BROTHERS

Chapter 10

TWO MORE YEARS LATER, 2009

The truth is, we weren't supposed to be together. We are from two opposite worlds. He was dangerous and cruel. I was a normal girl, innocent, and sweet. He belongs to the darkness; I lived in the light. This isn't a fairy tale, but a story of an impossible love. Star-crossed lovers, he was wrong and I was right. I was his weakness; he was my strength. But we couldn't help but crave one another.

You're all probably wondering how our story ends. Let me first tell you how it began.

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purity, virginity; chasteness of body. ceremonially or customarily tidy. guiltless; lacking guilt or remorse. pure knowledge that is unaffected by senses or experiences. That's what my name, Katherine, means. Why may this be the name my father chose? I can't say for sure. I would want to say that it might have been related to my father's spirituality. I mean, he was a Pastor.

It was the usual tale of a boy raised in a violent and gang-ridden environment. And one day he decided to turn his life around, find his true calling, and get back on his feet. Along with being a devout follower of God, he had also become a billionaire at eighteen. After inheriting an inheritance from an uncle, my father established schools in foreign countries for the education of children around the world. He visited many nations and was well-liked by the populace.

He was always telling me as a child to follow the "right path; stick with the people that lead the same path." He tried his best to keep me away from bad people and would often tell me that they had a "bad life," and he would do his best to keep me away from them. Did that imply that I was a reclusive person? Perhaps.

I never went to bars, partied, drank alcohol of any kind, or dressed provocatively. Nor did I have many friends. From elementary school through college, I remained close to Penelope, my best friend. Although my dad did not particularly like Penelope, he did value our connection, and my mother cherished Penelope because of her "spunky attitude." She said it gave me some sort of "life."

I had only ever gone somewhere other than school with my parents since I was a small child. Another significant part of my life was school. To put it mildly, I had always been an excellent student and well-liked by my peers. However, my college was a little different. Generally, admission to this institution was only for the children of politicians, celebrities, and very intelligent people. The school's motto, "developing the minds of young geniuses," describes it as prestigious.

My high school was the same. My classmates were all placed in the college right away; it was almost like a system designed to accommodate the offspring of influential people. My dad pushed me to enroll at this school to be surrounded by "like minds," but what he forgot to think about and has yet to notice is that all of these students only care about partying, having sex, and enjoying their college life as much as they can before entering the real world of working businessmen and women.

Although I don't particularly enjoy college, it's a little easier on me when Penelope goes with me.
Penelope is extremely intelligent, gregarious, and smart, even though she didn't have the same kind of upbringing as most of us.

We couldn't be more different from one another. She's not shy and introverted like me. Perhaps that's why we make a good team. Penelope is a beloved character who is always the life of the party. Penelope's absence at a party you hosted indicated that it wasn't good enough, at most. She would constantly extend invitations to me, and I would always decline.

My father would probably have an aneurysm if his sweet, innocent daughter were to attend any social gathering that didn't have adult supervision. But before I get too ahead of myself, let's start with my first day of freshman year...

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So that we could start our first year of college together, I spent the night at Penelope's house. My best friend and I were eventually able to enjoy our first sleepover after much persuasion from my parents. I didn't anticipate having a hard time waking up on our first day. "Katherine! The house is on fire! Hurry up and get up!" Penelope cried.

I woke up right away and exclaimed, "Quickly! "stop, drop, and roll!" as I staggered off the bed. "What?" Laughing at me, Penelope asked. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. "I don't see any fire... Penelope?"

"That's because there isn't any! You just kept snoozing your alarm, and I had to wake you up somehow," she said. I quickly look at the alarm clock on the nightstand. The clock read 7:30. "Oh my, Penelope, we're going to be late!" I shouted out, stumbling to go into the bathroom as I grabbed my toothbrush. "You're the one who's going to be late, not me!" Penelope said, taking a bite of her toast.

With a worrisome expression on my face, I questioned, "Are you sure you're ready?" I asked. "Of course, I'm ready, kitty." She said, giving me a perplexed expression. "Penelope, really," I approached her and uttered. She sighed and inhaled deeply. "Kinda, sometimes you just gotta man up. I'll just have to come to terms with the reality that he will sleep around with as many women as he pleases."

"You're worthy of so much more than Lucas! He's a jerk who isn't worth your time! and enjoys kissing Jacob's ass!"

Penelope laughed. Yeah, "kinda... right?" She said this, rubbing her arm against her shoulder. "But you should hurry up and get dressed! I'll wait for you in the car!" She said, walking out of the room. You might be wondering who I was talking about. Well, Jacob is the king of our school. His father was one of the top three primary boosters for our school. Jacob's father was the only known funder, which only meant Jacob practically owned the school.

He controlled everything somehow, and everyone loved him for it. He threw the most popular parties and dated the hottest girls. Which only meant his friends had to be like him too. So, of course, Lucas was one of the lucky ones to walk next to him. Lucas was cool, rich, spoiled, and just like Jacob. So anyway, in our senior year of high school, Lucas and Penelope were partnered on a group project. Lucas noticed that Penelope had developed a weak spot for him, and he started playing with her.

On a particular night, Penelope wasn't sober, so she ended up kissing him, and... more happened. That could've been the start and finish of them, but somehow, they were still more or less 'together' weeks later. She loved him, and sometimes love tends to make us do stupid things. When he had been cheating on her with probably every girl at school without hiding it, she didn't give up on him.

For a long time, she acted as if she didn't know—just because she liked him too much to let go. And I tried to understand how this could happen between such a playboy like Lucas and her. Their personalities mixed well together, but at the end of the day, she had priorities and he didn't. So naturally, it was hard for me to understand.

When Penelope would talk about how hard it was to keep herself under control when she was with him, I never understood. How could it be so hard to not just stay to yourself? And act the way you would under any other normal circumstances. Well, it turns out, I had no clue about what was possible when someone had that kind of power over you, and I'd figure that out real soon too.