A girl stood in a mirror of a gas station, the blinding lights above flickering as there was dead bugs scattered around the sink and the toilet was almost rusting with the cracked cement floors around her.

She held scissors in her slim tan hand while her other hand held her thick dark chocolate brown hair as her face was red with a bruise forming against her cheek and tears of anger ran down her face. Her hair draped down her back being close to her waist almost.

"You know Katara, I think your hair," her boyfriend once said as he kissed up her bruised neck as his fingers played with her dark locks that ended at her waist. "Is my favorite thing about you... at least one of them,"

She wanted to destroy what he loved. Her. Starting with this damned hair she loved as well. She loved being able to braid it.

She closed her ocean blue eyes and let out a loud sob dropping the scissors in the sink, covering her mouth to muffle the cries, she was attached to her hair, she's only had long hair.

She grabbed the hair again and braided it down her back one last time for a long time. Grabbed the scissors again as she stared at herself in the mirror with rage sniffling, screaming at herself in her head to do it. Do it.

Do it! Do it you coward!

Snip

She sawed the scissors through her thick hair and let the twelve inches of braided hair fall on the ground as her new short hair shaped around her face as it was touching around her neck with messy, choppy layers as her jaw dropped in shock. There was no going back now. She didn't care if it was uneven she just wanted it gone.

She inhaled deeply and dropped the hair in the garbage and grabbed her brown backpack next to the door.

She had on simple blue jeans with dirty black converse as she wore a grey hoodie over her maroon tank top as it was a July night in New York Manhattan She took the bus from her town of Clifton across the river. She didn't know how far she'd go, further maybe?

Her brother will be fine, he's in college and lives with his girlfriend Yue. Her father won't even know, who knows when he'll be home from the navy. He let her live with her boyfriend, Jet, he said he'd take care of her, he lied to her brother and fathers faces as soon as he let those words left his lips. Katara knew that too.

But she believed him anyways. She thought jet would take care of her. But she had enough after a year of being with him.

Her family won't notice for now, she was suppose to be 'home' after work, but she collected her money from work, broke her car window, and left without a word. Jet can suffer not knowing what happened, if she ran away or kidnapped. God she hoped he suffered knowing he wasn't in control anymore.

But she had to disappear, she couldn't do it anymore.

"I see the way he treats you, you don't have to deal with it, change yourself before he changes you instead," a boy once told her, she's seen him twice but only spoke to her once. Jet yelled at him for staring a moment to long at his girlfriend then grabbed her and tugged her away enough to make Katara gasp surprised.

She emptied out her debit card of 600 bucks from saving for a new car, concert tickets for her and her best friend Toph, or even just for a get away weekend with her and her brother to hang out. But she had a long way to go to get to any of those. So she took what she needed and ran.

Pepper spray in her bag, a few pairs of warm socks, another shirt and hoodie and a few pairs of panties, some feminine products for future events, she kept about a hundred in a small bag as it was in ten dollar bills, she had three hundred bills folded in her bra and the other two in her shoe. If someone tried to rob her of her backpack at least she still had the other five hundred.

She walked to the bus station and flipped her hood on as she gave ten dollars to get on and get further away.

Things had to change, she had to change.