A/N: hey! This is my first HM fic! I got this idea late last night, so don't be too brutal. It's not that good, but it was an idea. Just decided to get it out there in the open. I know, it's also a short chapter. The first chapter I write to everything is usually short. This is probably the shortest, but I hope you like.

"I can't believe you!"

"What can't you believe? That I fell in love?"

"No! That you fell in love with her!"

I ran from the house. But once I reached the comfort of the beach, I saw her there. She was my worst nightmare. The one that had haunted my dreams since their first date. No respect, no kindness, and no sense of return. I hadn't been able to face her for a while. And now, since she was marrying my dad, I didn't want to see her ever again.

But yet, here I was. And there she was.

"Awe," she said in a mock-baby voice. "Is the wittle baby gonna cry?"

"Stop it," I said softly. I couldn't face her. I couldn't look her in the eyes. I didn't even want to talk to her, but I was forced to.

Soon, she back-handed me across the face, causing me to fall to the ground. There was a searing pain on my left cheek, in which her big diamond engagement ring had come in contact with. I put my hand to my cheek to feel my blood running onto my fingers.

"Well?" she asked me sharply. "Are you just going to sit there? Can you at least get up for my benefit?"

For her benefit. Everything was always about her. About how pretty she was, about how smart she was, about how sweet she was…I'm sick of it. Why he chose her, I'll never know. But all I do know is that I need to get away—and fast.

I got up, but not before she could kick me in the stomach for being slow. She wasn't going to quit. I had known that from the beginning. But here's something she didn't know:

I wasn't going to quit either.

Soon I was running, mustering up all the strength in my legs that I could and leading myself away from here. The pain that seared through my legs hurt, but I tried to ignore that. Getting away was my first priority. Dealing with my pain was my second.

Soon, I collided with someone. I looked up to see my brother standing before me, brushing off the dust on his arms. My loving brother was here. He could help me.

"I need help…" I managed to say. He took one look at me and gasped.

"My Lord," he said. "Did…did she do this to you?"

I nodded my head while my tears started to fall. He stared emotionlessly at the ground. He had felt the pain as well, he had told me. He was the only one I could ever talk to. He was an amazing brother.

"There's nothing we can do, is there?" he asked quietly.

"W-what?" I asked.

"We can't do anything," he said. "This is what it's going to be like…until we move out and go to college."

"No," I said quietly, barely above a whisper. "No, no, NO! You can't give up! You just can't! You're my brother! You're supposed to protect me!"

"I've been trying," he said. "It's just…nothing's working out. Nothing."

More tears filled my eyes and ran down my face as I pushed past my brother and continued to run. More pain. Nothing was going right. Why can't anything ever go right? My dad just had to meet that awful woman. That foul beast who thinks she's better than me. That idiotic creature who thinks she can beat up on my just because I'm smaller and because she feels like it. I absolutely hate her!

And right now, I hate life itself.

I ended up slowing down to a walk when I figured that I was far enough away from her. I didn't know what I was doing, where I was going, but I just knew that I wanted to get away.

But when you run away, things always have a way of catching up to you.

I didn't know that she could catch up to me so quickly. I just remember her grabbing my hand and pulling me into the bush.

"How dare you run away from me!" she shrieked. "After all I've done for you!"

"What have you done for me?" I asked. "Are you referring to what you've done to me? Because I think the whole world can see that now."

I got punched in the stomach for my backtalk.

"Don't you dare talk to me that way!" she said. "I am probably the nicest mother a brat like you could deserve!"

It happened in slow motion. A book came slamming down hard on her head (we were both kneeling on the hard dirt in the bush) and she was out like a light. I looked up to see my brother there with a hard-cover encyclopedia in his hands. I stood up and hugged him.

"Come on," he said. "We're going."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

He ended up driving me down to the LAX airport. We stowed away on a plane ride to only God knows where. My brother had been thinking this through over and over in his mind and had finally figured out how to stow away. Sure, we could get arrested, but that didn't matter anymore.

We were now away from her and on our own.