Hopelessly Falling [book 2]

Chapter Fourteen

*TRIGGER WARNING*
Begins at the marked "TW"

XIV
• • •

LAYLA'S POV***

~flashback~

        "Layla Monroe, come with me please," Karen said over to me as I was lying on my bed. The rest of the girls looked up at me as I silently walked out of the room, growing nervous of Karen's potential wrath.

Once we were outside the bedroom door, she shut it and began walking towards her office. I followed closely behind, fiddling with my sleeve. Once we were in her office, I awkwardly watched as she sat down in her chair.

"Listen, Mrs. Briggs, whatever you think I did, I'd like you to know that I was merely an accomplice... I mean, I turned fourteen a few days ago and I'm not going to deny the fact that some tomfoolery occurred on my birthday- but I was more so the helpless victim than the perpetrator... that being said I don't plan on ratting out any of my fellow-"

"Layla, calm down, you're not in trouble," she cut me off with a chuckle. "I just needed to make it seem serious so that the others don't catch on that you're my favorite," she told me with a smile, and I returned it. "Please have a seat."

I took a deep breath and sat down in the chair in front of her desk. Although I had began to be able to maintain a perfectly in-control, almost comedic exterior.. I was almost always panicking like hell on the inside.

"Do you remember what I told you when we first met?" She asked me.

"Um... hi my name is Karen Briggs?"

"A little after that," she grinned at my little quip. I shrugged, not knowing what she was getting at. "I told you that I would find you a loving family to take you in before you were old enough to be in high school."

My eyes darted down to the ground and I shrugged again. She had told me this. I just never thought anything of it.

"And?" I asked, not trying to be rude.

"Now you're old enough to be in high school," she commented, and I nodded. "We've probably introduced you to dozens of families who wanted to take you in, but you never gave them any chance. If you don't like a family that's one thing, but you never intended on liking any of them in the first place," she said, and I held back from rolling my eyes.

"I don't need a new family! I already have one!" I snapped. "Just cuz my psycho mother doesn't want me doesn't mean that my brothers don't."

"Layla, you can't stay here until you're 18. As much fun as you are to have around, you just can't. It wouldn't be fair to you or you're social development."

"My brother will be 18 in no time! I'll just wait for him-"

"Layla." She cut me off, sighing and looking me in the eyes, an overwhelmingly sad emotion present in her eyes. "You're mother completed this transaction in such a way that you won't be able to be traced back to this vicinity. It's virtually impossible for your brother to find you here by the time you're 18, let alone him. Don't ask me how- I'm assuming she might have completed the transaction illegally, but, unfortunately that's the case," she told me, and I felt myself tearing up.

"W-what?" I looked at her for an explanation, for comfort, for love. All things I seemed to be lacking in my life.

"I'm so sorry, Layla. Legally we are not allowed to make efforts to reach out to him. I'm sorry," she said. I continued to stare down at the floor, lost in thought as a single tear fell down my cheek.