It's Not Living If It's Not With You || Yungblud || D.H

-One-

365 days left. 365 days till I can leave this place, this house filled with lies and pain.

Each day I count down the days till my 18th birthday. Till the day I will be free, the day that I can finally leave.

Each hour, each second spent in this house, slowly kills me more each and every day. The constant fights, the abuse, I have to get away, and my chance is 365 days away.

Today, my 17th birthday, marks a day in history, well for me atleast. Today, a couple moved in across the street. And this couple is strange. I've been watching them all day, from my room. The man, who doesn't look a day over 19, carries the the furniture into the house, while the girl stands by and picks at her nails. The only time I saw her speak to the man was when she was telling him to put something somewhere.

While I was staring out my window at the house across the street, the man looked up at the second story window of my house. He looked right at me and we made and contact. As soon as our eyes met I fell backwards and hid under the window.

Now it's getting dark and there's a soft knock at my door. Slowly, I rise from my place under the window and open the door. Infront of me is my mother, whose eyes always have a glint of pain. I open my door wider, allowing her to enter my room.

She slowly strides over to my bed and sits down. I close the door, making sure that it was locked before walking over to my mom.

She takes something our of her pocket and hands it to me. A small box covered in blue wrapping paper. "Happy birthday Ashley." I smile and take the box from her hands.

She watches intently as a tear at the wrapping paper, which reveals a small ring box. I open the box which holds a small silver ring with a black diamond on it. I feel a tear slide down my cheek as I take the ring put of the box and put it on my finger.

"It was my mom's, I though that you might want it. A momento if you will." I smiled and hugged my mom.

"Thank you so much mom. I love it, I really do." Soon we pull away and I look into her eyes. "Did he hurt you again?" I asked and she shook her head. "Mom, don't lie."

She began to cry and nodding. "Where?" I asked, scared of the answer. She pointed at her stomach and lifted up her shirt which revealed a large bruise starting to form. "Mom this can't keep happening. We need to leave." She nodded. She always did, but nothing ever changed.

Finally she collected herself and said, "Why don't I get cleaned up and we can go welcome the new neighbors? Your father-"

"We may share the same blood, but that man isn't and will never be my father." I stated simply, venom lacing my words.

She nodded and continued, "Well the last time I checked he was passed out drunk on the couch. We should be able to sneak out of the house. After saying hello we could go out to dinner?"

I shook my head, "with what money? That asshole won't let us have any money." She closed her eyes and sighed.

"I've been slowly taking some money for the past year. Just enough That he wouldn't notice it missing. I have about 2,000 dollars saved up."

I shook my head. "Mom, don't spend that money on me. We should save it, try to find a way to get out. Buy a plane ticket, get away from him."

"Ash, it's your birthday. And taking a plane somewhere will never work. He'll always be able to find us, where ever we go." Finally she stood up and walked over to the door. "Get cleaned up, wear something nice. I'll do the same." She opened the door and closed it behind her, leaving me alone in my empty room.

Walking over to my closet, I scanned through the few clothes that I had. Picking out a short black dress, I put it on and tied my hair up in a ponytail. I put on some makeup, just some mascara and lipstick. When I was done there was a knock at the door. I stiffened and waited for a voice.

"Honey, are you ready?" Hearing my mom's voice automatically calmed me and I opened the door. She smiled and we walked to the front door, making sure we didn't disturb the asshole.

Once we were outside I smiled. Me and my mom, hand in hand made our way over to the new neighbors house. Slowly I knocked on the door and we waited for a response. Soon the door opened and the man behind it was the same man as before. He looked my age, but he had a house of his own. We made eye contact again, and I felt like running away, into the safety of the night. But I didn't, I continued to maintain eye contact with the man, squeezing my mother's hand.

"Hello, we are your neighbors, we live right across the street from you guys. My name is Amelia and this is my daughter Ashley." My mom said to the man.

He smiled and looked over at my mom and then back at me. It's so nice to meet you guys. Please come in, it's freezing outside." He said in a British accent. Once we were inside he led us into a living room, or what I would guess would be the living room. Sitting on the couch was the woman who I saw earlier. She was on her phone, scrolling through social media.

"So my name is Dominic, but you can call me Dom, and this is my girlfriend Zoey." Dom said, with the biggest smile on his face. The girl looked up at us and gave the fakest smile I think I have ever seen. It was funny to see the differences in the two smiles. While one was happy and inviting, contagious almost, the other one made you want to just slap it off their face "Zoey, this is Amelia and Ashley, our new neighbors." Dom said, looking from zoey to us.

She stood up and walked over to us. "It's so nice to meet the two of you, sorry for the mess, Dom here hasn't finished unpacking everything yet." I slowly nodded and we all stood in silence. Finally Zoey excused herself and walked up the stairs.

Dom was the first to break the silence. "So where do you go to school Ashley?"

"Oh I go to mountain high, only this year left and then I'm done with school." I laughed.

"Yea, so you're a senior? You haven't thought about going to college?" He asked.

"No, never really thought about it." I simply stated.

Then my mom asked, "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but how old are You? You look so young."

He laughed, "Yeah I get that a lot. I just graduated high school last year. I'm 19, almost 20."

"Wow, and you already have your own house. What do you do for a living?" I nudged my mom and she looked at me.

"A little personal, isn't it?" I said.

Dom shook his head, "No not at all. I'm a musician. Born and raised in Doncaster, England. Hence the British accent. I came here to try to make it big I guess."

Finally my mom started to talk. "Well we better get going, it's Ash's birthday and we were just going to go out for dinner. If you guys ever need anything we'll be right there." She said pointing towards our house.

"Oh it's your birthday? Happy birthday!" Dom said excitedly. I blushed and gave him a slight smile.

"Thank you so much."

"Well you should be going, have a great birthday." He said as we left.

My mom and I walked back to our house and got into one of the cars at the house and drove to a restaurant to spend my birthday.