Destined By Fate

Chapter 1- Memory Lane

Kendall (10 yrs old flashback)

I walk outside to feel the warm summer air kiss my skin as I set out on my daily adventure with my best friend. My best friend is my neighbor Seth. He's one year older than I am but we have so much fun together. We always find fun things to do together and he always makes me laugh. Not to mention he is also very cute, but I don't like him that way. I go to his house and his mom tells me he's outside already. I finally spot him in his back yard building some type of fort I assume for us to play in.

"Seth!" I yell excitedly as I get close enough for him to see me.

He turns and greets me excitedly.

"Kendall! Look what I built! It's a place for us to hang out this summer, what do you think?" He asks hopefully.

"I think it looks like fun. But what would be even more fun would be to have a water gun fight!!" I exclaim as I grab the hidden water gun I had tucked under my t shirt and began to fire a never ending shower of water right in his face as I laugh hysterically.

His look goes from happy to angry in a matter of seconds.

Oh crap I didn't think this through.

I turn around and run as fast as I can as Seth chases me around his yard all while I scream and laugh. He tackles me to the ground and steals my gun to do nothing other than assault me just as I did him. We laugh hysterically at each other for a while. We end up going on a bike ride, playing at the park with some of the other neighborhood kids and spending the rest of the day having probably the most fun I had ever had up until that point. It was one of the best days of my life.

The next day I wake up excitedly rushing over to Seth's house hoping to be able to repeat our previous day's adventures. I knock at the door but no one answers. No car is in the driveway. That's odd. Seth's mom and my mom both don't work and they always stay home with us in the summer time. Maybe they had to run an errand? I look inside to see the house is in shambles. Mrs. Tarantino wouldn't ever leave her house like this. She always kept her house very clean. Something is wrong. Mr. Tarantino is away on business a lot. He hasn't been home all week. I don't even know who mom and I can call to see if everything is ok?? I look around the back of the house and all of Seth's toys including his freshly built play house were all still there. Something has to be going on. This is just too weird. I run home to mom to tell her what I saw and to try and call Seth's mom on her cell phone. She does as I ask of her after seeing how frantic I was. After a few rings, Mrs. Tarantino answers the phone. My mom questions her and she says they would be back in a few weeks. That something was wrong with a family member and they had to go to see them suddenly. I calmed down when she told me that, knowing that all was ok and they would be back.

But they never came back. I lost my best friend and it took a long time to recover from it. We tried to contact them a few times after that but they just dodged our calls. The house eventually sold. I was devastated.

Kendall (Present Day-7 years later)

"Kendall?" My mom questions me breaking me from my memory.

"Yeah mom?" I ask her.

"You ok? You are awfully quiet." She persists.

"Yeah mom. Just tired." I lie.

I close my eyes faking like I am taking a nap so I don't have to talk. I listen to the hum of the tires hitting the pavement underneath our car as we travel down the highway. I am not sure what made me think back to my childhood just now. I think maybe I couldn't remember a time when I felt this lost and empty before. When Seth left that would be the only other time. This is worse though. So much worse.

My mom and I are driving down the interstate heading towards Chicago. I hate the city. I am a country girl and I liked my small town way of life. We are moving into the suburbs of Chicago and I was not happy about it at all. I will miss my little town of Redbud. I had to leave my friends, the only home I have ever known, and my sweet boyfriend Jordan. I am going to miss them so much. Jordan and I want to try to do the whole long distance thing, but I don't think it's going to work. Long distance never works. I mean Chicago is 5 hours away from our former home.

I am being so negative I know. I just miss my dad and it hurts. He passed away about 8 months ago in a car accident. He was the only one of my parents that worked. My mom always stayed at home to take care of me and the house. But after he died, my mom was forced to get a job so we could afford to live. She sold our house to pay off all of my parents debts and packed us up to move. I was not happy about it at all. We fought, I screamed and cried and begged her not to leave. But what it came down to is that she would always be reminded of my father in my hometown. He was well liked and had a lot of friends. It was just a constant reminder of the pain from his sudden, unexpected death. She wanted a fresh start. Plus there were more job opportunities near the city and ways for her to make more money to support us. We weren't moving directly into the city but in the outskirts of it in a town called Arlington Heights. We are going to rent a townhouse for the time being until we get more financially stable. As mad as I was at mom at first about this move, I am trying to make the best of it. All we have left is each other and the loss of my father was so painful I couldn't sever my relationship with my mother.

We pull into the parking lot of our new town home. We get out and walk inside and I scope the place out. It's not too terrible actually. We each get our own bedroom and bathroom and the rooms are decently sized. I am going to try hard for my mother to make this place home. I always loved going on those adventures with Seth when we were little. I am just trying to treat this same situation as a new adventure.

Authors Note:

Just a lot of background info these first few chapters. It will get better just give it a chance 😁