I could not stay in that house anymore

I could not take my home life anymore. My parents were addicts and in my eyes, they cared more about their drugs than their own kids. This is how I felt for many years. I would notice how we just had nothing and both my parents worked and worked good jobs some years and we never had a pot to piss in.

I was 16 and a friend from school came to me one day and said her boyfriend and her were leaving that night to go to Flordia and she knew I hated it at home. She said I could come with but we were leaving that night. I wanted to leave the next day so I could pull my money out of the bank. Had almost 300 dollars in the bank, (which the bank gave to my parents who were NOT on my bank account. I was super mad about that.)

We left that night, I felt so scared yet so free. I was getting out and didn’t know where to next but I did not care at that moment, I was out. We drove all night and stopped in Illinois. I forget that town but it was around a 6-hour drive. Our first stop was my friend's boyfriend's parents' house. Rich people. This was the first time I saw someone care about their dogs more than their child or husband. This put me in shock. Was almost like my parents but she was sober(I think, she was a bit strange the way she talked to her dogs)

The next morning he had convinced his parents to let us do some housework in exchange for some gas money. So we cleaned their whole house and we left again that night. We drove all the way to Tennessee and this is where a man came out with a gun after us for waiting for the sun to rise and go look at the caves. I wrote a lot about the weird things that happen on my road trips if you want to read more about that and a few more things here .

We make it to Cummings Georgia and stayed at a friend's house of the boyfriend before we went on to Flordia. Was neat we played cards and drank some beers, yes I was 16 but people didn't seem to care about my age one bit or they thought I was 18. Or they were pedophiles because the guy where we were staying his wife went to work and he thought it would be ok to hit on me while she was at work. Well, I was not into married men so I eased my way out of that and we left right away.

Made it to Orlando and the boyfriend worked for a day and got a day's pay for more gas money. We wanted to go to the Keys. We never made it. We made it to Keaton Beach and there was a shrimper and he turned out to be a pedo, trying to take me into the woods to have his way with me.

I can say besides that shrimper, people down south are so much nicer. I don’t think I could find a family with young kids that would take in people off the street just to help them out.

We came back to Cummings and meet another single mother that took us in without hesitation. This is where I stayed for a good few months and then my parents found out where I was so this is where they took my money out of the bank to pick me up. I was so mad when I came home and did not have any money to my name.

This and the story of weird things that happen on my road trips is my life of leaving home. What I did going into it and coming home. I would not ever suggest this to any child. I never knew what could have happened to me. I could have died at any given time. Thank God for these families that took me in but that may not always be the case. I did have way older men try to be sexual with me but it could have gone very wrong. Some men can not handle rejection.

I felt that I had no choice. Back then they believed the parent over the child this is how many abused children ended up dead or really hurt because parents could get away with a lot more.

I remember I was at the detention center, claiming I did not want to go home because of their drug habit. The man that was having the meeting with my parents and me asked my dad to submit a drug test to prove his daughter wrong. All my dad had to say was” I resent you believing a child over me.” That’s it, I was sent home with my parents. I was not believed by the state, I was the bad child, the bad seed not my parent.

Today children have many more options and help so they do not have to run away. They do not have to put themselves in this deadly situation. Please any child that does read this get help in any way shape or form. I may have lucked out and that is all it was… luck. Does not mean you will get that same luck.

Was still a memory I will never forget and it made me grow up very fast and be responsible for myself a lot quicker.