I ran faster and faster through the rain down the dark streets and couldn't get these images out of my head no matter how hard I tried. They burned themselves into my mind, making it difficult for me to breathe. From that moment on, my own mother was one of those women who betrayed her family, but why at all? I tried to remember anything that would have prepared me for something like this, but I couldn't think of a single moment where she looked unhappy. Maybe she was just pretending to me. "Mia?" my best friend Juline snapped me out of my thoughts as I arrived at her front door, out of breath. She sat on the porch swing under her canopy and listened to the rain as usual. She loved it since we were little and was always outside when it rained. "What happened?" she stood up and gave me a worried look before taking my backpack from me. I looked at her with my tear-filled eyes and wiped individual strands of my brown, wet hair from my face. "I... my mother..." Stuttering, I tried to explain the situation, but I couldn't get a complete sentence. She took my hand, pulled me inside through the white front door and immediately ran with me up the stairs to her room. She placed the backpack on the black desk chair and then led me to her little red couch, where I sat, still confused about everything. "I'll get you a towel and get us something to drink from my father's cupboard," she said and waited for a moment until I nodded to her and then disappeared back downstairs. An emptiness filled me as I stared out the window across from me at the darkness. How should I continue at home? would we stay a family I got up and paced nervously between her couch and her bed. It was all just devastating and slowly I wished that I hadn't forgotten my backpack, because then everything would still be fine and I would certainly have nicer thoughts in my head than these horrible pictures. My eyes fell on Juline's white chest of drawers, on which stood various picture frames. One of these photos showed us both having a nice day at the beach last summer. I loved this photo and even had it in my room on my bedside table. "So," Juline came back into the room, holding a towel and a bottle of tequila. "Now you tell me everything in peace." She tossed the towel at me, sat cross-legged on the bed, and twisted her wavy blonde hair into a bun. "My mom was dating another man," I said simply, then ran to the sofa to sit down, exhausted. "What?" she asked like I was joking and then took a deep breath. "Who was it? Did you recognize him? How did you catch her?" Juline freaked out even more than I did, but that was normal for her because she was by far the most curious person I knew. If there was a rumor at school, she was always the first to know all the details. It was actually no wonder that she worked for the school newspaper. The job was made for her. Thinking about our school, I was really thankful that yesterday was the last day of school and we had three months of rest. "I didn't recognize him. It was dark and everything went really fast," I answered her questions and noticed her disappointed look. She would have loved to know all the details, but I couldn't give them to her. "Don't worry about it. Many parents cheat. Basically, your father is rarely at home, maybe he also has something with other women," she babbled, opening the tequila. "I don't think so," I replied, frowning, leaning forward. "If I were a papa child like you, I wouldn't believe it either, but you don't know what he does on his business trips either." I gave her a disgusted look and stood up, taking the tequila from her for a long gulp. Hoping to wash down all my troubles, I took another sip and then handed her back the bottle. "I don't even want to know." A while passed as I nervously paced again and Juline was typing on her phone until she jumped up and showed me something on her display. "There's a party at Micah's today. We should go there," she said, and I could feel her trying to cheer me up. "Do you think he even wants us there? And think of Leyla," I replied to my best friend, who then rolled her eyes. "My goodness. Micah has been our best friend for so long. Just because you've kissed once doesn't mean it has to be over and Leyla isn't a problem. She went with her parents to her relatives over the holidays," she grinned and pulled raised an eyebrow in triumph. I thought for a moment and then looked again at the photo of us on the beach that Micah had taken. She was right. It was just a kiss and staying away from him wasn't going to undo it. "But I really need something from you to wear," I explained to her, looking into her blue eyes. She beamed all over her face and immediately started tearing all sorts of clothes out of her closet. I watched as the bed became more and more cluttered with clothes, and then pulled out a pair of light-colored jeans and a black t-shirt from the pile of clothes. "Are you sure you want the t-shirt?" she asked me and I looked at the thing again. It was simple, yes, but after tonight I really didn't want to stand out in any way. "Yeah, I'm sure," I replied, then stripped down to my underwear to put on dry clothes. Juline made her way to her bathroom with several choices while I walked over to her closet mirror and towel dried my wet hair. I looked back at my green eyes in the mirror and immediately thought of my mother, whose eyes looked exactly like mine. Again the memory stuck and again I could hardly breathe from the problems that weighed heavily on my shoulders. I wanted to immediately grab my cell phone and call my father, but I couldn't do that to my mother. She should explain it to him herself once he got back and I would make sure of that. "We can," Juline informed me, standing in the doorway, still putting on heels. I grabbed my white sneakers and then followed her downstairs to leave the house together.