This is me trying

Invisible

~Like shadows in a faded light

Oh we're invisible~

(Taylor's version)

Grace and I walk down the stairs into the kitchen for dinner. I know she is not fine, but I don't want to push her into talking. "So, do you like mac & cheese?" "Sure." "What do you not like mac & cheese?" "No yeah, I do, it's just not my favourite." "Oh. My. God. Not possible. I will do everything to make you like it." 

We sit down at the table, that I have already set. I start serving myself food, and pass the bowl over to Grace, she barely puts any food on her plate. I know she told me her appetite is down, but I am going to keep an eye on her. 

While we eat dinner I notice she doesn't start talking, and when I ask her something, she answers very shortly. It's almost as if she tries not to talk at all. We finish dinner and without saying something, she grabs my plate and gets up. 

"What are you doing?" "Washing up?" "Nope, that's my job, you just go relax or something." she puts the plates on the counter and steps back, visibly confused.

"Were you not allowed to relax at your other placements or something?" "Not really, I was always supposed to help out and do chores and stuff." "Well, that's going to be different here, I didn't foster you to work, you are allowed to be a kid here." 

She nods, but clearly doesn't believe me "I promise. You just go relax in the living room or your room." she turns around and leaves the kitchen. 

~

I finish the washing up and walk into the living room and much to my expectations, she's not there, she went to her room. 

Grace has clearly been through a lot in her life, and is struggling with it. 

~

I am scrolling through my phone, deep in thought, so I don't notice Grace walking behind me until she  closes a cupboard with a little noise. 

"Sorry, I was just getting a glass of water." "That's okay honey, you're allowed to drink and eat anything you want, when you want to." she nods and fills the glass she just grabbed with water, before disapearing upstairs again. 

It's almost as if she tries to be invisible, like she thinks she's not allowed to live like a normal human being. She tries not to talk, or even make any noise at all. 

I look at my phone, time flew past, it's already 11 pm. I walk upstairs to get ready for bed. I brush my teeth and change into my pyjamas. I decide to check on Grace before I go to bed. 

I knock on the door, but when I don't hear Grace after a few seconds, I decide to go in. She was already in bed, asleep, and I quietly walk over to tuck her in. Just before I reach the bed, she shoots up and scoots away from the side of the bed I was standing at. "Hey, don't worry honey, it's just me, I came to tuck you in." 

She calms down a little and lays down, but is clearly still alert "You're safe here, no one can hurt you here." she calms down a little more, she is starting to believe me. I sit on the side of the bed and pull the covers up to her chin, I grab her hand, and just hold it for a bit "Goodnight Grace." I get up and start to leave the room, not really expecting a response "Goodnight Taylor." 

I walk out and quietly close the door.

~ 

I wake up around 8 am, and get up out of bed. I get dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I walk downstairs, assuming Grace is still asleep, but hear a bit of sound in the kitchen. I poke my head around the corner, and see Grace putting some plates on the kitchen table.

"You have been busy." Grace quickly turns around "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." "It's fine, you didn't scare me." and tries to walk away. "Aren't you going to eat?" "I already ate some." "Will you still join me? We could chat." "Sure."

We both sit down at the table "This looks great." I say. "Do you cook a lot?" She nods "Do you like to cook, or did you have to in other placements?" Grace looks down a little "I was supposed to cook in most placements, but I don't mind doing it." "Well, if you feel like cooking you can, but you don't have to." She nods again.

~

After I finished eating, I made Grace relax in the living room, she still wanted to do all the washing up. I walk into the living room and sit next to Grace on the couch. "Watcha doing?" "Just scrolling on tiktok a bit." She mumbles. At that moment, her phone rings. She looks at me, not knowing what to do, since there was just a number on her screen. "You can pick it up, maybe it is from your social worker or something."

She takes a deep breath and picks up the phone "Hi, this is Grace." She says. "Put it on speaker." I mouth, after she looks confused. "My guardian is listening with me now." "Hello, I'm John, I'm from the LAPD. I am calling you following up on the interview you had regarding your foster father. I am calling because we would like you to testify against Ralph Johnson in the court of law." Grace looks at me with a terrified look in her eyes. "Why would she need to testify against Ralph?" "Yes, there was evidence in the form of a video, but it would be a stronger case if she would also testify." "Sure, I'll do it, if we can make sure he goes away." "Great, I will keep you updated with dates and locations on the trial. Have a nice day." and he hangs up.

"Are you sure you want to do this? A trial can be very heavy." "Yeah, I don't want him to get away with this." "Okay, but if you don't want to do it, just tell me and I will take care of it." she nods "I will." 

"What do you want to do for the rest of the day?" she shrugs "Why don't you go take a shower and get ready and then we can figure out what to do next." "Sure." she says, and walks upstairs. I walk upstairs aswell to get ready. 

I brush my teeth, and put on a little makeup. I decide to just put my hair in a ponytail. I walk over to my closet and grab a pair of jeans and a sweater, it's a cold day. I walk back downstairs and wait on the couch for Grace to be done. 

~

She has been upstairs for half an hour now, and I decide to go check up on her. I walk upstairs and knock on her door "Grace can I come in?" I listen for response but don't hear anything "Grace are you okay?" I hear her breathing heavily but still no response "Grace I am going to come in now." I give her a couple of seconds before actually opening the door. 

Walking in, I don't immediately see her, but when I walk further into the room, I find her curled up against the side of her bed, crying. "Oh honey." I say and walk a little closer to her. She looks up and scoots away a little, clearly terrified. "You're safe honey, I'm not going to hurt you, I am going to sit next to you okay?" she nods and I sit down on the floor next to her 

"Can you try and breathe for me? Just follow my breathing." she takes a couple small breaths, but is still struggeling. "Do you want a hug?", she nods ever so slightly, if I would've blinked, I would have missed it. I quickly wrap her in a hug, and I feel her slowly melting into me and calming down a little. We sit there for ten minutes before Grace pulls away from the hug. "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine." she almost whispers and wipes away her tears before getting up.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" "No I'm fine." "We don't have to talk about it, but we both know you're not fine." she doesn't respond and just looks down, avoiding eye contact. "Come on, let's watch a movie for the rest of the day." she nods and we walk downstairs. 

About ten minutes into the movie, Grace is already sound asleep. She is a little bit of a mystery to me.

So a little bit of a longer chapter, because I kept you all waiting for so long, but I hope you like it! I am open to suggestions and I will try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible.