EDITED;

I'm not who I used to be

"Hey stranger, mind if I call you my own? I know I don't know you but theres somewhere I've seen you before." Between us- Peter bradley adams

*Story is a little slow going at the beginning! Sorry! Stay with me though,  I promise it gets much better!  Next chapter is where Arin comes in!*

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My mom decided to move in the middle of summer, she said it was a big surprise and the entire time up I could hear her talking to herself, basically convincing herself I would like her surprise.

My mom and I were close, but with her being a lawyer she wasn't at home a whole lot and even when she was home she was focused on her work. She was clumsy and didn't know a whole lot on how to cook very well so I basically took care of myself.

The odd times I actually got the chance to have a conversation with her we talked about how this would be a complete fresh start for the both of us.

We wanted to be different and leave the past behind us.

My mom blamed herself for everything that had happened, she was never easy on herself.

I don't blame her for anything though. My father was physco, and now that I'm older I understand that if she did just take me and leave he would have probably lashed out and killed her.

Looking through the back window of the car driving away I felt a little empty... as if a piece of me was being torn away. The second closest thing I had left to Arin would now be gone. All I had was a teddy bear to remind me of my best friend.

But seeing as I'm moving and my mom and I both agreed things would be different, I decided to change myself. Transform me to someone I wanted to be. Hopefully I could actually make some friends here. After everybody found out about what my father had done to my mother and I everyone stayed away from me, the parents wouldn't let their children around me; they must have thought that if my father ever escaped jail he would go after them too for being close to me. 

The funny thing about my father was that he said he hit me out of love. If I started to talk to someone, a girl or boy, it didn't matter. He saw them as a threat. My father would beat me for talking to someone, he always said he never wanted to loose me and that they were going to take me away from him.

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"YOU DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND! THEIR GOING TO TAKE MY LITTLE GIRL AWAY! THEIR GOING TO HURT HER!"

"DAKOTA, THEIR HER FRIENDS! SHE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE! JUST LEAVE HER ALONE, PLEASE!"

"NO!"

Another kick to the ribs as I'm laying on the ground trying to catch my breath, blood already on the floor from my mouth. The metallic taste never seemed to leave.

Trying to focus on my breathing I was suddenly pulled up off of the ground by my hair. I refused to scream, I couldn't give him the satisfaction he wanted. 

"You're never going anywhere, got that?" 

Every whisper sent a chill down my spine.

-

The drive seemed endless.

The only thing that could occupy me was reading, music and sleep. We had to leave early in the morning because we decided to drive the total twelve hours to our new lives. We had to take three hour drive shifts. 

When we finally it was a bit past midnight. At that point all I wanted to do was have a full sleep. That was of course until i saw a big tree-house in the backyard.