AU. Life's not always as easy as people try to make it. In fact, things aren't always easy-peasy. Lily and Miley experienced this first hand through the troubling times of abusive family relationships and a town's bigoted point of view. After managing to escape their town, Lily and Miley start a new life together but is this new life enough? What challenges with they face together?

"I love you, Lilly Truscott," Miley said to her girlfriend.

"I love you too, Miley Stewart," Lily said in response.

Growing up in a small town, you quickly realize what is allowed and what is not. One of the things that was certainly not allowed was homosexuality; whether between two men or two women. In fact, even in this year, things were not always so easily defined.

If you kept it quiet, people generally did not ask questions; however, if you brought it to the open, then people suddenly had an issue with it. Therefore, Lily and Miley had no choice but to keep their relationship a secret. Unfortunately for them both, this was easier said than done.

"Lily Truscott! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Her mother asked.

"Get your hands off my daughter!" Screamed Miley's father.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Miley asked, still holding her girlfriend.

"Mom?" Lilly asked, confused as to why her mom and Miley's dad were here, since they were far enough out in the swamp.

"We were told by your brother, thank goodness, that you two were up to this! How dare you embarrass our family?" Miley's father said, grabbing his daughter, "And you, stay away from my daughter!" He directed, with much anger, toward Lily.

"Yeah," Lily's mother said as she grabbed her own daughter, "The two of you need to never see each other again! What's you're doing just ain't natural!"

Five days had passed and Lily had not seen nor heard from Miley since. Her own mother had beat her, without leaving any visual marks, so she was afraid to go and see Miley for worse may be waiting her; however, as time went on and it had been two more days, seven in total, she began to grow concerned.

"Jackson," she asked seeing Miley's older brother at the ice cream shop, "How is your sister?"

"Don't ask about my sister, queer," Jackson retorted.

"Hey, you," the shop owner said, "Out of my store!"

At first, Lily was thinking the older man meant Jackson but, after actually being kicked out, she got the message. In fact, it was only growing worse. Although her mother allowed Lily to continue visiting town, the people of her hometown slowly began to hate Lily more and more. Unfortunately this meant that they could abuse her, without any worry from the law.

Lily sighed as she exited town and started heading in the direction of home but, after some time of thinking, she quickly made a quick detour and entered the woods. She eventually came to a fork in the road but, instead of turning either direction, she walked straight. By the time she made it to a strange looking tree, it was nearly nine o'clock at night. She slowly climbed the tree until she was at the top. Unlike the other trees, this tree oversaw the whole forest and could even see into the town.

Even so, it was shielded by branches so that no one, whether below or around it, could see what was about the tree. It was here that Miley and Lily had long ago built their tree house. Lily sighed as she entered the tree house and looked around. The light was off but Lily thought she saw a shadow of a person in the corner, "Miley?" She asked.

There was no response so Lily was about to turn on the light.

"No," Miley's voice sounded out, "Don't look at me."

"Miley," Lily said in a soothing voice, "Please."

Miley began to cry, "I'm ugly," she said in a sob, "he made sure of it."

Lily smiled, "Miles, I love you. Please, let me see you."

Miley sighed, "Okay," she lightly said, "but, please, don't hurt me. I can't handle it."

Her voice sounded so defeated that Lily wanted to cry herself, but she knew she couldn't. Not when her best friend and love was crying herself. So, with a heavy heart, Lily turned on the light and then silently gasped.

Miley, the most beautiful woman in the world, had a black eye and a broken nose. Dried blood was all over her face and she looked so worn and hurt that it made Lily want to cry. She couldn't though, not when her girlfriend needed her the most.

Lily quickly grabbed a first aid kit and began to take care of Miley as best as she could. She even reset Miley's nose, using the first aid training she had learned in school and girl scouts.

The night was long but, eventually, they managed to make it through.

"Miles," Lily said holding her girlfriend's naked form in her arms, "We need to leave this town."

"I know," Miley said, "We're both nineteen. We can easily leave."

Lilly nodded her head, "I know but we've never been out of this town, let alone this state. Where can we go?"

Miley sighed, "Well," she said gently, "We can always go to California. People are more accepting there."

Lilly nodded her head, "I just never expected our parents to betray us like this. Your brother, yeah, a little bit but my mom? Your dad? I," she began to softly cry, "Sorry," she apologized.

Miley shook her head, "Shh, baby," she shushed her girlfriend, rubbing her neck a little, "Be careful of your ribs, okay?"

Lilly laughed a little then groaned, "Why'd mom have to kick me, Miles? What did we ever do to them? I don't get why they hate us."

Miley shook her head, "I don't know, Lilly. I really don't know. I just want to get out of here and never look back," she admitted out loud, "I always thought family could fix anything, withstand everything, but I guess not?"

Lily sighed, rubbing her girlfriend's knee, "Don't worry, baby, we'll get out of here. Okay?"

Miley shook her head, "I know, baby, I just can't wait."

Lily smiled, "Well, we have plenty of money. Thank goodness we saved up, huh?"

Miley laughed, shaking both their bodies, "Yeah," she admitted, "I'm glad we did save up. Frankly, I'm glad you had the idea," she kissed her girlfriend's neck heck, "I'm also very glad for you."

Lily smiled, "Well, let's lay low for a while and get our energy back. You did a good job wrapping my ribs but I do need to not move too much," she admitted, "so laying here with you is enough."

Miley nodded her head, "Okay. Besides, we can see what they're up to from here anyway."

Lily smirked, "True," she nodded her head, "I'm just glad we never told anyone about this place."

Author's note:

In the next chapter, two months will have passed by. Miley and Lily will be living in a small town in California while working as waitresses/singers.