Gabriel & Athena, Book One: Fate (A Wattpad Featured Story)

CHAPTER 1 (Part 1) - GABE'S POV: NORMAL

Chapter Soundtrack - Chapter 1 (Gabe's POV): "Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park

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Don't come back.

I snorted. Stella never minced words.

I quickly texted back: Wow, I feel so loved.

She responded with an emoji rolling its eyes, followed by more sage wisdom: Give it a chance. Sparrow is a new start.

Sparrow is a momentary escape orchestrated by my mother. We both know it won't last long.

What I know is that it was a smart move. You should start making some of your own.

I sighed, placing my phone in my pocket while surveying the view outside my front windshield. It was my third day at Sparrow High and so far the experience had been predictable. Sparrow, North Carolina was ticking every small-town stereotype box, and the high school was no exception. The red brick building was two-levels and stretched out along the length of the parking lot. It was surrounded by a myriad of trees, benches and clusters of students making their way inside, all of which failed to hide how rundown it was.

This place could use a good makeover. My mind immediately started to sketch out a blueprint of a new and improved Sparrow High. The foundation was decent, it just needed....Damnit! What the hell was I doing? It was time to start training my brain to accept what my future would hold, and what it wouldn't.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Despite my mother's attempt to put distance between my father and us, I could still feel his shackles around my wrists. I had made a deal. It was done. My future was decided. My mother wouldn't be able to change it and neither would anything in her little hometown.

That didn't mean I wasn't happy to be here. Though I hadn't admitted this to Stella or my mother, I was relieved to be out of New York. For the first time in years I felt like I could finally breathe. Though it would be short-lived, I was going to make the most of my time away from everything and everyone I had known. For a few months, I was going to be normal.

I opened my eyes, once again taking in the sights and sounds of the beginning of the school day, focusing on the people passing me by. What would it be like to have grown up someplace like this? To have had a normal childhood with parents with normal careers? To not question the intentions of every single person that tried to befriend you? To not have to always watch your back?

I shook my head. Most of these kids probably took their "normal" lives for granted, wishing for something more or different. If they only knew how easily their thirst for a different life could lead them into a world they didn't expect. If only they would take the stories and rumors circulating about me through the hallways as a cautionary tale of what "more" and "different" could bring, instead of as thrilling and titillating gossip.

If only Francesca Valente had known what her search for something more would lead her to. I could only hope that she would have made a different decision, but her love for my father, and his in return, was nothing short of Shakespearean.

Epic. Extraordinary. Tragic.

A love that had kept them together through the worst kind of pain. A love that other people had paid the price for, and some who were still paying. A love that I surely would never understand, but that I would always resent.