“You will not get your Andrea back until you find my dog.” I hear through my headphones as the Eminem CD changed tracks. Did I just hear him correctly? My breath got faster, unsure of what to do or how I even got in this situation. Maybe I attract bad things to happen to me. Then again, I have been bullied in school for as long as I can remember, I did not think I was ugly: long brown hair that came down to the middle of my back, and I weigh around one-hundred fifteen pounds.

I try to regulate my breathing and stay calm, yet curious at the same time, I pause the CD player keeping my headphones on. “You have about an hour, Tommy, before we are back in Beaufort. If you cannot find my dog, we are keeping Andrea until he is found,” I overhear him demand at my mom’s boyfriend, my heart pounding rapidly.

The smell of gas fills the air as the car turns into a Shell station and everyone gets out. I run to the bathroom, trying to hold back tears. The man’s child follows behind me. She needed to use the restroom. “Did you hear my dad talking to your mom’s boyfriend?”

I shake my head yes. There is a knot in my throat, I cannot speak. I am panicking on the inside, but I must stay calm. I do not know what that man is capable of and I do not want to make him angrier than he already is.

As we get back in the car, I put my music back on as I brainstorm how to escape from this man and his family. How can he do this kind of thing? I hope and pray Tommy can find that dog, but deep down I cannot allow myself to put my life in Tommy’s hands. Could he hurt me? Does my mom know?

Okay, I can do this, school starts back tomorrow. If they drop me off at school, I will wait for the coast to be clear, then I will tell the first adult I see. If they keep me with them, I will wait until they go to the bathroom or something and run for it. I am so in over my head. What if I run for it and they catch me? I begin to breath faster as my anxiety builds. I must stay calm, he doesn’t know I know what he said.

Oh no, does this mean my dad will try to take me away from mama? I mean I hope he does not think my mom cannot take care of me. I do not know what I would do if I could not see my mom ever again. I try to listen to the words of “Mockingbird” as it plays. The lyrics “Hush little baby, don’t you cry, everything’s gonna be alright,” isn’t helping, even though I know it is supposed to be comforting. All I can do is worry and hope.