I sat at the kitchen table playing with the food on plate, emotionless. The moment we arrived Suzy and I were given food at the table and told to eat. Neither of us were hungry. I looked around the kitchen, everything was remodeled and looked absolutely stunning.
Carrie was still talking to the foster parents – Kimberly and Marcus. It was only three in the afternoon and all I wanted to do at this point was just sleep my life away.
"I'm not hungry." Suzy pouted, dropping the fork on the plate of mac and cheese. "I don't want to eat. I want my mommy." I watched as her eyes became watery, and she started crying. She's six years old, ten years younger than I am. That's an entire decade, why does she need to go through this? I hate this.
I turned away from her because watching the tears fall from her bright green eyes made my heart ache. Standing up, I got off the stool chair and looked out the kitchen window toward the backyard. There was a dog back there, a big old Saint Bernard. "Suzy.... look, its a doggie." I motioned, turning to look at her again. Her big ole eyes got bigger and she hopped off the stool and came running to me. I picked her up onto the counter and pointed out the window to the Saint Bernard laying down with it's head sticking out the dog house.
"Let's go play with it." Suzy said, putting her hand on the glass. I nod my head, setting her back onto the floor. The both of us went out the back sliding door and into the yard.
Immediately the pup stood up and started barking. We walked closer, and noticed it was chained up to the dog house. I went toward it first and started to pet it as it licked my face. A laugh escaped my mouth causing Suzy to come over and pet the dog, only for it to tackle her to the ground with kisses. She laughed, and laughed causing me to join in with her some more.
I forgot where we were for a bit – everything felt surreal, at the moment I was fine with how life was. A few minutes later, Kimberly came out smiling at us. "I see you guys like Kovu." She said, walking over to us. We both stopped playing with the dog simultaneously and moved away. "It's okay, you guys can play with him. He loves kids."
Glancing at Suzy, I nodded my head to her and she went back to playing with the dog. I stood up and leaned up against the dog house watching her play with him.
"So Alexis, Carrie was telling me that you went to WestBrooke High..." She said walking over to me.
I nodded my head, keeping quiet and listened as she told me about the school a few streets over – Meadowlane Highschool. I've heard of it of course. I've seen them when they came to our school for games, not my favourite crowd. But I can't stop me going there. It's either I do, or I repeat senior year.
I tuned Kimberly out and stared at the grass, no thoughts filling my mind – just total blankness. I had nothing on my mind, well atleast I think I didn't.
"So you'll go to school tomorrow, Carrie's gonna call WestBrooke and have all your information transferred over." She explained, catching my attention. I nodded my head, and moved back a few feet away from the dog and sat on the grass. "And Suzy, you're going to start school at the elementary school at the corner of this street tomorrow okay?"
"I'm in first grade." She said, standing up,
still petting Kovu. Kimberly laughs, and pets Kovu aswell.
••••••••
"This is Cora, my daughter." Kimberly says as a girl a few years younger than me walks through the front door with an elderly woman. "And this is my mom Cheryl."
I waved at the both of them, nervously, both of them smiling and waving back. "New people?" Cora asked, tossing her bag down. Her mom nodded at her, and Cora came over. "Hi, I'm Cora Peters. And you guys are?"
"Alexis Deaken." I stated, staring at her, if I had to guess her age I'd say around thirteen.
"Suzy Rodriguez." Suzy replies, sternly making me chuckle. I pat her head awkwardly, and then retracted my hand when I remembered she wasn't an animal.
"I'm twelve." Cora says randomly, flipping her curly blonde hair over her shoulder with a smile on her face. "I also do dance, which is why I'm dressed like this. It was nice meeting you all, but I have to go." She says, before running up the stairs not giving anyone a chance to respond.
Kimberly smiled at us, "She's a crazy one. You'll like her, trust me."
Suzy took off into the other room after that to go play with Kovu some more. I stood there for awhile, until I ended up in the kitchen sitting with Cheryl and Kimberly and talked. It wasn't about anything in particular, but just talking to ease the awkwardness.
Lindsay's POV-
When I opened the door to my house, Grayson and Gabriel stood on my doorstep. I stared at the two of them questioning why they were at my place, it was becoming night time, and I still had no clue where Alexis' was and honestly I just wanted to be alone.
The thought of my best friend possibly being dead continues to lurk in my mind as the days go by. It's bad thoughts – I know, but I can't fucking help it. I don't know where she is, or what she's doing, or even if she's okay.
A cough interrupted my thinking, and I looked at Gabe who's fingers were in his hair. "You're probably gonna wanna hear this." He said, taking a step forward.
The reason for them being here, finally clicked in my head, and I immediately gripped onto their wrists and pulling them into the house, slamming the door shut behind me. "Where is she? She's not dead is she? Please, God, please, tell me she's okay."
"Let's sit down first." Gabe said, pulling me into the den, and we all sit around on the couch. I stared back and forth from Gabe and Grayson.
Truthfully, I'm not a fan of either of them because they took my best friend away from me. I barely ever see her and when I do, she's with these two. Ever since she started being friends with them I felt like she left me behind. Even after she told us all about her step dad, she still always went to them.
Never to me. She chose them over me, and I know she didn't mean to but it still bothers me. We promised eachother nothing would come between us but these two idiots did. They came in and stole my friend, my sister, my family.
"Alexis was here today, we seen her this morning for a bit." Grayson spoke, catching me off guard. My eyes widened, and I gasped.
She's alive? She was here! Wait, wait, was? So where is she. "W-was? Why was?" I said, my voice shaking as I talked. Where did she go? Did she run again? God Alexis! Stop running for Christ's Sake!
"She came to get her things, I guess child services came and got her. She never went into full details about what exactly happened. All we know at this point is she's living with a foster family. They called a little while ago and told my Dad." Gabe said, "Well... our Dad."
"She knows you guys have the same Dad?" I asked him, remembering when he outed about it at the lunch table the other day. Him and Grayson showed up to school for once to see if she was there but she wasn't so they came and talked to us, asking if we heard anything – until Gabriel told us that him and Alexis are siblings.
He nods his head, sitting forward on the couch, "She knows, she also knows my Dad is trying to take custody of her. The court date is next month."
"That's a long time." I sighed, running my hands through my hair. One month without Alexis here.
"Do you even think she'll make it a month on her own with people she doesn't know?"
"Of course she will." Grayson said, defending her. "She's been living on her own for so long now this month won't be hard for her. They said the family she's with – they're nice, it's something I know Alexis isn't gonna try and run from. Especially if she wants to come home in a month. We told her to behave, I know she'll do her absolute best."
"But, since we know how she works, we'll be expecting atleast one slip up from her." Gabe adds in. I nodded my head, listening to the two of them talk. "We just have to hope she doesn't. Thankfully though, we're allowed to call her once a week. So I was thinking on Saturday when we can, we all meet at my house."
"The rest of our friends too right?" I said, referring to Madison, Caleb, Dean, Austin, and Brett. "They've gotta be there aswell."
"Yeah them too. Just be there around Noon." He said, standing up. "Oh and by the way, do not say a word to any of this to anyone besides your little squad. It's news that shouldn't be brought up to people she didn't know that well. If anyone asks, Alexis is with her grandparents living with them for a bit because one of them is sick."
"Gotcha." I said, walking them to the door. "Hey guys," I said as they walked out the door. They stopped and turned around. "Thanks for coming to tell me. I really appreciate it."
"No problem." Grayson said. Once they left I called Brett and told him.