“Yeah, it’s everything else that always goes to sh*t.”
Zoe managed to school her expression, swallowing the pain down and burying it deep inside. She withdrew her hand and shrugged his off her shoulder, tucking her chin into her chest.
His fingers hooked under her chin suddenly and he pulled gently until she turned to look at him. She was surprised by the vulnerability she found there and her mouth fell open.
”I mean what I said, Zoe. I want to trust you.” Shock washed over her, and she just barely managed to blink it away in time to feel his lips press against hers softly.
He exited the car then, bending to swipe his shirt off the ground. Her eyes catalogued his movements as he left. The way his muscles bunched and flexed as he pulled the shirt over his head. The slight tilt of his head as he tried to act casual. His shoulders dropping minutely as the weight of what just happened hit him.
She knew that’s what it had to be because she felt the exact same weight on her chest, bearable but heavy nonetheless.
*****
“He’s malnourished, a little dehydrated, and he needs to take better care of his medication but he’s not in any danger,” the doctor informed them once Zack’s tests had come back.
“Thank God,” Zoe said with relief, flopping down onto the seat.
“He’s going to need closer supervision, and I had to call social services.”
“Wait… what?” Zoe said stiffening up.
“Your brother is severely neglected. There is no way we can release him back into that environment.”
Zoe stood again reaching out her hands to the doctor. “What if I took him? What if he lived with me?”
The doctor shrugged. “That is something you’ll have to take up with social services. They’ll be here shortly.”
Zoe nodded stiffly, hands shaking.
“Wh-when will they be here?”
The doctor turned her head toward the lift. “They should be here right about… now,” she said as the elevator doors opened and two people in ill-fitting suits stepped out. They looked like federal agents. Zoe could feel all her defenses revving up and tried to push away her natural reaction to authority.
*****
It was nearly midnight when Zoe got home, dirty and exhausted. She stopped in the kitchen to rinse her hands and drank two glasses of water and then quietly entered the living room. “Mom? Are you awake?”
*
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*
“Yes, Zoe, I’m in here,” her mother called out. She was sitting by the front window, a stack of books on the table next to her and one in her lap. Fortunately, she looked calm. “Did you take care of everything for us?”
Zoe nodded and sat on the edge of the couch across from her. She hated being dirty, but needed to talk with her before she went upstairs to shower. “Yes, Mom, but you can’t do that again. She wasn’t any danger to us, she wasn’t out to get us, and…”
“You do not know that, Zoe! You don’t know how the world works! You don’t know what those people want to do, what they’ll do with us, to you!”
She leaned forward and took her hand. “It’s okay, Mom, it’s okay. We’re safe, she’s gone. I’m just saying that it would be better if we avoided any notice in the first place.”
“You don’t know,” her mother muttered. “The government, they’d take him and put him into a home. Those homes, they’d abuse him, that’s all they’re for. The only reason people want foster children is for the money and so they can abuse the children, that’s what they do, Zoe. Take money from the government, and they don’t feed you and they’d ra*e him, and…”