We grabbed some food from the kitchen. We grabbed a box of granola bars, a six pack of Dr. Pepper, and other food, that would fit in my school backpack. I dumped all of my school items onto my bed. We stuffed all the food and drinks into my backpack. I snuck into my parent’s bedroom, and stole my dad’s switch blade. It was a bit rusty, and it had a leather grip. I put it into my back pocket. We grabbed one outfit. Mine was a pair of blue jeans a white T-shirt and a hoodie that was far too big for me. My sister grabbed a purple skirt, and a purple long sleeve shirt. 

By now my dad had woken up. We hid the backpack. He ordered me to bring him a beer. I wanted him to go back to sleep. So, I went into the bathroom, and grabbed some Ibuprofen. This stuff always puts my dad to sleep. I put it into his beer, and I waited for it dissolve.

“Where is my beer!” My dad demanded.

“Hold on papa, I want to make it perfect, and I’m adding whiskey to it papa.” I said and heard a grumble from the living room. My dad wasn’t stopping me, so, I guess I was okay. 

The Ibuprofen by now had dissolved into his beer. To make it taste like I added whiskey, I poured some in. My father staggered into the kitchen. “Where is it?” He asked. He had heavy eye bags, and he was hiccuping in between each word. 

I handed it to him. He went to the living room. I waited for a while. I looked into the living room and, sure enough, he was asleep on the couch. 

I ran back up to my room where my sister sat on her bed playing with Brownie. “Sis it is time to go, you ready?” I asked her. 

She shrugged and grabbed the backpack. She had that look on her face. It was between scared and upset. She swung the backpack over her shoulder. 

“Do you want to do this?” I asked, I was worried for her. She looked so miserable. I know she just lost her mother, but I felt guilty, as though the reason we had to leave, was because of me. It kind of was though. We could just stay a deal with my father’s abuse. Well, I’m sorry. I just can’t handle it anymore. I gave up.

I will admit, I did hesitate before walking out the door. This was one scary moment. Running away? Are you crazy? Do you know how scared your father would be? A voice inside of my head said. Another voice in my head said: it doesn’t matter. Your father hates you. He has hurt you ever since you were six. Leave, end the suffering. 

I went with the seconded voice. I walked out of my house, holding my sisters hand. You are not going to last one day one the street, the first voice in my head said. I just ignored it. We walked around for what felt like hours. Then we had to figure out where we were going to stay. I stole my dad’s credit card right before we left. He had so much money on it. Like two hundred dollars. Enough for me and my sister to get a room in a hotel for two nights. No, we couldn’t spend all of our money on a place to sleep. We had blankets anyway. We could just go into an alleyway and sleep there. 

That was our decision. We would save our money for when we run out of food, and water. Night came faster than I expected. We found a dark alleyway. I spread out our blankets. I said I would watch for tonight. We would have both slept, if the newspaper didn’t have us on the missing kids page. 

My sister had just gotten to sleep when I saw a dot of red light, like a fire. Then a boy who looked around fifteen years old. He was holding a long white tube, that was burning. The smoke smelled strong, like strong smoke. It was a cigarette.

He stepped into the street light in this alley. He was wearing black jeans with a leather jacket on. He had short greasy hair that was black, and was wearing cowboy boots. He had one hand in his pocket, and another hand holding a cigarette. He looked up and saw me. 

For a moment, my blood went frozen. For a moment, I stood still. His cigarette dropped out of his mouth. He reached for his back pocket, and pulled out something rolled up. I squinted my eyes. A big relief went down my body. It was just a rolled-up newspaper. He unrolled it. He turned the pages and he nodded, acting like he just got something. 

“You two are the two missing girls? Added on here today?” He asked. 

At first I did nothing. Then I slowly nodded. 

“Why don’t you head home?” He asked stepping closer to me. He didn’t sound so threatening. 

I shrugged. “I don’t like it at home,” I managed out, without stuttering too, impressive. 

“Oh, so you’re a run away too?” He asked and walked out of the light and sat down next to me. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and pulled out one of them. He pulled out a lighter, and lit his cigarette. 

“What do you mean?” I said eyeing the cigarette. 

“I ran away from my house, my parents, they just ignore me. They couldn't care less, if I die right now, but of course, they put me onto the newspaper, just so they can seem like responsible parents!” He sighed and looked at me. He noticed I was eyeing his cigarettes. “Want one?” He asked holding out the pack. “I know their bad for you, but they take some stress off your bones, if you know what I mean?”

I hesitated before taking one. The one thing I learned from our course about bullying, never start smoking, but hell, does it matter anymore. He lit the end of the cigarette. Smoke went into my lungs, I doubled over and coughed. 

“Yeah, the first whiff is always the worst, it gets better after every whiff,” He said to me, patting my back. “So why did you run away?” 

After I was done coughing I said with a raspy voice, “My dad is an alcoholic, he would hit me.”

 “I would expect you took your sister, trying to protect her?” He said gesturing to Lucy. 

“Yeah…I swore to protect her,” I said sounding more serious than I thought I was. 

“Woah kid-'

“I’m not a kid! I’m thirteen, nowhere near a kid!” I snapped at him. I hated being called a kid. It made me feel so small.

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep. In addition, I don’t even know your name. I’m Erich, and you are?” He introduced himself.

“I’m Kylie. That is Lucy,” I said pointing at Lucy. 

“So how long have you guys been out here?”

“One day we are already struggling, we only have around two-hundred dollars, and we don’t want to spend it all on a hotel room.”

“Aye! You’re doing better than me!” He exclaimed. “Listen how about I take you two to my gang? Trust me they are Amazing! Oh, and you might want to smoke up that cigarette before it burns out.” 

I nodded to going with his gang, what could go wrong? I had totally forgot about my cigarette. It was half way burnt. I put it up to my mouth and in some smoke. He was right, it did get better after each whiff.