Some time passed at the Moore house, and I fit in quickly with their family. I got into a routine – jogging every other morning, doing any holiday work, binge watching TV series with Alice – a routine was good for me. It stopped me thinking. I hadn't seen any other friends yet and knew I would have to soon.

My alarm sounded at seven-thirty in the morning one day, and I groaned. I always regretted my decision to get up early but I still woke up anyway. I always liked to go on a morning jog when fewer people were around, and besides, it often got too hot to go jogging later on in the day – at least in July.

When I went downstairs, Alice was already down there, eating cereal and reading a book at the same time. She was kind of a bookworm as well as a dancer. As I entered the kitchen, she looked up in surprise.

"Hey. What are you doing up?"

"Going running," I said, getting out various fruits in preparation of making myself a smoothie. "And yourself? You're usually asleep at this time."

"I know," she muttered. "Dance studio called me in for a last-minute meeting about a showcase. As if I don't spend enough time there."

"Sounds fun."

"It's not. Is mum up?"

I shook my head. Given that it was a weekday, Mark would be at work already, but it looked like Catherine was still sleeping since her door was closed.

"Joseph?"

I shrugged. "Not sure." I shoved all the ingredients into the blender and pressed the power button. "What time you leaving?"

"As soon as I finish my breakfast. I'll be back at twelve-ish. What are you going to do today, apart from your run?" Alice swallowed one last spoonful of cereal before getting up and shoving her bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. She then leant against the table and faced me with a questioning look on her face.

I shrugged again. "Don't know. Kind of feel like going outside, you know?"

"Yeah, I would if I were you. My family can be a lot to deal with." She grinned. "Especially Joseph."

I just shrugged again. "Your parents are lovely, actually. And Joseph isn't that bad."

Alice gave me a sceptical look. "Sure, sure. Actually, Ellie wanted to see you."

To check up on me. The unspoken words hung in the air. Ellie was one of our good friends, and although she'd been at my parents' funeral, I hadn't spoken to her. I had barely spoken to anyone since my parents' death. I wasn't sure if I was avoiding the world or the world was avoiding me.

"Um, sure. I'll message her."

A smile appeared again on Alice's face. "Great. She'll be so happy to hear from you. But maybe don't call her right now, she definitely won't be up."

"Obviously." Ellie wasn't a morning person. She wasn't even a person before eleven and until she'd had two cups of coffee.

Alice glanced at the time on her phone. "Right. Better go. See you later!" She blew a kiss at me and wafted out the front door.

The best way I could describe Alice was a little ditzy but with good intentions. She could be a bit oblivious at times but she always knew how to make me feel better. She was also pretty organised and was always nagging me to sort things out earlier than I did. Alice called it disorganised; I called it spontaneous. Ellie wasn't as oblivious – she always knew when something was up and would always ask you straight up what was wrong. She was generally pretty outgoing and had bit of wanderlust – always talking about where she was going to travel and all the people she was going to meet. I wouldn't be surprised if one day she took off for somewhere like Fiji and never came back.

I stopped the blender and I poured the smoothie into a glass. As I began drinking it, my ringtone suddenly blared into the quiet. I took my phone out of my pocket and saw with surprise that Ellie was calling.

I took a deep breath to compose myself before answering. "Hey, Ellie."

"Ana, I'm so glad you answered." Her voice was tentative, as if she didn't quite know what to say. "How are you doing?"

"Um." As if I knew the answer to that question. "I'm doing okay. What are you doing up?"

"Oh, mum woke me. She's out for the day, so... do you want to come over?" Ellie asked carefully. "You don't have to, I completely understand if you want to stay at Alice's."

Did I want to stay at Alice's? Not really. But I wasn't sure I wanted to see any friends, either. But I needed to. It would keep me busy, and busy was good. "Yeah, I'll come over."

"Great." Ellie sounded relieved. "I miss you."

I winced slightly, not really sure why. "Yeah, I miss you too." Joseph appeared downstairs, rubbing his eyes. I ignored his glare and said to Ellie, "What were you planning to do today?"

"Can't do much. I have to stay and look after the house."

"Where's Alice?" Joseph muttered, and I mouthed back, dancing.

"I can make being at my house fun, though. Ooh, we could cook," Ellie suggested.

"Ellie, you know my history of cooking. I would burn the– hey, that's mine!" I snapped as Joseph picked up my drink and took a sip. He made a face.

"Is this all you have for breakfast?"

"Yeah, so? If you don't like it, don't drink it." I'd momentarily forgotten about Ellie on the phone as I put it down and wrestled my lovingly made smoothie out of Joseph's hands. He finally let go of it and I glared at him. "Prick."

I picked the phone back up and put it to my ear. "Hey, Ellie, sorry about that, Alice's brother was being annoying."

"Ooh, the infamous Joseph Moore. I can't believe I've never met him."

"You're not missing out," I grumbled.

"I disagree. I've heard he's really fit."

I glanced at Joseph. "Debatable. Anyway, I'll be over in a couple of hours. I'm going for a run now, so I'll probably be able to get to yours for around ten."

"Sounds good. Is Alice out?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, dance meeting. She won't be back 'til twelve. Look, I gotta go but I'll see you in a bit. Love you."

"Love you too," she sang before disconnecting.

I heard a faint snort, and I raised an eyebrow at Joseph, who was still lying on the sofa. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just weird that girls say that you love each other when you say bye," he said, slightly contemptuously.

"And why do you care?" I said offhandedly, taking a sip of my smoothie, glaring at him.

"I don't. I was just saying."

My eyes narrowed. "And it's just a thing we do. You never know when you might lose someone, Joseph."

Joseph opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he closed it. He nodded slowly and muttered, "Right."

For a second I had a small feeling of satisfaction before feeling slightly guilty. "Sorry."

Joseph just raised a cynical eyebrow.

"I keep throwing that at you. I shouldn't."

He glanced up at me and sighed slightly, before sitting up straight and switching off the television. "Whatever, I don't really care. You can take your anger out on me."

I shook my head. "I'm not angry, I guess I was just trying to make you feel bad."

Joseph let out a humourless laugh. "You're going to have to do a lot more than that to make me feel bad, Liliana."

Damn, alright Mr. emotionless. "Um, okay." I downed the last of my drink before plugging some earphones into my phone and pressing play on some music. "I'm going for a run. See you later."

"Whatever."

I rolled my eyes and put the earphone buds in my ears, feeling the sound of guitars and basses and drums vibrate through me. I focused on the music, and nothing else.

I ran through the small town of Newacre, making my way towards the sea. I avoided the harbour, the sight of the boats. I couldn't face it yet.

I took a break from my run as I reached the quayside, leaning on the small wall that separated the promenade from the sandy beach. I used to love this beach. Now it only held bad memories.

"Liliana."

I turned at the sound of my name, taking one earphone out. Approaching me was Dylan Perry – notorious heartbreaker, often trying to get on my good side, despite sleeping around with girls and then dumping them. We used to be friends when we were kids, but then puberty hit him, and he became a jerk. And now he was trying to talk to me. Fantastic. "Dylan," I said disinterestedly. "What do you want?"

"That's not a very nice way to greet someone," he replied with a grin, unfazed by my indifferent tone. "Just saw you running, thought I'd say hi."

"Fine. Hi. Gotta go now." I was about to turn away but he took hold of my arm to keep me in place.

"Wait. I wanted to talk to you," he said, letting go.

I sighed. "About what?"

Dylan tilted his head slightly. "How are you doing?"

I hated that question, I hated that stupid head tilt, and I hated that tone of voice. It was the voice that implied I was going to break down any second. Dylan thought I was fragile, maybe because I was small, or maybe because he didn't know me as well as he used to. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

"I'm fantastic, thanks for asking," I said, my voice loaded with sarcasm. "Yourself?"

He winced. "I know this must be a really hard time for you–"

"You think?"

"–But if you need anyone, you can talk to me. Honestly." His expression was serious, but I just shook my head at him.

"You really think I would want to talk to you?"

"Well, maybe not... but why can't you just give me a chance, Ana?" Dylan frowned slightly at me. "You've never really looked past what you hear from other people about me. You don't even know me anymore."

"And I don't particularly need to, or want to," I snapped. What could I say? I was in a mood.

"I'm a good listener," he offered.

"Really? Because you seem to be deaf to my hints telling you to back off," I retorted.

Dylan ignored my sharp tone. "Why don't you come to my party? It's tonight."

I stared. "You really think I want to go to a party."

"Look, I don't know. I don't know anything about this situation, but I'm trying. Maybe you need a distraction," he suggested.

"Or maybe you need to stop trying to get on my good side. It's not going to happen," I said, stepping away from him.

Dylan sighed slightly. "I just want to help, Ana. Tell me how."

"Think I'd rather discuss my feelings with anyone else over you. Seagulls would be better therapists."

Dylan brightened slightly. "I know a really good therapist, if you need one–"

"I don't," I said curtly. "Bye, Dylan." I turned away and this time he didn't stop me. I carried on with my run, running faster in order to blow off steam. Dylan always riled me up, even when he wasn't trying. It was like he expected that just because he was nice – ish – to me, I would be able to see him as something other than a player who toyed with girls' hearts. But I didn't. Especially after one of those girls was Alice.

It happened last March. Dylan was going through a pretty good phase and people at school were saying he'd changed. He apologised to the girls he'd hurt, and rumour had it he was wanting to settle down.

He started taking an interest in Alice, making a special effort to talk to her when he could, sending her little gifts and finally asking her out. He'd been so nice to her that she said yes, and suddenly they were an item. I was always suspicious, but Alice seemed happy, so I didn't question it. One day, after they'd been dating for about two and a half months, Alice found out that he never loved her, and it was all for a bet – Dylan's friends had said that he would never be able to get Alice to go out with him for more than three months. As soon as the third month was up, he would dump her, but Alice found out sooner, and she was distraught. She sort of blamed everyone else for a bit, but she soon came around, and we decided Dylan was a dick and should never be trusted.

When I got back to the house, Mark and Catherine were up, making coffee and listening to the radio whilst chatting quietly.

"Oh, morning Ana," Catherine said with a slightly surprised look on her face. "Did you go out for a run?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Gonna go over to Ellie's in a bit."

Her face brightened. "Oh, that'll be lovely. Tell her I say hi."

"Of course. I'll go have a shower then I'll head out." I made my way upstairs to the bathroom and saw with annoyance that the door was closed and the shower on, meaning Joseph was in there. I could have just gone into the other bathroom but all my stuff was in this one. I banged on the door.

The running water stopped for a second and Joseph shouted, "What?"

"Can you throw my stuff out please?" I asked, gritting my teeth. "I need to have a shower, like, now."

"Just be patient, I'll be out in a second." His voice was full of irritation, and within a second, the shower was going again. I rolled my eyes and banged on the door again. The water stopped and I could hear a lot of grumbling as it sounded like Joseph was getting out.

"For god's sake, why can't you just wait 5 minutes?" he snapped, opening the door with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"You would have been longer than 5 minutes. Guaranteed," I retorted. "I'm going to see a friend, I'm all gross from my run and..." I paused at his ever so slightly amused look. "And patience isn't my strong suit."

He smirked. "Clearly." The annoyed expression returned to his face. "I'm done now, anyway, so really, you could have just waited." He brushed past me and walked down the corridor to his room, slamming the door behind him. I rolled my eyes and, muttering to myself, entered the bathroom and took a much-needed shower. When I was all clean and clothed, I said a quick goodbye to Catherine and Mark and headed to Ellie's.

Alice played by Haley Lu Richardson (above)