Finding Eden by Mia Sheridan

here for a month now, and I hope you know that we already love you so much."
    I looked over at her, surprised she had read my mood so well and nodded. "I know," I said quietly, "and I love you both, too. And just being here, having you , has helped me so much. I can't even tell you." I met her eyes, offering her a small smile. I took a sip of my coffee and put it down on the table in front of me.
    "I know, honey, but that's not what I meant. I meant I wish you'd let me help you with your sadness. Perhaps—"
    "No one can help with that," I said softly. "I wish you could."
    I looked back out at the rain. "I know Felix found you and my mom for me," I said quietly. "But I like to think he guided me to you." I paused. "If that kind of thing is possible."
    "He? Who?" Molly asked, grabbing my hand in hers.
    I looked at her, not answering her question, just letting the words finally flow. "Sometimes I imagine the rain is him." I laughed softly. "If I'm alone, I turn my face into it," I mimicked raising my face to the heavens, "and I can feel him." I closed my eyes. "I'll never have a place where I can visit him, and so I'm with him in the rain." I looked at Molly again. "But then it brings me back there, too. I never know which I'm going to get."
    She looked down at our hands and then up into my eyes. "Acadia," she whispered.
    I looked out across the pool again and nodded my head. "I've heard it called a cult so often on the news. And I guess it was." I bit my lip for a minute thinking of all the horror that had taken place there in those final days. "To me it was home though. I loved people there. And that's the hardest part."
    "There was a boy," Molly said. It wasn't a question.
    "Yes."
    "And he—"
    "Yes," I said.
    Molly looked down, biting her own lip. "Oh, Eden. No wonder. You were in love. Oh, I'm so, so sorry."
    I nodded, a single tear escaping my eye.
    Molly leaned forward. "Is there any chance that he got out, too? I mean, you didn't go to the police . . ."
    I shook my head, wiping the wetness from my cheek. "The whole place was flattened. Underwater. I know you probably saw it on the news, but to be there . . ." I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself. "The water and then the collapse. No."
    "Oh God." She stood up and leaned down to hug me, squeezing me tightly to her. When she returned to her chair, there were tears in her eyes, too.
    We both wiped our tears away just as my mom walked through the patio doors. "Good morning, girls," she sing-songed. She was fully dressed, coiffed, and looking like she'd been awake for hours. She came over and kissed me on my cheek, bringing her face close to mine and gazing at me with a smile on her face for a good ten seconds. Her powdery, floral scent wafted all around me. I couldn't help but smile back at her, my mood lifting just a little. "What?" I asked.
    "You!" she said, pinching my cheek. "You bring joy to my day. And you're so gorgeous, even with bed head." She grinned.
    Molly snorted. "Well, gee, what am I? Chopped liver here?"
    "Oh," my mom said, standing and clapping her hands together. "You're gorgeous, too. I'm just used to you." She went over and kissed Molly and pinched her cheek as well. She plopped down in a chair next to me and said, "I have so much to do before the party."
    I bit my lip. "Do you really think your friends will be discreet?" I asked. "I mean, these people can definitely be trusted not to go to the police, right? Until we're ready?"
    My mom's eyes widened. "Oh yes. I've sworn them all to secrecy for now. They know exactly how much I've suffered, and now how much you've suffered, too. They would never." She paused, looking concerned. "But Eden, we'll have to tell the police you're back at some point, my darling. They'll want to close the case, investigate and whatever it is they do in situations like this."
    I worried my brow, nodding. "You can't get in trouble for not telling them right away, can you?"
    Molly cut in, "I can't think of any law you're