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

comfort him by saying that he wasn’t alone, but he didn’t care. His life belonged to Lafayette, and now that she was gone, he made it clear to her that she meant nothing to him.
Arianna and Damon would occasionally get into heated arguments over his unemployment, and his lack of love towards her, that it took Arianna so far over the edge that she ran away from home. Her father never went out to look for her, which angered Clark. He wanted to beat Damon senseless, but knew he could never do such a thing, especially when Arianna still obviously cared and loved her father.
Arianna quietly went through her pile of clothes on her bedroom floor, and thought about the following day that she was going to spend with Clark.
He was going to pick her up at eight for a movie.
When she found what she was going to wear, her thoughts of Clark evaporated and focused on her father instead.
She ran downstairs, and stood in the entrance of the living room where her father was.
"Dad, why don't you love me?" Arianna had asked her father, tears forming in her eyes.
As usual, he was sprawled out on the couch with a beer in his hand as he watched the football game. She knew that her mother had hated football, and Damon never got to watch it. Atleast he was free to do whatever he wanted to do now. But now, he was lonely.
He looked up at Arianna, and grinned.
"Because you look like her. I hate you for that." Arianna gasped out loud.
"Just because she left doesn't mean you have to take it out on me. It's your fault that she's not here!" she yelled, angry with her father. He had no idea how much harm his words had caused her heart and soul. She was beginning to break slowly.
"If you were never born, she would be! You ruined us. All she cared about was you, and never paid attention to me. So don't you dare tell me she left because of me. It was all you!" Damon shouted. He had stood up on his feet by then, but tripped.
"You're so pathetic. Look at you father, you can't even take care of yourself. Maybe she had grown tired of looking after you. All you ever did was whine and complain about every single little thing. It drove her nuts. She couldn't even focus on her modeling career with you calling her for something every ten damn minutes! She hated cleaning up after you the most. You couldn't even fold your own clothes. And you've gotten worse. I don't blame her for leaving you! If I were in her position, I would have done the same thing!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.
Before he could say anything back, she ran out of her house. She couldn't stand being there for another second. She might as well have been standing in a room full of smoke. She couldn't breathe in there.
All she could do was run.
He had drove his black 1967 Chevrolet Impala to her home to take her to the movies one Saturday afternoon, only to find out from Damon that she was missing.
It had been a long time since Clark had seen Damon, and when he finally had, Damon’s appearance and attitude stunned him.
Damon had abruptly swung the door open to Clark with a bottle of Rum in his hands. He was wearing a Metallica t-shirt, and was wearing black boxers and knee-high socks. He looked like a wreck.
Behind Damon, he could see that the home hadn’t been cleaned in days, maybe even months. It was unlike Arianna to leave the house like that, but he didn't see or hear her around. Where was she? While Clark was thinking this, the wind swept an unpleasant odor of the house and Damon to his face, and backed away.
He could see how lost and heart broken Damon was, and it made Clark pity more than he had before.
He could only imagine how it would feel for the woman he loved to ever walk out on him without an explanation or a goodbye, but Damon had taken it too far when he said that Arianna ran away from home, and that he hadn’t even bothered with calling around to find her.
“I don’t know where that little brat went. You know, she expects so much from me, just like her mother had. You see, Arianna and her mother are the same. They both ran away. I don’t need either of them in my life. I know that much now. The day Lafayette left was the day I stopped giving a shit about everything else.”
Damon was saying over swigs of his Rum. He was noticeably drunk, and Clark was definitely not in the mood to hear Damon’s sob story.
“Arianna’s probably out there whoring around, just like her mother is probably doing now.” And before Clark could stop himself, he punched Damon so hard in the face that he toppled over onto the ground, spilling his Rum all over himself.
“Never say anything like that about Arianna again.” Clark said in such a threatening tone that Damon just nodded his head furiously and grasped a hold of his face.
Clark didn’t care how much pain the man was in at that moment, all he cared about was finding his best friend.
When he turned around to leave, he found many onlookers staring at him in utter amazement. They knew who Clark was, and they were surprised that he had punched the father of his best friend. But they also knew how callous Mr. Lynne was, and they weren’t exactly surprised to see that someone had finally had the nerve to hit him. They especially weren’t expecting it from such a gentleman such as Clark Queen.
But as Clark left the wounded Damon Lynne behind him, he ignored all the stares that were cast upon him. He didn’t care what they thought of him now, all he cared about was finding his best friend and hoping that she wasn’t harmed or in any immediate danger.
And as he drove around town, he grew so tired that he was afraid that he was going to fall asleep at his wheel. Promising himself that he would try again in the morning, he went home. But when he went into his barn to gather his school bag and his jacket, he found Arianna lying unconscious on the couch in his loft.
As Clark peered down to look at her tear-streaked face, all he wanted to do was hold her and tell her that he would never let her be hurt again. But he knew he couldn’t keep such a promise to her. He wouldn’t always be there for her, and he was aware that someday something terrible would happen in the future and he would have no control in stopping it. But for now, he was going to do everything in his power to make sure that she would never get hurt.
Clark’s sister, Peyton, who was only two years younger than him, let Arianna stay in her room for as long as Arianna liked. The Queen’s didn’t mind the company at all, but rather enjoyed it. They would have done anything for Arianna if she asked them to. They knew how much Arianna meant to Clark, and she also meant a great deal to the oldest and the youngest of the Queen family.
While Clark carried the now sleeping Arianna in his arms, he wished that he had driven them to the clearing other than their decision of walking.
Probably if they hadn’t walked, they would have never gotten into their argument.
Clark sighed, and hoped for a better day tomorrow. The day after tomorrow would be the sixth month of their senior year. Everything was better than it used to be, but when Arianna had accused him of not trusting her anymore, everything seemed raw to him.
In a way, it was true. He couldn’t trust anyone with his confession of the situation he had gotten himself into, and he knew that he couldn’t back out of it now. He had a long way to go, and he was kind of glad that they loved him in Michigan.
After a very long walk from the clearing near the lake, which seemed as more than an hour had passed, Clark finally made it to the farm. With his stoke of luck, the skies had decided on not down pouring on him and he was ultimately grateful.
The last thing he wanted was a sick Arianna that would do nothing but complain and annoy him.
Clark wasn’t able to get the key out of his pocket, so he had to knock on the door heavily with his boot. When the door finally opened, he found himself face-to-face with some random dark haired boy.
He had no idea who the kid was and what he was doing in his house, but when Clark saw his sister Peyton skipping down the hall towards the door and slung her arm into the boys, Clark’s brotherly instincts came in.
He didn’t know why, but he wanted to scare the boy so far away that he would never bother with going around his little sister again.
Clark sidestepped around the boy and Peyton, and carefully placed Arianna onto the couch in the living room for now. He was too tired to take her all the way upstairs. He had enough carrying for the day.
He was about to ask the boy who he was, when the boy extended his hand out and addressed himself,
“My name is Wesley Hanson, and you must be,”
“Clark. What are you doing here?” Clark said, not letting the scrawny boy finish.
Peyton gave him a look that said, “Be nice”. But Clark had no intention in being nice to the boy. He would have to frighten him a bit before he truly acknowledged him.
“I have come here for dinner. The eldest of the Queen’s had invited me.” Wesley Hanson had a deep English accent that he tried not to laugh at, but couldn’t.
Peyton knew why her older brother was chuckling, but tried to stop him before she truly became annoyed.
She gave Clark another daring look, and he stopped. Clark and Peyton didn’t get along very well, but he never liked to upset her purposefully. He would only give her some sarcastic remarks from time to time just to irritate her, but at this moment, he knew that the English boy meant something to her.
“All right, fine.” Clark said before his parents decided to walk in.
“Clark, you finally found time to make it home.” Terrance Queen said to his son as he walked over to slap him on the back. That was his father’s odd way of a greeting.
“Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes.” Julie Anne Queen, the most beautiful woman in Terrance’s eyes announced. She gave Clark a hug, pulled away and asked,
“Why are you so dirty? Go upstairs and wash up.” Clark hesitated for a moment, but knew that he had to and wanted to. He knew that he probably looked a mess and was sweating from being under the sun all day. But before he could, he had to wake up Arianna and tell her to wash up too.
Clark shook his best friend awake, and when her