Fated

By aina adele

Chapter 2: Piano Lessons

Warnings: language, slash (or pre-slash, depending on how you look at it),

Kyle collapsed on his bed three days later. He had tried to ignore his vision for the past few days, but he kept seeing that damned red string connecting him to Simon. He was annoyed, exhausted, and confused. He wasn't gay- he liked girls- he had always liked girls! And yet his soulmate was a guy. And of course Simon hadn't made it any easier by continuing to act like the iciest, prissiest bastard the world had never seen. God he hated his Gift right now. If he hadn't seen that stupid string then he wouldn't have this problem. He could have just lived his life being a perfectly straight teenager who ignored the rich asshole that was Simon Walters and never questioned what it meant that the one person who could give him 'true happiness' was a man. But now he knew, and, according to his great-aunt, messing with fate only brought trouble. So there was nothing left to do but sit back and let himself fall in love with the bastard. In frustration he grabbed his pillow and screamed into it. It had been a long day and all he wanted to do was sleep and forget everything that had happened.

"Kyle?" came a soft voice from the hallway.

But of course he couldn't sleep because he had an shitty dad who was never home so he had to take his baby sister to her piano lesson and make her dinner. He screamed into his pillow again.

The door creaked open and Cassie Gallagher stuck her head in. "Kyle? Are you OK?" she asked. He smiled at her and sat up, patting the space beside him. She giggled and leapt on the bed next to him.

"You don't need to worry about me Cassie-girl, I'm just tired is all. And I'm pissed at Dad for never being home to take care of us." He ruffled her hair. If she had been older it would have been easy to mistake them for twins; both had thick, messy auburn hair, pale skin, freckles, heart-shaped faces and hazel eyes. Kyle ruffled his sister's hair again, he really adored her.

Cassie turned over and gave Kyle her 'look,'- one eerily similar to the 'look' their mom gave in the days before the drugs. "You're lying," she said, "or you are only telling part of the truth, which is also lying. But I accept the part-lie for now." She blushed and giggled again. "Did you ask Aidan to come over?"

"Yeah but he is spending the day at his crazy girlfriend's house."

"Oh," she said, looking like a kicked puppy.

He smiled at her, "Hey don't look so heartbroken-Aidan's way too old for you anyway. Maybe next time set your sights a little closer to home, like, I don't know, someone at your own school?"

Cassie looked confused for a moment, then blushed bright red. "I wasn't… I'm not… I don't like… I was just sad for you because you're a loner and don't have any other friends!" she yelled the last part, then rushed out the door. Kyle laughed, as much as he loved his sister it was still really funny when she got embarrassed.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Much later, after Kyle had chased Cassie down and apologized for ever insinuating that she had even the tiniest crush on anyone, they were in the car and driving to her piano lesson. The entire way his sister was talking loudly and singing along with the radio. Cassie had always wanted to be a musician and for her tenth birthday their dad had finally caved and bought her an electronic keyboard and offered to start paying for piano lessons for her. Today was to be the first one and Cassie was simply over the moon about it all.

After a while they pulled up to the music store where the lessons were supposed to be held- a new building with a big cheesy sign reading 'Max's Music and More' above a bright red door. It had opened only a month or so ago and was already attracting a lot of buzz. Apparently they sold Kyle got out of the car and opened Cassie's door to walk her inside. She shot past him, a ball of nervous energy and bounced up and down by the bright red door, her set of beginner's piano books clutched in her hands. Kyle just smiled softly and followed her. The lessons had been prepaid, but he wanted to make sure everything was in order before he left her. But when he opened the door to the air-conditioned shop, he couldn't help but let out a groan.

An all too familiar blonde soccer player turned from where he stood near a large grand piano and narrowed his eyes at the Gallaghers. Then he snorted. "So this must be my next lesson," Simon turned to glare at Kyle, "Figures you would be late."

Kyle glared back. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you have already shown you have little to no respect for others and that being late wouldn't faze a manner-less ignoramus like you."

Kyle opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Cassie pulling on his shirt. "Kyle," she stage-whispered, "Do you know him?"

'Do I know him?' Kyle thought, 'I'm fucking bound to him.' "Yeah," he said out loud, "This jackass is in the grade below me at school."

"Good influence you are," Simon commented, "swearing in front of little children."

Kyle retorted "the only words that accurately describe you are swear words" at the exact same time Cassie said "Hey! I'm not that little!"

He just smirked indulgently and turned to Cassie, "I do hope you have at least a little more intelligence than your brother or I may be forced to end our lessons. It would be quite impossible to teach someone with subhuman mental abilities."

She tilted her head to the side, confused, while Kyle bristled and glowered. "Just because your parents can afford to buy you a dictionary doesn't make you any better than us," he said. "Why are you even working here? Daddy doesn't care enough about his precious son to buy him the newest Maserati?"

Something flashed in Simon's eyes. "Actually," he quipped angrily, "it looks good on college applications if you play an instrument and even better if you teach that instrument. Of course someone like you wouldn't know of such things. I assume you plan to work in fast-food restaurants your entire life, and if you are planning on going to college it must be the community college. Based on the state of both your clothes and your sister's I doubt your family could afford anything else. Unless of course it is you who has the parents that don't care enough to buy their children new things." Simon smirked again and turned to Cassie. "Now then, why don't you come sit on this bench and we can begin our lesson."

Cassie followed him hesitantly, glancing back to where her older brother stood trembling with suppressed anger and hurt.

Kyle was all but seeing red. How dare that bastard say such things. Fine, it may have been true that no one cared enough to give Kyle and Cassie clothes money, but that just meant it hurt that much more. He turned heel and stormed out the door to their car, where he sat stewing through the entirety of Cassie's thirty minute lesson. When she was done, she ran outside and clambered into the sedan herself and sat in complete silence as her brother drove them home. Once home, Kyle walked upstairs, pulled out his phone, and pressed speed dial.

After a few rings the answering machine clipped on. Hi! it said, you've reached Aidan Crawford's phone. He can't talk right now, most likely because he's with me! Giggling. Anyway leave a message and your number, I'll make sure he calls you back! There was a door opening and a new voice spoke. Hey Soph, it said, what are you doing? The other voice replied Noth- before being cut off by a loud beep.

Kyle said "Hey Aidan, when you're done fucking your girlfriend call me back. I've been thinking, and you were right. I do need a girlfriend." He hung up and threw the phone on his bed.

Screw not messing with fate.

There was no way in hell he would end up with Simon-fucking-Walters.

And he would do anything in his power to make sure of it.

A.N. OK so I totally broke my work on the story everyday rule and will continue to break it, but I am really busy this week! First I had my high school graduation party (yes I just graduated high school), then it was father's day and all my family(3 sets of grandparents and two aunts/uncles) came to our house, then I was told that the person who organizes online classes at my high school marked my online class as 'incomplete' and because of that I have to go track him down and harass him so I can be given my real diploma and fix everything before transcripts are sent to colleges IN THREE DAYS because I DID finish the class(although it was late because I was at home sick from January to early May but that is a whole other story), then I have college orientation(which is three days long and four hours away), then I have to help the person who will be riding my horse while I'm at college get ready and ride at a horseshow(which for all you non-horse people entitles getting up at six AM, running around like a chicken with your head cut off washing tack horses and clothes, riding horses, yelling at idiots, lugging around HEAVY bales of hay, and wearing jeans and coats in hot summer weather), and THEN it is my moms birthday. Not to mention I need to buy her a present, get a new drivers license (my brother lost my wallet when he cleaned(emptied) our car to impress his ex-girlfriend), collect and fill out job applications, and write like thirty thank you notes. Sorry I just had to vent a bit. Anyway, I'm pretty much exhausted and stressed already and this may suck because I'm too busy to edit much. Also the next update probably won't come for awhile due to aforementioned reasons.

My thoughts on this chapter: I love Cassie(can I say that without seeming stuck-up?). She reminds me of my little sister, but less of a tattle-tale. I want her to give Kyle love advice later in the story (because it's adorable when kids get life more than adults, or -in this case-teenagers). Anyway-I hope you like her character as much as I do.

Maserati is a really nice car-I think/hope. I don't know cars so my brother gave me the brand.

Also idk if it is actually that good to have a teaching job like that on a college app. It wouldn't hurt but as far as I know it isn't necessarily helpful.

This is a pretty lighthearted, humorous(Maybe?) chapter. Next chapter will address some of Kyle's family issues and loneliness so it'll be be little more angsty, but I won't get into any gritty stuff (dark-like potential abuse and suicide) for awhile. I want to try and balance it all between the happy and sad.

This is a really short chapter (due to my stress/busy-ness) the next will be longer.

To my beautiful reviewers:

Amelia: I'm glad you think it has potential. I hope you like this chapter as well :).

Hearts of Solitude: I was already planning to talk about Kyle's family in the next chapter and you cemented that plan in my mind :). I want the story to start with Simon being an ass and Kyle being likeable so I'm glad you think it comes across that way. I'll keep in mind what you said about Sophie. Thanks so much for your input and I hope you like this chapter!

Thanks for reading and PLEASE review (tell me any thoughts you have at all even if they are mean/stupid).

Love,

aina adele

P.S. Sorry again for the ridiculously long author's note.

P.P.S. No offence meant to those who work in fast-food joints and/or go to community colleges! Simon is just being a judgmental ass.