(Chapter One)

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

The car pulled to a slow stop in front of a rather run down apartment building on the worst side of Cincinatti, Ohio and Aurora bit her lip as she studied her mother's face intently. Had she lost her mind? This place was in need of being torn down. In no way, shape or form was it even remotely livable.

"I see that look, Aurora. This is home now. You may as well get used to it, baby girl." her mother spoke quietly, as she studied her teenage daughter's face.

Like Aurora, she too was having her own doubts. She hadn't been back here in years. She'd sworn that when she ran away from home at 17, she'd never come back here.

And now, here she sat, in a beat up Camry, with the rain streaming down the windows. There was a chill in the air, and Aurora shifted in her seat, bundling down into her jacket, refusing to speak to her mother. Sure, it wasn't her fault, the divorce had been her father's fault to begin with, her mother finally got sick of the lies, the anger and abuse and the cheating, but Aurora felt like she was getting the worst of things currently.

"But mom… Noone here is going to like me, I know it already." Aurora said quietly as she looked to her mother, studied her face. She spoke softly, because she knew the past few days had been the worst on her mother, but she was angry inside.

She'd been forced to give up her entire existence, move halfway across the United States to live near family she hadn't ever even met just because her grandfather owned an apartment building and the rent was cheap. Not only was she nervous, she was afraid as well.

What if no one liked her?

Her mother sighed and said quietly, "Remember what I told you, Aurora. Don't be a pain. Don't make this any harder than it is already. None of us really want to do this, baby girl, but I'm trying like hell to start over and take care of both you and me."

Aurora nodded quietly, as a hard faced old man walked out of the building and said curtly, "Your apartment's ready. I'll help carry your shit in."

Her mother sighed and Aurora could tell that this was her grandfather. The very man who'd warned her mother about her father, about how she was too good for him. And her mother ignored the warnings, ran away to Louisiana to be with him, because that's where he was from originally.

Aurora wanted to say something to the man, but she kept quiet. The air was rife with tension enough as it were, already. And if she opened her mouth spouting off about how sometimes love just didn't work out and wasn't enough, and how people made mistakes, then she'd only make a bad situation worse.

The man stopped at apartment 313a and turned to her mother, handing her the key. "It's not much, Fiona. Your mother is cooking pot roast."

Aurora watched them talking, observing quietly. It hurt that her mother and her grandfather were acting more like strangers than family, but this was their business. Once he was gone down the hallway, she finally spoke.

"He doesn't like me, does he?"

Her mother sighed and said quietly, "Give him time, Aurora. Just give him time. Maybe he'll come around, and hey, if he doesn't, it's his loss, right? Now.. Let's get this stuff unpacked."

Arguing started from down the hallway, and Aurora tensed as she heard a teenage male voice say something loud and then heard a hand connecting with flesh.

"I hope this isn't going to be an every night occurance." her mother muttered as she twisted the key in the lock of their apartment, and they stepped inside. Aurora walked around, inspecting the small apartment carefully, learning it.

It wasn't much, but her father wasn't here yelling at them or hurting her mother, making her mother cry. That was all that mattered to her. She walked down the hallway, and found a closed door, quietly she pushed it open and peeked in.

"I found my room, Mom! There's more than enough room for my books in here." Aurora said quietly, as she smiled. Someone had decorated it, there were built in book cases, and it had fresh paint. Her mother walked into the room, smiled to herself softly.

So her father had at least tried to make up for his refusal to accept Aurora before she was born. Somehow, knowing this made her feel a lot better about coming home after her marriage failed.

Aurora flopped down onto the double bed and put her arms behind her head as she rested her eyes a moment. Down the hallway, the arguing continued and Aurora found herself trying to picture what the family inside that apartment looked like.

She knew there was a guy living there, probably around her own age. This made her feel a little better, because she'd been afraid that the apartment building would be full of old people, or younger couples with little kids. Noone her own age.

She stood and walked across her room, pushing open the window, smiling to herself when she realized that it had a fire escape outside of it. It wasn't very big, but she could stand outside and look at the stars, or read. She'd just stepped out onto the platform when she heard the window sliding open down from hers and a guy stepped out, holding his cheek, an angry look on his face as he lit a cigarette with shaking hands.

Jonathan Good was sick of his mother being such a slut. And when he'd come home, found her high again, with his little cousin sitting in a daze in front of the tv, he'd gotten angry. And when he'd gotten angry, he'd popped off.

And when he had, the asshole his mother worked for, her pimp took it upon himself to shove him into the entertainment center in the living room.

So Jon decided that he was going to kick the guy's ass. And when the man left furious, with their rent money, and his mother's last few drugs, his mother turned on him and slapped him for his trouble. Right now, he was beyond furious and he needed to feel the cold night air against his skin. He needed a smoke and since his baby cousin was napping, he figured he'd do it now.

Digging around, he swore as he tried to calm down because he was so god damn furious right now that his hands were trembling.

He couldn't find a lighter, so he looked around, hoping he'd left a book of matches lying around somewhere on the small fire escape.

Then he heard the window next to his sliding open quietly, heard music filtering out softly, and watched as a long legged brunette climbed out and proceeded to sprawl out on the fire escape.

Not finding a book of matches, he cleared his throat and called out. "Hey.. ya got any matches over there? Or a light?"

The girl looked up as if she were stunned and then studied him a moment before shaking her head no then saying quietly, in this soft almost silky voice, "Sorry. I-I'm not much of a smoker."

He shrugged and went back to staring at the sky again quietly. When he looked up again, the girl was gone, and the window was shut.

"Ah, she's probably a bitch anyway." he muttered quietly as he leaned back against the wall, studying the stars, wishing to himself that somehow, someday, he'd get the hell out of this god damn apartment complex and do what he really wanted to do, which was become a professional wrestler.

In her own room, Aurora lie on her bed, thinking about the boy in the apartment next to theirs. If he didn't look so damn angry, and truth be told, a little scary, physically imposing in height and fitness, he'd actually be a pretty nice looking guy.

"Wonder if I'll be in any of the same classes as him." she said to herself quietly before grabbing her book off the nightstand, and opening it up, picking up where she'd left off reading, on the trip to Ohio.

Tomorrow, she'd be starting all over again. New high school, in her junior year, at that, and nobody there she knew. Aurora was already pretty shy, so this had her nerves shot.