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

Peyton and stopped in front of her to gently life her face up with her hand and look at it.
From the look of them, anyone could tell that she had been crying.
Her nose was still red.
“Have you been crying?” Arianna asked as she removed her hand from underneath Peyton’s chin.
“No.” she said as she sidestepped past Arianna and walked into the bathroom.
The bathroom was a mess with the straightners’, curlers, and make-up thrown all around the counter. And on the floor, were Peyton’s clothes from the previous day.
But that wasn’t the only thing that caught her attention about Peyton’s clothes.
On her long sleeve right shirt, there were stains of red on the part that covered the wrists.
Arianna walked past Peyton who was standing in front of the mirror, putting eyeliner on when Arianna picked up the shirt and stared at it.
Peyton stopped what she was doing and watched Arianna as she tried to figure out what the red stains were.
Arianna already had an idea of what it was, but she tried to find some other kind of explanation.
Had Peyton accidentally place her wrists on ketchup, and that’s where the stains were from?
Was it marker, paint, tomatoes?
Arianna lifted her slowly up to look at Peyton who was still staring at her with a pale face.
Although she tried covering up her discontinue of lightly painting her face with make-up, Arianna saw the slashes that were on Peyton’s wrist.
She quickly dropped the shirt, and grabbed Peyton’s arms and stared at the marks.
She looked up at Peyton again. Her face had turned even paler.
Peyton derived her arm out of the grasp of Arianna’s.
She hadn’t meant to do what she had done, but something took over her mind the night before.
She was so angry and hurt because of her brother, that she had taken it out on herself.
Peyton didn’t understand why none of them would listen to her. All they cared and talked about was Clark. He was just the golden child running down the wrong path.
She was the one staying home and going to school every single day. She was the one making all the A’s, while her brother was out there doing who knows what.
For all she knew, he could be killing people when he left.
But Peyton had just laughed to herself when she thought of that. Clark was no Michael Myers. He was a kind hearted boy who had just gotten with the wrong girl.
Peyton had been watching the news with her family, and every night, they would say something about a group of robbers called “The Strikes”.
The Strikes were a group of robbers that the cops couldn’t seize.
All they knew was that The Strikes were originated in Holland, Michigan.
They always clobber, but another odd thing about them was that whenever they clouted huge banks, Clark would be missing.
Peyton had even thought the possibility that Clark was involved with them.
But just imagining Clark in a ski mask was absurd.
He would never steal from others.
Or would he?
Peyton wasn’t close enough to Clark to know those kinds of details about him.
And every time Clark was gone, Peyton would regret not being close to her big brother.
But if she had, she would have been hurt more by his disappearances.
Since her parents and Arianna were oh so close to him, they were slowly breaking.
And despite her not so close relations with him, she was breaking too.
“What the hell are these Peyton?” Arianna asked as she lifted Peyton’s arm back up so that they could both examine the cuts on her arms.
“They’re none of your business!” she shouted. Peyton was tired of shouting at Arianna and her family, but they have been just getting on her nerves lately. Her business was her business.
“Well, if you’re going to be hurting yourself, I think it should be my business.” Arianna said in such an angry voice that it had frightened the hell out of Peyton.
“Why do you even care?”
“Why do I care? I can’t believe you just asked me that,”
“You didn’t answer my question Aria.” Peyton pointed out. She continued doing her make-up and slipped past Arianna to go into her bedroom and put on her clothes that she had gathered together the night before for school.
“You’re like my little sister Peyton.” Arianna said as she went to her own drawer and pulled out clothes.
She was planning on wearing a white cropped shirt with the design of “Superman” on the front, her white Toms, and light blue skinny jeans.
“I know.” Peyton said as she put her clothes on.
She wasn’t planning on her morning turning out that way. But she was kind of glad that Arianna had been the first to know before anyone else in her family did.
She was going to make sure to keep the cuts hidden until they disappeared.
“Can you promise me something then?” Arianna asked in a somber voice as she put her jeans on, and afterwards her shoes.
“It depends on what the promise is,” Peyton said, now fully dressed.
She was wearing a blue shirt with “Aqua Man” on the front, and she laughed when she saw that Arianna was also wearing a super hero shirt.
Of course it was the one of Clark Kent.
“Can you promise me to never do it again?”


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Publication Date: 01-05-2012

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