''Ember.''

Fuck, I did wake up. The voice that belongs to my best friend makes me press my pillow against my ears tightly before groaning. I hope that Julia understands my signal that I don't want anything to do with her right now and leave the room, but she keeps patting my shoulder to wake me up.

''What?'' I finally ask after pushing her hand away.

''You have been sleeping for more than a day now. You need to get up,'' she exlains softly, making me open my eyes. A day? That's a long time.

''Just let me sleep,'' I mumble before laying down again but she grabs both of my hands.

''I'll let you rest, but we need to talk first, okay?'' She says and I nod hestitantly. What I want to do is to just sleep for thousands of years but I guess that I have to take this conversation now so I prepare myself for whatever she's about to say.

''I called Billie and told her everything, so you know. I'm sorry if you wanted to tell her,'' she says.

''It's okay,'' I say immediately. I actually would have wanted to be the one to tell her but I'm too tired to fight about it.

''So, my parents will come home today and they know about this, obviosly. They said that you can live here for a while, but we don't know where you can stay after that. We'll find a family for you.''

Her sentence makes me realise that I actually have to live in a new family. There's no way that I will be able to just move in with another random family just like that.

''Okay,'' I mumble, wanting her to leave the room so I can think about everything for a while. She nods before standing up.

''I'll let you rest now, I'm out here if you need something, okay? It would be great if you could be downstairs when they arrive to greet them.''

''Yeah, I will,'' I say. Her parents let me stay at their house for a while and I need to show them that I appreciate that and the least thing I can do is to be kind. Julia smiles before leaving the room and closing the wooden door behind her. I sigh before laying back in the bed, letting my head rest on the soft pillow.

I try to fall asleep again, but I keep turning around in the bed, not being able to find a comfortable position. After a while, I just unlock my phone and deal Billie's number. She answers almost immediately.

''Hey, are you okay?'' She asks, her voice more concerned than ever and just hearing her voice brings tears to my eyes.

''Billie,'' I breath out before starting to sob.

''Don't cry,'' I hear her say, her voice shaking.

''I miss you,'' I confess. ''I miss you so much.''

Now I can hear how Billie lets out a sob but I can also hear how she's trying to hide the fact that she's crying.

''I miss you too,'' she says, not being succesful with hiding her emotions. ''I'm so sorry for your loss, Julia told-''

''I know. It's okay,'' I say, not wanting this conversation to surround about my sadness.

''It's not,'' she says immediately and I keep quiet. ''I love you and I can't wait to meet you when my tour is over. Please just stay strong all the time.''

''I love you too,'' I say, my voice shaking just like Billie's.

''Ember, they are here!'' Julia suddenly shouts from downstairs. Weren't her parents supposed to come home later?

''Shit Billie, I must go now to meet Julia's parents, but... I'll call you later,'' I say, biting my lip.

''Okay. Love you,'' she says. ''Remember that.''

''I love you too,'' I say before hanging up.

I immediately put some fresh clothes on and brush my hair so I won't look like I have been in my bed the last days. It feels really hard to meet Julia's parents, but I have to do it so I run down the stairs and the door opens. Her dad is the first one to enter the hallway, and he immediately hugs Julia. When they pull away, he looks at me and smiles.

''Hey, Ember. Nice to see you,'' he says, patting my shoulder. "And, sorry for your loss."

''Nice to see you, too. Thank you,'' I smile before greeting her mom as well. They seem to be pretty tired after their trip and I appreciate that because that means that we don't have to talk that much. We all enter the living room and sit down while Julia's mom makes some tea. I add to the conversation every now and then to be polite but I'm actually thinking about other things. My thoughts lately have been focused on where the fuck I will live after a couple of weeks. After a while of thinking, I decide to open my notebook to write about it. Because of my clumsiness, I drop the book on the floor, making it bounce before landing with the pages down against the floor. I sigh before picking it up, but I gasp when I see what I've been writing, years ago.

I'm so confused. Today, something weird happened when my mom talked to someone on the phone. This is what happened:

''I don't understand how Charles could leave me like that! Just because I was drinking one night! He is still my brother, but he left me and went to Chicago just like that,'' mom screamed into her cellphone as I peeked the corner to see what was going on. She seemed really upset and I didn't know why. What I did know is that she had been meeting friends the last few days, but she talked about her brother? Does she have one? As my mom left the room after hanging up, I blocked the way for her and crossed my arms, getting ready to confront her about this.

''Who were you talking to?'' I asked her and I immediately saw that she got uncomfortable, trying to find a way out from the situation.

''Did you listen to us?'' She asked with panic in her voice and I nodded, making her bite her lip.

''You are crazy, no one just spies on their parents like that!'' She snapped, making me lose my confidence as she raised her voice.

''Tell me the truth! Who the fuck is Charles? Your brother?'' I asked and she grabbed my left shoulder before pushing me away so I almost tumbled into the door.

''Don't ever talk to me about that again! If you tell Tristan, I'ma do something that we both will regret!'' She said before leaving the room and I was still shaking from the conversation. Do I have an uncle that I don't know about?

How could I forget about this?! As I think more, I realise what happened that say. I really need to tell Julia about this, but I can't be rude to her family, so I wait until they leave the room before practically pulling her up the stairs.

''What's going on?'' She asks as we enter her room.

''I think that I may have found someone that I can live with,'' I say, looking right into her blue eyes.

After I explain everything for Julia, she looks at me as if she doesn't believe me.

''You... have an uncle?'' She asks slowly.

''Maybe, we need to find him. Get your laptop!'' I say, pointing at the silver-colored computer and she nods before handing it to me.

''Charles Clayton,'' I mumble as I press the keys on the laptop. Julia is looking at other websites on her phone to find the possible realtive to me. Suddenly, Julia shows the screen to me.

''Here! He looks like you!'' She says and I immediately zoom in on the picture. The man does look familiar with dark hair, bushy eyebrows and sligthly tanned skin just like me. This must be him and Julia seems to notice the similarities as well. We look at each other and nod before spending the rest of the day to find information about Charles. Maybe there is a piece of family left.