What do you do when you need to turn your life around and need that change? You move of course. For twenty-six year old Alexandria Jeanne St. James, the past two years have been her hardest yet. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she hadn’t had much of as a rough life as anyone her age. She had the normal run of the mill family, a father who worked hard to provide for his family and a mother who worked but was there for every soccer and band concert. Allie was the only child and she was all Scott and Anna St. James needed. For four years prior to her birth, the young married couple tried hard to have a child, and after six miscarriages later – their miracle was born. The only thing that was odd about this situation was one of the key ingredients of conceiving a child and one did not belong to the couple.
All her life, the man she called “Daddy” was in fact not her biological father and it was something that Anna lived with for sixteen years. Alexandria doesn’t quite remember how the facts spilled out in front of her and she tends to block it out as much as she can. Her mother’s boss was her sperm donor (as she likes to put it) however, this only made her relationship with her real father even stronger and unbreakable. The man that provided for her, checked her homework, laced up her soccer shoes and who she sat with countless nights watching Star Trek – He was her father. The marriage wasn’t repairable and they divorced. Thankfully, a judge granted Scott with custody of Allie and they moved to Florida for a fresh start.
Orlando, Florida it was a great fresh start for the father-daughter duo, Scott picked up work as a truck driver and Allie finished off high school. They also met, her step-mom, Grace, a teacher who inspired Allie to become one herself. April 12, 1999 was the wedding and February 10, 2000 her baby brother Dallas arrived, she loved her new life. Things were going great for her and she stayed local enrolling in the University of Central Florida with education as a major. Somewhere in her freshman year, enter the one who would change her life completely….
Patrick “Trick” Bryant, was well, right off the bat the pair had a really odd relationship. They met while he was sniffing a sharpie, trying to get the euphoric high off the fumes and it was awkward. They formed a friendship, somehow, being polar opposites; people really did turn their heads when they walked by. It started with, “let’s drink!” and then “Dude, try some pot!” and it ended with “Oh my god! We have got to try this, this and this together!” It wasn’t like Trick pressured, she did do it willingly and experimentally, but it was the beginning of the end for her. She wouldn’t call herself a straight up addict; she’d have to be on some kind of drug by the end of her years in college to even function while trying to get her academics in order. Alexandria made her father proud, although he forced her to invite her mother to the commencement ceremony, she was proud too. Allie didn’t think much of it, nor did she care that her mother was there.
As for Trick, their relationship was beyond dysfunctional, one thing finally led to another after months of casual sex and they ended up in a romantic relationship. After college, they moved in together and caused such a ruckus at their apartment complex with the constant fighting, making up and weird smells coming from their apartment. It lasted until late 2006 and then, it was officially over. Christmas Eve was the day Alexandria almost died if it weren’t for her next door neighbor. A plethora of drugs in her system became lethal and too much for her body to take and she overdosed. Something like that had never happened before and Trick panicked and left her for dead. He was charged in the morning for possession and that was the last Allie had ever heard of him, when she woke up in a hospital bed that afternoon. With her father by her bedside in tears, she knew she had to shape up and so, as any parent who wanted the best for their child…he put her into rehab. Rehab and then a halfway house, in fall of 2007, she had slowly but surely made her way back to being normal. A few relapses in 2008, she wanted to start 2009 off with a fresh new scene and so Florida wasn’t working anymore, Alexandria knew she had to get out and get out fast.
In January 2009, Allie packed up her car and drove hoping that her new home would give her some sort of opportunity and a chance to start over. Philadelphia. She had never been there and was thinking about moving to Vermont or Maine, somewhere low-key but when she stopped at the WaWa for gas outside city limits, she could just feel it would be home. Living in a clean motel for a week and a half, thanks to her savings account, she rented a room from a lovely lady named Alice and got a job at Barnes & Noble working at least 30 hours a week. With her new self, Allie decided that she wouldn’t use her real name or her usual nickname, so AJ was born. She started going to Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholic Anonymous meetings within the first couple of weeks and scored some sponsors as well. Now currently, the same routine has her loving her simple life and she wouldn’t change it for nothing.
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