🐍The kid... doesn't really like to talk about, but the abuse was across the board. Physical, emotional, neglect. They made him feel like he's not worth the air he breathes, let alone the food he eats, which made it hard for him to even tell someone in the first place.
🐍We were in contact for a few months after camp and... I'm not gonna get into the specifics because otherwise this would get long, but there were a lot of red flags, unfortunately there wasn't shit I could do states away.
🐍I started telling him that the shit they were doing wasn't normal, a couple of his friends told him that, yeah, it is abuse, and then there was an incident that pushed him over the edge. For a split second he wanted better.
🐍So, he ran off. He didn't have anywhere to go though, so he called me after it happened. Said he was afraid, scared, he didn't want to go back, but he didn't have anywhere to go, so... I decided that he's coming to me.
🐍An Uber and a very stressful midnight flight, and he was here, safer than he'd been since camp. We called CPS, had some very long and annoying talks with at least 5 different case workers, showed them all the texts and bullshit that proved what they were doing was wrong, but eventually, after a lot of concern and a shitton of sleepless nights about harboring a runaway, they let him stay with me.
🐍Well, it wasn't fuckin' enough. Thankfully, the caseworkers agreed.