Broken Souls (Souls #1)

Chapter 21 - Matthews

"See you in a bit," Destiny calls out to me as she walks over to the bleachers to get started on her homework. I pull her back into my chest and give her a kiss.

"You were going to go without your kiss," I tell her with a grin. We've been doing this for weeks now. It's not a habit for me, but more like a ritual.

Destiny smiles up at me warmly and then sends a pointed look behind me to my teammates who are waiting on their Wide Receiver to join them for practice. "I didn't want to make you any later than you already are," she says with a raised eyebrow at them. 

I twist to my teammates behind me and send them a look which I only half mean. Since I've guy raises up his middle finger at me in a joking manner. 

"Matthews!" The coach barks at me. "Suit up and get yourself on my field this instant!"

I swivel my head to look over at Coach. "Yes, sir!" I say immediately, because you don't mess around with Coach. When he says to do something, you do it without question or hesitation.

I jog out of the change room a few minutes later suited in my football uniform and my helmet in my hand. I glance over at Destiny on the bleachers, watching the top of her bowed blonde head as she works furiously on a question.

"Matthews!" Yells Coach, everyone's voices on the field dies down.

I turn around to watch Coach as he stalks over to me.

"Is she going to be a problem?" He asks when he is in front of me, his chest brushing against mine. "Because, if she is then I suggest that you tell her to leave because I can't have my Wide Receiver playing half-assed out here."

My eyebrows raise at this but I say firmly, "No, she isn't going to be a problem, Coach."

"Better not be, or I'll remove her from here myself."

I pull my helmet over my head and stick my mouth guard into my mouth. Coach hits the side of my helmet and yells for me to get over to the team. I jog over without another word and together my boys and I practice on the field until we are dripping with sweat and exhausted.

"Did I get you into trouble?" Destiny asks me worriedly.

"Saw that whole thing, huh?" I question, referring to the point during practice when Coach came up to me.

"Mmhh, kind of hard not to when the whole team turned quiet. I had to look up to see what made a whole group of eleven rowdy boys quiet down. Plus, coach yelled out your name, so..."

I send her a smile. "I wasn't really in trouble. Coach just wanted to know whether or not he had to physically remove you from the premises or not if you proved to be a distraction."

Destiny laughs at this and I can't help but laugh right along with her. After her laughter dies down she looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "Sharing time?" She asks.

"Sure. I'll go first," I offer.

"Okay."

For the past week I've been debating with myself with whether or not I should tell Destiny about my deceased mother. Finally, I've come to a conclusion.

"Do you want to know a little about my Mother?"

Destiny brings her knees up to her chin and wraps her arms around her legs. She nods her head before she rests it on top her knees.

"She was the best mother ever. I loved her."

"Was? Loved?" Destiny asks, picking up on the past tense which I've used. Her eyebrows furrow downward. 

"Yes."

"What happened?"

"Car crash," I say simply.

Destiny unwinds her arms from around her legs and puts them around me.

"I'm so sorry," she whispers into my ear.

I've heard this from so many people before, but the way Destiny says it with genuinity warms me. She's loved and lost and she knows what I'm feeling. I don't continue with my story and she doesn't push me to. She doesn't tell me a story from her life, and I don't push her either. I'm just happy to be in this moment. I've never experienced something like this before.

And I love it.