Haven

Chapter Twenty

Saturday took its time, but it finally arrived. Alex had informed me that my social worker would be paying us a visit on Saturday morning, and I couldn't exactly kick up a fuss since I needed to keep Alex sweet so I could go to the party.

Ella had decided to come, along with Kenzie and Chloe, some other girls from school we had befriended. Well, Ella befriended, she was the social butterfly. So we would all go to the game together, and I'd meet Jamie afterwards and go to the party with him, his friends and the girls.

As it happened, we were pretty much the only sophomores going, and they were going cause Jamie told me to bring some friends if it made me more comfortable. And it did. Ella needed to get out and have some fun, I felt bad that I was preoccupied with a boy.

So I had my shower early, and threw on a matching gym shark outfit, knowing Alex would wanna work out some way before he let me have my own fun. He had a date night of his planned, thanks to me. I had convinced Madison to bring him out, have some drinks and distract him from worrying about me.

I tried hard not to be moody, but when I came downstairs after getting dressed and found the social worker sitting in the living room with Alex, I felt a death glare form on my face instantly. He'd never really done anything that wrong, I just fucking hated him.

"Hello there, Jaida." He greets me, peering over his glasses at me. I can't help but look him up and down. He wore cheap brown slacks, an ill fitting blue shirt and a hideous brown tie with lil cactus on them, they put this guy in charge of me? Seriously? But what bugged the shit out of me was his fucking chins, like 3 of them all covered in stubble. Have a shave, you fucking loser!

I barely nod at him, opting to sit on the arm of the couch right next to Alex, hoping that expressed my disinterest in speaking to this guy. Alex gave me a pointed look, I knew he wanted to yell at me for being cold towards the prick in the room, but he couldn't if he wanted his adoption papers.

"How have you been getting on since the last time we spoke?" He drawls, looking at his file, probably to remember what I even said the last time we spoke.
I scowl, he really irks me. Just the sight of them makes me wanna punch him straight in the throat.

"Fine." I say to him, and then realize I can't just say that. It'll effect Alex and I if I do. "Way better than before, I actually get treated like a human being here!" I continue, and Richard has the decency to look mildly humored by my outburst.

"Jaida!" Alex warns, moving out a seat and pulling me down gently to sit next to him on the seat. "Please behave yourself. I'm only gonna ask nicely once." His hazel eyes bore into mine as he tips my chin so I look over at him. I nod, not wanting to get us both into trouble.

I try to soften my glare, as the damned social worker watches our encounter in fascination. Probably surprised that worked, back in the day if he tried that I would've punched him in the throat or at least I would've told him I wanted to.
"Well your teachers say you're thriving, I see you've had a check up done with the doctor and everything's fine." He remarks, licking his finger as he leafs through files. I cringe, everything about him disgusts me. "And you haven't scared Alex away yet."

I look at Alex unable to control the wtf expression, and he barely holds back the laugh, his lips twitching. Seriously?
I look back to the social worker. "You are aware that he's my dad. Or did you miss that part?" I fire back at his insensitive comments.

He gives me a bored look, I can tell he's starting to get pissed off at me. Which is good, he pisses me off just by breathing so it's only fitting that I get to piss him off too. "Yes Jaida. That's why I'm here." He drawls. "I just have to make sure you're happy and everything's going well."

I sigh. "Yes I'm happy!" I tell him, and Alex puts his hand on my back, trying to get me to contain myself. I glance at him, and he's smiling at me. Which is a huge surprise. I thought he'd be pissed that I was horribly rude to this guy. Maybe he's realizing how much of a prick he is. "Everything's great, and I don't wanna leave. So just say whatever you have to, if I never see any of you people again it'll be too soon." I tell the social worker, but do give him a half smile and he chuckles. It's not a love/hate relationship but he definitely finds me entertaining when I'm not ruining his life.

He does write something down, but I think he'll be happy to see the back of me too. "Okay well Jaida you'll have to meet with other social workers in the next few weeks, on your own. Are you going to be okay with that?" He asks me, what choice do I have.
"Yeah that's fine." I agree, through gritted teeth. Why can't he just send an email of all this stuff to Alex and stop wasting my time.

He nods, but looks back at me one final time. "It's important that you're honest with us, there'll be no turning back once this is done." He tells me.
I sigh in exasperation. "Good!" I wanna scream. "I don't wanna go back!" What isn't he understanding.

He looks to Alex with a smile on his face. "I see you've made some real progress here." He remarks. "Her hostile attitude is only due to me, I can tell she's doing great. I'm very happy to say I'm satisfied with this set up." Alex sags a little, and I feel relieved too. He probably thought I blew it by being an asshole to the social worker but he deserved it. And he knew he deserved it.

So I sit there quietly, waiting for him to just leave, but he and Alex go through a couple other boring things first.

Once Alex sees him out, he comes back to the living room, with a bit of a glare on his face. He walks over to me, takes me up by the arm and lands a few heavy swats on my backside as he lectures me. "I don't know what possessed you to behave like that, it's unacceptable in this house and you know it!" I try to twist and turn to avoid his hand but he has such a firm grip on my upper arm that I can go nowhere but dance around. Swat after swat falls, me begging him to stop for ages before he actually does.

When he does, I instantly rub my burning bottom, extremely thankful he didn't use the belt.
He gives me a hard stare, before pointing at me. "Don't ever do that again, I don't care how much you hate the person. You'll be polite and respectful, if there's an issue that needs addressing I'll deal with it!" He warns me, well barks at me.

When I don't say anything, he raises his brow.
I pout. "Yes sir." I mutter, looking down at the carpet. I was pissed off at him for punishing me over that jerk, he was an asshole to me for years. But I didn't wanna screw up going out later, so I forced myself to be mature and get over it.

When I look up at Alex, he's smiling rather goofily at me. I raise a brow in confusion.
"You called me your dad." He beams, and I roll my eyes.
"Well you are." I shrug, not getting why he's so happy I said it.
"I've never heard you say that." I shake my head, smiling.
"Baby steps." I remind him, as he pulls me into a hug. "You're into hugs, huh?" I remark.

He chuckles, shaking his head. "Not especially, but I missed 15 years worth of hugs." He reminds me, as he pulls me along behind him to the kitchen.

He dragged me out for a hike, insisting we had lunch together before parting ways to get ready for our respective date nights. But we had a nice day together, the tension of our meeting with the social worker dissipating.

Once the afternoon was over, all my energy shifted into being excited about my Saturday night date.