It's been a while since Corey told me he was getting emancipated from his parents. He's filled out all the paperwork, gotten permission from his parents (which was ironic), and I'd agreed to go with him to the court hearing, for emotional support. Afterwards, Corey and I had decided to move in together. Between us we had enough money to buy an apartment, and we had found one that we liked. Until we could move in, Corey was going to stay with me and my family.
"So how do you feel about all this?" I asked him the night before the hearing.
"What part of this?" Corey asked, laughing a little shakily.
"All of it I guess, it's a lot of change. You know, you leaving your parents for good, us moving in together."
Corey shrugged, "It feels weird, like I'm glad I'm gonna be free of them...but they're still my parents, I just...I think it'll take me a while to get used to. I'm really glad we're moving in together though."
"Me too, and I completely understand. It's all gonna be ok you know, I'm always here for you." I said softly, hugging Corey.
"Thanks, I'm always here for you too." Corey whispered, hugging me back.
The next day we had to go to court, I could tell Corey was feeling nervous, he was shaking a little, and biting his nails.
"Y/n...I don't know if I should do this..."
"Corey, you've come really far already, you can do this."
"Yeah but they could still make my life really miserable, especially if I do this, they could-"
"What? What could they do? Corey, it's ok. They can't do anything anymore."
"They could, they could spread things around about me and try to stop people from hiring me."
"If they did that, it would just make them seem like even worse parents and damage their reputation. Don't worry so much Corey, it's all going to be ok."
Corey nodded and smiled weakly.
When we got to the courtroom, Corey hesitated before going inside.
"I feel sick, I can't do this."
"It's ok, you're just nervous. You can do this, come on. I'm here with you." I said, squeezing his hand. Corey nodded and we went inside.
The hearing was just about the most uncomfortable experience of my life, all throughout it Bob and Sheila Feldman were looking at Corey as though he'd betrayed them, and at me just the same, because I was on his side. Corey had to show the court that he was mature enough to function as an adult (somehow this was approved, I disagree) that he could support himself financially, and that he had somewhere to go after all this was over. I knew Corey had been especially nervous that this wouldn't get approved, and that he'd have to go back to his parents, who he knew would make things even worse for him now. But all was approved of, and thankfully soon enough, the hearing was over. When we went outside the courtroom, Corey breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I'm so glad that's over." he grinned.
"Yeah me too." I laughed, Corey's smiled faded as he looked at something over my shoulder, "What is it? What are you looking at?"
Corey swallowed, "It's my mom."
I turned around, and Sheila Feldman was walking over to us, a smile almost as false as Samantha's plastered on her face. "Hi Corey, can I speak to you for a moment?" she asked.
Corey stood, frozen still for a moment, and then he nodded. "Ok." he whispered. Corey and Sheila went around the side of the building to 'talk', and it was only about two minutes before Corey was quickly walking back over to me. "Quick, let's go." he said, grabbing my arm.
"What happened? What did she say?"
Corey groaned, "She was guilt tripping me, she was saying 'How can you do this? I'm your mother, you wouldn't even have a career if it wasn't for me.' and 'What am I going to do without the money you make? You're such a disappointment.' She made me feel like I was the one who'd done something wrong."
"Well you're not. She's the one who abused you, and used you for money, and she's going to have to learn to make her own money and not rely on you for once. If she didn't want you to do this, she shouldn't have abused you to the point where you don't want to be around her anymore. You've done nothing wrong, nothing at all." I said firmly, kissing his cheek.
"Thank you." Corey smiled.
"Come on, let's go home." I said, grabbing his hand.
So for the next couple of months, Corey stayed at my house with me and my family. My mom had always liked Corey, and always couldn't stand his mom, so she was making a big fuss of Corey, making sure he knew we were all there for him. My dad liked Corey just fine, but he was extremely suspicious of us when we were together, he made us keep the door open when we were in my room together, and he made Corey sleep in the spare room, although he often sneaked back into my room after my parents were asleep. Sheila still hadn't given up on getting money from Corey though, and she kept calling us and demanding to speak to him. But she stopped that after my mom picked up the phone once, my mom absolutely ripped into Sheila, saying how could she do this to her own child? Especially after he'd been made so miserable that he didn't want her in his life anymore, it was one thing to use him for money, she said, but it was another to make him so unhappy he wanted to be rid of her, and yet still try to use him for money. It was right then, that I knew my mom was definitely one of the cool moms. It was cool having Corey stay with us, and I think he liked having adults around who actually cared about him and treated him properly, but I couldn't wait to move out. I'd been counting down the days, and now it was only 3 days until Corey and I would finally live together, alone.
I just wondered if we'd be able to make it work.
(A/N: Hey, thanks for reading this chapter, I'm sorry if the emancipation stuff didn't have enough detail, even after the research I've done, I still don't really know much about how emancipation works 😂 Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, next chapter you're moving in together with Corey 😉 Stay cool and I'll see you next chapter!😘)
