Fate (Soulmates Book 2) Read online

  Fate

  By Nicole Dykes

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Letter from the Author:

  Sneak Peak

  Chapter 1

  I have been drawn to Madison Wright since I was six years old. I will never forget the first day I met her. My parents dragged me along to a barbeque at her parent’s house, and she was sitting by herself in bright yellow dress. She looked like she was uncomfortable, and I decided to walk over to introduce myself.

  When she told me her name was Madison, it just didn’t fit her. The name, Madison, seemed too proper and boring. I snapped my fingers. “What about Maddy?”

  She was really excited and said, “I like that!” I was surprised no one had called her that before, but it seemed new to her. She kissed me, and because I was six I totally freaked out and told her she had cooties. She told me to calm down, which I loved. After that, we were together as much as we could be.

  We walked to each other’s houses almost every day during the summer and usually during the school year. In the summer I spent a lot of time swimming at Maddy’s house because her parents had a large above ground swimming pool. Our parents even planned vacations together when we were growing up. My first time going camping, Maddy was there.

  When my dad taught me how to pitch and hit a baseball, Maddy was there, and he taught her also. I don’t have very many childhood memories that don’t include Maddy.

  Chapter 2

  Six years after I met Maddy we were as close as ever. We had added a couple of friends to our group, but we still spent most of our time together. I played every sport possible in school and met and became friends with Andy and Paul along the way. Maddy had befriended Jackie and Michelle a few years earlier.

  Andy and I had a lot in common from the very beginning. We were both pretty girl crazy by that point in our lives, and neither one of us cared very much about school. We both counted down the hours during the school day so we could go to practice or our games.

  Paul was definitely the smart one. He loved school and excelled in it. He liked to play sports too but wasn’t obsessed. He was also a little shy when it came to girls.

  Jackie was the typical hot cheerleader. She was a pretty blonde and really dumb. She cared more about her looks than school for sure. She was always really friendly and flirted with every guy in our class.

  Michelle drove me crazy. She was pretty and really tall for a girl with dark hair, but she always had an opinion about everything. She was really protective of Maddy, which I liked. Maddy was sweet and needed people watching out for her.

  Maddy was really pretty but had no clue. The other girls were starting to play around with makeup, but Maddy was a totally natural beauty. She was tiny, barely five foot and hundred pounds soaking wet. She was caring and knew me better than anyone else.

  One night when we were in seventh grade, we were studying in my bedroom. We were both sitting on my bed, and she was asking me something about World War Two, but I was distracted. I couldn’t stop staring at her full lips, and I just leaned over and kissed her.

  It was a really quick kiss. She slowly pushed me back and said, “What was that for?”

  I wasn’t sure why I kissed her. I tried to brush it off and said, “I don’t know, I just thought it would be fun.”

  She smiled at me and said, “We shouldn’t do that. You’re my best friend. It’s just weird.”

  She was my best friend too, but I was starting to look at her differently. It hurt a little that she didn’t feel the same way, but I just casually said, “Don’t worry it won’t happen again. I wouldn’t want to get your cooties.” I smiled thinking about our first kiss.

  We went back to studying for a little while and then when she was getting ready to leave it looked like she wanted to ask me something. It was usually pretty easy to tell when something was bothering Maddy. She asked me if that kiss was my first.

  I thought about it for a minute. “No, my first kiss was when I was six with this dorky girl in a yellow sun dress.”

  She punched me, “You know what I meant.”

  Of course I did, but she was really fun to mess with. I laughed and told her the truth. “Yes, Maddy, that was my first kiss.” I was pretty sure it was her first kiss too. Madison was fairly shy, but I wanted to be certain. “Was it your first kiss too?”

  She just gave me a teasing smile and left.

  One night a few months later I went over to Matt’s house after we won a football game. Matt was a guy on the team and usually had people over after the games to hang out. A lot of the guys from the team and some of the cheerleaders were there. I walked in and saw Jackie. I was excited because I thought maybe Maddy would be with her, so I walked over to her. “Hey Jackie.”

  She smiled really big, “Hey Jake. Great game tonight!”

  I smiled at her looking around for Maddy. “Thanks. Is Maddy here?”

  She shook her head, “No, this isn’t really her thing. I think her and Michelle are hanging out tonight.”

  I was disappointed, but I knew it was true. I was always trying to get her to come to the games, but she usually wasn’t interested. Jackie was playing with her hair and looked at me sweetly, “You wanted to go talk outside? It’s kind of noisy in here.”

  It was kind of cold outside and I was pretty sure we didn’t have anything to talk about, but I agreed. We went out the back door and sat on the step of the deck. We sat in silence for a little bit, and then she leaned over and kissed me. I was surprised at first but kissed her back.

  I had kissed a few girls since my first kiss with Maddy. Most of the time, the girls were the one to make the first move. It always made me think about Maddy and how she was so different from most of the girls in our grade. She was shy and made these girls look aggressive. Jackie and I made out for a little bit and then both needed to get home.

  Monday at school was really boring and I saw Jackie in a couple of classes, but she didn’t say anything to me. I was relieved, Jackie was the type that after one kiss would be scribbling your name on her notebooks and naming your children. I was relieved because I didn’t want to date her.

  The best part of most of my days was walking with Maddy to school and back home. When we were walking home today, Maddy seemed like something was bugging her. Out of nowhere she just said, “I can’t believe you made out with Jackie!”

  Great! Of course Jackie told Maddy and more than likely told Michelle also. I stopped walking and looked at Maddy. She was cute when she got all fired up. I tried to shrug it off, “It’s really not a big deal.”

  That irritated her, I could tell. She stopped walking and went off about how Jackie and I are friends and how she wants a boyfriend. That worried me and I interrupted her. “Whoa, I’m not anyone’s boyfriend.” Even though looking at Maddy, with one foot in front of the other and one hand on her hip giving me her best lecture, I was pretty sure I could be her boyfriend if she would just let me.

  She just went on. “Exactly, you aren’t looking for a girlfriend and she’s your friend and you guys just…”

  I put my hands on her tiny shoulders and looked into her eyes. I assured her that I knew it was stupid and that I would not let it happen again. I meant it, I had no idea that kissing Jackie would upset Maddy so much, but I knew that I didn’t want to upset her.

  She looked up at me and looked relieved and then told me she was sorry for getting worke
d up.

  I laughed and said, “Oh Maddy, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t get all worked up.” She did get worked up easily, but it was only because she truly loved her friends, and she was definitely the moral compass of our group. She always did everything she could to keep us from getting hurt or hurting each other.

  I stayed as far away from Jackie as I could, and a few months later she started dating Shane Brown.

  Chapter 3

  Nothing really happened the next couple of years. In June before our freshman year, I went to Maddy’s fourteenth birthday party. I was the first one to arrive wearing my orange swim trunks and a cutoff shirt to show off my new arm muscles. I had been playing a lot of sports and working out, and it was starting to show.

  Maddy answered the door in a pretty light blue two piece. I told her happy birthday and examined her in her bathing suit. She looked really pretty, but I could tell she felt a little self-conscious. “What are you looking at?” She asked me.

  I couldn’t tell her that I was checking her out, so I made a joke about her being tiny. She playfully smacked me like she always did when I teased her, and we went outside to wait for everyone else to get there.

  When everyone got there we ate, Maddy opened up her presents, and then we all went swimming. I got out of the pool to get a drink, and Andy joined me. “Damn, Jackie and Michelle look good! I mean I would never go near Michelle because I like my balls right where they are, but she sure fills out that bikini.”

  Andy was dating Misty Taylor, the really hot head cheerleader, but that never stopped him from looking at other girls. He had gotten a lot taller, and we usually worked out together. He was getting pretty stocky from all the hours at the gym, and the guy did not lack confidence. He sighed dramatically, “And then there’s Maddy with her little boy body.”

  That irritated me. “She doesn’t have a boy’s body. She’s just little.”

  He just laughed at me. “She totally flat with no curves. Boy body.”

  I just rolled my eyes at him and we went back to the pool. I looked over at Paul and Shelley who were all over each other. Paul started dating Shelley over Christmas Break last year, and he had only had eyes for her ever since. Andy would always try to get him to talk about other girls, but he wouldn’t have it.

  At around eleven everyone else had to get home before curfew, so it was just me and Maddy cleaning up. My mom was very relaxed on the rules since she and my dad got a divorce. I really didn’t know what happened. I woke up one morning and my dad was just gone. He had packed up all of his stuff and just bailed. My mom wouldn’t talk about what happened and eventually my brother and I just stopped asking her about it.

  My mom had a date that night and I was sure she wasn’t thinking about what time I was going to be home. She was more concerned with getting laid than with what her kids were doing.

  She had even been married again but cheated on him. Tom was a really nice doctor that I even liked. They hadn’t been married very long when he caught her with a guy not much older than my older brother, Chris. He divorced her, but he left her his really nice lake house in the divorce. He had a good lawyer, but somehow my mom’s was better.

  Chris was thrilled because he had somewhere to thrown parties that was outside of town and the cops didn’t really bother to check out. A lot of the houses around it were used as vacation houses also, so there was rarely a neighbor around to complain.

  Maddy asked me about my curfew, and I told her about my mom being out on a date. I could see her mind turning and hoped she didn’t want to talk about it. We finished picking up trash and went to sit on the porch swing. She started talking, and I figured it would be about my mom, but instead she brought up Paul and Shelley. “Can you believe Paul and Shelley? They were all over each other.”

  I laughed at her. “Well yeah, they really like each other.”

  She smiled, “Yeah I guess, but geez get a room.”

  I laughed and called her a prude. I was kidding for the most part, but I think it bothered her. She told me that some things should be private. I just shrugged it off and told her happy birthday and went home.

  We all enjoyed the lake house that year. My friends and I were there swimming during the days and Chris threw crazy parties almost every weekend. He got pissed when we snuck in, but couldn’t really stop us. Andy and I were there at almost every party. Maddy only went to a couple.

  We were all at the Fourth of July party that year. We tried to talk Maddy into lying to her parents and staying the night out there, but she wouldn’t do it. The rest of us had no problem lying to our parents and camped out there. Maddy only stayed for the fireworks and then had to go home. After Maddy left I was pretty bored. I spent most of the night taking to Paul and Shelley. I heard a few days later that Michelle lost her virginity to some junior. It didn’t surprise any of us very much.

  The summer ended and we started our freshmen year. Andy, Paul, and I were all eager to start our first football season in high school. Before our first practice we were in the locker room getting dressed. Andy looked over at Paul, “So Paul, you finally get anything other than a kiss from Shelley?”

  Paul put his shirt on and looked at Andy, obviously annoyed. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I laughed. Paul never talked about Shelley, and he hated when Andy brought up the subject. I tried to change the subject. “So Andy, has Misty dumped your dumb ass yet?”

  Andy laughed, “Nope. Not yet.”

  Andy could be an asshole, but so could most of the guys our age. We all laughed and then went to practice.

  A few weeks later I went to a party at Matt’s house with Andy and Misty. His parents went out of town a lot and didn’t really care if Matt had people over while they were gone. There was always a lot of alcohol at these parties, usually bought by Matt’s cousin. Andy and Misty disappeared fairly early in the night and I ended up drinking too much and hanging out with Kelsey. She was a cheerleader that always flirted with me in school and at the games. She was usually accompanied by her best friend, Kourtney, but she wasn’t there that night.

  After an hour or so Kelsey grabbed my hand and said, “I want to show you something.”

  I reluctantly followed her and she led me into a bedroom. I looked at her mildly curious, “What do you want to show me in here?”

  She just smiled at me and kissed me. She was a good kisser so I kissed her back, and she led us closer to the bed. I wasn’t sure how far she wanted to go or even how far I wanted to go, but I wasn’t really thinking clearly with the amount of alcohol I had in my system and with her tongue down my throat. We lay down on the bed and the rest was kind of a blur of taking each other’s clothes off and eventually having awkward sex. Neither one of us knew what we were doing, but at least I remembered to use the condom I kept in my wallet.

  Afterward, I told her I had to get home and gave her a quick kiss and left to walk to my house. On the walk home I thought about what just happened. That was definitely not how I pictured losing my virginity. It’s not like I had pictured a roaring fire place or anything really romantic, but a drunken night with a girl I barely knew was not what I thought would happen either. If I was being honest with myself, I always pictured my first time with Maddy, but she clearly was not interested in me that way.

  On Monday I walked to school with Maddy but didn't really feel like talking. Maddy was really cheery and telling me about watching a scary movie with Michelle Friday night and how she almost peed her pants. She nudged me, "Hey, what's up with you? Bad weekend?"

  I thought about my Friday night and how I slept with Kelsey. I knew Maddy would disprove and just made up an excuse. "No, it was fine. I just hate Mondays."

  She nodded in acceptance. She knew I really hated Mondays. We walked into school and went to out lockers, which were across from each other. I prayed I didn't see Kelsey. Luckily I didn't see her, so I told Maddy I'd see her at lunch and hurried off to class.

  I didn't see Kelsey until right before lunch. S
he came up to me wearing tight jeans and a shirt that showed off a little bit of her stomach. "Hey Jake, how are you?"

  I smiled politely at her. "Hey, I'm okay. How are you?"

  She touched my chest lightly, "I'm great. I heard Matt is having another party in two weeks. You think you will go?"

  I wasn't really in the mood to flirt. "I don't know. I gotta get to lunch. See ya around."

  I grabbed my lunch and walked over to my usual lunch table and sat down next to Maddy. I must have looked irritated because Maddy said, "Monday is half way over cheer up!"

  I looked over at her in her t-shirt, jeans, and adorable pony tail. Then I gave her a big cheesy smile. "Better?"

  She laughed, “Yep, much!"

  I couldn't help but to grin. She always brought a smile to my face.

  After lunch, I was in a better mood and actually had a pretty good rest of the day.

  On the walk home with Michelle and Maddy, it was Maddy that seemed distracted now. Michelle lived really close to school and left us after a block. That's when Maddy said, "Can I ask you a question?"

  I was a little nervous, but told her she could ask me anything. I meant it: with Maddy nothing was off limits.

  She looked unsure so I encouraged her to go ahead.

  She stopped walking and so did I. "Did you sleep with Kelsey?"

  I cringed. How the hell did she know about that? I didn't tell anyone so it had to have been Kelsey.

  "Yeah." That was all I could say. I could see her thinking about it. I didn't want her to think less of me. I couldn't believe she was being so quiet. "Say something.”

  We started walking again. "Wow."

  That was all she said. The girl who always had an opinion and was never shy about telling me how she felt. I expected her to let me have it. "Wow? That's all you're going to say? Really? You?"

  She stopped walking again and finally acted the way I had expected her to. She went off about how I was an idiot and too young. And even called Kelsey a skank.