Excerpt: Wings of Steel

“Wait!” I hear Jeff call, so I stop and turn around, and he come jogging up, suitcase in tow, “You don’t even have anyone waiting for you?”

Here it comes, I think, I have to tell him the truth after all this. “I’m a foster child, and I’m here to move on to my next foster home. This one has twelve kids in it already, so they can’t bring them all in.” I look down at my scuffed converse, blushing, and then dare a glance at Jeff. He seems to be having some inner conflict.

“Alright, I know this is extremely weird and sketchy and probably goes against everything you’ve ever been told, but do you want to come with me?” He asks, and looks at me, conflict still raging in his eyes, “nevermind,” he says, “I’m sorry, that was completely inappropriate.”

He had mistaken my look of unbelieving hopefulness as one of shock. “Oh…no…well…I guess that was a little inappropriate, but not so much for me not to be seriously considering it right now,” I say, and I see how much pain that’s causing him, because of the wrongness of it. “They lose kids in the system every day, so I don’t think one more would matter.” I finish, looking at Jeff, seemingly my guardian angel, with a pleading gaze.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Jeff says, but grabs my hand and leads me in the opposite direction, “I can’t even believe I’m doing this.”