Deal With It ✓

Ten: Party Prep

Song: She // Harry Styles

Thank you for 500 reads!

This chapter was so much fun to write (especially Rose's POV).

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I've learned how to power through my lack of energy– I just had to force myself to do the work, to engage in activities such as making breakfast or sitting through meetings, and push the thought of being at home to the back of my mind.

It wasn't the healthiest method, but it worked wonders, I was able to complete my work efficiently and do whatever I had to to prove to Amber that I was a good legal guardian. I just had to suppress the urge to scream out in frustration and ignore my body's protest at doing more work– doing nothing didn't help my case, it made me look like a bad legal guardian.

So, for now, I had to prioritize Amber while I ruminated on Mr. Harrison's words– I had to prove that I had her best intentions at heart. It slowly set in that right now, with the CPS agent, it didn't matter what I wanted, it didn't matter how I was doing, what mattered was that the minor was in proper care, my sister had to be in good hands.

Or else they'd take her away from me.

"La famille est toute," Was my dad's mantra. He believed that nothing was more important than family, he even said it before he died. Now that I think back on it, I realized that it was a reminder– he was telling me that nothing would be more important than the both of us– than me and my sister. Now, if I would have to apply his wise words to my current situation, Amber was my only family, so she was everything. She was of importance, and she would have to be my prime concern.

She was everything, and if ma famille didn't stay together, then everything would fall apart.

Then I would've failed my father.

I've already got Mr. Harrison calling me a failure, I didn't need my conscious reinforcing the thought any more than it already is.

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What Amber had said the other night stuck with me for longer than I'd like to admit. I let the thought ruminate for a while, and I had decided that the reason we spent time together was because I'd pick her up from school and drive her home or to a restaurant to have lunch. She had no other choice than to hang out with me, it wasn't like she could jump out of the car, plus the girl loved to eat, so she'd never pass up the opportunity to scarf down food. But because I haven't made the time to pick her up lately, we rarely got to talk to each other anymore– she had school and I had work.

Deciding to put my worries at rest I informed Amber that I was going to pick her up from school every last day of the week so we'd spend time together. Sure, the thought of the workload that I'd miss did nag me endlessly, but if it meant proving the CPS agent wrong, then I'd do it without question.

I parked the car in the drop-off zone and sat patiently in the driver's seat drumming my fingers on the steering wheel as Darlin' by The Beach Boys blared out of my car's sound system. My gaze darted around the front of the school and as the students filed out of the main entrance, I couldn't help but look over at the benches where I once caught my sister and some boy talking. I suppressed a gag at the thought of Amber flirting with a pimple-faced boy. It was the day that dad had told me to pick Amber up from school and drive to the hospital. I smiled at the memory of me embarrassing my sister by blasting Deepthroat out loud and locking the car's doors so she wouldn't be able to climb in.