Past events and thoughts will be in italics.
Present events and thoughts will be in normal text.

The sun was beginning to creep over the buildings, leaving a light blue outline that glowed against the rest of the night. I took in a slow breath and closed my eyes.

"Lyla? Sweetheart, where are you?" I heard my mother coo as she crept around my room.
I heard foot steps dragging along the carpeted halls and crawled into my closet. My hamper was filled to the brim, so I rearranged all the clothing making it impossible for you to see me through the holes in the plastic.
"Ly-laaa." She sang out to me. Her voice was beautiful, but her mind had been poisoned. My father never treated her right, he never treated me right either. He really got to her though, making her take pills and drink straight from a cold glass bottle every night. Slowly, she became psychotic from all the paranoia. She was an addict, due to my father, and he wouldn't ever let her get help.

She'd do anything for another dose, another drop of alcohol- Even let her own daughter get abused, both verbally and physically.

I never blamed her for anything that happened, but I still had to escape this hell. It was eating me alive, my mind was going crazy from the inside and began to show on the outside. My father was getting to me. So here I was, every night, plotting my escape.

Everyday I'd take a dollar from my parents. I knew where my dad kept all of his bribe money for when my mom began to sober up. Every week I'd pack one outfit until I got down to 5 of everything. The last 5 outfits would be used during the school week and I'd pack them the night of my escape. If I really wanted this, and I really did want this, then I had to be careful.

This night, was interrupted by my mother, as I mentioned earlier. I kind of zone out and focus on other things. It becomes your second nature when you're being called a "stupid whore" by your own father as your mother sits in a corner, cuddling a bottle of vodka. I thought I would escape tonight, my eighteenth birthday was two days ago. The moment seemed opportune.

It was Saturday, the night my father scores drugs to keep my mom under his spell and stocks up on alcohol. My mother is typically shaking in a corner, I'd try to avoid her during these times as she was beginning to suffer from withdrawal. Somehow she actually managed to stand up and come after me, I don't know how.

She never left my room, so I just stayed in the hamper until my dad got back. My eyes widened in the darkness as I heard the door slam shut. I hoped out of my hamper and slid into bed. My father yelled for my mother, bounding up the steps when she didn't respond to him. He kicked open my door and saw her passed out on the ground. When she didn't get up, despite him shoving the open bottles of vodka and whiskey in her nostrils, he just dragged her into their bedroom.

"Next week," I thought to myself, "Next week I'm getting out of here."

I took in a slow breath and closed my eyes. The air was getting warmer as I walked, it felt good. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and went to the settings. "Do Not Disturb" was turned on and "Location Services" were turned off. Later I'd toss the damned thing somewhere, maybe sell it because I need the cash. Until then, I decided I would proceed to stroll the streets of San Diego. The bus ride provided me with the first eight hour sleep I'd had in years, so I felt good and full of energy.

I didn't know what I was going to do now that I'd arrived, but I'd escaped.
That was all that mattered to me now.

Notes

Hey, guys.
This isn't my first fanfiction, however it is my first realistic fanfiction that includes real people. So all the PTV members have no description, their personalities will stay pretty much the same anyway.

I live on the east coast of the US, so I know nothing about California. (Oops...)

Trying to make this as not Mary Sue and cliche as possible, so wish me luck with that one.
Runaway Outfit: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=100370791