The train finally arrived to its destination. When the engine turned off I felt like my heart stopped beating. My hands started shaking and suddenly breathing became so much harder for me.

I was about to take the first step of my new life. Starting now this was going to be the reality. My personal bubble was broken beyond repairing. I had to step out of my comfort zone and learn how to live again.

I knew that this was not a bad thing and I also realized that I should have been grateful that I even got a second chance to start over but I got so used to my everyday routine that even thinking about changing something insignificant in my life gave me an anxiety attack.

I tried my best not to feel terrified but there was no point in that. It was natural that I felt this way but not to this extent. I didn't even know why I was so scared. It's not like this was the first time I came to this town.

I actually lived here long time ago. I went to school and stayed with my grandparents before my parents finally took me away from them.

Why did I live with my grandparents? Because my parents were just teenagers when I was born so my grandma decided she'd take care of me until my parents got a stable job. My grandparents actually lived in my hometown as well at first but my grandpa got a huge job opportunity in this town so we all moved in here except for my mom and dad.

My early childhood years weren't as bad as my older ones. Even though I don't remember much I still have a few of memorable moments I spent here. But now everything was about to change.

My grandmother was never a strict person and she always loved me very deeply but I still had no idea how she reacted when she found out what happened.

Was she going to send me in a mental institution? I guess we're about to find out.

I stepped out of the train and looked around to find my grandma. There was no sign of her anywhere. The train station soon became empty but she still hadn't arrived.

I was starting to get worried if something happened to her or if she just changed her mind and decided to abandon me like everybody else when I saw someone's figure near the entrance.

Soon I was able to recognize my beloved grandmother. Her face was all red and worried. It didn't look like she was in a good mood so I just figured it was because she wasn't happy to see me.

I prepared myself for the worst. I closed my eyes and breathed in heavily and patiently waited for her to come closer and do something horrible like slap me or scream at me but to my surprise none of that happened.

I actually felt a warm body wrapped around me and finally opened up my eyes. The hug was so refreshing and relaxing that I almost felt like I was flying. It was way better than what I expected but I was still so shocked that I wasn't even able to move. I couldn't even wrap my hands around her to hug her back.

She then soon removed her arms from my body and started examining my face. Her eyes became teary once she saw my bruised skin.

"Oh, my sweet innocent boy, what did they do to you?" She finally broke the silence .There was so much sadness in her voice that I couldn't help but feel depressed. "Those monsters! How dare they lay a finger on you! I'm so sorry, darling, I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you. I had no idea everything was so serious."

Her words were so overwhelming that tears just started dripping down my cheeks. I was seriously not expecting her to react this way.

"Grandma..." I cried out. "...I disappointed everyone. Now they all hate me."

She looked me in the eyes and shook her head in denial. "Oh, sweetie, you didn't do anything wrong. If anything it's all my fault. I should have done a better job raising your mother. I wasn't good enough as a parent and now I failed as your grandparent too. I'm so ashamed that I gave birth to that wretched woman."

"No, grandma..." I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She was blaming herself for something that wasn't her fault. "You were a great grandmother. It's me who put a shame on our family's history."

"You shouldn't feel bad for being who you are. That uneducated town doesn't deserve your sorrow." I was so full of regret that I couldn't even concentrate on my grandma's words even though she was telling me all the right things. "...But it's okay, honey, trust me. Everything's going to be alright from now on. Just forget about what happened. Forget that town and people who live in it. I promise, I'll do everything to make you happy here. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that but it's all over now. I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again. You're safe here with me."

I had no idea how to react or what to say after that. Was there even something I could have said?

Words wouldn't be enough to describe how emotional I got in that moment. I was so sad because of how everything turned out and how I had to leave my friends but at the same time I felt so happy that at least my grandmother supported me.

This may sound a little mean but honestly she was the last person I would ever imagine being this understanding of my situation. I knew that elderly usually couldn't really get younger generations but to my surprise my grandmother turned out to be the most open minded person out of my family.

I felt so lucky and overwhelmed because of her kindness that I almost started crying like a little baby.

"C'mon, darling, let's get you home." Grandma spoke up again once she realized I was speechless. "You must be starving so we should eat first and then I'll take you for shopping. Your clothes aren't going to be warm enough for this town, it's going to be snowing tomorrow."

After that grandma drove us to her home which took about 30 minutes. When she stopped the car I recognized my old house. It was way bigger in my memories but that's probably because I grew up but the house stayed the same size.

Don't get me wrong the building itself was pretty big. It wasn't nearly as big as Andrew's house but it was pretty similar to my parents' house.

Ugh, Andrew...

I felt so weird every time I thought of him so I decided it would be best if I didn't remember him at all. Maybe that would help ease the pain.

When grandma finally opened the door and we walked in, a huge dog ran towards her and started jumping up and down from excitement. Grandma soon started petting the dog which was shaking its tale.

I wasn't a big fan of dogs because of my traumatic experience but I tried to hide my fear. That didn't last for very long because once the dog glanced at me it quickly started walking towards me.

I backed out as much as I could but I wasn't able to go far before the dog caught up to me. I got so nervous because it started barking at me. Even though the barks weren't really intimidating I still wanted to run away.

"She's not going to stop until you pet her." Grandma told me when she saw how confused and terrified I was.

That's how I found out that this huge dog that kind of looked like a polar bear was in fact a girl.

I gently put my hand on her fluffy head and rubbed it back and forth. The dog finally backed out and I felt like I could breathe again.

"Oh, I almost forgot that you don't like dogs..." Grandma started again. "...But don't worry, she won't bite you. She's a very sweet girl and she loves hugs which is kind of surprising considering the fact that most dogs don't really enjoy hugs."

"I don't really dislike dogs, I just don't feel comfortable around them ever since that dog gave me this scar." I said and pointed on my right eyebrow.

"Well, you have nothing to worry about. Roxie would never do something like that." She responded and looked back at the dog. "Roxie, I want you to meet your new family member. This is Jesse and he'll be staying with us from now on so I expect you to be on your best behavior, okay?"

It felt pretty weird that she was talking to a dog but at the same time it was kind of adorable.

Roxie looked at grandma and started barking as if she understood everything.

"She's actually really cute..." I stated.

"Of course she is, she's the prettiest girl in town..." Grandma replied and petted Roxie again. "Oh, shoot, it's getting pretty late the hair salon will be closed if we won't hurry." She then started walking towards the kitchen. "C'mon, start eating, quickly!"

"What hair salon?" I responded with a clear confusion in my tone. "Your hair looks fine, why are you going to the hair salon?"

"It's not for me, silly. It's for you." She said with a soothing voice. "When was the last time you got a haircut? It's your first day of school tomorrow and I'm definitely not letting you go there with that mess on your head."

I didn't even remember when I went to the hairdresser last time so let's just say that my hair was just a tiny bit all over the place. And also I really, really despised getting my hair cut so I guess that's one of the reasons why it looked like a lion's mane.

"I guess a haircut wouldn't hurt." I didn't protest since waking up in the morning was a nightmare because my hair would never do what I wanted it to do so shortening it for a bit would definitely make my life easier.

"Okay, great..." Grandma answered before she sat down. Then she pointed at the table which was full of junk food and added. "Dig in!"

"Wait, what the hell is this?" I was genuinely shocked when I saw a pizza, French fries and a hamburger sitting on the table. "Do you usually eat stuff like this?"

"I didn't have time to buy anything else and also I'm not a great cook. Don't judge me, okay! I already feel like a bad grandmother because unlike every other grandma I don't know how to prepare a meal." She replied and tried to avoid eye contact.

"Grandma! You can't eat stuff like this! You're in your sixties. Are you trying to kill yourself?" I sighed but when I saw my grandmother's sad expression my heart almost melted. "You know what, it's fine. My friend Felicity is a great cook and she taught me some stuff so from now on, as a thank you gesture, I'll cook for you. It may not taste great but it'll at least be better than this."

"Okay, fine, we'll stop by the grocery store on our way back." She said. "But for now this is all we have. I'm not really hungry so I won't eat anything but you should at least take a bite."

I was honestly starving so I just ate one slice of pizza and called it a day. After that I took my belongings to my room and left them there without unpacking because we didn't have time for that.

Then we got back to the car and grandma drove us to the hair salon. Though I was definitely not looking forward to sitting in the same position for half an hour I still wanted to get a decent haircut.

My grandmother told something to the male hairstylist that I wasn't able to hear and then he pointed me to the chair so I could sit there. After that I told the hairstylist what kind of haircut I wanted and he soon started cutting my hair.

He then applied something on my hair which kind of confused me so I asked what it was. He assured me that everything was fine and it was just to give my hair volume or something. Even though I really didn't want to wait for much longer I didn't protest and let him do whatever he was doing. Then he washed my hair and I was hoping that everything was finally done and I could see the final result but unfortunately he started doing something else and at that point I got pretty annoyed. However I didn't say anything because I didn't want to sound rude so I patiently waited while I was reading a really boring magazine.

The hairstylist finally came back and washed my hair again. Then he dried it and this time I knew it was really over.

It was time for the big reveal. Even though I was pretty skeptical about everything since I only cut my hair, my grandma was hyping me up.

"Oh, sweetie, you're going to love it." She said and the hairstylist turned the chair around so I could look in the mirror.

What I saw almost gave me a heart attack.

My hair... was... blond.

"Oh... my... god!" I started freaking out. "What the hell did you do to my hair?"

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Lately I noticed that most of the previous chapters were getting pretty sad and dramatic. While I do love drama and emotional stuff, I also wanted to bring back some of the comedic aspects of this story. Don't worry though there are still going to be a lot more drama if you're here for that.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!