EDITED;

Flashblack

"The tides will bring me back to you." - Bring me the horizon

-

"But Arinhead I don't want you to go! Who will I spend the summer with if you're not here?!"

"Well I don't want to leave either! I'm not going!"

There we were, two ten year olds pouting on the side walk drawing with chalk.

"HEY! I'VE GOT AN IDEA!"

By the look in his eye, I knew he had an adventure planned for us. Arin always came up with adventures for us, they usually got us in trouble though... but I didn't care. Every time I saw that face I couldn't help but get curious and excited. My bestfriend was always so predictable.

"Lets runaway together! If they can't find me, they won't be able to take me away!

At the time we thought the plan was bulletproof. But being ten years old, nothing really is. 

When Arin and I first met, it was because of a huge treehouse built in the middle of our two backyards. Our mothers were both lawyers, and both got promoted to the same firm. Coincidentally, we moved in the houses next to one another. But now Arins mother got another promotion and they had to leave for a while.

Whenever Arin and I said we were running away or whenever we were upset, we'd be in the treehouse. We painted the inside of the treehouse many vibrant, different colours... so that when we are upset we would see the colours and feel happy again.

Hey, we were little, it worked.

"I don't want to leave so I ran away with Kayla. Love you."

Arin wrote that on the sidewalk as fast as he could so that we could go get the things we need for running away without being caught.

Not even an hour had passed before our parents found us. Walking through the empty house that used to belong to my bestfriend, I fully understood what was meant when my mother told me he was leaving for a while... he wasn't coming back.

I felt tears prick my eyes as I hugged my bestfriend for the last time, he promised he would come visit me whenever he could. And I believed him, but the day I saw him again couldn't come fast enough.

"Here, take this."

Arin handed me his favorite stuffed animal, it was a black bear with a red bowtie.

"So that I'm always right here with you!"

I couldn't help but smile when he handed it to me, and my smile grew even wider when I saw a huge smile plastered on his face.

I spent the next two summers up in that tree house waiting for my bestfriend to come back and visit me. Waiting for my bestfriend to come back and save me from the monster that lived with me and my mother.

Once my father started getting abusive and I had no one to talk to, I turned to the only thing that kept me feeling alive. 

I started to self harm, at first it was only little things. But when the beatings got worse, so did the cutting.

The day of my grade eight graduation, all of the girls are expected to wear dresses. One problem, bruises.

Once everyone saw the hand marks and bruises thats when my father got busted. Not when I came to school with a black eye, or a busted lip, because those were easy to cover up... but when you have hand marks around your ancles, those aren't so easy to make excuses for.

My father went to jail and when his time was up, we decided to move.