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

Clark paused for a moment and then said, "I began running away from home. Everywhere I turned, there was a memory of me and her. I can't stand being in Ohio anymore."
"Clark, I understand that you're hurting. But have you ever stopped to think that by leaving, you may be hurting someone who truly cares about you?"
That moment, Clark saw Arianna, Peyton, Zoe, and his parents flash in his mind.
He frowned. He knew that he was hurting them. He cared, but they had to understand someday that he couldn't keep spending every single day in Ohio.
"So, have you remembered anything yet?" Clark asked. He was truly hopeing that she hadn't just been dropped off here. Now that she was there with him, he felt it as his obligation to protect her.
"No, it's all still a blur." Caden said, making an adorable frown on her face.
Despite everything, he smiled. He wondered if she knew how pretty she was.
They drove in silence, causing Caden to fall asleep. Clark was everything but tired. He had been driving for over six hours, but his thoughts kept him up.
He wanted to let Zoe go, but he knew it was going to take a very long time for him to heal.
They were already in Nashville, Tennessee by the time Caden stirred. When Caden looked around, her face lit up. She couldn't believe Clark had actually took the time to take her home.
"Want anything to eat after this?" Clark asked as he stopped at a gas station.
She nodded, and smiled.
Once he put the gas in, and they drove off, he stopped at a Burger King and ordered her everything she wanted off the menu.
They were both starving, and with the dirt that was all over Caden, he knew that she must have been walking for a long time.
"Will you call me?" Caden asked out of the blue. She didn't want to lose him. Through the short time that they had spent together, she had felt as though she knew him her entire life.
Clark grinned, and said, "Of course." They were outside her house by then, and he froze in place when he saw her home.
It was a run down home, that looked as though it were going to collapse at any moment. Is that where she really lived?
Caden saw the look on her face, and frowned. She hated it when people looked at her home like that. She knew that it wasn't much, but that was all her parents could afford.
She was going to be moving out of the house once she graduated, but she would visit her parents as much as she could.
They needed her.
"I know, it's not much, but this is where I grew up." she confessed in a whisper as she stared at her house.
"As long as you're happy," Clark said with his beautiful smile. Her heart beat raced at the sight of him.
He walked her to her door, and they embraced. They didn't want to lose each other, he knew that much from what was inside his heart, and he could easily see it in her eyes as she looked up at him with her blue eyes.
"Your eyes are just like mine." she said with a warm smile.
He smiled back, and hugged her one last time.
"Keep in touch Clark Queen." Caden said as they smiled together.
"I will. Maybe I will stop back in town when I leave Michigan."
"What are you going to do in Michigan?"
"Business," he said simply. But she knew it was much more than that.
"You better come by then. I'll be waiting for you." They hugged one last time, and he jogged back to his car.
They waved goodbye to each other as he drove off, leaving Caden with her a heart that was now longing for him.


Devoured

Arianna didn't want to wake up. Her dreams were as lovely as the sun settling in the horizon. She was laughing along with her parents, her black hair flowing around her face as they sat on the windmill.
Arianna had never been afraid of heights, and while she sat on the windmill with her parents, she felt love course through her body.
Her mother was sitting on her left, while her father sat on her right. They were both pointing out how beautiful the birds looked in the sky, flying around without a care in the world.
She could hear her parents talking and laughing, making Arianna's heart warm.
"I will always be with you Arianna." she heard her mother say. She faced her mother when she said this, but she was gone. She looked to her right, and found her father standing up, staring down at the field with beer in his hand. He looked as though he were going to jump.
"Dad, please sit down." she asked nervously. She didn't want him to fall. All he did was look down and smile at her. There was something not right about that smile.
Before she could blink, her father dove off the windmill.
"Dad!" she felt someone shaking her body now, and after what seemed like an eternity, she felt cold water splash her face.
"What the..." she yelled out, but she found herself looking into the eyes of Peyton, Clark's little sister.
"What was that for?" she asked with a growl. Her father used to do the same thing to her when she was younger.
Then she remembered her dream. Her father had committed suicide right in front of her.
"You were yelling out for your dad. I think you were having a nightmare." Peyton said with a frightened frown. Arianna's yelling for her father had waked her from a deep sleep. And when she tried to shake her awake, she wouldn't stir.
"I did have a nightmare." Arianna said, smoothing her hair down. She glared at Peyton because of this, and Peyton laughed.
Arianna couldn't be angry with her. She was like a sister to her.
"What is about your dad?" Peyton asked as she stood up and walked into the restroom. She came back out with a towel and handed it to Peyton with a smile.
Peyton was a beautiful girl with black hair that reached her shoulders, and the same piercing blue eyes that Clark had.
Arianna couldn't help but smile at the thought of her best friend. She couldn't wait to see him that morning. She knew in her heart that he was the only one who could fully understand her dream.
"Yes." she said simply. Peyton saw that she didn't want to talk about it, so she stood up and went through her drawers’ to find clothes.
Arianna did the same thing.
Both girls got ready with music blasting.
Usually Clark would have his music louder, but as she listened, she didn't hear anything.
"That's strange..." Arianna said out loud.
Peyton looked at her, and asked, "What is?"
"Why isn't Clark playing his music?"
"He's probably still asleep. Here, let me go check." Peyton announced with a mischievous look on her beautiful face.
"You go ahead and do that then." Arianna said with a laugh and finished dressing.
Peyton came back in with a weird look on her face.
"What is it?"
"Clark's not in the house." Arianna's heart began to race.
"He's not?"
Peyton shook her head and said, "He's probably out in the barn then."
"I'll go and check this time since I’m finished dressing." Peyton nodded, and Arianna walked past her.
It took Arianna a full two minutes to walk to the barn. But as she walked into the barn, she didn't see or hear him anywhere.
"Clark?" she called out. She waited for a response, but nothing came.
She hurried up to his loft, hoping that he had crashed out on the couch from studying. But he wasn't there.
She looked over at the table where his back-pack and jacket usually were, but nothing was there.
The only things on the round table near the couch were his books, binder, and the two picture frames.
One picture was of her and Clark back in the fifth grade. She had kissed him on the lips that day, and when he blushed, she laughed.
"What was that for?" he asked her, looking away from her. They had spent the day at the pool, washing away the "stress" of school off their shoulders.
"That was for being my best friend. I love you Clark."
Clark hugged her at her words, and she hugged him right back.
She could still remember her mother standing there with them holding the camera in her hands. She was facing the camera their way. They looked at her and smiled, still holding onto each other, as Lafayette took the picture.
Arianna picked up the photograph and smiled.
Then she switched her gaze over to the other picture.
She set the photo of her and Clark back down, and picked up the other.
It was of Zoe.
She was smiling at the camera while sitting in the passenger seat of Clark's impala. Her hand was reaching out, as though trying to pull her in.
A hatred that Arianna had never felt before flowed through her.
She settled the picture back down onto the table with disgust.
Zoe had broken Clark's heart, and Arianna hated her for it.
"Now is not the time to be thinking about her," she said to herself, "where are you Clark?" She ran out of the barn to check to see if his car was in the driveway.
It wasn't.
Arianna pulled out her cell-phone and dialed Clark's number. His phone was ringing, but he didn't answer.
She called three more times, but still, no answer.
She was beginning to panic.
Arianna remembered the last time that Clark had disappeared this way. And she knew that he was doing it because he was heartbroken.
She would never know where he had gone. The last time he had left, he was gone for four days. Everyone at school that noticed him gone was all scared that he might have gotten hurt. But to Arianna, she could never picture Clark getting physically hurt.
To Arianna, it was a coincidence that he had been named after Clark Kent/Superman. He had the same personality as Clark Kent. They were both very secretive, and had an amazing hero complex added into their