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

Clark was the only boy that she had ever been faithful too. Never had she flirted with another boy while with him, but she knew that they were drifting apart, and that they were losing romantic feelings for one another.
“In a way I do. He’s kind and gentle hearted. He’s the most beautiful man I have ever laid my eyes on, and for the past two years, I have spilled my heart out to him, and him to me. Clark has always been there for me. But lately, we haven’t been talking the way we used to when we first started dating. We’re both just too busy to make anytime for each other. Whenever I’m off work, he’s working. And when he’s working, I’m off. It’s almost as though something wants to keep us apart and I hate it.” Zoe admitted. She was on the verge of tears now, but she turned away from Houston as quickly as she could, and pretended as though her make-up had gotten in her eyes.
Houston knew that Zoe was crying, but pretended not to notice, for Zoe’s sake. He knew that her turning away from him was her way of telling him that she didn’t want him to see her cry. But Houston also knew that he couldn’t just stand there and let her cry. She needed someone right now, and Clark wasn’t there to comfort her. He was.
He pulled Zoe into his arms, and she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist as she cried.
Calming herself, she pulled an inch away from and looked up into his face. He wasn’t close to being as handsome as Clark, no one was. But Houston was still a handsome man. He was the complete opposite of Clark.
Houston had long dirty blond hair, grey eyes, and was light skinned. He was a bit lanky, and didn’t look as though he had an athletic bone in his body. But as she stood there with his arms wrapped around her, she felt whole again. She missed being held in warm arms, to hear the sound of a male’s heartbeat. And once the two saw the desire for each other in the other’s eyes, they instantly kissed.
Zoe pulled away after a minute, and felt as though she had made a terrible mistake. She still loved Clark, and just because they weren’t as close now as they use to be, didn’t give her an excuse to start a summer fling with a boy that was holding a dishrag in his hands.
“I’m sorry,” Houston said when he felt Zoe pull away from him.
But neither was truly sorry.
Zoe pulled Houston back into her arms and kissed him more passionately this time. She wanted him more than anything. She loved Clark, and knew that she always would, but her feelings for Houston were growing as she stood there and kissed him.
They had spent an awfully long amount of time together, and they both cherished every second they had when the other was around.
A little less than a month before school was going to start again, and Houston quit his job at Denny’s so that he can focus on college, Zoe knew what she had to do. She had to tell Clark about her and Houston. She knew that it would be the toughest thing she would ever have to do, especially knowing the fact that they will run into each other when school started again.
She had to end her relationship with Clark. Zoe and Clark had spent the last day together, but she felt extremely guilty about it. She couldn’t stay in a relationship with him while she was kissing another boy.
Zoe had called Clark that morning and asked him to meet her at the clearing near Clear Creek Lake, and once she saw him down the trail walking towards her with an amazing smile on his face, made it more difficult for her to tell him that she hadn’t called him to spend time with him, but to end their love.
“Clark,”
“Zoe,” They said to each other at the same time. Zoe smiled, and Clark laughed his beautiful laugh. She still couldn’t believe that she had been disloyal to such a perfect man.
“Clark, I called you here for a reason. I need to talk to you about something.” The sad tenor in her voice stopped him in his tracks. He saw how her hands were shaking, and how her eyes were darting to look everywhere else but at him. There was something extremely wrong.
“What is it?” Clark asked, perplexed. He didn’t know what to expect.
She was quiet for a minute, until she finally spoke,
“I… want to break up.” She announced with a shaky breath.
The cadence of his heart began to quicken. All he could hear was the sound of his own heart beat. Did he hear her correctly? Clark shook his head, trying to block out the words he think he had heard.
“What?”
“I want to break up.” She repeated. The words in her mouth tasted like vinegar, and she hated the fact that she had to say those words again.
But the look on his face broke her heart even more than the words she had spoken a few seconds ago. He looked hurt, confused, and angry all at once. She knew that he was trying to hear different words in his head, but knew that he couldn’t. He just stared at her, still as a painting on the wall.
“Why?” he asked finally, after what seemed like a generation. She noticed that he didn’t step a foot closer to her, and that he was still over twenty feet away from her.
“I…have been spending time…with someone else.” She said honestly. Zoe knew that the words would hurt him more than her confession of wanting to end things with him.
“Why were you with someone else?!” He shouted, making her jump. From where she stood, she could see how calm his features were, but the tone in his voice made it very clear to her just how angry he was, and she didn’t blame him.
“We’re not right for each other anymore Clark. I mean, we never spend time together. Yesterday was the first time we have hung out in over three weeks, and I’ve grown tired of it. I tried to tell myself that we could make it through our busy hours, but we just can’t. We’re never there for each other. The bliss that was between us has been gone for weeks now. I can’t keep this up with you anymore. Clark, I will always love you, and I know I always will. You were my first true love, and no matter who I’m with, I will never forget that. We have had so many good times together, but we don’t have them anymore. Clark, I have been talking to someone who makes time to see me; someone who is there. I love you Clark, but I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry.”
But when Clark said nothing to her in response, she walked towards him. When she was at least ten feet closer to him, he held a hand out to stop her, and she did. She just stared at him with tears glistening down her porcelain face.
She watched him cry and, a little while later, he walked away from her. She wanted to stop him, but she knew that it wouldn’t be fair to him. Zoe knew in her heart that she would regret this day forever, but it had to be done. She was with Houston now. He turned around, and looked at her one last time. He was going to say something to her, Zoe knew it, but no words escaped his lips. His baby blues were filled with tears and they rolled down his dark handsome face even more. As he watched her hair blow in the wind, his heart broke. He shook his head at her, and walked away.
“I love you…” Zoe whispered to herself as she watched Clark disappear from sight.
That was the day that Clark Queen stopped believing in love.


Gone

He had to get out. He couldn’t stand one more moment knowing that she wasn’t his any longer. Although he didn’t want to believe it, he knew that she no longer loved him the way she used to. The thought of her loving another man repulsed him. How could she have done that to him? She had stepped all over his heart like she didn’t care.
He should have listened to the others when they said that someday she would break his heart, but he wouldn’t listen. Since the day he met her, all he wanted to do was to be with her.
His heart and mind stung with memory of her soft touch, her hypnotizing scent, and her words. The damp bed sheet weighed him down like water. He had dreamt of her. In his dream, she was there holding him tight. But as he leaned down to kiss her, she pulled away. What had he done so wrong for her to move away from him like that? But then he saw him. He was a skinny blond haired boy from Texas, coming to take her away so that she would be his.
He had tried begging her not to go, but with each word, she pulled farther away. She pulled her hand from his, and walked over to Houston, and when she got there, she kissed him. Houston embraced her, and as Clark watched, Houston smiled at him. Clark had lost the battle, he knew that much.
Clark was shaking, and as he stared up at the darkness that surrounded him, he refused to give in, but he had no other choice. She would never go back to him as long as Houston was in her life. He had a feeling that she would never be his again for as long as they both lived.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He still couldn’t believe he had lost her.
He knew that they had barely got to see each other, but that did not give her the right to start seeing someone else while she was still with him.
He closed his eyes, and then opened them back up. He sank farther down as sorrow, marrow deep, found a familiar fit. Clark knew what he had to do. He had to get out of Ohio. He couldn’t withstand seeing her at school, laughing and smiling with all of her friends. Whenever he would see her, his heart would ache. He had spent so much time with her, and she had already been in love with someone else before she had broken up with him.
Clark was well aware that he