CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

TWENTY-FOUR

A/N: Merry Christmas, y'all!! Here's another update as a treat :) sorry I haven't updated much in the past week, I've had a lot to get done for the holiday, but I've finally had some time to myself where I haven't been too overwhelmed to write. Also, I've been working on a new project recently that may or may not get published on here... we shall see. But if you have other ideas for this project or another one (Taylor or not) that you want to see from me, please don't hesitate to reach out!! I'd love some ideas to fill my time on break!!

"We talk and window-shop..."

~EVERLEIGH~

August 8, 2019

I woke up the next morning and walked downstairs to where Taylor was sitting in the living room, watching an old rerun of Grey's Anatomy. At the sound of my footsteps on the stairs, she paused the show and turned to me, a smile spreading across her face.

"Good morning!" she said cheerfully. "How did you sleep?"

"Well," I replied, giving her a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"Of course," Taylor said, standing up from the couch and moving towards the kitchen. "So we have the rest of today and tomorrow morning here in California, before we'll go back to Nashville," she said. "So I was thinking that we could go shopping today and finally start filling up that new wardrobe that I promised you."

She had a smile on her face, but I chewed on the inside of my lip, looking around the room with a concerned look on my face. I didn't want Taylor to be spending all of her money on me. I was just some foster kid that she was taking care of until she got tired of me to the point where she would ask Ashley to move me to another placement.

Taylor placed her hands on the countertop, looking at me with an expectant look. "What's going on up there?" she said, tapping her finger against the side of my head.

"Nothing," I replied instinctively. "I'm fine. Sorry."

Taylor shook her head slightly. "Ever..."

"Shopping sounds great," I said, putting on my best smile. She didn't need to know that I was hesitant towards everything. I was already being stupid for hinting to her the slightest bit that there was something going on. "Thanks, Taylor."

She seemed to understand that I wanted to end the conversation, because she gave a small defeated sigh, but smiled at me, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Great. We can leave in a couple hours—no rush or anything," she said. "What would you like for breakfast?"

Shit. "Uh..." I trailed off. "I... uh... you don't need to do that, Taylor."

Taylor furrowed her eyebrows in response. "What do you mean? Of course I'm going to feed you," she said.

"I just..." No. Don't say it. You can't say it to her, not now, not like this. "I'm not a huge breakfast person, that's all," I said after finally settling on some sort of excuse.

"Oh, okay," Taylor said. "Well, why don't you just eat a little something before we head out, just because I don't know what time we'll be back later and if we'll be having a really late lunch. Can I just make you some fruit or something?"

She really wasn't going to give up, and I had no clue why. We hadn't really had breakfast on any of the other days that I had been staying with her, but then again, this was the day that seemed like we had nothing out of the ordinary to do. Still, there was a part of me that wished she would just give up. Why did it matter so much to her if I ate breakfast? It wasn't like I was going to starve or something.