Adopted by Phan

Chapter 15

Jay's P.O.V.

As soon as Louise walked into the room I almost cried. She looked so much like Autumn she had to be related in some way, if not directly. There was no way 2 people could look so similar without being at least in the same blood line.

Autumn had been living on the streets for a few years when I first met her, she knew all the tricks of the trade. The couple, Mrs and Mr Carsh had taken care of her for about a year before their income dropped and they couldn't afford to care for her.

She stayed close to them, helping them whenever she could and it became a place to crash for Jax and myself any time we needed undisturbed sleep. She had introduced us after we had asked where she got her clothes from and how she kept them so clean, hand-me-downs from Mrs Carsh and she used their washing machine.

In early September Autumn went to visit them and stayed the night with them. Just before midnight faulty wiring caused a fire to start and the house to burn down, killing Mrs and Mr Carsh, as well as Autumn. Soon after Jax and I moved cities, from Brighton into London which was where we first met what became our crew.

We weren't in Brighton for long, maybe a little over a year when I was about 10, just after my grandmother died and I escaped the home of my last foster family, who just so happened to live in Brighton. After Autumn died we left, because of a police crack down on the homeless.

My brain was jolted back to reality as the person Dan had called Cat walked into the room. She was quite tall, not as tall as Dan and Phil, but still tall all the same. Although I'm not to talk, I'd just grown over 5 foot.

She greeted me happily, she wasn't like Louise. Louise had a bubbly and bright personality and seemed to be a generally loud person but Cat was different. She was quieter but seemed to know everything, even if it hadn't been brought up before that point.

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They talked for a few hours and I drew on the notepad, leaving only a few pages blank. I went back over some of my previous drawings, adding some finer details and making the more important details stand out.

I didn't take in most of what the others were talking about, to be honest it was none of my business. They were mostly just catching up.

A few hours in Louise stood up and held her hand out for me, and I took it. She led me into the kitchen and she started pulling food out onto the bench before looking over at me.

"Do you wanna help cook some food?" I paused and then nodded, I had no general idea how to cook so that would be interesting.

"Just so you know, I have no idea how to cook." She laughed and then nodded.

"It'll be fun, just give it a go."

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She was right, it was fun and I learnt a lot. We made spaghetti and meatballs, something I hadn't had in a long, long time and I absolutely loved. Louise wasn't afraid to eat what she wanted and that was something I loved about her.

I had seen girls who would eat the minimal amount possible, just so they could keep their figure, something I didn't actually find attractive. I found skinny girls attractive, I actually couldn't care less but the thing I found unattractive was people doing something to try and become popular, and in that case it was eating less.

I screeched as Louise threw a piece of spaghetti at me and it went down the back of my neck, laughing as I bounced around the room to try and get it out. There were footsteps and I saw Dan and Phil enter the kitchen with Cat, who all burst out laughing when they saw me jumping up and down.

"That was collllllld!!" She grinned and attempted to lob another piece at me but I ducked, so it hit Dan in the chest and then it flopped onto the floor with a rather disturbing noise.

Cat was grinning and I smiled back at her before ducking once again as another string of spaghetti flew past my head and I stumbled backwards, suddenly lightheaded, crashing into Louise. I fell to the floor with a thud and sat there, my vision spotty.

"You okay Jay?" I tried to nod my head but it only sent waves of blackness spinning across my vision and I groaned. I lifted my head and kept my chin up, something I had learnt from some friends to help relieve dizziness and I knew it had worked for me before.

Someone placed a hand behind my head, Louise I think because she had been behind me, and moved my chest down so I was lying on the floor, back against the cold tiles.

"Jay? Jay can you hear us?" Dan spoke first, I could hear panic in his voice. moved my hands upwards and onto my chest, waving it so they knew I could.

"Can you move your head?" That was Phil but I waved my hand in a sideways motion, hoping it would come across as no.

"Did you go lightheaded?" I paused and then waved my hand in the opposite direction, hoping they were smart enough to know what it meant.

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There were a few minutes pause where I just lay on the floor, the others gathered around me as I tried to regain my vision and balance. After a while my vision didn't split whenever I opened my eyes so I kept them open but I squinted in the light.

I could see the others surrounding me from above and as soon as Phil realised why I was squinting he moved to block the light, which was streaming through the window.

I raised my thumb to thank him and started to sit up, struggling a bit until someone behind me, Louise probably, gave me a push to help me. Once I was sitting, I sat still and found that the dizziness had disappeared, so I stood up.

The others watched me carefully but as I started walking they all stood up and Louise started serving out the food. I kept seeing glances from the others, but I could understand why they were worried. It wasn't the first time it had happened, I had had several dizzy spells and a few times I had actually passed out.

I had heard Officer Briny when he said he thought I had iron deficiency and I did suspect it because I knew the symptoms were dizziness, feeling lightheaded and fatigue, as well as a fast heartrate and shortness of breath.

I knew I hadn't been the only one on the streets with iron deficiency, a lot of us passed out for usually unexpected reasons. It was hard, meat and seafood were very hard to come by and being the main sources of iron, we couldn't feed everyone.

Because I couldn't work, they saved the meat for some of the older men so they had the energy to work and get money for the group. It still wasn't enough the feed everyone.

The youngest suffered the most, we really tried but they needed iron the most because they were growing. I had stopped growing, I knew I was growing any taller and because I was infertile I didn't need the iron to... do girly things.

I knew that required a lot of iron and some of the girls didn't get that. Some of them stopped menstruating completely. I knew it was a bother because it cost a lot of money, but some of the girls wanted kids and they didn't want this to stop it completely.

Iron seemed to be the cause of a lot of problems on the street and it had ended up with a younger girl being hospitalized, and never coming back. They had taken her to a home, in America. We never said goodbye.

I knew it was for the best, but it tore us apart, and the holes never mended.