The unfortunate adventures of Sarah Richards

Chapter twenty-three ~sudden change~

The next morning, an emergency custody switch was pleaded to a judge and jury. The next morning, i sat in a city hall waiting room with my baby brother while my parents signed papers in one room and Thea signed even more in another. The next morning, my parents requested to take custody and guardianship of Thea Poe Larkin. My girlfriend was going to be my adopted sister now. What would happen if we split up? Would we split up? What about the necklaces? Oh well. She was already going to be a big part of the family. Later, i intended on making her a bigger part by asking her to be my wife. But that would be at least five years post custody switch.
Lucky for me, Orwell stayed asleep in his carry-around car seat for most of the time we were in city hall. Conveniences of everything being scheduled to happen early in the morning. When he did wake up, it was because my parents came back from their signing bit. And he didn't cry.
A few minutes later, they were called into a room in the back by a woman in a pressed black pencil skirt and matching jacket. I assume she was a lawyer of some sort.
I may have squeezed my brother a bit to roughly as an anxiety based reflex while i waited for them to return. Or for any word on Thea.
Then she came around the corner. Her hair was a little messy. My girlfriend had this very adorable habit of running her fingers through her hair to calm her anxiety. And her face was stained from tears.
"It's done." She whispered, throwing her arms around me after my mother plucked Orwell from my arms.
"I knew it! You're safe now, doll. They can never hurt you again." I whispered, holding her as tight as i could and swaying a little.
"We need to go get everything from your apartment, then it's done." My father told Thea when we finally could hug no longer. She stiffened a little.
"Your parents are not allowed to be there when we go. So i say, since they are at work now anyway, we go now. We'll be right there to help you." He added, patting her shoulder gently in a way in which only an awkwardly supportive father can.
Thea looked at me nervously, "let's go. It's gonna be okay." I whispered.
My mother had been packing Orwell back into his car seat while we spoke. "Your father and I need wine to celebrate so i figure we can grab boxes from the nearest liquor store to move with." She said, holding the door open for the rest of us after handing the car seat to my father.
"Only if i get to "celebrate" with you." I teased.
"Absolutely not!" She laughed, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear before we piled into the van.
"So girls, i know the two of you are still in what seems to be a very committed relationship so there needs to be some rules about the fact that Thea is moving in with us..." My mother piped up when my father went in to get the wine and empty boxes.
'Great.' My heart sank a little though i had known it would be this way. We couldn't just continue staying up all night and fucking around in my room forever.
"Alright." Thea said timidly, giving her a small nod.
"Firstly, you can't keep sharing the same room. It's not that i don't trust you or don't want you together, but school will start eventually, you two will need space and Thea i assume will want some place to call her own."
Nodding slowly, i acknowledged that she did have a point. And perhaps she didn't trust us. It's not like either of us would end up pregnant but i wasn't going to argue.
"Honestly you guys could treat me like a drill sergeant treats an army student and i'd still be thankful to be out of my parent's grasp." Thea laughed.
"Alright, well, we'll be a lot easier than you expect i guess." My mother paused to laugh.
"And bed time is going to be at ten." She finished.
"Come on, maaaaa!" I whined jokingly and pretended to pout as though i were five years old again.
"Is nine better?" She countered. "
"No ma'am." Thea laughed in answer for me.
"You both are gonna have responsibilities too!" My dad called from the back of the van where he has returned a few minutes ago and was currently trying to jam boxes into every open space.
"Yes." My mother agreed as we again started driving but this time towards Thea's apartment building.
"How does having what used to be the guest room all to yourself?" My father asked Thea.
"That would, be more than enough. Thank you!" My cute, blonde girlfriend replied excitedly.
"Right, how do we find your apartment?" I turned to face Thea as we parked on the side of the street. "Eleventh floor. Room eleven zero seven. We'll need to take the freight elevator if we're moving things. My bedroom is all the way at the end of the hall parallel to the front door." Thea rambled off quickly. I got the feeling that she had long awaited and rehearsed leaving her family.
"Let's go then!" I cheered, hopping out of the van.
It took us nearly two hours to get everything out of the apartment and into my parent's van. The only things we didn't take were as follows; the bed frame, the mattress and box spring, the book case, the dresser and her desk. The guest room at my house already had those things.
Once we had checked around the house for anything else that belonged to Thea, we left.
"Good riddance! And may i only see this place in passing on the way to school!" Thea cried, sticking up her middle fingers in the direction of a window from her parent's apartment as we crammed back into the van again.
"We did it!" I whispered, grabbing my girlfriend's face and kissing her deeply. Yes, my parents could see. But they were gonna have to get used to it.