adopted by andrew rannells

(2)

Of all the places I'd imagine I'd be today, the hospital was definitely not one of the plausible options. When you're expecting to be sold by your shitty parents to some guy for money that would've gone straight to drugs or alcohol, it's kind of unreal they got caught so easily. Still, it was at the same time reassuring at is was absolutely frightening that my parents would most likely spend the rest of their lives stuck in a jail cell.

Matthew had explained he'd been an undercover police officer for about two years now, and over the time he'd worked in the city of Omaha— this was the first case of my kind. That was a little worrying, considering how painful it was to go through, yet it was normal for me. Life seemed unusual, but since I was being 'homeschooled' by my parents, it never once phased me that my life wasn't going to get any better. But, I suppose, things change.

The kind police officer had gotten backup at my house, and I witnessed my own two parents getting detained and roughly pushed into the backseat of a police car. After that mildly traumatizing scene, Matthew had brought me into the local hospital and gotten all my injuries checked out.

Apparently— and this was a bit of a mouthful, even for someone like me— I had internal bleeding, a few fractures, cuts on my arm and head that needed stitches, burn scars, and also just a lot of bruises. Hearing that wasn't all that surprising, but it still made me take a step back. A giant step back.

"Lunch, miss?" A calm voice made me snap my head upwards, paying attention to whoever was talking to me. An instinct almost made me get up and go do the task that was asked of me, but when I saw a nurse, I let my shoulders relax once more. It would've been a little hard with an IV stuck in my arm, anyway.

"Hi, there," she smiled, and since I was probably the second hundread person she'd asked this question to in the past hour, she seemed a bit exhausted. "What kind of soup would you like? We have chicken noodle, tomato—"

"Chicken noodle is fine," I let her know, letting a small small crack onto my face. This was probably my first proper meal in a few months, at least. "Thanks."

She nodded promptly, leaving my hospital bed. I felt kind of empty once again, but in a strange way. Multiple questions buzzed in my mind, but there was so much confusion and other ideas it was hard to grasp onto one before it floated away into another. A thought of my parents somehow getting out of court and slipping away as non-guilty made my heart drop into my stomach. I think that would be worse then my sixteen years of living, combined into one moment thus far.

A few minutes later, the nurse who's name I didn't know returned with a tray that held soup, crackers and a plastic cup of OJ. I smile her way and thank her as she leaves once again.

The soup burned the roof of my mouth as I started to literally started to drink it, but I've dealt with much worse than fucking soup being hot. The only thing that stops me from consuming this soup was my lack of oxygen, but I took a deep breath and continued to probably give my throat second-degree burns. I could've given less interest, though.

"Hey— uh, Keira?" I start to lower the bowl from my face as I see Matthew enter my room again, literally in uniform, giving me a half-hearted grin. Guess he decided to come back uninvited. "Mind if I come in?"

I shrug lightly, not minding Matthew at all, since he'd kinda saved my entire ass. "Nope."

He smiles, this time taking a seat next to me. To be fair, it was a surprise he wasn't somewhat afraid of how I looked, because of the little bit I could see of myself you could've mistaken me for a corpse. I'm sure I was a necrophiliac's wet dream. "How're you holding up?"

"I'm alive," I sigh melodramatically, making Matthew let out a laugh, which surprised even myself. "No, um... I'm okay as I can be, I guess."

"Yeah— after something like that," he shakes his head, changing the subject around quickly. "Anyways, I have CPS coming to pick you up whenever you're admitted out of here. But, y'know, for legal purposes I have to ask if you're willing to talk about what your parents did to you. Clearly what we saw tells enough and can get them almost certainly a good amount of time, but it's just good to have the victim's view in court. Legistics 'n stuff."

Matthew's offer struck me as not surprising at all, but it was still a lot to take in. Either way, I knew my parents would be going to jail for a long while. Did I ever want to see them again? What if in ten years, they're changed people? Would I want to see them and try and see through their apology? I stayed silent for a couple moments and decided the answers to all three questions were all 'no'.

Bit by bit, I started to tell Matthew the basic details of my life, the one's I'd been dying to tell someone for as long as I could remember. Now, though, it all seemed a lot more hard than I had made it out to be in my dreams. It was hard to speak about my past, from the moments I'd spend curled up in the fetal position on the basement floor for hours on end, to the brief moments where my mother or father would strike me across the face and tell me nothing I would ever say would be of value. For once, it felt almost fine to be reliving those memories.

"So, um, I guess that brings us to today," I mutter, tugging at the thin sheet covering my body, staring down at my lap, like I'd done for thirty minutes straight. My voice got quiet, suddenly, as I started to feel guilty about wasting Matthew's time on my problems. "Sorry, I know it's—"

"Don't apologize," he waves me off, not really taking any of it. "It's okay. Thank you— really, Keira— for telling me. I'll make sure they never see the light of fucking day again, and that's certain, alright?"

The swearing wouldn't of caught me off guard if it was from someone else, but from Matthew, it was probably the only sincere thing that someone has told me. "Thank you."

He nods his head, smiling, as he takes a stance and looks around for a moment. "Well, I'd better be going. I should have time to stop off tomorrow, what'd you want?"

I furrow my eyebrows. "Huh?"

He looks over to me as if I was a little slow, but then probably remembers I've lived my life in subtle isolation. "I'll pick you up some food. What do you want?"

After I tell him McDonalds, since that was really the only fast food chain I knew of remotely, he headed out after a quick goodbye. I guess being sold didn't turn out as terribly as I thought it would initially.

///

HI THERE

ITS ADELE/KEL

im so excited for tjis book u dont even know ok kiss kiss enjoy