Fractured Promises by Lauren Ruiz (ap literature book list txt) 📕

“Arianna, wake up.” Arianna found herself being shaken in the middle of the night. With her intuition, she stretched her hand out, and when she felt the warm breath on it, she united her fist into the face of the soft fleshed intruder.
“It’s me, Clark! Calm down! Damn, I never thought you hit that hard.”
Arianna blinked her eyes furiously and said, “Clark? What the hell are you doing creeping on me like that?”
Her face was only an inch away from his and if she just leaned in and filled the gap, her lips would be united with…
The thought of them kissing made her face flush.
Thank goodness it’s dark, Arianna thought in her mind.
They must have been having the same extent of thoughts because Clark quickly pulled away, and left Arianna cold.
“What time is it?” Arianna asked. It was too dark to look at her watch.
“I think five.”
“Do you mean five o’clock in the morning?!” Arianna asked, bewildered. She scrambled up off the couch, and reached out into the darkness.
Her hand collided with Clark’s buffed chest, and her face reddened again.
She remembered the last time she had seen him bare chested…
She shook her head, and told herself to quit. He’s your best friend, you perverted girl. Arianna reminded herself. Plus, you are angry with him.
Remembering her anger, she turned around abruptly. She collided into him again, and she must have bumped into him a little too hard because she heard the sound of things crashing in front of her.
Regardless of her infuriating feelings towards the dark and handsome boy who she could not see at the moment, the sound of his grunt of his downfall made her chortle.
She heard nothing but a large amount of curse words as she heard him struggle to clamber back up.
“That’s so not funny Ari,” Clark said as she heard him get to his feet.
Despite his annoyed voice with her, she kept laughing.
She depicted his tumble over and over in her head. Although she didn’t see what happened, just knowing the fact that she had caused it and that it happened in pitch black, made it even funnier.
Even though he was somewhat annoyed with the reality of his falling, he laughed along with his best friend.
But when she let out a pig laugh, he laughed even more.
“God, I missed you.” Clark said with a smile that Arianna could feel throughout the entire loft.
“I missed you too. Where are you?” Arianna said as she tried adjusting her eyesight to the darkness.
“I think I’m standing in front of you. Hold on, let me find the lamp,” he said as he rummaged around the loft in an effort to find light.
“There,” he said the moment the light of the lamp was on.
What Arianna saw in front of her made her giggle. The table was tipped over onto its side, and everything that was once on it was all piled on the floor.
She saw the two picture frames along with the mess, but they weren’t broken.
Arianna’s black hair was tousled in a soft wavy heap that made her look comfortable and absolutely adorable. She was wearing one of his large black and red plaid shirts that reached her knees, and her feet were bare.
Clark was wearing a black shirt and regular blue jeans. His black hair had gotten a little thicker, and his black boots were stained with dried out mud. His baby blues were bloodshot from driving, but he wasn’t tired. He wasn’t going to miss another day of school just because he looked high.
They each looked at each other from head to foot before Arianna said, “So, now are you going to tell me where you have been?”
The smile that was on Clark’s face a second ago disappeared. That was the second that Arianna knew that it was too soon to ask.
“Never mind, you can tell me on your own time.” Arianna said with a subtle smile.
Arianna sat down on the couch, and patted the cushion beside the one she was sitting on.
Clark sat down, and grinned at her.
“You’re really beautiful you know that? Barely any girl could pull off that sleepy look.” He said as he ruffled her long black hair with his large strong hand.
“Thank you handsome. You don’t look too bad yourself.”
“Oh stop it,” Clark said with a gentle wield of his hand, and a delightful smirk on his dark face.
They laughed at this, and then after a moment Arianna asked, “How have you been? You never answered any of my calls.”
Clark entwined his hands together, and began to twiddle his thumbs.
“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely.
“For what?” she asked, wanting to hear more. She was justified to be offered an even greater apology.
Clark kept twiddling his thumbs and never looked up at her.
“I’m sorry for not answering your calls, or your text messages. I’m sorry that I ignored you and everyone else that I left behind here.”
Clark’s tenor of words made her rest her hand on his twiddling fingers.
He looked up at her with his bright blue eyes, and Arianna almost got lost into them but she looked away. So instead, she looked down at his hands and rubbed her own thumb against the soft flesh of his hands.
“You’re going through a hard time Clark. I understand that. I just wish you could take me along with you just once.”
“You wouldn’t want that Arianna.”
Arianna looked into his baby blues and asked, “Why not?”
“Because where I go is too dangerous for you to handle. I’ve already told you that before at the lake.”
Arianna looked back onto their past conversations, and remembered the conversation they had about him not trusting her anymore. He had told her that where he went was too dangerous for her. But what did he mean by that? What was so dangerous that he held her at arms length?
“Explain to me how it’s too dangerous.” Arianna said in a soft voice so that she wouldn’t anger him. It was outlandish that she had to watch her words around him.
He was her best friend. They could talk about anything couldn’t they? No, they couldn’t any longer. They couldn’t talk about things that they used to talk about in the past. He was a changed man now. He was a man that was angry at the world. He was a man whose heart was shattered.
“It just is Arianna. Please, I don’t want to talk about this with you right now.”
“Fine, ok. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
Clark heaved out a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry; I’m not trying to make things worse between us. It’s just that…” he didn’t know how to say the words, but he was going to try, so he said, “I’m just trying to protect you. I don’t want you closer to the person that I have become. Whenever I’m out there doing what I want to do, I feel freedom. Here in Ohio, I feel trapped by reminiscence’s. I can’t even be here in this loft without feeling suffocated by memories.” He was almost on the threshold of tears, but he wasn’t going to let weakness get a hold of him. He had to be stronger if he wanted to survive in the world he was now involved in.
Arianna shook her head as she absorbed his words. She had to follow the depth of his words, and if she didn’t, she would be lost in them; trying to figure out just what he was hiding from her.
“The thing that really worries me Clark is that you seem as though you have the world resting on your shoulders. You try to hold it up, but it keeps weighing you down. You have to fight it Clark. For your own sake, you have to win.”
“You think I don’t know that? It’s going to take time for me to win.” Clark said as he stood up. He had to take a shower. He felt dirty and disgusting.
“I’m going to go inside and take a shower. Are you going to take a nap, or are you going to get dressed for school?” he asked as he looked down at her.
Arianna looked back up at him, and pouted out her lip. Clark laughed.
“I want to take a nap, but I think I’m going to have to get ready early. I want to spend as much time with you as possible.” Arianna said as she reached her hand out, and Clark took it to pull her up.
“Thank you.” She said with a giggle.
She loved having him back.
“Don’t take too long in that shower Clark.” Arianna said as she walked down the steps of the loft, and back onto the dirt of the barn.
Her life felt whole again. With Clark around, she had nothing to complain about. Besides their little fights and his trust in her slowly fading, she was happy when near him.
No person had ever made her feel that way. Not even her own parents could make her as happy as Clark did.
Arianna thought about her parents as she walked to the house.
Her father didn’t love her enough to go out looking for her; let alone call her.
And her mother had walked out on her without even saying goodbye.
Tears were begging to surge out, but she wouldn’t let them. She finally had Clark back, and she wasn’t going to let any other thoughts ruin her time with him.
Arianna quietly opened Peyton’s bedroom and stepped in with light steps.
“Is he back?”
Arianna stopped and looked around the empty bedroom.
“Yes,” she answered to Peyton.
“Where is he?”
“I saw him in the barn. He said he’s going to take a shower.”
“What makes you think he won’t just leave again?”
“Because he said he wouldn’t.” Arianna answered. She was getting tired of Peyton putting Clark down all the time.
She understood that she was angry with him, and deep down, Arianna was too, but he was back and nothing was going to spoil it for her.
Not even Peyton Queens words.
“And you believed him?” Peyton said harshly. Arianna heard movement now, and before she knew it, the light to the bedroom was on.
Peyton still had her finger on the switch, and was staring at her with red eyes.
“Oh my God, Peyton,” Arianna said as she walked towards