Broken Souls (Souls #1)

Chapter 20 - Destiny

As I make my way into art class I head straight for Matthews' table. I dump my bag onto the floor next to the empty chair and pull out my art book from it as I take a seat. We have both agreed to create an art piece based on loss. Now we just have to plan it and then get it on the canvas. I am beginning to run out of ideas and so is Matthews. We've tried so many things but none ever seem to fit exactly what we are looking for. I'm beginning to think that we may never discover the right drawing.

Matthews pushes his sketch book over to me and asks, "How about this?"

I take my eyes off of my drawing and glance at his. Just one look and I know that this isn't the one either. Matthews watches my face closely for my reaction and then says, "No? I thought so," he looks back down at the drawing. "I just didn't want to rule it out without your opinion."

I shove my drawing book back and rub my eyes. "Do you think we'll ever get it right?"

"I don't know. All we can do is keep on trying."

"Trying," I huff, "is what we've been doing for the past weeks. I'm now thinking of just splattering some blues and greys on the canvas and calling it art."

"That may suffice, but then you're not going to get much points for creativity."

I huff out a breath again and Matthews chuckles.

"Come on, Destiny. I know you're not a quitter. Let's work on this some more."

And so we do.

...

"And it's good!"

I turn around to see Matthews who just yelled out. He's sauntering up behind me with a wild grin on his face.

A smile I'm getting to love. Too much.

"How many yards was that?" He asks as he eyes the football that I just kicked.

"Over thirty," I say and then pick up my water bottle from beside my feet. I uncap it and greedily drink the water. After I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand I ask, "How'd you know that you'd find me here?"

"Sixth sense," he says with a wink that can do funny things to a girl.

"Well, just so you know, I find your sixth sense very creepy."

Matthews laughs and slings his arm around my shoulder the way Hayden does to annoy me, but with Matthews I don't find it annoying. I actually like it. Which is wrong. I can't like it. I can't like him. If I do he'll either be taken away from me or he will leave me. I push him away, playfully, so I won't hurt his feelings and say, "Ew, you don't want to do that. I'm all sweaty."

"I don't mind," he says and then pulls me closer to his side. "I'm all sweaty too from football practice."

"Well, isn't that just wonderful?" I say sarcastically with an eye roll.

Matthews laughs at the tone of my voice and then says, "Oh, and by the way, I saw you watching," he comments.

I cringe when he says this. I thought that I was hidden - invisible. Obviously I wasn't though. He still saw me.

"Liked what you saw?" He says teasingly with a raised eyebrow.

I turn my head away so he won't be able to see the pink splotches of colour spreading across my cheeks. Not that I did anything wrong, but it just embarrasses me that Matthews caught me watching. I did enjoy watching the practice, though. Matthews looked good on the field - like he belonged there. You could clearly see his love of the game shining in his eyes. It was the same look I got. Watching him made me want to suit up and run onto the field with the team. But, something told me that that wouldn't have gone down good with the coach.