"Ava? What on earth are you doing here!?" My mom shouts as soon as she opens the door, I step in.
"Wow, nice to see you too Ma." I take my bag off my shoulder and land it on the floor with a thug.
"Making yourself at home?" She raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah I figured I could stay a few days to get my head on straight, that ok?" I know my mom will say yes, she's been desperate for me to live with her.
"Of course dear, there's a spare room upstairs. I'll take your bag." She looks at me like I'm an alien, like I'm not even real.
I let myself into the fridge and take out a can of diet coke, opening it up and taking a nice long swig and then burping shortly after.
"Oh honey, you're plenty old enough to have a glass of wine with your mama, don't you think?" She takes a bottle of wine out of the wine cooler- of course her house would come with one.
"Mom, I'm sixteen." I remind her.
"And I had my first glass with my mom at fourteen." She says matter of factly.
"No I'm good, this coke is all I need." I could see a shift in her eyes and I got a bad feeling in my tummy, maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Also mom, it's not even two in the afternoon?" I realize then that she's been drinking all morning, her robe reeking of wine and liquor.
"Do you take shots right out of bed too?" I mumble.
"Ha, you think you're so funny dear Ava." She stumbles over her robe then and saves herself by catching onto the counter.
"Mom, you almost broke your face right there, how about we put the bottle down." I carefully put my hand over hers and we set the bottle down gently.
"You don't get to tell me what to do young lady, you never have! Why do you think you're in foster care? Huh?! Because your father and I didn't want to deal with you, that's why!" She's drunk, she wouldn't say that to me, would she?
I back away slowly, fear rising into my body slowly.
"You're not going anywhere! You arrived on my doorstep willingly." She snatches me by the shoulder of my shirt and seethes.
NATALIE POV
I cannot believe Ava would do this! She could get herself killed running away! I pull into the Harriet and Hudson's driveway then, and put the car into park, turning the car off immediately. I fling myself out of the car and run up the porch steps where Harriet is pacing back and forth.
"Oh Natalie! Thank you so much for coming over!" She engulfs me into a big hug and I instantly feel calm and reassured. I made a big mistake.
"Where is she? Why did she leave?" I have a million questions as does Harriet I'm sure.
Harriet takes a step back and sighs, looking at me like I should know the answer to that.
"Yeah, it's me. I know that truly." I sigh and look at the ground ashamed.
"I'm not saying what you did was wrong but Ava has not been the same since you've left." Harriet admits and I know she's been hurting too since my departure.
"Where is everyone?" I then step inside and notice a very empty house.
"Emelyne and Adam took Lily to go look for her and Gar and Hailey teamed up. I've never seen the kids so distraught before."
"And Hudson?" I step into the living room, the TV still blaring.
"He's out on his own searching. If she's missing for more than twenty four hours, we have to report it to the police and it won't look good on our end." Harriet shakes her head.
"Where in the world would she possibly go? She hates her mother and father after what they've done to her, she hates me..." I start to choke up because I've truly lost my best friend Ava, how could I have been so stupid?
"She doesn't hate you, she loves you and she's just missing you." Harriet wipes away at a stray tear then.
"I guess I'll start visiting her favorite spots." I shrug my shoulders, feeling hopeless.
"Did she mention anything at all that might deter where she would have gone?" I ask, trying to get a lead somehow.
"She's been really closed off lately, I'm afraid."
"Alright, I'll let you know if I have any updates." I give Harriet one last hug before getting back into Debbie's stupid minivan.
AVA POV
My mom is not a very nice drunk, I mean I always knew so but today she's extra mean. I need to find a way out of here but she threw my bag upstairs. I need to distract her somehow. I pretend to be a klutz and knock over the bottle of wine, it hitting the wooden floors, shattering and red liquid puddling making it look like a crime scene.
"You stupid bitch!" She screams and I jump.
She rambles off something in gibberish as she goes into the pantry to grab paper towels, I take that as my chance to run up the stairs and grab my bag. I get to the bottom of the stairs as she's kneeled down on the floor, wiping up the wine. I run to the front door, yanking it open and running down the steps and far away as I possibly can.
"Help! I need help!" I start to scream, feeling hopeless.
I land in the middle of the street and I'm like a deer in the headlights, no literally, there's headlights beaming in my face as I'm face to face with a white minivan that stops just before taking me out.
YOU ARE READING
Foster Sisters
Teen FictionAva and Natalie grew up in the same foster home in Cincinnati, Ohio. They came into the home both at eight years old and now sixteen. They became very close and consider themselves sisters even if it isn't by blood, they're best friends. What happe...
