Hurricane Love

One

'Oh my god, Amelia, your mum is going to kill you!' Abbie hissed, as she glanced back at the bathroom door.

'No, she won't,' I laughed, amused by her worried expression, as I sat on the edge of the bath with the colourant on my hair waiting for it to set. 'Christine doesn't even care about shit like this.'

Christine was actually my adoptive mother who, along with her husband and my adoptive father Stan, adopted me when I was fourteen years old, a year after first fostering me, and I'd lived with them in the small town of Richmond for the last three years.

Christine did in fact care about shit like this. She had just grown tired of trying to tell me what to do so had long given up, meaning I could colour my hair something different every damn day and she would just sigh and shake her head but the lectures were long gone.

When they'd first fostered me at thirteen years old, I'd been the daughter they'd always wanted and honestly, they'd treated me exactly the way I'd always dreamed of when I was growing up; a real family, living in a real home providing me with everything I'd ever want or need.

They made it official and the adoption went through a year or so after they first took me in but by then, the days of being a sweet little girl who just wanted a mummy and daddy to love her were over. The issues I'd faced throughout my life caught up with me and all I wanted to do was be out with my friends all night, drink, smoke and party. At that point, Christine tried everything to get me under control but eventually, she gave up and let me go through the phase until I finally got over it and grew up a little.

Still now, at sixteen years old, I wasn't exactly the picture perfect daughter they thought they'd signed up for, but I was a lot better. I still did whatever I wanted and never really listened to my "parents" but the days of staying out all night and ruining their lives had passed. Now, I was happy to just spend time with my best friend Abbie and my boyfriend Mason, the sweetest guy I'd ever known and the most kind and compassionate person in my life.

Getting together with Mason was the key to my rebellious stage coming to an end. At fifteen years old, we found love with each other over a science project and I'd ditched the fake-ass friends who'd dragged me down the wrong path and focused on my relationship with him.

'It's weird that you call her Christine,' Abbie told me. 'I'm sure that hurts her feelings, Amelia.'

Abbie and I had always kind of known each other during school but we'd grown close at the age of fifteen when a few girls were mocking her in gym class and I shut them the hell up. She'd followed me around for some time after that and eventually, I'd realised she was actually a pretty amazing girl and we became friends and then best friends. Everyone at school saw her as a bit of a geek because she was so smart and such a good girl but she was the kindest person you could ever meet and with her wavy brown hair, hazel eyes and perfect, bright smile, she was as beautiful as dawn.

'That's not my problem, Abbie,' I replied. 'They're not my real parents and I don't feel comfortable calling them mum and dad. I don't have a mum or a dad.'

It was true. My parents were both drug addicts who I was taken away from by child services at the very young age of two. I was severely neglected and malnourished and was usually left in a crib on my own while they got high downstairs. As a baby, I'm sure I was loved by the foster families who took me in but the earliest age I remember is four and onwards from there, all the memories I have are nightmares.

'They are your mum and dad,' she sighed. 'They adopted you. Anyway, why are you doing this? I loved the peroxide, you really suited it!'

'Boring,' I whined, with a roll of my eyes. 'I need a change.'