Fate's Cruelty

Chapter One: New Beginnings

A/N: Hey guys, thank you so much for deciding to give this a read! I hope you guys enjoy this. A slight warning, this is the first draft of Fate's Cruelty. There will be mistakes throughout this novel. Editing was minimal. I do plan on going back and editing this just not at the moment. So please excuse any grammar errors and such.

Also this story contains strong language, sexual content, a bit of violence (nothing major) and drug use. I DO NOT ENCOURAGE ANY OF THESE THINGS. but really, we live in the year 2013. This stuff happens all around us every day. I'm just being realistic.

Again, this is the first rough draft to Fate's Cruelty. So please ignore any mistakes. I hope you guys continue on to read this and I hope you all enjoy it. Thank you for your support!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter One: New Beginnings

Everyone at one point in their life wants a new beginning. Me? Well, I was one of those people. In high school I always talked about the day I would leave this town and how I was going to make something of myself; how I would make a new start in a new town.

My junior year in high school was no different. The only difference was that I was finally taking my plan into action. I needed to get out of my old town and start over, somewhere where nothing could hold me back, somewhere I could be myself and maybe let myself trust others apart from Adam, Paisley, and Gracie. That's when my three best friends and I started planning and a year and a half later, we stood in front of our new house that we would be living in for at least the next five years.

A long time, believe me I know. But five years was a reasonable amount of time so all four of us could get our stuff together so we could go separate ways, either way, we planned to go to school for the first four together at the same university anyways so one more year living together wouldn't kill us. At least I hoped it wouldn't.

A small two story, four bedrooms, three baths, spacious kitchen, living room and a nice back patio, country looking house sitting on two acres stood before me as I held a box labeled "bathroom". A bunch of other boxes sat in the bed of my truck waiting to be carried inside, but deciding that the 'man of the house' (as Adam declared himself) should take care of the heavy lifting part I grabbed the lightest one- being one of the two boxes that carried towels only, and headed for the front door.

Once inside I took in my surrounding, the large living room was already furnished, one of the perks about renting a fully furnished home. A large, long sofa was pressed up against the beige wall to my right, a loveseat sitting next to it at an angle, and two beanbags on the other side. A medium sized coffee table sat in front of the sofa, across from the set up was a plasma TV, I had no idea how big it was considering I knew jack squat about TV's but to me it was a pretty damn big one.

"What do you think?" Gracie asked.

I turned around to face her then set down the box. She leaned up against the door frame with a smile on her face, her arms crossed across her chest as her light brown hair was pulled up into a messy bun. Her pajama pants stuffed into her pink house boots while her over sized black hoodie sleeves were rolled up at her elbows. I smiled and turned my back to her as I took in the living room once again. It had a homey feel to it and honestly, I could picture myself living here for the next five years.

"I like it." I told her as I turned to face her again.

This time I found Gracie sitting on one of the beanbags smiling up at me, "Me too."

--

"I call dibs on the bedroom downstairs!" Adam bellowed as he pushed past Gracie and I and charged into the house running towards the master bedroom on the first floor. Both Gracie and I gave each other odd looks as we watched our guy best friend act like a ten year old boy who was picking his new room in a new house.

"He's such a kid," Paisley's voice sang from behind us as she entered the house and shut the front door behind her. "Why are we living with him again?" she asked as she plopped down onto the couch, her blonde hair rustled from the wind that probably picked up outside.

Gracie laughed and answered, "Because without him we wouldn't have been able to make the down payment on the house."

The corners of my lips twitched and I shook my head as I took a seat next to her and stretched out my legs that had been in a car for five hours. "Plus the master bedroom on this floor has a small closet." I added knowing that if either one of us girls got that bedroom all of our clothes wouldn't have of fit into the small closet.

Paisley laughed and stood up, pulling her blonde hair up into a messy pony tail before clapping her hands. "Alright lady chickens, it's time to pick our rooms and get to unpacking!"

"Do we have too?" Gracie whined as she rolled off of the beanbag and pushed herself up to her feet.

I stared at her with questioning eyes. Did she really just roll off of the beanbag onto the floor then stand up? Gracie smiled down at me then ran after Paisley who had already ran up the stairs to pick out her bedroom, I really didn't care what room I got. All the rooms upstairs were the same; all the same size and all had the same amount of closet space. If anything the room I wanted was the one with the small balcony that looked out into grassy areas that surrounded the house.

"Carmen!" Adam yelled from his new bedroom.

I sighed and pushed myself up to my feet and headed towards Adam's bedroom that was down the hallway that led to the stairs. Entering his bedroom I saw him sprawled out onto his bed looking like a starfish. Leaning onto his door frame I cleared my throat.

"What's up hoe?"

Adam sat up and a wicked smile spread across his lips. His dark brown eyes twinkled with delight as he looked at me. His skin was tan from all the sports he played in high school and toned from the amount of time he spent in the gym. His hair was tousled all over the place from running his hand through it too much and his red Vans shirt was wrinkled slightly. "Bust out the bottle of tequila and take out the bag of weed that I have in my bag. We're celebrating!"

I rolled my eyes as I pushed myself away from his doorframe. "Do it yourself pothead. I'm gonna go unpack, get semi settled then take shower." I told him as I walked away.

Adam groaned then yelled after me. "Good." he retorted. "You smell!"

I rolled my eyes as I walked outside and began to pull boxes closer to where I would be able to just grab then and go. It was probably around five in the afternoon since the sun was already setting and the air was getting cooler than it was before. At least the weather up here in Lubbock was way better then it was in Harlingen. Down there you'd step out with your hair dripping wet from your recent shower and ten minutes later it was dry.

Damn Texas heat.

As I hauled my sixth box into the house I realized that living here, ten hours away from home, was going to be okay: a new town, a new school, a new house, and a new beginning. That's all I wanted and that's what I got. I got my new start and I was going to make the best of it, but as I carried the last box that belonged to me into the house my mother's words before I left rang in my ears.

"You can't run away from your past Carmen. Sooner or later, your past will catch up with you and fate's cruelty is like no other."

And something deep inside me knew that her words were true. Sooner or later my past would catch up to me and even with all of my attempts to steer clear of it, fate would make it reappear over and over again until I dealt with it.