"Mom?" Faith said quietly. My heart pounded loudly in my chest, and Eli squeezed my hand, just as nervous as me. I hadn't planned to come over, and Eli had just planned to walk is home, but when we got back to Faith's and the phone was ringing, we decided to stay and wait.

"What? You can't come now! I'm not... I'm not packed yet!" She exclaimed, her voice rising squeakily with every word. I looked nervously to Eli. Could she really do this?

"Mom, wait. Mom, I'm not ready yet. You'll give me time to pack? It's gonna be a while... MOM!" She yelled into the phone. I hadn't seen her this frustrated since the last time she tried to babysit Nora and Johnny. She was trying to give them a bath, but Johnny wanted to watch TV and Nora wanted a cookie, and she called me, half yelling at them, and I had to come over and help.

"Gimme the phone," I mouthed to her, getting an idea. Maybe I could figure out a way to get her to stay. Faith shook her head, and went back to her conversation. I said it out loud this time.

"Faith, lemme have the phone."

"Why?" She mouthed back, still listening to her mother.

"So I can talk," I whispered. She rolled her eyes, holding up a finger, to tell me it would be a second. I tried to figure out what I would actually say.

"Okay, Mom. Here, Hope wants to talk to you... why? I don't know. She just wants to. Yeah, here. Love you too," she said, then handed it to me.

"Hi, Ms. Olsen. It's-" she interrupted me, only to tell me to call her Sandy.

"Oh right, Sandy. Sorry," I stuttered. Why is I want to talk to this woman again?

"Um... I just wanted to talk to you about Faith for a second," I said, nervously.

"Oh, I think it's just wonderful how much she wants to live with me. I never thought the day would come!" She exclaimed. This woman was a little off her rocker, I could see, and I almost felt bad saying what I was about to. But I still did.

"Sandy, she doesn't want to live with you," I told her, point blank. Faith looked at me, wide eyes flooding with tears. She kept motioning me to stop, her hand fake cutting off her neck.

"Heather, why would you say that? Of course she does, honey! Are you a little jealous that your friend's leaving you?" She asked, fake nice in her voice. Okay, first of all, Heather?! And second, jealous that my friend's leaving?

"I'm devastated that she's leaving. But that's the problem, Sandy. I think she is too. She has this new boyfriend, Elliot," I started, silently kissing my boyfriends cheek. It was weird to talk about him as someone else's boyfriend.

"They just started going out a few weeks ago, and originally, she was too nervous to tell you, because she didn't know if it would last, but then he asked her to go steady. She really likes him and would just feel... so guilty if you made her leave her new boyfriend." I tried hard to it play up, make my performance believable.

"Hannah, are you telling the truth?" She asked. Hannah.

"O-of course I am, ma'am. I wouldn't lie to you about your own daughter," I told her, trying to sound surprised at the accusation. I liked to Eli, who was nodding, smiling at me. Faith looked nervous still.

"Well... can I talk to her?" She asked. She seemed confused. Or maybe just upset.

"Um, sure," I responded. Then I put the phone to my chest.

"Faith, she wants to talk to you again. I can't tell if she believed me," I admitted, sadly.

"You sounded pretty convincing," she said, taking the phone.

"You did great. I would have believed you," Eli said. I smiled.

"I just hope Sandy does," I responded. I listened to the rest of the conversation in silence, hoping she would give up. But then I heard something even more interesting.

Although I could only pick up certain words of hers I did hear "Randy, fiancé, car, here, soon," and although I wasn't sure what that meant, the name Randy sure did sound familiar.

And then Faith yelled, "Wait, you're coming here? Now?" There was a response that I couldn't hear, and then Faith's eyes flooded with tears again.

"Okay. See you soon," she mumbled, hanging up the phone in defeat. I hugged her. She stared crying again, and Eli stood there awkwardly with his hands in his pockets.

"We'll figure this out," I whispered. She didn't seem convinced.

"S-she's gonna make me move. S-she's coming here with her f-fi-fiancé now for us to meet," she stuttered through her tears. I tried to calm her down, but it didn't work.

"Faith, maybe we should... you know, talk to your parents?" Eli suggested. I looked at Faith, trying to see what she thought. She shook her head.

"N-no. They're upset. I'd rather deal with this myself," she said, rubbing her eyes.

"We'll figure it out then. I'll make sure you're still here tomorrow," he said. And not that I didn't like him before, but with that, I immediately liked him a lot more. It was hard to believe we had only met a few weeks ago, for how much he seemed to care about us both.

"T-thank you," she said. Eli nodded.

"C-can... will you guys stay when my mom and Randy get here?" She asked. Both her dad and Emily were working, and I could tell she didn't want to do it alone. Eli shrugged.

"I don't have anything to do," he said. But I did. I had a date with my room, because I was technically still grounded. But this was okay, right? I couldn't leave her alone. And anyways, I was helping Faith out, and my parents love Faith like she's their own kid.

"Of course," I said, hugging her one more time.

A/N: I didn't expect to draw this out so much... I also never expected to get 16 chapters of this story written so quickly. What are your thoughts so far? Comment or PM me! -Katy