Whitney Barbetti

When I was 17, I disappeared. I walked out the door of my apartment with a backpack and never looked back....

I've come to understand that I'll always find her. She's my North Star, my sense of direction. In her I've found my home. She tells me I saved her. But the truth is she saved me....

My name is Parker. My body is marked with scars from an attack I don't remember. I don't want to remember. I choose to live my life by observation, not through experience....

I was born in sadness, which was just the beginning of a solemn and desolate life. I'm no stranger to pain - none of us are. The night I held my best friend's hand as she died, I understood true agony. And I never thought I'd feel happiness again....