Hero (Tom Hiddleston)

9

"I get why you turned him down," Kyran sighed. "But I really wish you wouldn't have. The idea of you in a group home makes me sick, Shae."

"I know," she replied simply. "But I couldn't do that to him. I mean... I don't even know why he would offer something like that. It makes literally no sense."

"Maybe it would with anyone else," he told her seriously. "But with you? I totally get it."

"Shut up, Kye," she groaned. "That was disgusting."

He laughed. "I know, I know. But it's true."

"You're doing it again."

"Well sorry."

She didn't answer, just taking a deep breath and enjoying the moment.

He broke the silence after a few seconds. "So... do they know where they're gonna send you?"

"I guess so." She exhaled slowly. "Pauline had one chosen, but she didn't want to mention it to me until after I talked to Tom."

Before he could respond, a knock sounded on her door, and she looked up sharply. "Just a sec, Kye. Someone's here."

She lowered the phone as the door opened, revealing Pauline herself.

Shae forced a smile, though she was inwardly willing the woman away so that she could continue her conversation with her best friend.

The woman responded to her tight expression with one of her beaming smiles. "Shae, dear, I have fantastic news for you!"

She was talking again before Shae could even consider responding.

"You don't have to go to the group home!"

"Where am I going instead?" she asked softly.

"There's a couple who just adopted out their last foster kid and agreed to take you!" Pauline exclaimed, her eyes shining. "Isn't that amazing?"

"Uh... yeah," she replied, forcing another smile. "That's awesome."

"You'll still leave tomorrow," the ecstatic woman explained. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to your evening, but I thought you'd like to know."

"Thanks," Shae responded with one last faked smile, before Pauline left the room and she breathed a sigh of relief, raising her phone to her ear once more. "You hear that?"

"I did," Kye replied. "That's great."

"Yeah," she sighed. "it is."

"So what's wrong?" he asked. "Cuz you don't make it sound so great."

"No, it really is." She shook her head slowly. "It's just hard to get excited about anything anymore, that's all."

He exhaled, and the pain in the sound killed her. "I get that. I'm so sorry, Shae."

"Don't be," she told him hurriedly. "I'm just... messed up... anymore, that's all."

Because that was just it. She was so screwed up that it didn't seem like anything was gonna fix it, ever again.

Time-Skip Sponsored by Electric Eels

Karen's car was waiting to pick her up the next day after school. Shae knew that her single bag of belongings would be inside, and that Karen was about to take her to her new home. She should be excited, should be happy to leave behind the past ten months for real. But she wasn't. It was natural to be nervous, she knew, but the rising panic inside of her wasn't just a little nervousness. It was completely and total terror of what the future held. She hated it at the recovery center, but at the same time, at least she was used to it. She had no idea what even to expect from the people who had offered to take her into their home. Why on earth would they even want someone like her? No one else did. At least, no one else except Tom.

She shoved that thought away, squaring her shoulders and walking to the car, sliding into the passenger's seat. Karen offered her that smile as she started the car.

"You ready for this?"

Shae forced what she hoped looked like an excited grin. "Totally."

Karen knew she definitely wasn't the talkative type, and she didn't try to force her to be, simply flipping on the radio and beginning to sing along softly to Taylor Swift's "How You Get the Girl". Shae closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She could do this. She'd be at school most of the time anyway. It was only a year and a half. It would be fine.

The drive wasn't a long one, and the neighborhood was nice. Nicer than anything Shae had ever lived in before. She'd lived a lot of places, and they'd certainly made it by just fine between her dad's military salary and her mom's work as a hairdresser, but they'd never been rich, and they'd either lived in on-base potions or apartments or town homes that were just off. Shae missed those on-base homes. She missed breathing in military everywhere you went. She missed seeing the uniforms in every direction. You never felt safer than you did surrounded by all of those soldiers. Of course, she'd never feel as safe as she had with her dad around, ever again.

And maybe that was why she was so scared. Because she was about to step back into a "family". No, it wasn't her own, but... it was just terrifying. The thought of anything close to her life before her parents had died with anyone except her parents was sickening. But she had no choice in the matter. And it was either that or something way too close to the hell she'd been living in for the past ten months.

Karen pulled the car to a stop outside one of the houses, then turned to her, beaming in excitement. "Here we are. Let's go see what's up."

Shae swallowed hard, struggling to calm her breathing and show no outward sign of her inward panic. She just pulled her backpack onto her back, grabbed her other bag from the backseat, and stepped out of the car, timidly following Karen up the front steps.

The woman rang the doorbell. A dog barked inside. Footsteps and voices approached the door. There was no turning back now.