Guardian Unknown

Betrayal

" How does tonight sound?"

" I guess that's okay."

             Fate walked down the hallway, hand in hand with her new lovebird, Victor Domino. He looked down at her," Well, I have to go to my archery class. See you at eight?" he said, kissing her cheek and strolling down the hallway. Fate sighed as she watched him walk away. She couldn't see how someone so sweet and so romantic could be a womanizer. Ren was wrong about Victor. Vitctor was sweet.  Suddenly, someone zoomed passed her on a skateboard, making her hair fly around her face. Great. Now she had to do actual work and curl it tonight.

      "Ever hear of the no PDA rule that the teachers passed?" Ren said, taking a huge bite out of a juicy red apple. Fate put her hands on her hips, " Ever heard of a rule called 'I don't care'? I passed that one myself." she snapped as she walked down the hallway towards the double doors that led to the school's playground for the younger children. Yesterday, on her mission, he'd apologized about two years ago. It was nice and it seemed heartfelt, but she wasn't ready to forgive him completely just yet. " Whaddya want, Ren?" she asked nonchalontly. " Wanna hang tonight? I got tickets to see this movie called 2 Guns or something like that." he held the small slips of paper in front of her. As much as she knew that she'd wanted to see that movie, Fate shook her head." Victor's taking me to dinner tonight. Sorry." she answered, telling herself sorry for missing out on what might have been the most kickass movie of all time. Ren watched as she grabbed her bike, " Oh, so your pimp is taking you to McDonalds, that's nice." he said sarcastically, gaining a stern look from her. Fate began to pedal slowly down the street as Ren started to skate next to her," He's not like that. And besides, he says we're going somewhere special." she smiled in awe at what that place might be.

        " Welcome to Applebee's bitch," he tried to cover his laugh, but Fate rolled her eyes at him anyway. " You know what? I'm going to start putting my foot down when I'm talking to you. I'm-a put my foot down right on your head!" she snapped backed, stopping the bike. Ren snickered and skid to a stop in front of her." Well, you know,Kunta Kinte put his foot down too. And guess what? He got it chopped off!" he started laughing like a maniac. Fate shook her head and smiled just a little. She did set herself up for that one. " Well, anyway, I gotta go home and get ready. See ya at school tommorrow." as she put her feet on the pedals again. Ren hung his head.

                           "Just so you know, the school doesn't teach archery."

    "What?!" Fate stopped as she rounded a corner. Now that she thought about it, if they had an achery club, she would've joined it. " Strange...there's no archery....so where'd he go?" she asked herself as she pedaled back to the school. She left her bike to a chain in the school yard and walked around the school. In one of the classrooms, she noticed that she'd left her math notebook that she was supposed to study on her desk. As she walked in to get it, she saw something in the corner of her eye.

     "Victor? What the hell is this?!" Fate exclaimed as she stared at Victor and the girl standing next to him. The girl looked over at her," Hi! it's so nice to meet you; I didn't know that you were a friend of Victor's." she smiled a cheerful little smile. Fate looked from her to Victor," I'm sorry sweetie, but that information is incorrect. You see, did Victor ever tell you that he already had a girlfriend?" she asked the girl, but her eyes remained on Victor. " What?!" the girl pushed away from him, standing next to Fate now. Victor shook his head," C'mon Fate, it wasn't what it looked like." he tried to defend himself. The girl laughed," As long as we weren't making out, than hell yeah it wasn't what it looked like. I cannot believe you!" she stormed off. All was quiet between the two until Fate chuckled," You know, I really thought you were a good guy Victor, I really did. But I guess I've learned a very valuable lesson today." she grabbed her notebook and headed for the door. " And what's that?" Victor asked. Fate opened the door to let herself out," That when in doubt, listen to your friends' advice." and she left into the hallway. Victor grabbed her arm,"C'mon, Fate. It doesn't have to end like this..." he said with pleading eyes. "You know what Victor? You are absolutely right. It can end like this." she said as she slapped him across the face and walked off towards her bike.

      Small droplets of water fell from her eyes as she unchained her bike from the port and rolled it away. She stopped and took a breath just outside the school grounds and wiped the tears from her eyes. Ren was right. Ren was right, and she hadn't believed him. She wanted to forget everything that had happened and pretend that she had never known Victor in the first place, but that was the person she'd given her first kiss to, and that broke her a little on the inside. Fate stopped in a vacant parking lot and slid to the ground, silently crying her eyes out. It wasn't fair. Were people going to continuely rip her heart out. " I don't know how much more of this I can take...." she whispered to herself in her shaky voice.

     When she looked up again, Ren was sitting beside her," How long have you been sitting there?!" she exclaimed, wiping the water away. He kept looking forward into space. " A while." he answered. Fate tried to see what he was looking at, but couldn't see anything in particular in the distance. " What do you want?" she asked in a sour tone, wishing he would just go away. He never took his eyes off that building though." You looked like you needed a friend." and he became quiet. Fate's eyebrows bunched up as she watched him. She hung her head low as she felt the tears coming back," Well, I don't need you pitying me, so leave me alone!" she was becoming frustrated. Ren closed his eyes and a small sigh escaped his lips. "I wasn't pitying you. I was trying to be a friend. But if you want me to go, I'll go." he stood up, brushing dirt from his pants. Fate's tears put themselves on hold from the shock of the answer that was just given." Really? You're leaving?" she asked, the sudden obedience scaring her. Ren turned to look at her with a sad expression across his face," I've been trying to be friends with you again for a long time Fate. And since I still consider us friends, I'm not gonna push you into something you don't want. If you want to be left alone, then you won't hear from me from this day forward. You have my word." he turned around and made his way for the street, but with Fate being faster, she made it before him and hopped on her bike.

      Suddenly, something shiny was tossed back at him. Ren caught it before it flew over his head and noticed that it was the little star trinket that she'd given him for his tenth birthday. He looked at her back for some kind of explanation. She blew out some air," You keep it. Not like I'd throw away something  that expensive." she said and rode off down the street. Ren looked at the golden star in his hand and smiled, wrapping his fingers around the small but meaningful gift. He didn't know why, but he'd always get a warm sensation in his chest when he held it in his hand, but he liked it, that's for sure. He thought about how much he'd gone through with that one childhood friend, and how much of her life that he'd missed out on. He should have tried reconnecting sooner than when he'd tried. But, he'd promised her that if she didn't want to be messed with, he wouldn't mess with her, a promise he now wish he hadn't made. But it was too late now.

The little girl he'd grown to love had disappeared.