This Is Not The End

Prologue

I don't know what I ever did to deserve all of the awful things that have happened in my life. At school I'd get bullied for being adopted because apparently that means I have no real parents and, instead of pity, I'd get hate. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've never wanted anyone's pity but that doesn't mean I deserved hate for something I've had no control over.

Home was a whole other story, and not a good one. According to my adoptive parents, Kurt and Dianna, I was adopted a few weeks after my birth. Shortly after the start of my freshman year, they began telling me that I'm pathetic, worthless and unwanted and that's why my real parents didn't want me. They weren't always like that, though. Kurt and Dianna used to be amazing parents who cared for me and loved me. Although that means nothing now. Their words still haunt me sometimes and I can't decide whether or not I should believe what they drilled into my head for years. Occasionally I still find myself asking: Am I really worthless and unwanted? For a while that seemed to be what everybody thought and when that's what life is like for such a long time, it can be difficult to move on.

School was like my safe haven in a way. You probably think I'm crazy for saying that because I got bullied there, but being bullied at school is better than being beaten half to death everyday at home. That started right around my 15th birthday, towards the end of my freshman year. In the mornings, my "parents" would leave early for work so I managed to avoid them then, but I would get home in the afternoon to find them drunk with the stench of drugs filling the house. I always tried to sneak upstairs to my room yet somehow, in their incapacitated state, they always managed to catch me.

Senior year is when I finally decided that I'd had enough and was actually going to do something about it. My best friend, who was also my only friend (bless her), and I concocted a plan. On graduation day, which also happened to be my 18th birthday, we were going to escape the hell hole that we called home and move to London. That's right. London, England. We both had always dreamed of going and after each of us worked multiple jobs for a few years, we had finally saved up enough money to go. We decided to go to our graduation and then hurry back to our houses. The goal was to get there early enough so that Kurt and Dianna weren't back yet. I could only hope that I would be able to gather the few belonging I had packed and leave before my parents could stop me.

The two big questions that haunted me that day were:   

What will they say if they find out?

and

What will I do if they refuse to let me leave?!