Kyle P.O.V

When I woke up, I didn't expect to have my cheeks stained with old tears that I had shed before falling asleep. I didn't open my eyes right away, wanting to pretend that what happened the previous day hadn't actually happened, but I knew it had. I was glad that tears were no longer falling out of my eyes.

I could feel Karin rubbing my hair off of my forehead in a comforting manner and it was really helping. I honestly was glad that Karin was here, I would be a mess without her here, her and Nika.

Karin knew what was going on in True's life. She knew him better than a lot of people, she knew that he was hurting, that he was breaking, that he wasn't okay. I knew that too, but I don't think I knew to the full extent what was going on in his life, and I honestly don't.

Both me and Karin knew how strong True really was. I knew he was strong, but even the strongest fall and True fell hard.

And broke harder.

Karin knew that if True continued to get hurt like he has been over and over again with no stop that he was going to break, and he broke.

No one could take what True had, that made him even stronger, considering his age and how long he took all the pain and suffering, those things, those things made him stronger than all of us but because of all he's took, it's made him really fragile, made it even easier to make him break, the smallest things seemed to mess with him but that was to be expected.

I didn't need to be thinking about this, so I tried to take my mind off of True, though I really didn't want too, I didn't want to burst into tears again.

When I did manage to get my mind off of True they instantly jumped to Luke. I tighten my fists as anger coursed through my body at the single thought of my boyfriend.

Luke had known ahead of time that my best friend had attempted to kill himself, but he didn't tell me! He let me find out with the people who hated me! With the people who hated us, Claire, True, and Me. They wanted us all dead, they wouldn't care if we died, in fact, they've been begging for it for years!

They wished us dead multiple times! They don't care if we live or die, because they are all assholes and bullies.

It was moments like this I was glad I had left my phone at Luke's house because he could have tracked my phone. At first, I didn't even know my phone had a tracker on it, and it wasn't even me who found out the phone had a tracker on it. It was True who found the tracker. I wouldn't have noticed without True telling me it was even there and True currently checks my phone once a week, saying he wants to protect me, I'm older, I should be protecting him and I failed at that.

I don't want to even talk to Luke right now, he's such a prick! You don't NOT tell your boyfriend his best friend attempted suicide! I would have preferred it to come from Luke that the school officials. But obviously Luke didn't care enough to tell me about my best friends attempt in death. He pissed me off, and I'd avoid me if I were him. But I don't think he's smart enough to do that.

Thank god he doesn't know where Karin lives, I never told him and any government system knows either because they don't even know were related. Karin even has a different last name. Draves is her. Mine's Emerson, so theirs no connection there and as far as the government knew I was still living with mom, but who knows if she's even alive anymore, it wouldn't hurt me if she wasn't. Karin wasn't even legally my guardian.

It was also for my families safety. If someone went looking for my family, though they'd probably only do that because I was dating the mafia prince, they still wouldn't be able to find my family, they were protected behind walls and walls of false information.

I opened my eyes and looked into Karins, who looked back at me with love and gentleness. I loved Karin, and she knew that, but I don't think I express it enough. She had made my life livable as a child since we hadn't been in a very good place. Especially with our mom's situation.

Before . . .

There were bottles everywhere. Some empty and some having some liquor left inside. I hardly ever touched the bottles and only did to move them, never to drink the liquid inside as that liquid ruined my family, it ruined my mom.

Mom drank more when me and Nika were at school, but nowadays she didn't care if she drank in front of us or not anymore. Karin had to quit school so she could get a job to make sure that me and Nika had everything we needed and to make sure the house was paid for and that we had water and electricity running through the house since mom was obviously not going to pay for it.

Before Nika started school, she went to a day-care that Karin had to pay for it, mom would never, ever. She would rather pay for drugs and alcohol than for her kids.

That's what the drugs did to my mom, they made he no longer care about me and my siblings, they made her care more about the drugs and her drinks. They were more important than me and Nika, and Karin, they beat us in love a long time ago. Mom hadn't always been this way, that's what Karin told me, but I couldn't remember a time that was that nice but Karin said it had happened once upon a time.

As far as I can remember mom had an issue with drinking and drugs. It made her sick in the head. It made her seriously sick in the head. It messed my family up.

Nika didn't start school until she was eight, which was sad because she didn't get to start school at a normal age like other children and it has set her back but I've gotten used to it, it was simply a part of life at this point.

It was cold outside, as it was getting chillier as the weather shifted and got worse and worse, colder and colder. It was even worse because we didn't have winter jackets, we couldn't afford them. Karin couldn't afford to buy us some and mom, ha-ha, mom wasn't going to buy jackets with the money she did have, she used it to buy drugs and liquor.

I don't know why, but today I brought True home with me, usually, we'd hang out outside but since the weather has gotten worse we had to go inside, and we couldn't really go to True's house, his parents were kind of assholes. So here we are at my house. When we got here, we made sure that my mom wasn't here. It was the perfect time for me and him to just hang.

I unlock the door and walk inside, seeing the bottles and thinking how glad I was that True was used to seeing bottles like these as his dad is a drinker and his older brother once was, Chris had recently quit as far as True's told me.

I was glad mom wasn't here, but deep in my head, I knew if she wasn't here than she was out getting drugs which was normal considering that's all she ever did anymore. Get drugs, use them, get more. It was a never-ending cycle that I hated.

After a while we got tired of the mess that was littering the floor of the house so we got up and started to clean the floors, throwing the bottles away. We threw the empty and half-empty bottles away but if we found any bags of whatever, drugs and that crap if there was any left in the bag we threw them in a box and stuffed it under the coffee table mom had got from the dollar store.

Some people think that if they touch bottles of alcohol or a bag of cocaine that it will make them addicted to it. That was complete and utter bullshit but whatever.

When we finished cleaning the three rooms, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, it looked almost . . . normal. It didn't look like a drug-addicted woman lived here, it looked like a home but it would never truly be a home. People could walk in here and think everything looks so perfect, they just don't see it. The drugs were hidden under the coffee table. The empty bottles in the trash can. Those were the things that were kept hidden away from the normal eye.

When we finished we walked over to the couch, which had been stuffed with tiny bags of white powder, which we all moved to the box. We sat on the now clean cushions and we began to chat like normal kids, though we were anything but, and enjoyed our time together. It would seem weird that me, an almost two years older person was hanging out with a younger kid, via True, but we had so much in common that age didn't matter. Soon I'd be turning fourteen but that number meant nothing but the fact that I was a year older and it wasn't anything special.

About twenty minutes into our talk that we heard the master bedroom door open and that's when we realized that my mom had been home the whole time. We walked in swaying slightly, and I knew she was drunk and on some kind of drug. She looked around the room like she couldn't believe this was the same living room she had a mess a while ago. Behind her, her boyfriend who I didn't even know's name, walked in behind her. Karin wouldn't allow me and Nika to be in the same room with him alone. Neither me or Karin liked him, I thought he was creepy.

We shouldn't be anywhere near him alone, but Karin wasn't here to protect us, it was just me, True, mom, and her boyfriend. Mom looked dazed but I knew she liked it that way, her boyfriend, however, seemed very and I mean extremely sober. Mom continued to gap at everything; then she snapped at us.

"WHERE ARE MY DRUGS?!?!?!" She yelled at us, and both me and True pointed to the small black box under the coffee table, which mom rushed for, pulled the box out and opened it, relaxing slightly when she saw all her drugs were still here.

Before mom could yell at us again, her boyfriend interrupts.

"Violet whose kid is this? Is he one of yours?" Mom's boyfriend asks looking at True with a glint in his eyes. Violet looked over at True as if she just now realized he was here. She squinted her eyes at True, before shaking her head at her boyfriend.

"It ain't mine, I didn't have any blondes, he's one of Kyle's friends, though I don't know why." She said making my heart hurt a little in my chest.

Mom's boyfriend walked mom back into her room, which he disappeared in the room with her, and a couple seconds later he returned closing the door behind himself. I even heard a clicking noise that told me that he had locked my mom inside the room, which caused a small panic to set in.

Ignoring me and True, who could be called tense children, he walked right to the front door and locked it as well, which caused a deeper panic to kick in.

"Boys," Mom's boyfriend started, glancing over to us, an evil glint in his eyes. "We're going to have some . . . fun." He turned away from us and walked down the hallway and into the guest room that he sometimes slept in.

For a couple moments a part of me believed he wasn't coming back but right as that thought went through my mind, the door re-opened and he walked back into the room, holding a couple needles and two ropes and at that, both me and True jumped off the couch and slowly back away from the approaching man. This wasn't good, a part of my brain wanted me to scream for help, but I knew nobody would hear me.

I reached for True's hand and grasped it, it gave me a slight comfort knowing that I wasn't alone but I rather us not be in this situation at all.

"Hey, don't be scared, "He said coming closer quicker, almost speeding to get closer to us. That's when the deeper, and darkest panic kicked in, and it was the scariest part of the day.

At that moment that I was blinded by the fear and panic, my mom's boyfriend reached out and yanked True into his arms, practically crushing him with his buff arms. It wasn't that True wasn't fighting, he was struggling with all his might. I was so glad that Karin had chosen that moment to appear and thank god she appeared with the police as well.

It took the guy about half a minute to let True go, especially after all those guns were pointed at him. True fell to the ground, gasping for air. My mom's boyfriend had nearly been crushing him to death.

Almost immediately, they had taken my mom into custody before putting her ass into rehab after realizing she was a drug addict. Then they arrested mom's boyfriend for multiple charges.

That had actually been the last time I had saw mom and she had been shoved into a police car, far off her ass, with handcuffs on her wrists. I was glad she was gone. I would finally be free of her druggy ways. That was also the last time True stepped foot into that house, I wouldn't want to walk inside that house again either.

That day, we had almost been kidnapped and look at us now.