Once upon a time there was a teenage girl. She's been searching for love all her life, and countless times she's been denied it. Her father, the only person she knew to actually care about her, -died years ago. This girl hated her step-father. His presence alone could make her want to snap at everyone and everything. She desperately wanted to believe that her mother loved her but, why did she sound so distant and cold when she uttered those three words, I... love you. 
 

When she was two years old, her father left because of her mother's reckless actions. Not once did she think she would become the "typical" black family. At her 5th birthday party, her father promised to show up but he failed to make an appearance.  To demonstrate her rage, she screamed, kicked furniture, and even knocked down her own cake.  After that she was beat by her mother.

Looking at her, you would never guess that she was completely broken. She hid it from everyone, always smiling and laughing, never upset. Ask her friends to describe her they'd say things like easy-going, generous, tranquil, but sometimes that happy exterior fell.

At age 12 her father passed on. That week her dad died she broke out in a fit of tears, "Two bullets to the chest" she croaked out in between sobs. Then there was the anniversary of her brother's death, she came to school sobbing. " He was only six" she whispered, before another wave of sadness washed over her. 

She thought, no, she knew she was a lost cause, nothing could save her now.  Not her friends, because no matter how much they wanted to care, they would never truly understand her pain. Definitely not her mother, she lost that power when she married her stepfather. Neither could her sisters, they don't know what's really going on in her head. Her father, the one person that may have been able to save her, is dead, unreachable, until the day they meet in heaven. She's destined to live a sad, lonely, loveless life.

But don't worry about her because one day she'll wake up and realize that she doesn't need someone else to save her. She can pick up the pieces of her heart that's been shattered into a million fragments. She'll tell herself she's beautiful, and buy her own congratulatory flowers. One day, her relationship with her mother will be mended, not that is was ever really broken in the first place, and she will have a mutual respect for her stepfather. She won't have to hide behind fake smiles and false happiness. How do I know this? Because I know my best friend enough to know that she'll always overcome.