CHAPTER ONE
She cleaned her room earnestly in hopes to get it cleaned by the morning. Aerie was trying to minimize her room as much as she could in hopes of no one seeing that she cleaned out almost her entire closet, half her book shelves, and most of her movies. It would only cause another fight if anyone noticed how little by little she was erasing away her life from here, so that she can in turn one day soon start her life without the yelling and arguments from her mother and father.

She grabbed another trash bag putting in ripped clothes from her middle school days; she had no intentions of wearing them again, as well as them not fitting it only brought back the painful memories of when she had to cut to survive. “Aerie? Are you awake?” It was her mom; the last thing she wanted was her mom to see her throwing away clothes. Quickly shoving it under the bed walked out of her room into the hallway.
“Yes, mom, I’m awake. Why are you awake?”
“I am your mother aren’t I? I’m asking the questions here. I know you’re nineteen but you need to remember who pays the bills for this house. Which means I’m in charge, and you know the rules, lights out and no noise after 9pm do you understand? I don’t even know how you can be up this late or what you can be doing that can’t wait until morning? Go to bed or I’ll have to inspect your room again and see exactly what is it that you’re up to. Aerie you don’t even comprehend how lucky you are that I’m tired and that I’m not going to do it right now. ”
“Yes mom, I understand, and will follow your rules.” Aerie flashed back to a not too long ago, before she grew her voice, back when she was in middle school. Her mom would say things like that or even worse quiet frequently. Aerie had shuttered. She flashed back to the now.
Aerie thought to herself, “Guess no more for tonight.” Walking to her bed she turned on her computer and logged onto Skype. Nolan was online. “Perfect. Just what the doctor ordered.” Aerie clicked onto the call button but before checked to make sure the volume was on mute.
It had taken Nolan a couple minutes to answer. He had been trying to catch a few winks of sleep before Aerie had the chance to get on. He answered immediately after he saw what she was doing. She was signing. “That can’t be good, Aerie had only signed when her mom was keeping reign over the house,” he thought.
“What’s happened?” he had signed to her in perfect ASL.
“The same what else, cleaning room and almost got caught. Didn’t mean to make sound,” she had signed back to him.
Nolan pondered what she had signed. Cleaning her room. That didn’t sound right to him. He wondered, “Is she still planning on leaving in the middle of the night?”
“What were you really doing, must been more than just cleaning.” He waited for her answer.
Aerie looked carefully over Nolan’s worried face. She didn’t understand how he could always see right through her. She knew that he knew exactly what she was planning, her escape. Aerie couldn’t think of what to say, as much as she hated being in her parent’s house, heck even her small town was the fact that Nolan was here. Her best friend would be left behind if she ever left. But once she left here she knew there would be no turning back to this town, but Nolan would never leave here, his whole life was here. Aerie suddenly realized Nolan was waiting for her answer. “I tell you tomorrow at work.” Then she signed goodbye and closed the chat.
Nolan had been getting too close to stopping her completely from trying to escape town. She needed to escape town. She needed to leave town if she ever wanted to go to college, if she ever wanted to travel. Aerie knew she needed to leave town if she wanted to leave her parents and their constant crushing of her dreams, their constant rules, and their constant reign over her life. Aerie knew lastly she needed to leave town if she ever wanted to escape the love she harbored for Nolan that she knew she could never be able to fully express to him, the love that she knew would never be enough since she knew where his heart truly lay, and Aerie knew Nolan’s heart would never love her.