Sailing With Destiny

Paris

A special thank you to @still_just_me for editing this story.

A trip with Mitchell Clarke was something I once considered torture. I was convinced that we would kill each other before we reached our destination. However, a week together proved to be more beneficial than lethal.

Mitchell, whom I met almost three years ago, was someone my drunken state was very much attracted to and I used my overconfident, intoxicated state to my advantage and took my shot. My liquid courage worked splendidly and his attraction appeared to be mutual when he made a move to hook up with me.

I was once someone who detested the idea of love or any kind of relationship, so I was more than ready for a mere one-night stand with a tall and handsome young man. However, we hadn't even reached first base when our plans went out the window and what was supposed to be a fun night turned into one of the most mortifying and embarrassing moments of my life.

My first mistake of that dreadful night was when I drank beer, the second was mixed drinks and the third when I ignored the signs my body told me that I was about to be sick. I was too driven by attraction and female hormones that I misunderstood those physical signs as being turned on and ended up barfing in Mitchell's mouth.

Utterly embarrassed, I ran out on him without as much of an apology and swore to never see him again but kismet had other plans. I'd dragged my best friend and then-roommate Faith to the frat party and there she met the man of her dreams and the man she married a few years down the line.

Faith and Owen rapidly grew close and fell in love, things were great for them and I was truly happy for her until she introduced me to Owen's roommate and best friend.

To my horror, I faced the man I swore to never see again, Mitchell. I cursed my luck when I found out that Owen's best friend was the same Mitchell I threw up on. At first, I thought he hadn't remembered but that quickly changed when he acted like nothing but an arrogant asshole towards me – an asshole with a grudge.

We never saw eye-to-eye, at one point literally tore each other's hair off, the mere sight of him set me off and vice versa. But, if there was one thing we had in common, it was our love towards our best friends. So, when they eloped to Vegas to get married, we temporarily put aside our differences and embarked on a road trip together to stop them.

At first, the idea seemed catastrophic but as we spent more time together, we started to grow on each other – even though our egos refused to accept anything less than being enemies. Having many responsibilities growing up, I'd never really lived much for myself but the road trip changed that for me.

I found myself in situations where I'd wholeheartedly smiled and laughed. For the first time in a long time, I was happy and I hated to admit the truth then but Mitchell was the reason. We grew closer and I learned to trust him since there was something about him that always made me feel safe. I shared things with him that not even Faith or my father knew and he quickly became an important part of my life.

Life had other plans though and threw in many obstacles, we had one too many fallouts and found ourselves separated for periods of time more than once. However, distance never changed the bond we shared, from enemies we easily became friends and somewhere along the line, we fell in love.

Love was even harder for us, my father had history with Mitchell's mother and basically despised anyone with the Clarke name. Mitchell wasn't innocent either, he was hung up on a toxic ex until he was too late.

After getting into an accident and almost losing my life, Mitchell left me with the intention to never return. I was under the false impression that he was back with his ex-girlfriend and my heart broke. But, in reality, Mitchell buried himself under a mountain of guilt. He felt he was bad for me and agreed when my father told Mitchell to never see me again.