out. I'm really out."

"Just clarifying, this is good, right?"

She sunk into the seat, shifting her focus towards me as I drove off. "This is more than just good. That house holds so many bad memories, one in particular that I relive every time I walk in the front door, and to simply not have to do that anymore is honestly one of the best feelings in the world."

"What's that feeling like?"

She shrugged. "I feel liberated almost... free, like.. like I had chains on my ankles holding me back but I don't anymore."

I made a left towards my apartment. "Well that's got to feel pretty amazing."

"You have absolutely no idea."

It seemed like she wasn't up for talking much, which I was okay with because it allowed me to steal glances at her while she was looking out the window. Her complete demeanor had shifted from just the day before. Yesterday her shoulders were slumped, there was a permanent frown on her face, her eyes were dull and she lacked emotion in all aspects, but today, things were different. There was a joyful sort of light in her eyes today and she didn't seem so empty.

She seemed, as she had put it, liberated.

When I pulled up to my apartment, she grabbed her bags and headed straight for my bedroom. She let herself fall back into the pillows and she closed her eyes, mumbling, "God I missed this bed."

I sat down on the edge, smiling. "I missed you in it."

She opened her eyes, holding herself up with her elbows. She brought her hands to my face and pulled me into her, falling back and kissing me with a passion that she had seemed to lack for the past couple of months. "I missed you."