- Home
- Wanitta Praks
Forbidden Love: Fate (Zac and Ivy Trilogy Book 1)
Forbidden Love: Fate (Zac and Ivy Trilogy Book 1) Read online
Forbidden Love: Fate
(Zac & Ivy Trilogy Book 1)
Wanitta Praks
Copyright © 2015 by Wanitta Praks
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book was self-published by the author Wanitta Praks. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without agreement and written permission of the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
The author can be reached at
www.wanittapraks.com
Forbidden Love: Fate
Zac & Ivy Trilogy Book 1
WANITTA PRAKS
Contents
Prologue
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
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
More books by Wanitta Praks
Recommended books by Alexia Praks
From Author
PROLOGUE
IVY
Nightmare
I have nightmares, specifically a recurring one, almost every night. These nightmares aren’t of boogiemen in the closet or monsters under the bed. These dreams are of death, my parents and brother dying in a car crash right in front of eyes.
I wake in the middle of the night, tears staining my cheeks and my heart thumping in my chest, just like tonight.
How I wish it would just go away. I want to forget it, to start fresh, but it will not let me go. Because these dreams are actual memories, memories that have morphed into never-ending nightmares.
When I close my eyes, I’m at that scene again. Bright headlights blinding my vision, the stillness of the air after, the pelting rain, and finally, blood. Everywhere.
I lie back and huddle underneath the blanket, closing my eyes, trying to block out the painful skittering images of my lifeless parents and brother, me standing over their caskets. Grandma crying until she fainted.
Some time later, I fall asleep to the song of the wind playing with the leaves rustling against the window, the soft melody drawing me back to slumber. The last remaining image that filters through my mind is the menacing face of the man responsible for killing my parents, the reckless drunk—his fierce, ugly weed-green, bloodshot eyes boring straight into mine, his smile leering—before he walked away, free.
CHAPTER ONE
ZAC
When Romeo meets Juliet
“Apollo! Apollo! Apollo!”
The crowd goes wild when I appear onstage. I tap my chest with my fist, my usual sign, asking, Ready to rock the house, guys? The sound of the screaming girls would drown out any attempt at actual speech. Our first performance at this jam, back in junior high, we yelled like hell at each other over the turbulent crowd. By the time the show ended, I had a sore throat for a whole month. So now we just stick to hand signals and head gestures.
Apollo is our amateur rock band, performing at various high school festivals, made up of a bunch of teenage guys. Trey’s our drum man, Loki, our bass guitarist, and me, Zac Elliot, the lead singer and guitar guy. I’ve been singing pretty much since I was out of diapers.
When my band mates see my signal, they nod. After Trey slams on the drums a few times, we go into full music mode, my guitar riffing through the speakers.
It’s time like this I love most, performing in front of a live audience with our high school mates as fans. It’s in my heart and soul to play and sing.
Tonight, we’re playing in the Forsyth Barr Stadium. In exactly two days, high school will officially start. The city of Dunedin, situated on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, usually holds these concerts for their students as a way to bribe them to study hard for the rest of the year.
As Trey beats on the drums and Loki on his bass guitar, I sing in tune to the rhythm and move my body along while playing Elsa, my guitar.
You probably think I’m a pretty weird guy, naming my guitar, but she’s my one and only. I wouldn’t part with her for anything. She’s the one that made me realize I love to sing and play seriously.
She was a present from Dad. Even though right now he doesn’t live with me, since his job requires him to travel to almost every continent, I love him dearly. For my twelfth birthday, after he and Mum divorced, he gifted Elsa to help me overcome my grief. That’s how she and I became best friends. In times of loneliness, when I need someone most, she’s there for me. No girl could measure up to her. We create beautiful music together.
At this point, I’m seriously overtaken by the music as I play Elsa. As I reach the main chorus, the crowd grows crazy and starts jumping up and down, performing their spectacular Mexican wave, and singing along with me.
When our song is finished, we salute the crowd and I shout through the mic, “See ya later tonight.” Then we disappear offstage to the sound of more shouting and screaming from fan girls.
Backstage, I disengage myself from Elsa and, fully sure she’s safe in her case, I don my secret outfit I prepared earlier.
Kai slams into me from behind. “Hey, Bro.”
He slaps me again when I don’t respond.
“Yooo,” I let out.
Kai is my best bud since kindergarten. He would’ve been in the band too, but sadly he hasn’t a musical bone in his body, so most of the time he just hangs around backstage and basically acts like my stage manager.
“Don’t tell me you’re going in that,” he queries once I’m fully dressed in my midnight Phantom of the Opera mask and black attire. “You do know the school requires you to make another appearance before the night is over?”
“I’m aware of that, Kai, but for now, it’s time to have some fun.” I smirk, whipping him with a towel.
He dodges just in time.
Damn that bastard. He moves like a ninja sometimes.
“Why are you wearing the mask?” he asks.
“You know what’ll happen if they know I’m the lead singer of Apollo? Smack, I tell ya,” I tell him with a slam on his shoulder. “This way Zac Elliot gets to enjoy being in the school festival without getting his face squashed like a pancake.”
“Zac, if I…” Kai starts to hyperventilate.
Oh shit! I think I just pushed his hysterical mode button.
“Hush. Hush, Kai.” I calm him down.
When Kai’s stressed, he goes into this manic mode and, as always, it’s my duty as his best friend to calm him. And you want to guess why he goes into these hysterics? It’s because he’s freaked out. Kai likes to think I’m his idol or something. He follows all of my footsteps and copies all of my moves.
Once he manages to resemble a human being again, I go to my duffel bag and take out an extra mask and costume that I hid earlier, just for this sake. Turning back to him, I say, “Here, wear this. I’m sure you’ll get the girls too.” br />
He looks at the mask and costume, then stares at me like I’ve gone senile.
“You expect me to wear a clown mask and costume while you’re the mysterious Phantom of the Opera?”
“Umm… yeah.” I nod. Not that I want to outshine him or anything, but those are the only costumes I own. It’s either me being the phantom or me as the clown. You can guess which I choose, right?
“Shit face!” he spits at me.
I turn to stare at him, surprised he’s initiated this verbal competition here of all places. I lift my eyebrows again, seeing his ebony bird’s nest hair, and hurl one back at him. “Afro.”
He goes red in the face.
I grin.
He gives me the eyebrow challenge.
I know it’s dead serious now.
“Mr. D-minus,” he throws back at me, referring to last year’s algebra test when I received a D-minus. Dad got so pissed off that he grounded me for a whole month. He even threatened me, saying if I didn’t improve my grades this year, he’d take away Elsa. I can’t have that.
“Mr. F.” I refer to his history mark.
“Greek god,” he banters back.
“Mandela,” I retort.
Then we both burst out laughing.
If only Kai were related to Mandela, I wouldn’t question him one bit. He is like the famous Nelson Mandela in so many ways. I’m afraid I’m turning into a Samaritan too. By habit, everywhere I go, I always carry spare change in my pockets just in case there’s some charitable society around the street corner, requiring donations.
After moments of laughter, we settle down.
Trey and Loki appear.
“Those are some sick costumes you’ve got going there,” Loki says, holding up his Polaroid camera. He’s like me and Elsa with his camera. We both have bonds with our equipment. “Now say cheese,” he says, snapping a picture of us. And before we know what’s what, Loki hands us our shots.
I take the picture from his hand. We look weird, my face scrunched up, and Kai looks like he sucked a lemon.
Kai slaps me out of my thought and says, “All right, Apollo, enough of that self-admiring. Let’s go and have some fun.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” I say and tuck the picture in Elsa’s case. With a wave to my other band mates, we head out into the wild crowd.
I’m pleased I covered my face and changed my clothes. Looking at all the fan girls and boys standing near the gate, I see they’re ready to attack me as I walk out the exit door. But with one look at Kai and me, they simply turn their heads in disappointment.
I hoot and give Kai a high-five. Yes, tonight I can go around, walking and talking, without the disruption of the fans. There’s no Zac Elliot, lead singer of Apollo, but just me, the fake Phantom and my clown friend, sightseeing the crowd, checking out the other bands, and enjoying the best time of our lives before school starts again.
“Oooh la-la,” Kai coos and bounces around me when he sees all the hot girls. “So many hot girls and some of them aren’t even from our school.” He turns to me and shakes me when I don’t respond. “Look, bro, look at them. Look at the way they’re making eyes at you.”
He pushes me aside to hide me behind his tiny frame, like I need some protection or something from those raging hormonal girls.
I only laugh. But he’s quite right, though. A lot of people say I have a face made for the big screen, but I just biff them off.
What face? I can’t imagine myself being handsome or beautiful. Face isn’t what matters to me; it’s the personality that counts. That’s why Kai, my buddy here, is my best friend. He may not have the face of a swoon-worthy movie actor with that outrageous acne populating his face, but his heart is made of gold. So it annoys me that even with this mask on, I still get looked at. Is this the curse of having a perfect body too? Maybe I should’ve worn the clown outfit instead.
“If you have such a nice body, then you should just take that mask off too. This is stupid anyway. I’m hiding my ugly face and you’re hiding your handsome one.”
“Pffh,” I scoff. “You’re not ugly. Just acne. I’m sure you’ll grow out of it.”
“Yeah, even if I do grow out of it, I’m still a midget. Standing next to the handsome Apollo, I’m a dwarf.”
“Come on, Kai.” I pat him on the shoulder. “There’s nothing special about my face or my height. I have two eyes, one nose, one mouth. Same as you. Plus, being small has some advantages too.”
“Yeah? Like what?” Kai asks.
“Like squeezing out of this barricade of people,” I joke.
“Yeah, but if I had a face like yours, I wouldn’t be hiding it behind a mask, now would I? I would show my face to every single girl here so I could get some lip service.”
“Lip service my ass.” I laugh.
I scan the crowd, aware now that people are still staring at me. Hell, what do I have to do to get away from those stares? But then my eyes land on an exit point. The beverage stall.
I walk over to the stall and buy a cup.
“Ugh, what the hell is this?” I cough out. It tastes like orange juice and watered-down coke, which is foul as shit.
“What did you put in this?” I ask the seller.
“Orange juice,” the burly man states with his arms across his chest, a stance I know too well.
“Right.” I nod. Going to the waste can, I toss the whole thing out.
“Should have asked him for a beer instead,” Kai suggests from behind.
I gaze at other people around us, holding cans of beer and making small jokes.
Alcohol. That’s how we teenagers transition from teenage life into adulthood.
I spin to face Kai. “Do you think he’s going sell us beers with us wearing masks like these?” I question his logic.
“Yeah, bro. You’re right on that one.”
We spot an isolated site and decide to chill out there. The crowd is starting to get too noisy. Laying our disguised masks to the side, we lie down and look at the black night sky dotted with bright stars.
The faint music drifts to us on the cool breeze. On nights like this, I feel at peace with the whole world. I don’t have to think about why my parents divorced or why Mum neglected me.
If I remember rightly, our family wasn’t always like this. It only happened after the night Dillon, my older half-brother, came home accompanied by a police officer. Mum followed, and I’m not sure what happened next, but he ended up doing community service for a whole month. Then Mum and Dad always shouted at each other and a few months after that, they got divorced. Dad chose me while Mum took Dillon.
I like to think the reason she didn’t choose me is because of the hearing damage my singing causes. Plus, I refuse to become a lawyer like her. I love music, so I intend to pursue a career in music, which Dad fully supports.
Why am I even reminiscing about this shit anyway? It’s not like I can turn back time. She hardly keeps in contact with me, so it’s best if I just let things go. Take one baby step at a time. That’s my motto.
I get up and spread out my arms.
“Wooo! Yeah!” I yell into the emptiness. Drained of those negative thoughts, I sit back down, only to have Kai give me a you’ve gone completely nuts after drinking that foul potion look.
I only grin at him. “I feel like doing something crazy.”
“You’ve already done it.”
“I’m serious, man. Haven’t you ever thought why people who dress up in costume can do ridiculous things?”
“Like what?”
“Rob a bank.”
“Yeah, right, bro. We rob a bank.”
“No kidding.” I laugh.
“Seriously, bro, like what you wanna do?” Kai asks.
I only give him a nifty smile.
“I got it. Up to a challenge, bro?” He responds.
I click my tongue. “You bet.”
“Then let’s play Truth or Dare,” he finally says.
I burst out laughing. “You know everything a
bout me, Kai, so let it be a dare.”
“Okay, bro. In the next thirty… no, ten seconds, I dare you to pick a girl from this crowd and kiss her.”
“What?” I laugh out again but this time in disbelief. What is in that foul head of his? Kissing and sex? “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Not kidding.” He shakes his head.
His lips almost burst from the forced grin he’s trying to suppress. I want to bong him on the head, but I’m afraid he’ll know I’m nervous.
I can do anything, I tell you. Give me any challenge and I’ll swing through it with ease. Play guitar, sing on stage with hundreds of fan girls hurling flowers at me, but for the life of me, a challenge such as this, randomly picking a girl and giving her a kiss… now that has me shaking in my boots.
I silently force a nervous swallow and summon my courage. “Bring it on, man.”
We walk back into the crowd, putting our masks into place. I shift my eyes, scanning for my potential target as we approach the throng of adrenaline-filled teenagers again.
“Ready, bro?” I hear him asking me.
Stupid Kai. Of course I’m not ready. Not only do I have to prepare myself physically, but I also have to sort out my mental state too. I don’t want to kiss a girl with garlic breath.
Wait, how the hell am I supposed to know if the girl’s just eaten garlic? Shit, I didn’t think this through at all, did I? Is it too late to back out now?
“One of these girls is about to be the lucky one who gets to kiss our very own lead singer of Apollo,” Kai announces next to me. I clearly want to add, Plus claim the prize of being the first girl ever to kiss me, but I don’t. Otherwise, I’ll be the laughing stock of the whole school. Me, the notable handsome guy in all of Woodville High, has never been kissed? I’m sure I’ll be the next biggest gossip in the history of mankind.
“Ten!” Kai shouts out, surprising me.