He was right about the pointlessness of following me. If I knew he were trailing me, I would have purposefully made his life as difficult as possible. And it would have put a real cramp in our friendship, one that I really didn't want to be there. I was pleased when he said he wouldn't, and let out a soft breath that I hadn't known I was holding.

Then I gasped it back up into my lungs, loudly. I stared at him with wide eyes, my brain processing what he had said but my body unable to function properly in response.

I could have a guardian. I could get out of the children's home and I could have my freedom, have my own life, and have it with someone I genuinely liked. I didn't think of anything beyond that before I flung myself at Jake to hug him.

"Oh my God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"