The next morning, I woke up to the smell of pancakes, and the sound of brewing coffee filled the air, waking me from my slumber. It took me a while to get used to my surroundings, especially with being in someone else's house. The sound of footsteps approached the bedroom, and without a second thought, I hid under the covers. It was a reflex I had when I started living with Aunt Mary. In the morning, I would be dragged out of bed, and I would get large bruises on my legs, but after a few months of that, my Aunt stopped with the pulling and switched to yelling.

"Serena, it's time for breakfast," Vanessa said, carefully pulling the sheets back so I could see her. "Okay, I'll get up and make something," I grunted softly as I gently shook my hands awake. "No. Mom made breakfast for us. You don't have to make breakfast while you're living with us. Unless you want to," I started to smile at the thought that I didn't have to make breakfast for Vanessa's family. She helped me out of bed and walked me towards the kitchen, where I saw plates full of bacon, pancakes, and eggs laid out on the kitchen counter.

"Help yourself to whatever you like, Serena. There's plenty for everyone," Mrs. Young smiled as she sat down at the bar. "Thank you, Mrs. Young," I barely whispered. I grabbed a plastic plate and added a small amount of everything onto it. While I was eating, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I had a hunch that it was Aidan, asking me if I was free to meet up with him at Veggie Grill.

Aidan

Aidan: Hey, are you free for Veggie Grill?

I looked up from the phone and saw that Vanessa and her mom were staring at me, wondering who I was texting. "Was that Aidan?" Vanessa asked. I nodded, and Vanessa started to smile wide. "Who's Aidan?" Mrs. Young asked. I was a little surprised that she didn't know who he was. But, at the same time, I knew that she wouldn't know him if she didn't watch Umbrella Academy.

"He's the guy who plays Five Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy. You know, that show I'm obsessed with watching?" Vanessa explained. After a bit more explaining, Mrs. Young knew who she was talking about. "What does Aidan want?" Mrs. Young asked as I continued to look down at my phone. "He wants to meet up with me at Veggie Grill for lunch and then go to his house to work on music," I answered.

"Oh my gosh, you have to say yes!" Vanessa gasped, a smile still on her face. "I'd be happy to take you to Veggie Grill if you want to drive you," I looked at Vanessa for a split second, she was silently pleading with me to accept this invite, and I started to type out my response.

Serena: Yeah, I just checked my schedule. I'm free today!

Aidan: Cool! I'll meet you there at 1:00.

Serena: Okay, meet you there!

I started smiling the moment the text went through to Aidan, and I quickly finished the last few pieces of my breakfast and ran to my suitcase to find some nice clothes to wear. But, after a while of searching, I couldn't find a single piece of clothing that I thought looked nice. "Having trouble?" Vanessa asked, walking into my room and sitting down next to me on the floor. "Yeah, I can't find anything nice!" I sighed as I put the clothes back into the suitcase.

"Here, I've got something that'll look nice," Vanessa ran into her bedroom, and I could see her looking through the closet. "Vanessa, you don't have to," I tried to protest, but she ignored me until she came back with a long white t-shirt that said, "Gangsta of Love," written in black lettering and a brown and green skirt. "I hope this looks nice," Vanessa said with a small amount of uncertainty in her voice.

"It looks perfect!" I smiled. She left the room and shut the door, and I quickly changed into the outfit where I looked at it and started to feel confident about my appearance for the first time in a long time. After that, I headed to the bathroom to do my makeup, I didn't want to go overboard with it, but I wanted it to be enough makeup so Aidan wouldn't notice the bruise on my face.

"Are you going to tell Aidan about what happened with your Aunt?" Vanessa asked as I applied a decent amount of concealer to the bruise. "Yeah," I sighed. Vanessa gently wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my left shoulder. "You've got this," she whispered. "Thanks,"

Finally, I was ready to go meet up with Aidan for lunch, and Vanessa and I had lots of time to  spare, and we spent it looking through the different stores that we were nearby the restaurant. We said that we weren't going to buy anything. But when we stepped into the Bath and Body Works, we walked out with two bags on each arm that were full of lotion and bath bombs.

I managed to grab my phone, and I saw that it was 12:55, and we had only a short amount of time to get to the car and put the stuff in and meet up with Aidan on time. Somehow, we managed to make it to the car while running in heeled boots and with only two minutes to spare. "I have to go help Mom with some things back home. Call me whenever I need to pick you up," Vanessa said before driving off.

When I walked inside the Veggie Grill, I kept a close eye out for Aidan, which wasn't easy. Most of the tables were full of teenagers sitting in groups as they ate from their large baskets of fries. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I glanced down and saw another text from Aidan.

Aidan: Look up.

I looked up from the top of my phone, and I saw Aidan was waving at me slightly behind an elderly couple feeding each other a few fries.