A/N: So a new story, set after 2x10 and totally disregarding the Braille kiss. And yeah... please don't hate but feel free to rate and/or review if you want to (constructive criticism is ALWAYS welcome and appreciated) :D. Oh and this chapter is kinda short...
Summary: After 2x10 (Somebody's Little Sister), Callie gives up/ takes on a whole other personality. (Basically rebelling to push them all away). Not only this, but a different Adams-Foster also reacts badly to the news and stuff happens... Sorry this is a pretty suckish summary :/
DISCLAIMER: I'm more likely to own the world's first belly-dancing unicorn than I am to own The Fosters. Sad, but true. Oh, so true... *sigh*
CHAPTER ONE
She couldn't tell them. Every time she opened her mouth to say the dreaded words, something would stop her. Her throat would seem to clog and her mouth would dry as she temporarily lost the ability to speak. But even if she could, she wasn't sure that she would.
Looking around the cosy, welcoming living room, she couldn't stand to be the reason for Jude's smile to fall, for Lena's soft, caring brown eyes to fill with disappointment, for Stef to be forced to comfort her family. Most of all, she didn't want their pity. After everything she'd put them through - all the attitude, hurt, and heart-ache- She didn't want them to find feel forced into showing her sympathy. She had, as they all very well knew, ran away, kissed Brandon, and betrayed their trust - every single one of theirs - and they didn't deserve it. They shouldn't have had to put up with it... with her. So she didn't tell them.
Not when they first got home and Stef questioned when (and why) she'd left early. Not at dinner when the family wholeheartedly congratulated Brandon on his and the band's excellent performance (a conversation that had then led on to how kind and generous Robert had been to host the event and what a nice man he was). She didn't even say anything when Mariana called her her sister whilst Jude gushed about her finally being adopted and how excited he was, even though she felt sick to the core as she agreed with her brother and would-be-sister, lying to their faces as they discussed court dates and celebratory dinners.
It was only later on, when everyone else was in bed and asleep, that she allowed herself to admit it. To admit that she'd been wrong. Wrong to hope, wrong to believe in good intentions, wrong to think that something might actually go her way, for once. If she hadn't been so upset, she would have laughed. Silly little Callie, thinking things would work out, that good things could happen to her, what an idiot. If she believed that then she deserved all the disappointment she felt and all the disappointment yet to come. It was her own fault.
She shook her head and sighed. She should have known by now that nothing ever went her way. Nothing. So why bother pretending otherwise?
A single tear slid silently down her cheek, though it was soon followed by another and another and another. Angrily, she wiped them away, before clenching her fists and digging her nails into the palms on her hands in an attempt to stop herself from crying. It didn't work. Soon the few tears had became a fast flowing river, her body shaking from her silent sobs as she desperately tried not to wake Mariana. Slowly her tears subsided, and her breathing evened out. Sitting up, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and sighed. She hadn't felt this bad - this much pain - in a long time, and she knew exactly why. She'd allowed herself to get emotionally attached to these people, despite knowing that nothing worked out for her. But worse, she'd allowed them to get attached to her. Which meant that when she left - when Robert forced her to leave - they'd be hurt, and they'd be upset. And that wasn't something she wanted. That would never be something she wanted. Which meant she needed distance from them - physically and emotionally. So that was what she'd do.
Mind made up, and face now dry of her previous tears, she curled up in her bed, determined to make things right.