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

large almond eyes finally fluttered open, something in Clark’s stomach turned. He didn’t know what it was, but when she asked what time it was, he forgot all about it.
“It’s eight at night.” Clark said, and a little while later, both teenagers went upstairs into separate washrooms and took showers.
By the time they were dressed and downstairs, the food was ready to be served.
Peyton helped Julie Anne serve the plates which were filled with steak fingers, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn and peas, and garlic bread. The food looked so delicious that everyone at the table, except the eldest Queens, almost forgot to say prayer.
Everyone around the table, including Wesley, joined hands in prayer as Julie Anne said, “Thank you Lord for this food you have given to us today. We appreciate everything you have given us through our lives, and we thank you for keeping these children safe from harm. Amen.” Afterwards, there was nothing but laughs and conversation around the table for the night that Arianna felt as though this was where she belonged. But she knew that she couldn’t stay with them forever. Soon, she would have to go back home to her father, and she knew that time would happen at any moment.
Arianna found herself thinking more and more about her mother through dinner, and wondered what her life would be like now if she had taken her with her. She saw how out of love her mother had been with her father, but still she stayed. And through time, she felt as though her departing were her fault.
If it weren’t, her mother would have never abandoned her with her father.
She knew that Damon had run Lafayette off, but she also knew that her father was blind to it. As far as Damon was concerned, his marriage with Lafayette was perfect.
Till this day, Arianna still didn’t understand how her mother had disappeared without a trace. She was well known around the public world, so how did she manage to disappear? It didn't make any sense to her. The only way she ever would, was if Lafayette told her herself. But she knew that day would probably never come.
If Damon would have just made a missing person report, they would have probably found out where she was, but her father was just too lazy and cold hearted to do such a thing.
Arianna missed her mom more than anything else in the world. She wanted to feel her mother’s arm wrapped around her again, telling her that she will be there whenever she needed her.
But no, she had done the opposite.
She had taken off, leaving Arianna behind with a man that Lafayette no longer loved.
It wasn’t fair.
Arianna knew that one day her mother would have someone drop off an envelope with divorce papers in them, and that would be the day that Damon would truly lose his mind.
In everyone’s opinions, even Arianna’s, Lafayette had been too much for Damon to handle. Lafayette was a well known international model who was on many magazine covers, and was often shown in commercials. Lafayette was a Frenchwoman, who had come to America to look for her one true love. And that was when she had met Damon.
Arianna was the spitting image of her mother; she had the same long black smooth hair, and the same dazzling smile that caught everyone’s attention.
Arianna was naturally beautiful and graceful, with the figure of a dancer. Her emerald eyes were infiltrating, making your skin crawl with desire. She had fair skin, and red heart shaped lips. Her voice was velvety, that of an angel. She was never rude or critical to or about others. She would always try to find the goodness in others, usually leaving her heartbroken. But whenever the harshness from another would hurt her emotionally, Clark Queen was always the first to know.
She looked at Clark now, and found how fast her heart was beating as she watched him laugh and smile along with everyone else. He was the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. He was actually the most beautiful boy in all of Ohio, and to Arianna, he was probably the most handsome boy in the entire world.
Clark had short black hair, a perfect smile that could make any woman’s heart literally skip a beat, and he was also the third tallest guy she knew, standing at 6’2. He had high cheek bones, and long thick eyelashes. If anyone were to ever take one look into his baby blues, they would feel as though they knew him all their lives. It’s almost like you fall into the abyss of love and hatred. He had that kind of effect on people, but lately he had become a little harsher in a quiet way.
He was the famous quarterback for The Crows of Sir Santorin High. He was the most adored male in town, and was known as the Golden Boy of all of Ohio. If the girls didn’t fall in love with him, they would have small crushes on him. And if the guys didn’t look up to him, they hated him. She knew that someday, he would become famous.
She loved how unaware his charm was on people, especially girls. They would always fall head over heels in love with him, but he would never notice any of them in particular.
Arianna knew that the only girl that Clark had ever loved had walked out on him for a college boy she had met over the summer.
Her name was Zoe Lovington. She had been a freshman, while Clark was a sophomore, when they had met. And after their encounter, they spent almost three long years together.
She was a gorgeous girl, and was sort of sweet in her own way, but Arianna had never liked her. But she could never have let Clark know that. He would have freaked out on her. Things about Zoe floated around school, bad things.
Arianna knew better than to believe rumors made up by teenagers, but the more time she had spent with Zoe without Clark around, she felt as though the rumors were possibly true.
Zoe would always talk about grown up things, and would always be looking at other guys. But once she had seen Arianna watching her, she stopped immediately and never did it again.
She probably knew that she would had made a report of it to Clark, and the two would end up fighting about it.
But Arianna had never done that, and Zoe was thankful to her for that.
People would always say that Zoe wasn’t the kind of girl that could stay faithful for long, and she had a reputation of being a heartbreaker at her old school. She walked around the school as though she owned the place, and that simply annoyed Arianna.
Zoe had short blond hair that she always curled, light green eyes, and a body of an eighteen year old at the age of sixteen.
Zoe was wanted by many boys and even by men much older than her. She flaunted about, showing her body off as much as she could at school. But when she had seen Clark for the first time in her life after hearing many stories about how handsome he was, she had an immediate attraction towards him.
The first time Zoe had ever seen Clark was during the second week of her freshman year at Sir Santorin High School. She had been flirting with a couple of other boys from separate grades, but instantaneously lost all awareness of them when she saw a tall, dark, and handsome boy enter into the school with a bunch of people surrounding him.
“Who is that?” Zoe asked her friend Madeline, after losing her breath from the sight of him.
“You honestly don’t know who he is?” Madeline gasped in pure shock. She knew that Zoe was still kind of new to town, but not knowing who Clark Queen was, was absolutely absurd.
“Let me guess, Clark Queen?” she asked, growing impatient with her unpopular friend.
Madeline wasn’t exactly a pretty girl with her pimpled face and her crooked teeth, but Zoe liked how useful she was in knowing things about other’s in the school. Madeline was the girl that had spread the word about Zoe of being unfaithful. But anyone who knew who Zoe was, or had ever encountered her, knew she was before they heard the rumors.
“Yes, the hottest and the most popular boy in all of Ohio. He has the sexiest voice, a perfect body, and amazing eyes. But there is no way that you could actually get his attention. The only girl he pays attention to is his best friend Arianna.”
When Madeline told Zoe about Arianna, she wanted to know who she was, and why she was so important to Clark.
“They have been best friends since they were in diapers. The Queens and Lynne’s were totally close; Clark and Arianna practically grew up together. I heard that Clark has only dated a few girls, and let me tell you know, they were all beautiful but I don’t think he was ever in love with any of them. Clark Queen doesn’t exactly share his feelings with or towards anyone, only Arianna of course. Everyone thinks that they will end up getting married in the future, and everyone teases them about it. But neither of them presents romantic feelings towards each other. They’re just strictly best friends who tell each other everything.”
Madeline’s last two sentences were enough for Zoe to pounce. She wanted to be the girl that Clark Queen fell in love with.
A few days later, Zoe had finally got the courage to go up to him. She had never been shy about going up to a guy before, but there was something obviously different about Clark. With one look at him, she knew that he was the kind of guy that would never treat a girl wrong, no matter what the situation was.
After that day, Zoe and Clark became closer and closer until Clark had finally asked Zoe to be his girlfriend, and they stayed a couple until he was about to be a senior, and she was going to be a junior.
But during the summer, the two became distant. The two were always busy working, and never truly had time to spend together.
At her job at Denny’s, Zoe had met a boy named Houston Manning, a boy from Texas. He was eighteen, and was going to start college in the fall. Since the two had the same schedules, they became closer and closer. Houston knew that Zoe was faithful to her boyfriend Clark, who he heard about everywhere he went, but he wanted Zoe to be his girlfriend.
“Do you love him?” Houston had asked Zoe one day while they were washing the dishes at work. It had been a long and tiring day, and they hadn’t been able to talk throughout the day and they were both secretly longing to speak to each other.
Zoe paused when Houston asked her the question, but she didn’t know how to express her feelings, but she was going to try her best anyway. She desperately needed someone to talk to. All her friends at school thought of her as nothing but the girl that would eventually break Clark Queen’s heart, and she hated that that was the way people at school viewed her.