Finding Adelina

3

**ADELINA**

When we were small, Luke's dad built us a hangout in the middle of the woods, behind their house. It's been weighed down by the years, but it's one of my happy places.

     I walk through the entrance, finding a few of my friends already there. Luke smiles at me from where he sits on a tree stump, a question in his eyes. I look away from him and sit beside Elizabeth.

     "I'm hungry." She says, tilting her head.

     Luke tosses a chocolate bar at her. She smiles in thanks before opening it, biting some off. "You okay, Adelina?" She asks. I look over at her. "It's just, you seemed a bit worried on the phone."

     "Oh." I whisper. "I.." I glance over at Luke, and he nods softly, encouraging me to tell Elizabeth now. "My parents found me, and.. and they want me to move back to New York with them."

Her eyes widen a little. "New York?"

I nod.

"But.. that's so far away. It's in a whole other continent." She says, a smidgen of urgency in her tone, "we'll never see each other again."

"We might." I say.

"Well, it isn't like we can run into each other in Tesco, is it?" She questions. She puts her head in her hands. "You're gonna make friends with a bunch of fancy New York girls and forget all about me."

"Of course I won't." I assure her. "We can still FaceTime, and maybe I can convince them to bring me back one day."

"What if they don't?"

I smile, "then I'll steal a plane and fly back."

She rolls her eyes, but her lips slowly tick up until she's smiling too. Then she lets out a breath and wraps her arms around me in a bone breaking hug. I hug her back, leaning my head on her shoulder.

The makeshift door to our hangout opens, revealing Ellie, Jonas and Michael. Ellie tilts her head to the side. "What happened?"

     "Adelina's moving to New York with her parents!" Elizabeth exclaims excitedly.

     "Parents?" Jonas questions, and at the same time Ellie says, "New York?"

     "Well, I haven't really decided yet."

     "How can you say no to New York?" Ellie asks, eyes wide in amazement.

     I wrap my arms around myself. "I don't wanna leave London. My whole life is here."

     "Aw, guys, she's doesn't wanna leave us." Michael teases, sitting beside me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders, ruffling my hair. I scowl and slap his hand away, fighting my smile.

     "If we're the reason you don't wanna go," Ellie says. We all turn to her. She shakes her head and sighs. "Don't let us stop you, Lina. You've wanted a real family for as long as we've known you. And you can still call us, and I'm sure we'll see you again."

     I nod, turning away and looking at the floor. A real family. I considered my friends my real family, but I suppose they don't. They actually have families.

     "So? What're you gonna do?"

     "I guess I'll go."

     Luke smiles at me. I force myself to smile back.

**

"Here," Elizabeth whispers as she slides a homemade bracelet onto my wrist. She repeats this process with each person in our friend group until we're all wearing one. They're completely identical besides from the different colours. Mine is purple.