My name is Kevin LaGro.

When I was 16, I was thrown out of my house by my stepfather, the worst person I ever

knew.

I'd gotten in trouble from time to time.

I was definitely a problem kid, as they say.

But I couldn't stand all the accusations and threats he was constantly pouring on me,

and we had some terrible fights.

On 9th of October, it got so bad with him yelling about some stuff I'd taken from some

old abandoned farmhouse that he gave me 15 minutes to put some things in a backpack and

get out.

So it did just that, my mother crying.

I had nowhere to go, no plan.

I had a total of about $400 in the bank.

I spent the first two days mostly wandering around the edge of town.

We'd moved to that tiny backwater only a couple of months before.

So I had no friends.

And I had no idea where anything in the area was.

I slept underneath an RV and then behind Walmart.

And at about 10 o'clock on night three, I went to Denny's and I studied a bus schedule

and considered going somewhere far away.

So I sat there for two hours at the soda, trying to stay awake.

I'd been getting no real sleep.

...