CLEAN || Taylor Swift Adoption

FIVE

A. N. Sorry about the re-upload, somehow this chapter got deleted :( hopefully it works now though!

"I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this..."

~EVERLEIGH~

August 2, 2019

"You want to do what?" Ashley asked, her face looking slightly shocked, but there was also something else. There had been some sort of look that she'd been giving me for quite some time now, an unreadable look that I hadn't seen her give me before. To say it was unnerving was a bit of an understatement; I was pretty sure that there was something else going on, but I also wasn't sure if it was just typical Ashley and she was preoccupied thinking about something else.

Ava and I nodded, our heads bobbing in a similar rhythm, as I mentally pleaded with my social worker to let me hang out with the Hawthornes for the weekend. "I'd update you all the time," I said, "and I can stop by the office, too. Please? I promise you I'll make it back in one piece."

Ashley seemed to ponder this over. Ava and I watched her anxiously, hoping that we'd get some sort of good news from her. This was the woman who had brought me so much bad news over the last decade, that although I knew I shouldn't hope that there would be something promising to come of this, I still couldn't shake the unfamiliar feeling settling in my chest. It was foreign to have any sort of positive feeling to feel, but especially one that was so obviously there, making its presence intently known. It was as if there wasn't anything else I could do but acknowledge that it was there.

Ashley let out a sigh. "Here's what I'll offer," she said after a moment. "You can go with the Hawthornes. You do all the things that you want to do. But you call me every two hours, on the hour, to let me know what's been going on, who you're with, and all of that stuff. Come by the office before dinner, and tomorrow, come by before I leave. If I'm not there, which I should be, just tell one of the other social workers that you were supposed to check in with Ashley, and I'll know it was you. Can we agree to that?"

I nodded eagerly, squeezing Ava's hand. "Oh my god, thank you so much!" I said, swinging mine and Ava's hands back and forth together. "You're the best, Ashley. Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Ashley said. "Thank your friend's mother. I'm only helping you a little bit. But like I said before, you really deserve this, Everleigh."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I exclaimed as Ava squealed out similar remarks. "This is actually the best day ever!"

Ava's mom came over to us as well. "Ava, why do I have to keep on telling y-" she started, but I cut her off, my excitement overflowing through my entire body.

"Hi, Mrs. H!" I exclaimed.

Mrs. Hawthorne did a double take when she saw me, looking me up and down for a while before a look of recognition crossed her face.

"Everleigh!" she finally cried. "Oh my goodness, how are you, honey?"
Throughout the many times that Ava and I had talked over FaceTime, I'd started to get a glimpse into her life, and that meant getting to know her family members. Ava and her mom were insanely close, and it wasn't too long before Mrs. Hawthorne and I had been introduced to each other. Ava had told me multiple times that at this point, her entire family knew who I was, and although I had been a little bit unsure of what to do with that information when she first told me about it, it made moments like these all the more worth it.