Charlie has been left more times than she cares to count. She was raised, parentless, with her brother in fostercare, abused, ignored, starved, and unloved by most. Safe to say, she's strong... Or she was, but now she's found herself in an abusive relationship with the man her brother trusted to take care of her. She needs happiness. She needs peace. Most of all? She needs a way out of this dark place she's found herself in. This is her story. This is her Truth.

"Do you want to talk? You know, about everything?" Evan asks. He's staring up at the star-covered sky as he holds our brown bag of French fries. I finish my sip of my vanilla milkshake despite not wanting to stop and follow his gaze. The stars twinkle against the black and wish I had brought my camera. Somehow I thought that bringing it on our maybe-maybe-not date wasn't appropriate. "I don't know," I smile, "everything seems like a lot of talking." Alabama Reed has fooled herself into thinking that this could work and she knows it. With an accident she's trying to downplay and a loss she can't seem to forget, things aren't looking good. So Bam's parents do the only thing they can think of; they take their daughter and drive her halfway across the country to sleepy Mermaid Bay to live in an empty cottage for the summer. Things quickly start looking up when Bam realizes the newspapers don't cover news that happens hours away, but as soon as she starts making friends and secrets of her past start unraveling, Bam finds out that you can't always run from your past - even if you actually run away. Spiritual #18 May 16th, 2013