Hold Me Close

"Jezabel, there is a family here to see you. Hurry up and get dressed in your new green sundress." Mrs. Mason said with far too much cheer. I groaned and walked to my closet, quickly changing into the too small dress.
20 minutes later i stood infront of my mirror,curling the last few strands of my raven black hair. My emerald green eyes were highlighted by thick, sooty lashes, black eyeliner, and green eyeshadow. The dress was a size too small and ended an inch above my knees. Disgust and shame filled me. I knew what Mrs. Mason was trying to do. She was hoping that if i was too "weird" then they would adopt me because i was "hot".
"Jezabel, are you done yet? The cullens are waiting for you!" I opened the door and Mrs. Mason's daughter Amy sneared in distaste. "Gross! You're wayy too ugly for that dress. I dont know why mom made me buy it for you." she scoffed.
I bowed my head in embarrassment and followed her to the conference room. As I walked through the door, panic began to fill me.
What if they don’t like me? What if they do like me? What if they are mean, like my last foster family? If they foster me would my foster father expect me to ‘repay’ him like my real father did?
I forced the questions away and sat at the round table, across from the beautiful couple.
“Hello dear. I’m Esme Cullen and this is my husband, Carlisle.” The woman smiled. She had long chestnut brown curls that surrounded a kind, heart shaped face and honey gold eyes. Eyes that matched her husbands to a Tee. How odd. Carlisle had paper white skin and pale blonde hair.
“Hi. It’s lovely to meet you both.” I smiled shyly. They smiled brilliantly at me, causing me to squirm in my seat and pull the neck line of my dress up.
“Not to be rude Jezebel-.” He began.
“Please, call me Jez.” I interrupted
“Not to be rude, Jez, but isn’t your dress a little too small?” Carlisle asked gently. I felt my cheeks heat up and looked away from him.
“Mrs. Mason told me to wear it. I would much prefer pajama pants and a T-shirt.” I mumbled.
“We don’t mind waiting a few more minutes if you’d like to change.” Esme smiled. I returned her smile gratefully and ran back to my room to change.
When I returned to the conference room there was another female sitting in the chair next to mine. She had short, spiky black hair, pale skin, and dark gold eyes. She turned to me with a radiant smile when the door closed behind me.
“Jezebel, this is my daughter Alice. We adopted her 10 years ago.” Esme introduced. I sat down next to her and mumbled a soft ‘hello’.
“I LOVE your outfit!” She gushed. I glanced down, confused. I was only wearing my favorite adventure time pajama pants, a light blue spandex shirt, and white uggs.
“Thanks, Adventure Time rocks.” I smiled shyly, pulling my abundance of curls into a pony tail.
“I’ve never seen it.” She stated. My eyes went wide with shock.
“You’ve never seen Adventure time?! You have been missing out.” I gasped, making Esme laugh.
“Alice prefers to spend her time shopping.” Carlisle said, pulling my attention to him.
“I’ve never been shopping.” I admitted, embarrassed.
“Now who’s missing out?” Alice teased. Esme cleared her throat gently and I turned my attention to her.
“What do you enjoy doing, Jezebel?” She asked sweetly.
“I like to read, watch sports, play any instrument you put in front of me, and I absolutely adore drawing.” I replied.
I was sad and relieved to see them leave. They were sweet but new people scare me. Well, people in general scare me.
“Don’t expect them to return. Nobody wants to love a broken 16 year old who is still scared of the dark.” Amy said from behind me. Any hope I had was instantly shot down. She was right. They probably wanted a daughter they could spoil and cuddle with, like Alice. I just wasn’t right for their family.