Fate's Decision

Chapter One

I'm Persephone Carters, and I'm about to tell you the story of two sets of teenagers that both had their lives changed in a tragic incident caused by a bend in fate.

March 26, 2013

My life is going great. I am a junior in high school with my best friend, Lilian. Our grades are promising and our futures are, too.

I have decided for college I will be majoring in Criminology and minoring in Psychology... My main goal for my senior year is to achieve all things necessary to get accepted into the top Criminology school - University of Maryland, College Park.

Luckily, my family is one hundred percent accepting of my goals and will support me every step of the way. As will my friends, of course, but they will all be busy on their own courses, trying to fulfill their own dreams whilst being scattered all across America.

This brings me to the devastating fact that I will have to leave everyone behind in the small little town of Greeneville, Tennessee, including my crush of two years, Liam O'Dair. This is a topic that Lilian and I have discussed on multiple occasions because Liam and her crush, Jordan Atkins, are best friends.

Of course, it won't be too hard for us to leave them behind considering they will be the ones leaving first, if they decide to attend college outside of Greeneville. They'll get first dibs because they're the seniors this year.

Anyway, I suppose you're wondering why March 26, 2013, is so significant and why I started off telling you the story of Lilian, Liam, Jordan, and me, with that specific date. You see, that date is the day that a movie Lilian and I had been so anxiously waiting for to come out, came out.

We went to see the movie that night, but that was not the last time we got to see it.

*

"That was such a good movie!" Lilian squeaked, sipping on her Coca-Cola flavored Slushie. "I think we should come back and see it again tomorrow."

I nodded in agreement while feeling around my purse for my car keys. I got them between my fingers and pulled them out, unlocking the door. "If you pay for your way, then we can. I'm borderline broke as of right now."

"When do you get paid?" She asks, arching a perfectly tweezed brow.

I close my eyes, thinking. "Um... Today is Tuesday, so I get paid Friday."

She nods understandingly. "I wish our jobs paid better."

"Me, too," I grumble, starting the car and pulling out into the road. "So will I be dropping you off at yours or are you staying at my house tonight?"

"I'll just stay with you tonight," Lilian shrugs. "So, you'll never guess who sent me a text when we were in the theater."

"Who?" I ask, already having a slight hunch as to who it was.

"Jordan!" She breathes in excitement. "I just turned my phone on and his name popped up."

"Are you going to tell me what he said?" I ask impatiently.

"He just said, "Hey, what are you up to?"" She smiled down at her phone.

I'm not going to lie, in that moment I felt a pang of jealousy hit me in the chest. I don't care about Jordan, and I'm happy for Lilian, but why didn't Liam text me? He never does, and normally, Jordan never sends a text Lilian's way either.

A nagging voice in the back of my head continues to yell, "You're an idiot, can't you see? The only time Liam even acknowledges you is when he wants something. If you want something from him, he ignores you to bits and pieces."

The sad truth is that I know this is the logical part of me trying to tell the rest of my illogical self this, and I know that what my logical self is saying is true, but it's less painful to be illogical. I think I like being idiotic, rather than dwelling in a truth that in the end will just sit me down and cause me to eat myself up in self pity.

"Earth to Persephone," Lilian huffs. "Are you giving me the silent treatment?"

"What? No," I shake out of my thoughts. "I was simply thinking about Liam," I laugh.

"Well, if you would have listened to a word I was just saying, Jordan asked if you and me were free to hang out with the both of them this Friday," she grins from ear-to-ear.

"Wait, really?!" I nearly scream. "You're kidding me! Jordan did not just say that!"

"He did!" She laughs excitedly and shows me the text.

"Say yes! A billion times yes!" I demand happily. Take that, Conscience! It looks like you were wrong.

"Jordan said that he's really looking forward to it. Oh, my God. Is this even real life?!" She's nearly hyperventilating now and I don't blame her. This was new territory for us.

Sure, we had been crushing on these two boys for two years, but within those two years, we had gotten nowhere with the either of them. We had only managed about a second's worth of eye contact every now and again in the hallway at school, and that was it.

Well, I may have bluffed. We may have gotten in a "hello" every once in a while, but even that was once in a blue moon.

I just really couldn't believe that this Friday would be the night that I could quite possibly get to finally have an actual conversation with Liam, or better yet tell him how big and hopeless my crush on him is.

No, I'm kidding. I probably won't be able to manage confessing my crush on him. It'll stay within the depths of my mind and between Lilian and me.

At the time, I was so overcome with happiness to see that underlying it was this feeling that something bad was going to happen. Maybe if I hadn't been so consumed I would've heard the pessimistic voice in the back of my mind saying, "Don't you dare! If you would listen to me just this once, you could prevent something horrible from unraveling."

It's too bad that the "horrible unraveling" that my mind was trying to prevent from happening was simply a feeling. If my conscience really had been giving me a glimpse into the future, it would've told me the actual events that are awaiting to take place in my life.