I felt hurt. I felt betrayed. I felt...I don't know what I felt. I felt...I felt...I felt like I was going to cry. Why? Why now of all times? It's been four months! I've lived with them for four months and they do this? Mikey followed my gaze and stopped.
"Uh-oh." I looked down and gripped my crutches. No. This was not happening! No! "Hey Riley. Let's just go okay?" Mikey asked me. I nodded and we went back to his house. The rest of the time I just sat on the bed in the guest room thinking until I fell asleep.
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"Riley...Riley...c'mon pumpkin. Wake up." I opened my eyes and saw Gerard kneeling beside the bed. "Hey sleepy head. Sorry we took so long. Did you have with Mikey?" He looked so innocent. How could he do this to me? How?
"Yeah. Where did you go?" I asked. He shrugged.
"We just had some stuff to fill out that's all. Nothing much." Nothing much? Nothing much?! Sending me back is nothing much?!?!?!?! I wanted to slap him but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
"Gerard?" I asked. He looked at me.
"Yes baby?" I looked down and tried not to let the tears start sliding down my cheeks. He saw them anyway. "What's wrong baby girl? Hm?" I shook my head and rolled onto my other side facing away from him. He had the nerve to act like he didn't know what was wrong. I felt the bed sink in a little bit as he laid down next to me. "C'mere sweetheart." I turned around and looked at him. "C'mere." I scooted closer to him and buried my face in his chest. "Shhh. It's okay." I gripped his shirt. "I know what this is about." oh really? You do? Please enlighten me! I looked up at him. "I'm sorry Riley but we don't have any other choice honey." I pulled away from him and sat up.
"Go away." He sat up too.
"Riley what's wrong?"
"I said go away! I don't ever want to see you again!" His face fell.
"Riley please. What's wrong?" I shook my head.
"Go away. You don't really care about me."
"Now listen here young lady. I do too care about you!"
"No you don't!"
"You think that because I leave you with Mikey a couple of times...you think that means I don't care about you? That I don't love you?"
"No! That's not it! I know you don't care about me because you're going to send me back to the orphanage! You're no different from any of the other families I've lived with!!!" He put his hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off.
"Riley....what makes you say that?"
"I saw you and Lyn-Z at Olive Garden with Melanie. You're going to send me back aren't you?" He shook his head and started to laugh. He laughed! What was so funny about this?! "I don't see what's so funny about this Gerard." He laughed even more.
"Oh Riley. We're not sending you back." I stopped crying. He managed to control his laughter.
"You're not?" He shook his head and smiled at me. He put his hand on my cheek and wiped away the tears.
"Of course not honey. We love you far too much to even think about sending you back." I looked down and then back at him.
"Then why were you with Melanie?" He smiled.
"We wanted to surprise you," Lyn-Z said from the doorway and walked over to us. I looked over at her. Gerard's hand fell to his side.
"Surprise me? "I asked like a little kid. He nodded. "Surprise me with what?" They looked at each other and smiled.
"Riley...we're adopting you."
