A Place in This World - Taylor Swift x Fem OC

Chapter 14

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Sometimes, Arina wonders if her mothers were truly ready to be moms.

Don't get her wrong, she thinks they're amazing parents and even better humans, but sometimes she's just not so sure they were grown up enough.

She'll never tell anyone (other than Taylor, and maybe you guys), because her moms saved her life and she can't just decide they're not fan-fucking-tastic after that simply because they forgot her age once or twice.

They were young when they adopted her, and it also didn't help that it was a German woman and a African American woman adopting a Indian child in the small town of Tennessee. Nobody thought they were capable of being good parents expect for their daughter.

But you know what happens. Just as a single pebble can start an avalanche, a small rumor can become the truth if you belive it too much.

"The dress doesn't fit. Why doesn't it fit?" Arina questions to her mom, pausing before she takes a deep breath and tries to suck in her stomach as much as possible.

She'd been ecstatic when they told her they were to harsh and she can go to the dancer if she wants to, but now, trying to squeeze herself into the dress they bought for her last year during junior prom to no avail, she kind of just wants to crawl into a hole and die.

Later on in life, she'll probably tell you she wishes someone would've explained bloating or organs to her, because despite how smart she is, standing in front of her mirror looking at her side profile, she truly just wonders when she got so fat.

Lia grumbles softly, coming up behind her and tugging on each side of the zipper in an attempt to get it closed. It doesn't work.

"It fit last year....you just got too big."

Now, she probably didn't mean it in the way she said it (probably being the key word). But still, standing there with the knee length black dress on up to her stomach with the zipper still hanging open, she can faintly feel the feeding tube that went into her nose for months in the mental hospital like its right there again. Its not, obviously, because she eats about one and a half meals now and is getting much better, but for a second its like she's back in that room, convincing herself her stomach was getting bigger while the nutrients entered her body.

It's all to much, and the second her mom leaves the room, she's right back in sweatpants and a hoodie despite the hot early June weather. She grabs her keys and backpack, and for the first time since the night she fainted in the gym, she climbs out her window and scales down to the dying lawn.

She doesn't look back like she used to.

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Austin regrets not being a better friend.

Maybe it's when he sees Arina and Tim around school, planning out their summer vacation like him and the poet used to. Maybe its the fact that his sister (whom he never thought even spoke to Arina a few months ago), now knows so much more about the dark haired girl than he does.

Either way, it's all his fault.

He thinks about that at school during his math quiz. He thinks about it while searching through his closet for a suit to wear to the dance. He thinks about it while laying in bed most nights, and he thinks about it while biking to Arina's house to tell her this.

The teenager is only about 4 houses away from his best friends when he sees it.

Mrs and Mrs Patel, sitting on the porch of the old house with tears streaming down their faces. He gets deja vu, but maybe he should just call it "vu" because this is exactly the house looked like the night Arina went missing before she was found in the gym the next morning.