Armored

8

Kevin:

"Why not?"I asked softly.

"I just don't want to."

"Don't want to what?"

"Be used and pitied."

"Oh... well from what I can tell, they don't seem like the kind of people to do that. I think they genuinely care and want to give you and Rosie a forever home."

Soon she tired herself out after her little meltdown and stood there slowly blinking, telling me she was going to fall asleep soon. I then carried her bridal style to her room, laying her onto the bed, where she contently got under the covers and fell asleep.

Ashton:

"Well that was unexpected," I started as Izzy ran off after we asked her the question we'd been wanting to ask since we got there.

"No ish erlock," Michael grumbled, to which we all gave him odd looks.

"Oh no. I've been hanging out with Roxy too much," he muttered in fear.

Roxy was our wacky friendly neighbor. She was 19 and practically grew up next door to us. She was quite the rebel or at least that's what she thought, but in reality, her attempts at being bad were like a puppy barking at you. You can't help but laugh at how cute it is. She was like our collective little sister. Our Kimmy Gibler if you will. She's a pain in the ass for the most part, but we love her nonetheless. Anyway, back to the situation at hand.

"It's nothing personal, she's just more sensitive to talking about the past than she wants to believe," Mrs.Johnson said, coming out with Rosie, who was occupied trying to untangle a wad of yarn.

"What happened? I mean I know what happened, but what made her shut out the world?" I asked.

"*sigh* I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than even I know myself. But from what I know about her past, the poor thing's been hurt so many times, she's afraid to trust anyone anymore. The system has failed both her and her sister so much I think she's just trying to protect her self so she can protect her sister. She's pretty much raised Rosie on her own and she won't let anyone in because she doesn't want anyone hurting her sister."

"Oh my."

"Hoover damm.."

We all gave Michael puzzled looks at his comment.

"What?" He shrugged.

The rest of us rolled our eyes at his commentary before going back to the topic:

"So what can we do to get her to let us in?"

"I'm afraid there's not much that can be done. She's a stubborn one, sometimes too much for her own good. All I can say is, you show her you're not leaving and she'll come around eventually. She's hurting a lot more than she lets on. She's so scared of getting hurt, she's pretty much closed herself off from anything good. But I think that deep down, she knows that doing what's best for Rosie means letting you adopt them. Speaking of which, who's going to be the one signing the papers for adoption?"

"Probably me since I'm the oldest-"

"What no way this was my idea!"

"Shut up Luke. I think of all people am the most qualified-"

"Wha-"

"All of you shut up! Now, which of y'all are single."

"That would be me," Calum said raising his hand.

"Okay, then you'll be the one signing the papers since you're likely the one with the least amount of prior commitments to attend to."

"That's fair," we all responded in failed unison.

"Well, then it's settled! I'll go see what's taking Izzy so long and get the papers for Mr.Hood to sign, in the meantime why don't y'all spend some time with Rosie and get acquainted."

"Yes ma'am."

With that, Mrs.Johnson went to go get Izzy while, Rosie continued playing with the tangled up yarn, looking up at us with the cutest look of innocence. I hope Izzy comes around because the longer we were there, the more and more certain we all were that we were making the right choice with these two.

*hopefully it's okay*