My2012Series;Book 1:~Love~

Chapter 1- Running

Saturday; January 13th, 2012 

I ran... Literally for my life. My father had come home, and that was the worst part of the day. It was pouring rain, and my small, frail body was soaked in seconds. I was freezing cold, I was bleeding in various places, but I kept running.

I found an ally, and I knew that wasn't the safest place for me, but is was safter than my own home. I sat behind a trash can, and I hugged my knees. I began weeping. Weeping for how my own life turned out. I wish I could just go back in time, to tell myself to run after the first threat, after the first hit. I wanted so badly just to turn my life back around...

I thought about how this all started...

I was an orphan, no one knew my parents. I lived in an orphan house for most of my life. Until I was Eleven, then I was adopted by my... well, the adult I live with. I hate calling him my parent, he's not even that.

I should have known, there was glint in his eyes when he brought me home. The first thing I noticed about him was he always smelled of alcohol. He was always drinking, always hitting me.

At random times, I'd be sitting around, trying to comfort myself, and he would just come out of nowhere and slap me.

It would be utterly horrible, living every second of my life in fear.

He was a single man, so he came home from work angry about some girl not wanting his number, and he would take all of it out on me.

He's been doing that to me for four years.

I'm fourteen now, and I'm sitting an ally in the rain, soaking wet... and crying for myself.

I fell asleep with the horrible thoughts clouding my minds.

{~}

Sunday; January 14th, 2012

I woke up to the feeling of sunlight on my face. I curled up in a ball, but then I realized where I was.

I forced my aching body up, so I could walk out of the ally. My torn clothes where still damp and muddy. But I decided to walk. I wasn't going home, not this time. Yes, I'd tried running away before, but I always came home. That's probably why he didn't come looking for me in the first place, he thought I'd return home. Not this time. I'd had enough. 

I stepped out into the streets carefully. I saw many people walking them in Detroit. Then I realized today was Sunday, and most of them were probably going to Church.

I walled with the big groups of people, desperate to try not to get noticed. I walked and walked, not knowing what else to do.

My mind was blank, I looked down, stopped when the group stopped, and went when the group went. I kept going straight. The crowd began to thin out, and soon I looked up and saw a park. There was an empty bench, and my feet were sore from all the walking, so I walked over and sat down. It was a clear day, no clouds in sight, the sun was bright in the sky, and there where lots of kids on the playground. 

I sat there, sat for a long time. It was so agonizingly long that I fell asleep a couple of times, but another scream of a child woke me soon after.

It got dark slowly, and I figured once everyone was gone I could go sleep on the playground set. I guess that would-

"Hey." Someone said in my ear. I jumped violently, frightened. That was my reflex now. I got scared out of my whits every time someone said a word to me because I thought they would hit me.

I looked up at the figure standing next to me. She was very pale, dressed in ripped jeans and a pink tank top. She was in white flip-flops and she had on sun glasses.

"Don't freak, just put this on." She nudged a black leather jacket toward me. I looked back up at her face.

"Why?" I whispered.

"The moms are beginning to wonder about your bruises." She nodded her head toward the group of woman. I looked in the direction of the nodded and saw them staring at me with scrunched up faces. I looked down, blushed deeply and took the jacket. I regretted wearing the short-sleeved t-shirt. It didn't hide the lines of bruises on my arms.

"Thank you." I said softly before slipping on the leather. She smiled and sat next to me.

"No problem. What happened to you, anyway?" She asked. I shook my head. I didn't like talking about it. Well, I'd never talked about it with anyone before, but I didn't even like thinking about it. Why would I like talking about it?

"You can tell me. Trust me, I've been through more that you think." She nodded to herself, and lifted part of her tank top near her hip, showing me a bruise there.

"You, too...?" I whispered as if someone would hear us. She began to explain.

"My parents started fighting and my Dad hit me yesterday. I ran away. So now I'm here." 

Now I didn't feel so alone. She knew the feeling, but I knew it worse. I felt like telling her now, she knew my pain.

"I was an orphan. A guy adopted me and abused me ever since. I ran away and slept in an ally last night." I explained.

"We need to stick together. The names RoseMary." She smiled at me.

"I'm Jasper." I smiled back. But then I began to wonder. Where are we going to stay? How are we going to eat? How are we going to stay healthy? My head began swirling with questions.

"Don't worry," RoseMary began to explain. "My parent were actually stupid enough to leave the safe open the night I ran away. I found about three-thousand in there and I took it."

My chin hit the floor. Three...thousand!? Well, that fixes the food and possibly shelter problem. 

"So..."

That began our long journey.

First thing we did was we went out to eat. Where, I have no clue. I didn't care, all I cared about was it was good, hot food. Heck, I don't even know what I ate! Anyway, we went out and bought our shelter: a tent.

It said easy set up and take down! So we could move is place to place as needed. It was nice and easy, like it said.

We basically talked all day. We did nothing, which was the way we liked it.

 That was, until we meet Era...

{{Sorry it's moving so fast. It's just that I've written this story a billion and one times and I want to get to the good parts already! Anyway, enjoy as the story goes on:) Theme song for this chapter is "Runnin" By Jesse McCartney.}}