FINDING MY FAMILY

The cold winds of LA attacked the pedestrians from all angles, the wind cutting apart their ice cold bodies. The freezing atmosphere is nothing compared to what a young girl was experiencing though. In that very moment, her life came crushing down around her.

Life had betrayed her...

Gone was the joyful smile she once wore, now, a grimacing frown graced those chapped lips. Her once tan skin deathly pale and damaged. The scars of her past fit her life a perfect set of clothes, her hair shielding her eyes from the world she is so desperate to leave.

Nothing could make this child smile once again.

She found no reason to be happy. No reason to be sad. No reason to be angry. She felt nothing.

"Liv! Stop writing depressing shit and help me take these boots off!" Shutting my pad with a dramatic sigh, I trudged over to the big lump on the sofa that I called my best friend.

"Megan, did you ever consider the fact that maybe your feet are too big for a size six pair of boots?" Josh asked. Josh is my other best friend, he is that friend every girl need. The one who is harmless and will tell you everything you need to know, but also a little cheeky.

"They fit!" Megan yelled as Josh once again struggled to help her remove the boots.

"Shut up man feet! They're tiny on you!" I joked as I joined in on pulling at the stretching leather on her foot.

"RUDE!" She screamed back, partially joking and partially in pain with the, what must be now, loss of circulation in her foot.

With a few more tugs, a zipper busting off, and a large screaming match. The boot was off. Unfortunately, said boot happened to hit me in the face, making my nose bleed.

"OW!" I yelled as josh tried to stop the profuse bleeding that was escaping my face.

"Oh shit! Liv I am so sorry, I swear it was the boot not me!" Megan said as she began helping as well.

"Ow! Ow! OW!" I kept repeating as they attacked my nose with tissues to try and stop the bleeding.

Once realising we had no hope in stopping it alone, we decided to leave the fitting rooms of Primark, and made our way to the hospital down the road. We arrived at the emergency room and we're assisted by a blonde nurse. Said blonde nurse happened to be Megan and Josh's mum, so after laughing at how her daughter tried to convince me to shove tampons up my nostril, she helped us.

Amanda, Megan and Josh's mum, eventually came to the solution that we had to stick a burning metal rod up my nose to stop the bleeding by burning me face to hell. I didn't really pay attention to the name or description of this 'medical method' when I heard burning and nose in the same sentence.

An hour later I was laying across the backseat of Amanda's car as she drove us back to her house, trying not to touch my nose while Megan stroked my hair soothingly.

"So, Liv, has your social worker been able to find some family yet?" David, Megan's dad asked as we sat at the table eating food at his house.

"David!"

"Dad!"

Megan and Amanda scolded, while Josh gave him a deadpanned glare, assuming I would brake into a ball of tears.

"No, it's okay. He said there might be someone, but they're having trouble getting in contact with them." I responded with a small smile. "Why, are you tired of me already?!" I gasped dramatically, earning a chuckle from everyone else.

"Well, your not as clumsy as this one so i'll take you." He chuckles as he points to Megan, who had just spilled gravy all down her front.

"I would argue, but I can see where your coming from." She says with a grin as she grabs a napkin.

That night we watched some films before we were sent to bed.

Megan went to her room while I decided to sleep in the guest/my room tonight.

And what does a simple girl do when she feels nothing? That's the problem with that question isn't it. No one knows because people who feel nothing can't give you an answer to that. They don't even know themselves.

But this little girl didn't believe in emotions controlling your life. She believed in the freedom to become anything you wish to be, and nothing and no one can hold you back. Not even yourself. So she pledged the horrors she endured would not control who she became, but instead, guide a path to be an even better person than she was before. For life is nothing but a long road. With twists and turns and bumps and dips. It can be an adventure or a nightmare, it just depends how you look at it.

Closing my notepad once again, I took the picture frame on the nightstand and smiled fondly at it. Sat in the back was a woman. She had red hair with blended bits of brown, sparkling brown eyes and a toothy smile that showed how much effort she took in being proud of her appearance. Next to her was a man with blonde hair and brown eyes, the typical dad hairstyle. He had a little bit of a dad bod, and a smile gracing his lips also. In his arms, he held a little girl. The little girl was barley a toddler, she was still a baby, with specs of blonde hair and the same brown eyes as the man, she wore a little pale blue dress with white socks and navy shoes. Holding onto the little baby's hand was a girl. She had her red/brown hair hanging in a ponytail, black square framed glasses resting in her hair as she refused the fact she had bad eye sight. She had bright green eyes and a small button nose, unlike either of her parents. The girl was barely five years old, but her eyes held so much wisdom and curiosity for her surroundings.

That night, I wept myself to sleep thinking of the family I once had. The family I had lost.

Little did Liv know, there was another family out there, and they were determined to get her back.