Darker London

Putting out an album without a label meant one truly useful thing - it was easy to push back a release date. So instead Adrina had boxes of CDs in her room that were ready to go and the only thing holding them back was the continued absence of Astrid.

Adrina didn't know Astrid all that well. If someone had asked, Adrina would have called the other girl 'a friend' but they only hung out when other people were around, in social group situations. But who she did love deeply was Deirdre and Flynn, and they both loved Astrid. Besides, Astrid was gone and probably enduring horrors and this was not the right time to drop an album and demand her friends started listening to it and praising her.

So it would wait until Astrid returned.

(Adrina tried not to think of it as if Astrid returned. She wanted everyone to keep hope, but every day it looked a little more bleak. If people were gone long enough it meant they wouldn't be coming back.)

There were other things she was putting off now as well, because they were happy things, good things, and she didn't want them tainted with this time.

Waiting was awful though and Adrina felt guilty that she didn't think about Astrid all that much. She was carrying on with her life, going to work, hanging out with her boyfriend, making jokes with Quinn. But then she'd spot Flynn looking like shit and she'd remember that his friend was missing and that she didn't know how to help that.

Tonight was one of those nights, where she'd sat at the kitchen table with Flynn while he furrowed his brows and talked about the places he might go look tomorrow. Adrina had just nodded along and squeezed his hand, and now she made her way back up the stairs to her bedroom where Eamon was already in bed with his laptop.

"Looking at porn?" Adrina asked him. "Hope it's quality."