A Little Less Pain

24

Things felt different after the night in the bathroom. Of course, one of them might rely only on the fact that Jesus felt insecure about crying in front of me, but other than that it seemed to go deeper for us. As if we were walking on glass around each other.

Something too revealing and intimate had happened, even if we were only together for an hour, we had shown each other another level to both of us. Whatever had clicked, makes me feel like I have to be careful about what I do or say around him now. I don't like this shift in atmosphere.

"Hadley? Are you almost ready?" Stef called from downstairs. We're going to a counseling session to talk about how we are getting along with the family and how we like it here. Jesus and Mariana are also coming to talk about how they feel about the situation.

"Yeah!" I called from the bathroom. I grabbed a hair-tie and put half of my hair into a top knot and mobbed out of the bathroom.

"Are we going to be late because of her?" Jesus's bitter voice broke through the air. I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen a second later.

"Are we all ready?" I asked, my tone anything but questioning. This is another turn around from that night. Jesus is so hostile towards me, I don't understand how you can go from crying on someones shoulder to hating their guts in two days time.

The ride to the office was anything but comfortable, and I can tell that Stef is starting to realize this. Despite Jesus and I sitting thigh to thigh, we didn't make any show that we acknowledged the others existence.

"Good to see you again Stef!" One of the front-desk ladies said as soon as we walked in. Apparently they're all friends through Leena.

"Hi again Maggie! This is our newest addition, Hadley." Cailie has already gone through with Brandon, so today I was the only one who had to come and meet the counselor.

"Aw it's so nice to meet you! You're so beautiful." Maggie beamed, and I gave her a huge grin that I haven't had for a long time. Jesus suddenly sucked in his breath next to me, and I gave him a questioning look only to see him staring right at me.

"You all can go ahead and sit in that first office over there, as the process goes, Stef can't go in with you all." We nodded and made our way into a spacious office with three couches and a dark wood desk in front of the windows. We all sat down next to each other.

"I'm kind of nervous." I muttered, directing it more towards Mariana, but they both looked at me.

"Don't be. This is literally just us talking about being friends and stuff." She replied, trying to ease my mind.

"It's not like we're gonna tell her how much of a bitch you've been lately." Jesus grumbled, and Mariana elbowed him against his ribs.

"What the fuck?" She hissed, and quickly looked back at me, "You've never done anything to make me dislike you, Hads, i'm really glad my moms took you in." At that I tried to smile, but I was more hurt by Jesus's words than anything. Have I been being mean to him? I have barely even spoken to him enough to make him upset?

"Hello! You must be..." The pretty woman who sat behind the desk paused to look at her clipboard, "Hadley?" I nodded and said my greetings. Since everyone already knows the Fosters, I can't help but feel extremely uncomfortable as they all talk.

"Alright, so now back to what we are here for. How do you like Mariana?" She turned her attention towards me. I immediately felt my face brighten up at this question.

"Mariana and I are really close, or at least I feel like we are. I know that no matter what happens she will always have my back and I can trust her to take care of me. I'm so glad that out of everything, I got to meet her." Mariana grinned and squeeze my hand, as the counselor nodded and wrote down things.

"That's nice that you two get along so well. Now how do you like Jesus." I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep my expression neutral, knowing that she was observing everything that I did in order to catch hesitation.

"Jesus and I have grown closer the longer I've lived with them. He's really protective over me and I know that he cares about me a lot and would never let anything bad happen to me as long as he was around." Is that something okay to say? I glanced to the side and made eye contact with Jesus.

"So would you say you're close with one of the other siblings more?" What type of questions are these?

"I guess it depends in what area. In some occasions I would rather go to Mariana for help, and others I would rather go to Jesus. I know vise versa either way I could trust them both, but I guess different situations call of it." She nodded, and wrote some more.

"Great! Now Mariana, how do you feel about Hadley living with you?"

"Well, to be honest at first I really didn't want anyone else to move in with my family. I didn't know what to expect but luckily I was surprised. Hadley is like a sister i've never had and I feel like she knows everything about me at this point. I'm glad that through everything i've gained such a close friend." I smiled and watched as the lady jotter down more and more things onto her pad of paper.

"Jesus?" Great. Lately we haven't been talking at all, and before that we were barely considered friends.

"Well, I never really had a problem with more people moving in with us, so I didn't dislike Hadley from the start at all. It took us some time to warm up to each other, but like she knows I care, I know that she is loyal and cares about me a lot. Whenever I get into a bad situation she always helps me in the end. I can count on her for everything even if we don't talk about everything like her and Mariana do." I was staring at Jesus the entire time he was speaking to the counselor, and when he was done he locked eyes with me and gave a little smile.

"Well, it seems like you all like each other a lot. I'm glad that this is a good fit for a family." After a few more questions, we wrapped up our session and went to wait in the car while Stef and Mariana talked about sleeping arrangements.

"Uh, thanks. For what you said." I awkwardly shimmied into the car next to Jesus, looking down at my fingers rather than at him.

"I meant it. I just don't know how much of that was true and how much of that was to please Ms. Olsen." I shook my head. Of course Jesus could do a complete 180 from being genuinely kind to being a rude asshole. What does he mean he doesn't know how much of it was true?

"I can never catch a break with you can I?" I laughed, even though it held no humor. "If you don't want anything to do with me just say so, and if worse comes to worse i'll move in with another family." He was about to reply as Mariana and Stef climbed back into the car. We drove home in silence among us, the only noise not making it uncomfortable was coming from the radio.

AN- YA SORRY FOR NEVER UPDATING ITS JUST IM A HUGE PIECE OF SHIT AND I FEEL LIKE THIS STORY MAKES NO SENSE ISNT GOING ANYWHERE BUT ILL BE UPDATING MORE OFTEN BC I GOT A NEW LAPTOP SO THANKS FOR READING