AN: Just a short update. If you're enjoying the story or have something constructive to say I'd love to hear it in the reviews.

A week into the summer holidays her mom lost her job. The café she'd been working in closed its doors, business wasn't doing well, if they stayed open they wouldn't have been able to pay their staff, closing when they did they could pay out their benefits, not that her mom had many benefits, she'd only been working there a year. Her mom didn't cope well with change, with the ground being pulled out from under her. Erin knew something was wrong when she came home to find her mom sitting on the sofa, her eyes red and bloodshot and a bottle of whisky by her side.

Erin screamed at her mom when she saw her like that, she yelled at her and said mean hurtful things to her. She was angry and she was scared, she didn't want to be taken away again and but she'd been through this before. Drinking was always the start of the bigger problems.

"What are you thinking!?" she yelled, "you know you can't drink, you know what happens when you drink. They won't let Teddy stay with us; they'll take me away again. You need to stop, you can't do that, I'm throwing it out."

Erin reached for the whisky bottle but her mom grabbed it first.

"No," her mom said glaring at her, "this is mine. I'm not going to let you good for nothing brat throw it away. I know what I'm doing, everything will be fine."

"No it won't," Erin said looking at her mom, she was angry and her feelings had been hurt, "you always say that and it never is. You need to stop."

"I'll stop when I'm ready," her mom said standing up; she swayed slightly and grabbed onto the chair for support. "You stay out of my business," then she walked into her bedroom and slammed the door.

Erin stood alone in the apartment for a minute before walking out and slamming the door behind her. She went to her friends place; she ate dinner with them and told her friend what was happening. Together they worked out a plan; they worked out what to do if things didn't get better. But things did get better, kind of, her mom sobered up in time for Teddy to visit, for the two weeks he was there she didn't touch the booze, they had fun as a family doing all the free stuff there was to do in the city, without a job her mom had lots of time to spend with them. On the weeks when Teddy wasn't there things got worse, drugs started showing up in the house again, booze was always present, her mom started mixing with the unsavoury people in the building. Erin's life became a rollercoaster, the weeks Teddy was there were fine but when he wasn't her mom alternated between being high and going through withdrawal. It was messy and Erin hated it, she began to resent her mother but she never stopped loving her, she never stopped wanting to be with her.

Teddy left to go back to his dad's on July 3. Erin begged her mom to stay clean and sober for her, the people in the building always threw a big 4th of July party in the park down the road, from the park they could see the fireworks and it was always good fun. She wanted her mom to be at the party with her, she said she would, she said she'd see her there and Erin ran off to play.

Hours later when it was dark, when everyone was gathering for the fireworks Erin looked for her mom but she couldn't see her.

"My mom's not here," she said to her friend.

"Sure she is," her friend said but as they both looked around they couldn't find her.

"I'm going to go home and find her," Erin said stepping away.

"Okay," her friend said smiling, "be quick though or you'll miss the fireworks."

Erin ran back to her building and up the stairs, she wasn't worried yet, more pissed off and mad.

"Mom!" she called walking into the apartment, "come down stairs you're going to miss the fireworks."

The apartment was silent, Erin was expecting her mom to yell abuse back at her but there was nothing, "Mom!" Erin called walking through the living area and into the kitchen, and there she found her passed out on the floor. "Mom," Erin said as she kicked her in the shin, "Mom, get up we're going to miss the fireworks." Her mom didn't move and Erin looked closer. Her mom's skin was pale and slightly grey, her lips were a tinge of blue, Erin bent down closer to her and listened, she was barely breathing.

"MOM!" Erin screamed at her and she shook her hard, her mother's body flopped, limp, lifeless and then Erin started to panic. Her mom was overdosing and there was no one around to help her, everyone was out at the park waiting for the fireworks, she couldn't call 911, if she did they'd call CPS and take her away again. With no other choice she grabbed her mom under the arms and began dragging her across the floor. She needed to get her to the bathroom, she needed to get cold water on her, it was the only thing she could think of to do. How she got the strength to move her mom she wasn't sure, she never would have thought she'd have the strength to move her like that, to get her across the apartment and up into the bath tub but she did. She got her mom into the bath tub and she turned the cold water onto her and then she sat there and waited, prayed that she would wake up, that she wasn't already dead. Outside she heard the fireworks start and she began to cry, she'd been looking forward to the fireworks all summer and now she was missing them and her mom was maybe dying. In that moment she hated her life, she hated her mom for not being better. And then she woke up, her mom took a massive gulp of air and opened her eyes.

Her mom looked at her, a confused look crossed her face and then she opened her mouth, "Where's my cigarettes?" she asked and Erin flipped.

"I don't fucking know," Erin yelled and she stormed out the house. Seconds ago she'd been worried, terrified that her mom was dead but now all that fear turned to anger. She wasn't sure what she was expecting when she was praying her mom would wake up, a 'thank you' maybe, an 'I'm sorry', now she knew she wasn't dying she just wanted to get away.

She arrived back at the park just in time to see the last of the fireworks. "Where is your mom?" her friend asked.

"Home," Erin replied, "I don't want to talk about it."