Broken Souls (Souls #1)

Chapter 8 - Matthews

The blonde, blue eyed beauty named Destiny, who I vaguely remember seeing in my art class, is looking over my shoulder and not at me anymore and I turn around to see what, or who, she's looking at. In the distance I can see Jennings jogging up to me. I'm beyond shocked to see him drape his arm around the girl's shoulders and then see her lean into his side. I remember hearing in the morning about a new blonde girl attending the school and how she's Jennings so called girlfriend. I guess the rumors are actually true and that Destiny is Blondie. With my headphones on in art class I didn't hear anything so I missed all the gossip. Sort of stupid of me not to connect the dots then. I also thought that I'd never see the day when Jennings would get an actual girlfriend and stop doing random hook ups. I snort to myself and think, no one said that he wouldn't do random hook ups behind her back though. Poor girl, she looks like she deserves better.

I tear my gaze away from Destiny, happy she didn't notice me staring since she was looking at Hayden, and then lock eyes with him. He tilts his head to the side, smiles and asks, "You giving my girl a hard time?"

Destiny smiles triumphantly beside him, probably ecstatic since he referred to her as 'his girl'. Wow, it must be the little things in life that pleases her.

I shake my head and answer, "Nope, we were just having a nice conversation."

"Okay," Hayden says and then lift his chin at me as a smile tugs at the corner of his lips. He has that up-to-no-good look on him that scares me since it's directed at me.

Hayden pulls his girl closer to his side, grins down at her and says, "So, since you've already seen Madison I guess I don't have to introduce you to him."

My eyes widen to the size of saucers when I hear him say that. Oh please no! He didn't. He couldn't have! Would he?

Destiny looks up at him puzzled. "What? I haven't seen Madison as yet."

A giant grin breaks out across his face. "Oh, yes you have."

He did.

Destiny scrunches up her face, looking like she is thinking and asks, "What do you mean?" The cute expression is still on her face after she asks the question and I feel a stab of jealousy that Jennings got so lucky.

Any moment now Hayden is going to open up that big mouth of his and embarrass me even more than I already am so I decide that I might as well tell her. I sigh, drag a hand down my face and say, "What he means is that my parents were expecting a girl."

Destiny looks from me to Hayden and then exclaims, "What?" She closes her eyes for a moment lets out a breath and then opens her eyes to look straight at me. "Are you saying that you are Madison?"

Hayden walks over to me and slaps me on the back hard while laughing. "This whole time Destiny thought that I was talking about a girl when I said I wanted to introduce her to 'Madison,'" he gasps.

He goes on and on about it and I eventually tune him out. When he stops talking I'm at the point where I'm tugging at my hair in large clumps. "Why did you tell her about my first name? I told you to never tell anyone! I don't tell anyone but close friends!"

"Well, you better make her a close friend fast," he mumbles with a smirk which I'd like to slap off his face.

I spin around on my heels so then I'm not facing Destiny and then I hear Hayden say to her, "He hates it when I tell the chicks his first name, but I love it. It's funny watching him come unhinged."

I growl when I hear him say this. It's all a joke to him. While to me, it's my life. I can't help it if my parent decided to name me Madison! It's a family name and I'm sadly cursed to have it.

Students watch me as they pass by. They either have an amused or worried expression on their face. The people with the worried expression are looking at me like I may magically turn into the Incredible Hulk at any given second right before them.

I hear Destiny laugh behind me and I whirl around to face her. She slaps a hand over her mouth and stares at me with wide, sparkling blue eyes. I don't know why I'm still standing here. It's like I'm waiting for Hayden to make another jab. "Screw this," I mutter and stalk away from Hayden and his better-than-he-deserves girlfriend. She laughed at me - yes, and it hurt, but I still seem to think she's better than he is worthy of. Why? I don't know. I just know.

Nico Romero catches up to me and sings, "I warned you!"

I shove his shoulder and grumble, "Shut up." I'm sad that the push isn't hard enough to cause his stupid beanie to fall off his head and onto the ground.

Nico sticks out his bottom lip and gripes, "Well, you don't have to be Mr. Grumpy Pants just 'cause you didn't land the girl."

"Shut up," I repeat.

Nico claps me on the shoulder and says, "Dude, I tried to warn you what you were getting into when you ran after her. I was trying to tell you that she's already spoken for, but you were already crazy about her from the moment you saw her throw that pig skin so far." He chuckles and looks over his shoulder quickly. "Guy's lucky, ain't he?"

I make a noise from the back of my throat rather than saying anything.

"Hey, just let it go, alright? She's strictly off limits. Nothin' you can do about it. Nada en absoluto."

I shake my head. "I'm not strung up on her," I mutter - though I totally am. But I'm also mad at Jennings for telling her my first name. Just proves that you can't trust anybody.

"Mmm hmm. Sure..."

"Shut up."

"That your favourite saying now? You've said it three times already. And I'd bet my pants that you wanna say it to me again, huh?"

"Your pants?"

"Yeah, my pants," he says. "Dang it, you didn't say shut up." He whirls around and points a finger at me. "Were you thinking about saying it? 'Cause that totally counts! And...I don't really wanna strip right here in front of everyone." He drops his arm and then chuckles, "Ladies might like it though. What da ya think?" He wiggles his eyebrows at me suggestively.

I push him out of my way by his face and grumble, "You're in my way, stripper. Move it."

Nico's laugh is drowned out by the school bell signalling lunch is over and I make my way into the school along with the other students.