"You're a worthless and ungrateful child. No one in their right mind will ever love you," my mother shouted at me, my eleven-year-old self whimpered in the corner of the room. I sat that with my head in my hands, crying as she walked away.

My father growled as he closed the door, their voices echoing off the walls. "I expect the house to be cleaned and everything in order when we get back." I waited until they were gone before standing up and leaving the room. The rusty blue car driving off to come home days later, except this time they did come back.

~^~

I laid there shaking in my bed trying to hold back the tears. I closed my eyes as I take a deep breath.

Nobody cares about how you feel, North. Especially the ones that show weakness.

The door to my room creaked open and I stopped crying. A light shined on my back before his voice whispered, "North?" His tiny feet crept closer as I wiped my face. Flipping over, he lowers his toy flashlight to stare at me. "North I'm scared." He tightened his grip around his red teddy bear and watched me closely.

I brushed Oliver's hair and smile at him. "Why are you scared, Ollie? Did you have a scary dream?" I wiped away his tears before pulling him onto my bed. He was so small for his age. Mostly because he was malnourished when we still lived with our parents. Which was only a year ago but he barely remembered anything about that awful place and I wish that was the case for me.

"I don't want you to leave," he said softly as he crawled under the covers.

I held him close and stroked his back. "I'm not leaving any time soon."

"Pinky?" He held out his pinky in the dark, waiting.

I wasn't sure what to do. Promise are just things waiting to be broken. That they are just lies people tell each other to make the other person feel better. I slowly reached out and intertwined our pinkies. He snuggled closer and soon he was asleep but I laid there restless unsure what I had just promised too.

~^~

"North! Asher! Oliver!" Our foster mother yelled and I groaned awake. Oliver continued to lay there peaceful and drooling on the pillow. Frowning, I slowly shook him awake as my bedroom door opened up. "Your social worker is here. Get dress quickly because there's a surprise downstairs," Ms. Ellie told us before closing the door.

Oliver looked at me and I shrugged in response. "Guess we'll find out in a minute. Hurry and go get dressed." He hopped out of bed and ran into his room. Throwing a t-shirt and jeans on I walked into my brothers' room to see that they were already downstairs. I quickly walked down the stairs and the sound of unfamiliar voices caused me to stop.

"You're such a cutie, Ollie. Is it okay if I call you that?" A lady said just as I walked out of the hallway.

"Actually I'm the only one that calls him that," I told her and the room went silent. I watched the young couple closely. The woman, in her mid-20s, with her brown hair in a bun and light brown eyes watched me. The man probably in his late 20s had blond hair like us with green eyes.

"North, I'm so glad you could finally join us. This is Mr. and Mrs. Thompson," my social worker said.

I nodded in their direction and sat on a sofa as far away as possible from them but in close range of my two brothers. They played and talked to my brothers for a while and tried to include me with small talk. I was never a fan of small talk so I remained quiet. I had seen it so many times that I knew that after they'd left that I knew I'd never see the couple again. I had already created a plan that once I turned 18 I would leave and take my brothers with me. From there I could get a job and support ourselves.

Our social worker came back in and looked at us. "Good news. We may be hearing back from them soon about adopting."

I gave her a look. "Adopting us?" Normally most parents turn away from siblings because it breaks their hearts when they have to break siblings up because they didn't want the older kid.

She nodded, "They said they're willing to give you a try. They originally only wanted two smaller kids but since you were 'well behaved' they asked to adopt you as well."

Well, I'll be darn.