Fury engulfed me like a blazing fire. "How could he?" I kept thinking as I bounded down the street to Jared’s house. We grew up together! We had helped each other through so much... I don't know how I would have survived the last few years without him. We’ve always been best friends and now we are in love. Or so I thought.

I knocked on the door, calling his name. As I waited on him to let me in, I heard the surly Florida sky rumble with thunder above me. Other than making me wish I had remembered to bring my cell phone, it didn’t bother me. Finally, after minutes of impatient knocking, Jared came to the door. “Hi, Lena,” he greeted me coolly. I stormed in. “What the crap, Jared?” I yelled. “I heard you’ve been running around with MARGARET. Of all people! How could you do this to me?” Tears started welling up in my eyes. “What? She’s hot. And she said she really is sorry about before, and wants us to be together now,” he replied shrugging. “She’s sorry? After she cheated on you with some sleazy college guy, she’s sorry? You were so upset then. She LEFT you. Abandoned you! Now you are doing the same thing to me at the drop of a hat. Gosh, even if you don’t love me anymore, for the sake of our friendship can you just be honest?!” I wailed. He just looked at me blankly, like he didn’t even know what I was saying. “Lena, you should leave. Margaret is my soul mate. And she’s on her way here. Just go.” I could not believe he was doing this to me. Bawling all the while, I sprinted back out the door.

It was pouring down rain, but I kept running. We were over, finally over. My thin sweater, already soaked, was stuck to my cold skin, serving no function as a defense against the torrent of rain drops. The cold seemed to consume me; the icy sensation not stopping at my skin, but seeping into me. The depths of my soul were freezing over… My heart was cold. And broken. I just didn’t understand what changed him. He was always there for me during those hard times. He and Jane, my other best friend, were the only ones who understood… And now he’s gone. I felt my body convulsing with sobs. All I could see was him, my love, my truest friend, my life, embracing her. It was too much. Then, suddenly, lightning flashed. It was so quick, I barely registered it. I looked to my right where it seemed to strike. I screeched as if it had struck my own body. Lying there just four feet away was a small, lifeless bird. I hurried to the poor creature and crouched down beside it. It was dead just like that. Dead; just how I felt; just how I should be. What did I have to live for without Jared there to help me? My body seemed to agree. I was shutting down. My legs crumpled beneath me, and I collapsed onto the chilling pavement. The bare skin of my face rested on the damp surface by the bird and I closed my eyes. My chest heaved and my mind finally succumbed to the darkness. And then I wasn’t cold anymore.



I flashed back to the present. I glance around the dingy city bus I am currently riding in. My teal leather seat is torn, the windows are tinted with a film of dust, and it reeks of body odor and gasoline. Despite all of these things though, I am joyous. My heart is a leaf, falling from a tree; free to go about as it pleases and no longer held back. In fact, this leaf is on the way to Miami! At last, I have escaped from her evil clutches. I think back, as I seem to do a lot now, to exactly how she was caught.

After I fainted in the rain, Jared came to my rescue one last time. Well, kind of. He basically put me in the back of his truck and dropped me off outside the hospital (What a jerk. I was unconscious and he didn’t even bother to take me INSIDE the building). I ended up stuck there with pneumonia. No one came to check on me. Jane was gone to Miami for vacation. The day I was released however, the she demon finally showed up. Her hair was matted, her clothes dirty (I wasn’t there to clean them for her), and her eyes had a dangerous gleam. I knew that gleam. I also knew it meant I absolutely could not be around her. So I told her so. “Lena, you ungrateful piece of scum!” she bellowed, loud enough for everyone in the lobby to hear. “I pay for the roof over your ugly little head, and you tell me that you refuse to come home? I curse your father for going off and dying. He’s left me with your idiot self to take care of all alone.” I cringe at her words, even though they are tame compared to some of the things she does. “Please, Mom. Please just leave. I’ll come home after you’ve… Umm calmed down,” I murmured, trying to hint at the appropriate volume for our conversation. “Mom..? How many times have I told you not to call me that! I will never claim you as a daughter. Never!” Then, before I can even react to her harsh words, she punches me, right in the face. Tears sprang to my eyes and I collapsed in shock. Of course she had hit me before, only when she was really angry of course, but never ever in public. Before she could do anything else though, she was tackled to the ground by one of the nurses.

Eventually, after police interrogations and another quick trip to the E.R. for my broken nose, an officer took me to Jane’s. I told them she was my closest relative and they wouldn’t mind me staying for a while. I felt bad for lying to the cops, but I certainly wasn’t going into foster care at seventeen. Besides, I had stayed over plenty of times during my mom’s episodes. The officer told me I would no longer be able to stay with my mom and she wouldn’t be allowed to come near me ever again. When they left me at Jane’s, I used the spare key to let myself in. We had already called them in Miami, and they went along with my story, so thankfully the police didn’t linger too long. I curled up on the couch and sobbed. I cried for my relationship with Jared, I cried for that darn bird, I even cried for my mom, but the sincerest tears were those of joy. I was free.