The streets weren't as hollow or as filled as I had once thought. They were empty hallways, crowded by neglected children and people who had nowhere else to go. No one can see past the sadness that has stricken their features. You know them as alcoholics who use the money given to buy beer, though they buy what limited food they can. You shake your head when they ask for change or lie that you have none. We are not stupid, we are not gullible. We see through that fake guilty look you plant on your face. I know how it feels to be scoffed at when begging for money. I live among these people who are homeless.
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My father had always been a guilty man who had only liked my mother for her money. He had hurt her before. She would fight back as hard as her 130 pound body could; she was a tiny woman with mousy brown hair that framed her face. My mother was beautiful; I would hope she still is. She had attracted all the guys back in her high school days. Now, her husband blocked her from meeting any decent men. He was a bigot who loved all women in the sense that he loved their bodies. He had once taken advantage of my 9 year old sister. My father had gone to her bedroom to tuck her in at night but he stayed there all night. In the morning she came into my room and cried as I shushed her so that he wouldn't come in.
We went downstairs for breakfast and as soon as I saw him, i threw a fit. I couldn't bear to look at such a man without disgust. I knocked the beer bottle out of his hand and threw it at the door. The smell of alcohol took over the room; my father had been outraged and grabbed his switch. He lunged towards me with the knife pointing right at my stomach. I leapt away, begging him to come to his senses. He agreed and I stalked away. Suddenly, I felt something hit me with the precision of a master. I turned around to see my father holding the knife in his hand and wiping the blood off with a towel. The pain i felt was unimaginable, like someone had ripped me open and had placed a bomb inside me that had gone off at that exact time. I fell to the floor in a haze and fell asleep in a puddle of blood.
Why I was alive, I'm not sure. I stood up in the clothes that were soaked in the dark liquid and felt myself being weighed down by my clothes. I stripped them from my body and put them on my bed. I changed into a different shirt and pair of pants. I examined my cut in the mirror. I remembered the night before and stomped down the stairs to the kitchen, the alcohol supply room. I took all of the different kinds of drinks and smashed them across the cupboards. I found a notepad in one cabinet and wrote a note to my sister and another to my parents.
Dear Tara,
I wanted to tell you that I left because of dad, I love you little sis. I always will.
Love,
Eric
I walked up the stairs to my sister's bedroom and slowly attached the note to her mirror. She will surely find it. I walked back down the stairs to write the note to my parents.
Dear Mary and Blake,
to be honest, this is your fault. I have been abused long enough and this house is just a prison that I'm attached to with chains. Come after me and I'll tell the police what you had done.
Gone,
Eric.
I took my best running shoes and started my journey to the center of the city. I walked to the highway and hitchhiked with a friendly guy that thought I was just a boy who didn`t have a car. I thanked him profusely and stalked off into downtown. I walked until i could see other people who had seemed young and furious. I walked slowly towards them, unsure of my actions. I sat cross legged next to the friendliest looking guy. "Hey" 3 heads all turn to look at me when I said this; mostly confused faces looked back at me. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the boy next to me introduces himself and they go around the circle all doing so. "Hey. I`m Derrick" the boy with the brown hair and beanie said.
"My name is Ari" A girl with bright pink hair and an eyebrow piercing said. Suddenly, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen looked straight into my eyes and smiled. She was absolutely gorgeous. "Um. Hello?" I had forgotten that she had asked me a question.
"Oh sorry. My name is Eric"
The laughter dies down and I am just sitting in the middle of the circle. Jess sits quietly, unlike the others. She really is caring, not to mention beautiful. She reminds me of the sun, she is heart-warming and shines. She is like my own little piece of sun, now I just need to make her actually mine rather than relatively mine. My face must have shown my emotions because all eyes were on me and I didn't exactly enjoy it. A slight smile was forming at Jess` lips and she could see my staring at her glow, as per usual.
I stared into her eyes, see her every emotion just by looking into them. Her personality is like an orchid found among weeds. She was a diamond in the rough, Perfect for the picking. To be honest, I loved her face, personality and body. I loved her. A rush of emotions went through me as I realized that I was falling for such a gorgeous yet distraught girl. Ari giggled slightly when she saw how my wide my eyes had grown and how red my cheeks were. I coughed quietly to snap into my usual self though my cheeks just grew a deeper red from all the eyes staring at me. Derrick quieted everyone down and stood up slowly. Smiles were shared and I knew I had made a good decision to go up to this small group of teenagers.
I learned that Derrick had ran away because his mother was dating a man that beat her kids whenever she left for bingo. Ari was an orphan that had ran away because no one wanted a bright haired girl with a sarcastic attitude. Jess was raped by her father. Her mom died in a car crash a year ago and he took care of her and got lonely. all these people had one thing in common with each other. Tragedy.
They showed me where they stayed during the night. I was led to an abandoned warehouse where there were a few rags strewn across the hard floor. I thought about Tara, Mary and Blake, what they may think now that I'm gone and that there wouldn't be any more rage from dad. I had decided that night to refer to my family by first names since they were no longer my family, the people lying beside me were my new family and so were the streets. Blake was just a greedy scoundrel that loved alcohol more than he loved his kids. Mary was simply blinded by love and couldn`t see that she was being replaced by his preference, beer.