Chapter One: The Beginning

We run out of the liquor store laughing and grinning ear to ear with our bags filled to the brink of bursting. We have a safehouse that we can run to in the burned, rundown part of the suburbs. The safehouse is hidden between buildings so it's hard to find. I'm pretty sure Cayson and I are the only two people who come to this side of town.

We have food and drinks; we even have electricity, but it's not from the government. We don't want to get caught here, Cayson is something of a genius, so he fixed up a way for us to have electricity. We tend to just play games and hang out really. Aside from our little life of crime we aren't typically busy people. We don't go out partying because, well, that just isn't our scene. We are only ever here or home, although we try to stay away from our own homes as well. This safehouse is our little slice of heaven in this messed up world of ours.

One Year Earlier

"You're such a sorry excuse of a daughter!" He barges into my room and starts yelling at me, he's drunk, again. It's no surprise either, he's addicted to alcohol since my mom died. After that first sentence and him almost breaking my door I time him out. I'm not upset by it or scared of it, this happens almost everyday.

My father yelling at me and beating me is pretty much routine; he gets drunk and starts thinking and realizes I'm the only one here for him to tell at and beat on. My mom died a year ago and since then it's worse than it used to be. No matter what I always carry bruises; that's why I try to hide out at the safehouse as much as possible with Cayson.

Cayson is my best friend, we met last year...a few months before my mom died actually. We were friends for about four months and we were closer than ever, so, when my mom died he's the one I cried to. My mom was one of the only ones who cared about me, not to mention she was my best friend until Cayson. For some reason my dad always hated me so I stayed with my mom all the time; when she was working I was at school or with Cayson.

Now that she's gone I quit school and I rarely go home. My dad doesn't give two shits if I'm alive or dead in a ditch so I just do what I want. The only thing I'm good for to him is being a punching bag when he's drunk. I stay away from home as much as possible, except for when the nosey ass neighbors call child services, then I have to stay home a few days and just get beat up more. If they found out about my dad or me not going to school then I would be taken away.

I honestly wouldn't care much, but that would mean leaving Cayson behind. That's something I couldn't handle; anytime I have a problem then I talk to Cayson. We know everything about each other, since Cayson and I have met he has always been my rock. We just had this connection; and he's also my one and only best friend.

I honestly always thought I wouldn't really have any friends because I'm so different, so that's a reason I didn't speak to anyone at school by the way. At this point Cayson and I have been friends for over a year so we take care of each other because our parents don't do their jobs obviously. Since we always want the best for each other we both decided it would be good for us to both go back to school now.