Everything has changed.

    When I got home, and up to my room, it was nearly 3:30, the sun was shining through my window casting sun beams onto my bed. I laid in them with my cat Olive, stroking her soft white fur, she purred quietly, shutting her eyes. I did the same.
            When I opened my eyes, the sun was no longer shining onto my bed, the cat was on the pillow and I was wrapped up in my blankets like a cocoon. I glanced up, the light shining inside was darker, six o'clock-ish. I decided it was a good time to get up, perching on the corner of the bed contemplating whether or not I should shed the blanket, I could see outside, across the street where a moving van was parked in the driveway of the Parson's house, who had only moved out two weeks ago. This short two weeks was certainly not enough time for me to get used to the idea of my best friends no longer living in the house directly across the street. It was my safe haven.  A boy hopped out of the driver's side, probably around my age, seventeen or eighteen, I could see how blonde his hair was from my room. After him, a girl, not too much older than him, probably twenty. Then, what I assumed was a mother, father and younger brother, probably twelve. The dad went up to the front door unlocked it, and I could smell the smell that they were inhaling. This was depressing me, I couldn't watch anymore of this, I kissed Olive on the head tossed the blanket on the floor and made my way downstairs, through the living room, the kitchen and into the patio where I could hear my mom, dad and two younger brothers. 
  "Well. Where've you been all day?" My dad griped sipping a beer and burping grossly.
  "In my room."
  "Really?"
  "Yep, Caleb saw me come in." I sat down in a chair next to the idiots, Caleb and Kyle, and hugged them both, "how was your day?" I whispered ruffling their hair, they giggled and whispered back, "good!"
  "You really see her come in?"
  Caleb's little brown eyes opened with confusion, "yeah?" I rolled my eyes and inhaled deeply though my nose.
  "So, what's for dinner mom?"
  "Spaghetti, could you help set the table please?" I nodded and grabbed a stack of plates. The fat bastard I'm obligated to call my dad didn't move a muscle as we put plates and utensils around him on the table.

    "So, why didn't you come say hi when you got home from school today?" Ed asked staring at me taking a mouthful of spaghetti, getting sauce around his mouth.
  "I wasn't aware I had to report to officer dad the second I walked in the door." Caleb eyes warned me to stop what I was doing, he gulped down another mouthful of noodles.
  "You'll do what I say."
  "You never said." 
  "Well I'm saying now, and you'll do what I say goddammit." He slammed his fist on the table, hard. Caleb and Kyle were scared, they stopped shoveling piles of food into their mouths and were watching mine and Ed's confrontation.
  Keep your cool, be strong. Breathe. Don't let them think you can't take this."Wipe your mouth you pig bastard, you're not a toddler. I'll report to you when I have nothing left to live for."
  "Nevada! Don't say things like that!" My mother cried. I threw my fork onto my plate tossed my napkin on the table and pushed away from it. I kissed the boys on the head then went for the front door to put on my sweater and shoes. "Nevada. Nevada where do you think you're going?!" Panic was pouring out of her mouth.
  "Out." I slipped on my other shoe, shoved my arms through the sleeves of my sweater and opened the door to freedom. Slammed it shut behind me. I dug my phone out of the depths of my pocket with the headphones, jammed them into my ears and turned up my music, so it was blaring.

                  I made it to the park at last, the sun set was perfect, oranges, pinks and purples all throughout the sky. I made my through the Path. The Path was gorgeous, the trees formed an arch all the way through, there were multitudes of different flowers, all different colours, yellows, pinks, purples, blues, reds; the perfect rainbow. There are raspberry bushes near the end of the Path, the most amazing raspberries I've ever eaten. And there's often a little family of birds that hangs around, chirping at the few passerby's that actually stumble across this surreal place. Once you exit the Path the first thing your eyes are drawn to is the little pool of water to the left of the park, there's a little stream that runs into it. A while back, when Zach and I were here he noticed the little fish swimming around in the pond. What a beautiful memory.. There are perfect rocks all around the pond that look like they were placed there by people, arranged in a kidney shape. Zach's theory was that they were just there. They've always just been there. The earth came with these rocks in this spot, never moved, so one day, eventually, our path would grow, and the pond would fill with bright blue water, the park would be built, we'd be born, and we'd find this spot. This was our spot. It was created for us. To make us happy, to make the bad seem, not as bad. To help us escape. The little park has a small swing set, two swings. A teeter totter, merry-go-round, a slide that wobbles when you slide down it, or climb to the top of it, a set of unstable monkey bars, and a tether ball. The park hasn't been fixed since it was installed, but for not having anything done to it, it's in reasonably good shape. The grass gets cut by city workers, so the fact that the park hasn't been fixed seems a bit odd. I emerged from the path and there was a blonde person sitting on one of the swings. I was kind of surprised. Do I keep walking? Or turn back? I've never had this problem before. The only other people I've ever seen here were Zach and Abbi. Whatever, it was a park. Parks are supposed to have multiple people in them. I wandered over to the pond and found a comfortable looking rock big enough for me to lay on. I sprawled on it, absorbing the last of the sun. The swing creaked and I knew what was coming, the inevitable hello of this intruder.
  "Hey.." The person said. He had a nice voice, it was perfect. Soft, but not too soft, and husky, but not too. I leaned up on my rock and looked at him, bright blonde hair, green eyes, his hair was disheveled but he still looked flawless. His face was sprinkled with freckles that suited him perfectly.
  "Hi.." I almost whispered back. He smiled and took a step forward, sitting on one of the rocks.
  "I'm Liam, I just moved in on Peach," he smiled the most devastatingly handsome smile I've ever seen, his teeth perfect, sparkled white.
  "I-I'm Nevada." Smile back.
  "Nevada. I like that name, that's an awesome name. Nevada."
  "Thanks." So is Liam. I liked the name Liam a lot. I couldn't help but smile, and feel the blush the was creeping into my cheeks. Then I looked around. Liam was an intruder, and I found this invasion of privacy more than rude. This was not his spot. It may be a park, but no one comes here, this is wrong. "Hey, I gotta go, nice meeting you Liam." I didn't give him a chance to reply, I put my headphones back in my ears and took off running for the Path, down the little grass road, to the dirt back road, down the alley behind Bird street, then out onto Peach. How the hell did he find it?! The turnoff into the Path from the grass road is almost invisible if you haven't been there before. I ran the whole ten minutes, I was out of breath and had to regain composure before entering the house. I wish Liam wasn't there, I could still be there, and not be here. My breathing returned to normal long ago, but I was still standing here. How long would Liam stay at my spot? He was there before me, so probably not for very much longer. I didn't want to risk another run in with my new neighbour so I reluctantly made my way into the house. I saw the boys' feet going up the stairs, but they heard the door shut, they were coming to see who it was.
  "Hey dudes." I said smiling kneeling close to the ground, they were in front of me, so I placed my hands on their shoulders for support. "Going to bed now?" I licked my thumb and wiped a speck a dirt off of Kyle's face.
  "Yep!" They replied in unison.
  "Have a good sleep." I planted a kiss on each of their cheeks and they ran up the stairs after mom. Ed was lurking in the corner of the question, he was the first thing I saw when I came into the house, but the boys stalled him. He pounced. I was flung against the wall with the back of his forearm shoving into my chest/neck. Getting harder to breathe.
  "You do what the fuck I tell you to do. you understand." He pushed harder then released me, gasping for air I clenched my neck, closing my eyes. Big mistake. Never take your eyes off something like him. He struck the side of my face, hard. I stumbled backwards, catching myself, making sure to not let my cry escape my mouth, so the boys wouldn't hear, and Ed wouldn't get any satisfaction. All I wanted to say was 'Fuck you.' And to spit at him and walk away. But I couldn't. All I could do was hold my cheek like a moron and stumble away as fast as possible without looking too hurt. Once I turned the corner up to the stairs I let the tears slip down my face.

          The alarm went off at 6 :30. I needed to change that. I used to wake up at 6:30 to go over to Abbie's house before school, but now she was no longer here, and I couldn't go across the street to her house because the intruder, Liam lived there. I shut the alarm off, closed my eyes and felt tears slip down my face. I wiped them away quickly and fell asleep again.
  "Honey.. Honey wake up.." My mom was shaking me awake, I opened my eyes slightly to look at the clock, seven thirty. Fabulous.
  "I'm up, I'm awake. Thank you." Olive was curled up beside my pillow, I kissed her before leaping off the bed. "Is dad at work?"
  "Yes, he went to Toronto for the weekend."
  "Why?"
  "For work."
  "Mhmm. So he'll be gone all weekend." She nodded quickly, turning to leave. Good, a whole  four days without him, strange he'd leave on a Thursday.. I shrugged, grabbed my clothes off of my dresser and sprinted for the shower. There would be no time for doing my hair, or applying much makeup this morning. Once out of the shower I quickly ripped the brush through my hair, blow dried it then stuck it up into a pony tail. My make up consisted of a thin line of eye liner on my top lid, mascara so you could actually see my eyelashes, and blush. I furiously brushed my teeth then pulled my clothes on, and ran downstairs. Why hurry? I can take my time today, if I'm late I won't get screamed at, I should enjoy this. I hurried anyways, used to routine. My mother had a pop tart wrapped in a paper towel waiting for me, she was sipping coffee and flipping through the paper.
  "Have a good day at school sweetheart." I kissed her on the cheek as I passed her, grabbing my pop tarts and car keys heading out the door.

      Having a good day at school would almost be impossible. I had no one to talk to. Zach wasn't in homeroom, or math, or science, Abigail wasn't in drama or art. It was the most depressing day I'd had in a very long time. Finally the bell rang for the end of the day and I shuffled my way to the parking lot, not looking at anything or anybody, just watching my feet. First I stopped at my locker, hurling my books into it, slammed it shut and spun away. Bad decision. Some genius decided to stand right behind me, and when I spun around I ran right into him flying back and smashing my head off the locker. Fabulous.
  "Oh my god!" He spun around, revealing himself to be Liam. Of course he goes to this school. I grasped the back of my head feeling dizzy, I really did not want to faint, not in front of all these people, in front of Liam. I shut my eyes tight, pushed harder on my head then stalked out the doors leading to the parking lot. He followed me. "Nevada! I'm sorry!"He grasped my elbows spinning me around to face him. Who did he think he was? I pulled away from his grip.
  "I'm fine! It's fine!" I got away from him and started walking again, his hands pulled me back. "Look, would you stop?! You said sorry, I forgive you, stop touching me!" I pulled away, yet again flying backwards, almost losing my balance. This time when I turned to leave, he didn't follow me. I launched myself into the car slamming the door and locking all of them, I punched the key into the ignition and turned the radio on, turned it up loud and sat there. My head wasn't really hurting anymore so it wasn't that bad, I think I was alarmed that he had grabbed me and held me like that. Zach, held me close, and it did not feel right to have anyone else doing so. I shoved the car in reverse pealing out of the parking space, right into the path of a moving car.
  "Fuck!" I stomped on the brakes, so did the other car. Oh my god. I rolled back into the spot and they passed, I pulled out slowly and carefully this time, making sure there were no cars to run into. I could see Liam watching me through the rear view mirror as I pulled away.

                  I didn't want to go home yet, not until I had too, so I went to work early so I could work on  homework and write a letter to Abbi. Nobody sends letters anymore, but that's why we wanted to mail each other, we've never sent anybody mail, so why not start now? I pulled into the parking lot of Joe's Burger's, rolled up all of the windows in the car and sprinted to the building through the pouring rain. It had been so nice out earlier, this sudden downpour was rather unexpected. The burger place had a very distinct feeling about it