Page 31 of Call You Mine
“Me,” Georgie interrupts. “This is my life, and I have a right to know what the plan is.”
There’s something almost rehearsed about the way she says it—like she’s practiced the sentence in her head and now she’s finally trying it out for size.
She’s barely a teenager, but she's standing there like she’s already grown, like she thinks that’s what she’s supposed to be. A kid thinking they don’t have the right to be a kid anymore.
It pulls me back to my brothers at this age—all sharp elbows, acne-covered faces, and clothes that they didn’t quite yet fill out right. They always rushed headfirst into decisions as if they knew what was best for them.
They never realized they still needed rides to the places they were so eager to get to, still slept with the hallway light on and doors cracked open, still calling my name when things didn’t go the way they thought they would.
“Of course you do, kiddo, but it’s not that easy,” Ava explains. “I barely even know what the plan is at the moment.”
“Why can’t you guys just get married now?” Georgie asks, her voice rising in volume, emotion riddling her tone with the way it cracks at the last word, like she’s bracing for a worldshe’s not quite ready to carry yet. “The quicker you get married, the quicker they’ll let you adopt me.”
“Georgie, it isn’t that simple,” Ava starts, her gaze cutting to mine, but Georgie doesn’t let her say more. “And we don’t know what CPS will find in their investigation into Mom.”
“But Patricia said?—”
“I know what Patricia said,” Ava argues, her voice rising, too, but she looks so tired. Not like she needs sleep, but like she needs someone to take on whatever weight is piled so high on her tense shoulders. “But us getting married doesn’t magically make me your guardian. It’s just one factor.”
“So do it, and then we’ll figure out the rest,” Georgie fires back, and it deepens that crack in my heart.
We.
She said thatwewould figure out the rest, as if she should be doing anything in the first place.
A kid like her shouldn’t be worrying about something like this.
“We can’t rush into anything, George. If anything goes wrong with this, if Patricia or CPS sense anything is amiss, it’ll ruin everything.”
“Why are you acting like getting married earlier than you planned will make them think something is wrong? You guys were planning on getting married soon anyway, right?” Georgie crosses her arms, eyes scanning over Ava, and I follow her gaze. Ava worries her bottom lip, buzzing with a nervous energy I can feel from across the room.
Georgie notices it too, and the shift is instant.
The attitude disappears so fast it almost hurts to watch. No more chin up, no more sharp edges. Just wide eyes and trembling hands.
The fight leaves her like someone pulled the plug; the bravado she had been clinging to draining out before our eyes.
“Ava,” Georgie starts, softer now. “What aren’t you telling me?”
It’s like watching her set down armor that was never built to fit her in the first place—that was way too heavy for her to begin with. She’s just a kid again—small, scared, looking at her big sister like Ava can still fix anything if she tries hard enough.
I see so much of my brothers in Georgie, and I know exactly how Ava feels, trying to hold it all together for someone who relies so heavily on her.
Maybe that’s why my body is moving before my brain can catch up, acting solely on instinct.
“She’s right, love,” I say, talking for the first time since the social worker left. I look at Ava. She probably thinks I’m just playing the part she asked me to play when she brought me into this—a part that comes as naturally as breathing.
One that I don’t have to fake.
“I am?” Georgie asks at the same time Ava says, “She is?”
I roll my lips together to stop the smile I feel tugging at my lips; their identical, confused faces further showing me how alike they really are, even with the years between them. “Yes,” I answer. “Georgie’s right. We can just get married sooner than we thought we would.”
If CPS needs a marriage certificate, they’ll get one.
If they need proof that Ava and Georgie live with me, they’ll move in. Hell, I have more than enough room.
Whatever Ava needs, it’s hers.
