Lucia's POV:

"Stop it please," I plead to my mother.

She keeps hitting me. It hurts so much. She's been hitting me for the past hour because I was hanging out with a boy. She says I'm not allowed to but I'm 16. I can make my own choices.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!!! You cannot hang out with guys. When I tell your father, you will wish you never did this," se yells at me while hitting me.

"I'm— IM SORRY!" I yell trying to cover my face.

She grabs her belt and hits me. She leaves marks on my arms. I cry. She stops.

"You little slut. If I ever see you hang out with a guy ever again, I won't shed my mercy. Now go get out you little bitch!" She yells at me grabbing my arms and throwing me out of her bedroom.

I look st my arms and see that they are bleeding. I look up and see my older brother, Liam, looking st me. I see he has tears in his eyes. He is the only person in my family that understands me. That isn't abusive to me. Yes, I have abusive parents. They say if I ever tell anyone, they will kill me. One time they were close to killing me. I borrowed $10 from my mom without asking to go to the movies with my friends: when I came back she whipped me until I passed out. My dad agrees with my mom on everything. My brother can't stop them though. He is definitely the favorite child. He has never gotten beaten before. Liam comes to me and hugs me. I hug him back and whine at the pain. I sob into his shoulder. He picks me up and carries me to my room. I am underweight for my age and height. My parents starve me and I only get to eat dinner. I usually eat a granola bar for dinner and that's all I get. My brother brings up te alchohol and cleans up my cuts.

"I'm so sorry," he says trying to wipe his tears away.

"It's not your fault Liam," I say trying to get him to look st me.

"I think you need to leave," he says looking up at me with bloodshot eyes.

"What?" I ask him scared.

"Mom and Dad are monsters. You can't stay here," he says getting up.

He grabs my clothes and puts them in a backpack.

"I love you so much Lucy. I want you to be safe. You have to go," he says giving me my stuff.

I let out a tear and nod.

"What about you?" I ask him.

"It's fine. I'll cover for you. Go to my friends house. His name is Jonah Marais. He will take care of you," he says giving me his address.

I hug him and kiss him on the cheek.

"I love you," I say to him hugging him one last time.

"I love you too Luc," he says giving me my phone.

We say our goodbyes and I hop out of the window. It was raining really hard. I looked at my phone and typed in the address. It was a couple of blocks away. After around 25 minutes I get to his house. I have been crying this whole walk. I am proabbaly not going to see Liam ever again. I'm glad I'm done with my parents but I'm going to miss Liam. I knock on the door. A couple minutes later, a tall boy around Liam's age answers. He gasps seeing me all wet and cut up. He grabs a towel and wraps it around me ushering me in.

"MOM! She's here!" He yells trying to dry me up.

A beautiful women, probably his mom runs up to me.

"Come here sweetie let me fix you up," she says wrapping another towel around me.

She takes me upstairs into a spare bedroom. There are clothes on the bed.

"How about you take a warm shower and change. Then after we can talk and see what we should do huh?" She says smiling st me.

I smile back and nod. "Thank you," I croak out.

"Of course honey," she says closing the door.

I lock it and go into the bathroom. I strip out of my clothes and look st myself in the mirror. I'm so ugly I thought to myself. Once the water was warm I hop in. I wash my hair and body and get out of the shower. I wrap s towel around myself. I go into the room and lay out the clothes Jonah's mom put out for me. It was some shorts with a sweatshirt. I put them on and already felt self conscious because of the scars on my legs. I put on some socks and walked downstairs. I saw everyone sitting at the table. I walked into the room and everyone stopped talking looking at me.

"I'm sorry if I'm invading your guy's privacy. I can leave of course," I say nervously.

"No sweetie it's okay. We volunteered to help you," Jonah's mom said.

"Ya we want to help you honey. So, how bout you join us at the table and tell us what's going on huh?" A man looking like an older Jonah said with welcoming eyes.

I smiled and nodded. I sat at the end of the table. I told them everything. And by everything, I mean everything. I heard a sniffle and looked up to see Mrs. Marais let out a tear. I felt bad.

"I should leave. I'm making you guys feel bad for me and I don't want you to waste your time on me," I say getting up from the table.

"Lucia, please don't go," Jonah says sanding up with me.

I sit back down.

"I am going to report your parents to the police," Mrs. Marais says.

"I'll come with you," Mr. Marais says getting up and grabbing a jacket and keys.

"Jonah make sure she is warm and keep her safe," Mrs. Marais says walking out the door.

I sit on the couch next to him awkwardly.

"Are you okay?" He asks me.

"I'm fine," I say awkwaRdly.

"Hey you can trust me. Just think of me like Liam. I know that's too much to ask for especially since you probabaly won't be able to see him a lot. But, I'm here for you," he says holding my cold hands.

I let out a tear and smile at him.

"Thank you," I say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
(5 months later still Lucy's pov)

I live with the Marais's now. Jonah is like a brother to me and Mrs. Marais has a baby girl so now I have a little sister. They adopted me. My parents were put into prison and Liam died. He got into a car crash and wasn't able to make it out alive. A lot of things happened these past months but Jonah has been there for me err since everything happened. I do summer school but it's summer now so I get a break.

"Hey Lucy May I come in?" Mrs. Marais says.

"Yes of course," I say closing my computer.

She walks in and closes the door. She walks up o my bed and sits down next to me.

"I have to tell you soemthing," she says nervously.

I nod my head signlallikg her to continue.

"I signed you up for school. The same school as Jonah. I know you do summer school but I think this will be good for you. To help you make new friends and to hang out like a normal teenage girl," she says holding my cold hands.

I process all of this. "I think that would be great," I smile st her.

She smiled back and kissed my forehead.

"I'm so glad you understand," she says hugging me.

"Of course. You are just trying to help me," I say hugging her back.

She smiled at me and gets up to leave.

"Me and your dad are going out. We will be back late. Jonah is inviting some friends over so have fun!" She says walking out.

"Okay bye!" I say.

When I hear the car door close and them drive away I go downstairs looking for a snack. When I walk into the kitchen I hear s bunch of boys laughing. I go into the living room to see who it is. I saw Jonah laugh with 4 other guys. I look at Jonah.

"Hey Lucy! These are some of my friends," he says motioning me to come in.

"Hi," I say shyly.

"Sup," they all say.

I look up and the first thing my eyes lay on is this really hot guy. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He stares back at me. I wonder who he is I think to myself.