AN: Okay, here's the first revised chapter. It is rather short, but I'm planning on making the next ones much longer. I've deleted all the previously updates chapters. Thank you for reading my story, I hope you enjoy it. Criticism is welcome, and I will take it into account when revising/rewriting the next chapter. I plan on making fairly regular updates, at least until mid-July, when I will be at a summer camp and unable to update because I will not have the previously written chapters.
And sorry about that other email that wasn't an update...it got messed up...
All of us are afraid of our past. Some more that others, but everyone is afraid. You can't deny it. There's always that one incident, that one event that we want to forget. It could be a short, minor embarrassing detail, or it could be a life-altering event. Either way, we don't talk about it with others; we try not to think about, our silent, hidden past. But we are always reminded of it at the worst moment. Always.
"Get out of here, you don't belong!" Her cheek was a sudden blossom of pain as she fell to the ground. She was reminded of another punch, another insult. Get out of my house, you little bitch! "You don't know a thing about life out here! You're just some rich girl who ran away because she didn't get want she wanted and thinks she can make it out on the street." A heavy-toed boot kicked her stomach hard. I give you everything, and this is what I get? A good-for-nothing daughter who can't even do the little things I ask? "This is our turf, and if we see you here again, you'll regret it, got that, little girl?" If I ever see your face in this house again, you'll regret it. Got that, little girl?
With a weak nod of her head, they walked away, out of the dark alley into the busy, crowded streets of New York. It was hot, mid-July night, but she felt cold. It wasn't that her body was cold, no, it was quite the opposite. It was her heart that felt frozen. It was the unfeeling coldness of the city and its people that chilled her to her bones. That they could completely ignore a beating in an alleyway right off the main street disgusted her to no end. She thought back to the girls who were just beating her senseless. They were right. She might be just some rich girl who ran away, but it wasn't about some trivial matter. She didn't run away because her parents did not give it to her. It was because of an excessive amount. She did not want it, but that did not change the fact that she had received it every day of her short, 12 year life. Her mother had had a little too much to drink one night, and one thing led to another, nine months later she gave birth to a little baby girl. She didn't know who the father was, and due to a fall-out with her parents, no one could take the baby. She had to quit college, find a low-paying job, and give up her dream of becoming a lawyer.
After 12 years of living in that house, Maxine Ride left. All her belongings, all her memories, were left behind in that cold apartment in the city. She had nowhere to go, other than the streets. But she had to get out. So she did.