In Your Eyes • Dallas Winston

"Angela, dear."

The girl ignored the woman, she was much too interested in watching the weather outside the window. It was a nice distraction, a nice distraction from all this commotion that was going on.

All the commotion that was in her head at least.

     She was focused on watching the droplets fall down the window, one joining another and then another, all until they completely slid down the glass until they were completely out of her view and then she would focus her attention on another one.

The woman let out an impatient sigh, she should've known better than to think that the young girl would have been in a good mood. Especially since this was about the sixteenth time that they were going through this whole process. This process alone was already stressful, but going through it so much only put a strain on the heart and mind. And in Angela's case, she had been very unlucky, hence why she was sitting in this office right about now.

The woman began to tap on her desk as she carefully watched the girls eyes. Angela had done a good job in keeping her emotions pushed down from the rest of the world. She had even done a good job in hiding her emotions from herself but her eyes sold her out every time.

And Angela hated that about herself.

"I know this is a lot for you to handle right now, but give it time and you will get adjusted."

Angela murmured something under her breath that the woman could not make out but by seeing the look on her face she could tell it was something smart, so, she knew better than then to push and ask what it was that escaped her lips.

"Can we just hurry this up? Please, Brenda, I know how everything works by now, you don't have to keep explaining it to me over and over." Angela snapped. Her eyes were still glued on the window but her attention was now completely on the older woman.

Brenda frowned at the girls attitude but she knew it just came from a place of hurt so she could not blame the girl.

"You're new family-"

"They're not my family, none of these people you stick me with are family, so I would appreciate it if you would stop calling them that." Angel said sternly, cutting her off.

Brenda gulped out of nervousness, it had seemed the more and more Angela was in her office, the more and more she had grown an attitude. The more and more she had become impatient.

The woman watched as the girl began to pick around the skin on her nails, a bad habit that she had seen her pick up over the years. A bad habit that caused the girl to have deep scarring on her fingers for how much and how deep she scratched.

"These people, live in Tulsa, a city you haven't been to before, I think it will be nice to have a change of scenery, don't you think?"

Angela gave the woman almost a look of disgust, "I see different scenery almost every year, sometimes twice, it would be nice if it could last more than that."

Angela had known this woman almost her whole life and almost every time she saw her she came up with an opinion that this was woman was downright dumb.

The woman's mouth went into a straight line, she knew she had chosen her words wrong but she was just trying her best in trying to cheer the girl up. But she hardly ever had luck with that.

"And just so you know, Brenda, this ain't some nice program where I go and visit every stupid town and city in this stupid state, so stop trying to make it seem like some amazing trip that I keep taking." The girls eyes had finally flicked back on the case worker and they were full of so much hate and anger that it made the woman tense in her chair.

But at the same time they were filled with tears that were threatening to spill, but Angela would not let some water from her eyes make their way down her face and show weakness.

The room was completely silent, but Angela's eyes made up for that. Just like they always do.

Not being able to take the tension any longer, Brenda flicked her eyes away from Angela's piercing orbs. Shortly after, Angela abruptly got out of her chair and stormed out of the room, making it a point to slam the door to the office as hard as she could.

The office that she's been in longer than an actual home.

Brenda's heart ached for the girl, but not even half as much as Angela's did for herself.

The girls heart had been aching so much for so long that it had started to put its defenses up in order to protect itself.

And this last encounter with her last foster family hit just hard enough for her heart to completely solidify itself.

No attachments, no friendships, no trust, no hope.

Absolutely nothing.

     Not anymore.

     At least she thought.