Chapter 1:

"Get Out!" she screamed, a bottle of wine grasped tightly in her right hand. She was hanging on to the bottle as if it was life, and for her, it was.

"Mother!" I cried back, in shock.

"You're dead to me! Get out! Get out!"

"You can't do this!" I screamed at her.

A maniacal laugh sound across the room from me, I stared, terrified of my mother. "You will not tell your mother what she will and will not do," stepping forward, she delivered a wine bottle straight across my face shattering the bottle and the contents. "Get. Out." She growled, ignoring my bloodied cheek and bruising skin. "Now."

Scrambling, I crawled to the door where I had left my backpack, and clicked the door behind me as I fled the scene of the irate woman.


"Jamie!" I cried as I knocked frantically on the door. "Open the door!" It was early, the sun had only just risen, so about 5 o' clock. I didn't expect her to be up, I just didn't know where else to go. "Jamie!"

"Oh my god, Alaina!" she screamed, clearly frantic as she swung open the door and grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me back and forth. "How the hell...!? Your face! Mom!" Jamie was always a bit of a dramatic one, always overreacting; still, I wasn't anticipating that I looked like a spring day.

Jamie's mother running into the room as Jamie ran out, I saw rage transform into concern across her face. "Was that...?" she trailed off clearly taken off her guard.

"My mother," I specified with a shaken smile that caused my cheek to sting even more than it already did.

"What'd she...?"

"Glass bottle."

"And your clothes!"

"Red wine." it was sad that we had been through this enough times that I knew what she was going to say. This wasn't exactly a foreign experience to us.

Jamie running back into the room with a wet rag in hand, she took to dabbing the dried blood off my cheek and tried to stop the remaining bleeding. I tried my best to ignore the sting.

Grabbing a first-aid kit, Jamie's mom shooed Jamie away and began working on my cuts with a pair of tweezers.

"You're lucky that you don't have too much lodged in there. You'll only need a few stitches," she observed as she plucked a shard from one of the many cuts across my face.

Blinking my acceptance, I just sat silently. Stitches were the last thing that I wanted aside from anything to do with my mother. I had hoped that I wouldn't need them this time, but that's me, the optimist. "Thank you, Mrs. David. I'm sorry to disturb you."

"Oh, don't be!" she attempted to reassure me as she finished the last of the stitches. I only needed seven stitches in the end, so it wasn't as bad as I thought. "You needed medical attention. If anything, I should be sorry that you need it."

I tried not to roll my eyes good naturedly, Mrs. David was always one of the kindest of people, she always knew just how to make people feel as if they were more important than her. "Thank you, Mrs. Davis," I replied as she walked out of the living room and into the kitchen.

Sitting down, Jamie just gazed fixated on my cheek before meeting my eyes and speaking her thoughts. "So your mother came home drunk again?"

Nodding my head affirmative, I looked away toward the white painted front door. "Every night, Jamie."

Understanding, Jamie looked away. Jamie was the only one that I would trust with that information. She was the only one that I fully trust, and as we had been best friends since the first day of preschool, it was understandable.

"What did she say this time?" she whispered as if it were some forbidden thing that she was trying to keep herself from. Again, understandable.

"Just 'get out.'" I shook my head as I whispered back the forbidden information. I wasn't even sure how I had provoked her. Then again, my mother needed little instigation.

Trying not to overreact, Jamie remained silent.

"Jamie?" I spoke up.

"Yeah?" she replied, clearly distant.

"I think that... I might..."

"Oh... My God, Alaina, I completely forgot!" She snapped back into reality and ran behind the couch and back upstairs where she most likely retrieving some unknown treasure.

Hearing her heavy footsteps tearing up and down the stairs, I observed as she disappeared through the archway and around the corner only to reappear holding a change in clothes. Slipping toward me on the hardwood floor, she caught herself on the back of the older looking couch and stood up straight as if nothing had happened at all.

"So, I take it the gravity still works?" I chuckled as I accepted the clothes that she had been saving for me.

"Yeah," she replied, more or less pleased with what she had just done for me.

Rolling my eyes I strode into the bathroom that lie near the staircase, and changed into the new pair of clean clothes. I was dressed in a navy blue tee shirt that had a 'v' neck and read 'got milk?' across the front and a pair of slightly baggy, darker jeans with white seams that ran up and down the side of my legs. I also had pulled my medium length, dirty-blond hair into a sport pony tail so that both my stitches and my golden locket were visible on my slightly tanned skin.

Emerging from the bathroom, I headed down the hallway back into the living room where Jamie sat in waiting.

Hearing me, she turned then rolled her eyes and returned to the magazine that she had been reading. "You look amazing, as always.

"Are you kidding me? You look better than I do!" Jamie just shook her head and continued with her magazine as was typical when someone would compliment her. She never could quite grasp that people weren't joking all the time about how she looked.

"Breakfast!" Mrs. Davis called from the kitchen that was through a door to the left when one would first walk in. Exchanging a glance, Jamie and I raced to the table where she took her seat next to her father, and across her little sister, and I took a pop up chair that Mrs. Davis had set up next to Mrs. Davis and Jamie.

The breakfast was probably one of the best that I had ever had, consisting of rolls, berries, eggs, bacon ,and to top it all off: orange juice.

"So, Alaina, how is the summer treating you?" Mrs. David inquired. She (and everyone else at the table) had been kind enough to dance around the topic of my mother.

"Oh, well, I've spent quite a bit of time out at the field and woods. I've been helping with some environmental samples for a friend," I offered politely, "You?"

"Well, as you know, we are going to be going on vacation a week from now," she smiled giving me a meaningful glance. "We'll be gone for a month or so once we leave." I had completely forgotten about their vacation. They went on it every year. I always was thankful for their return. I suppose I would just have to be more careful around my mother again.

"Oh, yeah," I smiled. "Where are you guys going again?" It would be a hard month, but I would be able to make it.

"Down south, we have some relatives that live right on the lake!" Jamie's sister spoke up excitedly while Jamie and I just exchanged sideways glances. She knew what them leaving would do for me, but I managed to keep up my poker face and throw her an encouraging glance. 'How bad could it be?' I asked myself, already knowing the answer to that question. Pretty bad, but now wouldn't be the time to acknowledge it.

"So, Alaina," Jamie's father cleared his throat. "Do you have any plans coming up?"

I paused for a moment, contemplating bringing up his promise, but decided against it for fear of what my mother would do if she found out. Even Jamie barely knew about my plan. "Um... Well, I have been doing some work as an office assistant. I might be able to keep that up."

Pursing her lips, Jamie's mother masked a smile. "Just keep doing what you're doing, honey."

I smiled and nodded my head in false agreement. I didn't know if I could.

Standing up from the table, I excused myself, thanking Mrs. David for the wonderful breakfast and for dealing with me, and stormed off into Jamie's room which was upstairs and immediately to the right. This was more like home to me than anywhere anymore, even if it seemed like more of a burden on the family than anything else.

"Alaina?" Jamie asked softly opening the door.

"I'm sorry, Jamie," I looked up with an exhausted glance.

"Alaina?" she sounded slightly less calm, as if she realized what I was thinking, although judging by the way that she was holding her shoulders, she didn't.

"Jamie," I replied matter of factly. It always seemed to irritate her when I did that, but at the moment, I could care less. This morning had been almost more emotionally tolling than I cared to handle.

"You know, maybe it won't be that bad. I mean..." she trailed off, silenced with a glance from me.

'It'll be bad. It always is.' "Jamie," I shook my head at my friend's foolishness. It was one thing to be optimistic, and another thing entirely to be unrealistic.

"At least it'll only be a month," she tried to reason with me.

"Yeah, whole month." Shaking my head, I looked at her then eyed the wall, analyzing a thought that I had been preparing for months. What if...?

"But then we'll be back…" she hesitated in her own attempt at friendship.

"Jamie?" I looked back at her, a renewed youth returning back into my eyes. "I want you to help with something."

"What?" she asked looking at me with her huge, round, blue eyes. Suddenly, I had peaked her interest.

Pausing, I waited for realization to cross her face before I continued. "I mean..."

"Are you insane?" she stood up and walked to her window that over looked the backyard. "You don't even have the right stuff, and then!"

"Well, actually..."

"Then what would your mother, MY Mother think?!"

"My bag..."

"Jesus, Alaina! I thought you were joking when you brought that up! I mean, I wouldn't even think about doing it, and then there's school!"

"Jamie," I attempted to interrupt my friend, but she was on a roll.

"You can't just drop out, I mean..." looking around the room frantically, searching for more reasons, more support.

"Jamie," I sat still and calmly as she proceeded to panic.

"What?!" she shouted in return on accident, she was out of range emotionally as she often would get when I suggested a more radical idea.

Raising my eyebrows, I waited for her to relax.

Exhaling deeply, she just met my eyes and looked away with a mumbled, "Sorry."

Shaking my head, I looked at her and relaxed farther back into her bed. "Jamie?"

"Yes?" she replied in a small voice from across the room having been embarrassed.

"You know, even when I was little, an adventure was always something I wanted. Don't you remember?" I smiled at the thought of my childhood. "And, if I remember correctly, that was always something that you wanted too. You and I would always play explorer out on the play structure with the rest of the kids. What happened to that, Jamie?"

"Things changed," she replied sitting next to me.

"How?"

"Well, I wanted to become a doctor, and you..."

"Tell me, Jamie, what did I want to do?" I whispered, knowing that she sensed my point.

Silencing herself, she knew what I was getting at, but tried not to accentuate my point.

"Alaina! Your mother's here!" called from downstairs.

Turning quickly from the door to Jamie, I tried to utter out the last of my thoughts. "Please, Jamie, you've got to help me," was all I whispered as I turned to the stairs and walked down into the living room where my mother was standing in wait with Jamie's looking perfectly pleasant.

"Come, Alaina," she smiled, clearly trying her hardest to seem like a civilized woman.

"Thank you, ," I turned to her gratefully, knowing that she was unsure about letting me go, but at the same time, she was also trying hard not to instigate anything.

Jamie stepped forward for a goodbye hug and we went in for a friendly embrace. "Fine, I might be able to pull a few favors. I sure hope that you know what you are doing, Alaina."

Smiling at each other when we let go, I began to walk away while she stood there as pleasantly oblivious as she would have been had she just told me that she liked my shirt. Jamie did have a bit of a devious streak to her.

Smiling to myself, I just marched out the door under the watchful eye of my mother.


Author's Note:

Okay! So I had this posted a while back, but for some reason it was deleted. But it's back up and running now! I'm going to post a chapter or two a day until we get back to the place where we were.

Outside that:

Thank you those who are reading, I really appreciate you reading this and I look forward to hearing what you have to say about it!

~Flubby48