Almost Safe with You

18-year-old Lena runs away from home after years of neglect, hunger, and fear caused by her mother's worsening drug addiction. With nowhere safe to go, Lena falls in with a group of older teens who survive by robbing convenience stores, pickpocketing strangers, and dealing drugs. The violence and cruelty of their actions horrify her, but survival leaves her no room to refuse. Every night she tells herself it's temporary-just until she figures something out.

One night during a drug deal gone wrong, Lena comes face to face with her own mother, shaking, desperate, and buying drugs from the very crew Lena now runs with. Neither recognizes the other at first. When realization hits, Lena freezes-her worst fear confirmed: she didn't escape her past; she became part of it. Her mother doesn't even notice the resemblance, too consumed by addiction.

On the streets, Lena meets Eli, a quiet, guarded boy her age who sleeps in abandoned buildings and avoids the gangs. He tells her he ran away from his father, a violent man who nearly killed him in a drunken rage. Eli is different-gentle, protective, and deeply observant. He helps Lena see moments of humanity in a world that feels irredeemable,

Love, Fear, crime, secrets, will this new beginning, become the end of her?