Soul Bound: Genesis

Chapter One

Matt jolted himself awake, the remnants of some awful dream fading away within a few seconds. The first thing he noticed was the raging headache and the fatigue in his limbs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the blue curtains and heard the quiet buzz of fluorescent lights. This place was very familiar. He immediately remembered everything.

"Rise and shine, there," a woman's voice greeted him. He turned his head to see the school nurse on her rolling chair, arms crossed and eyes full of slight amusement. Matt has gotten used to that knowing smirk. This is practically routine.

"Before you start lecturing, he hit me first," he muttered and covered his eyes with his arm. The lights were bothersome.

"I figured you didn't need me to lecture you. I'd just be repeating myself, and I like to be original," Nurse Taya Velasquez said.

"How long was I out?" the groggy teen asked.

Velazquez checked her watch. "About thirty...thirty-five minutes."

"I missed calculus," he groaned.

The nurse shrugged. "I tried to wake you up earlier, but you just kept getting all cozy in that bed. Was this close to taking a picture and sending it to your aunt. I bet she would've loved it."

"What did she tell you?" Above his current condition, he wanted to at least prepare for what his aunt would say to him later. 

Velazquez tucked her chestnut-brown hair behind one ear and hummed. "Pretty much what you'd expect to hear from her."

"Ah geez." Even if the answer was vague, it still gave Matt an idea of what awaited him.

"Sit up. You've had enough of snoozing," Velasquez ordered gently. Matt did as she said and groaned at the residual pain of his new bruises. He sat patiently and watched the school nurse push herself to the fridge where she gathered a new ice pack for him. Along with that, she also plucked out a jello cup. At first, Matt thought it was for him but was corrected when all Velasquez gave him was the ice pack. She indulged in the jello herself, looking serene.

"You know," the teen started, "I didn't get to eat lunch because of what happened."

"Mhmm." Velasquez sucked on the spoon, as happy as a child.

He frowned. "Those are for the students, aren't they?"

"Yeah, but I buy them with my own money, so it's completely okay that I eat them," she joked. Matt sighed and pressed the ice pack to his face. He didn't like the green jello anyway.

"So what happened this time?" she asked.

The not-so-distant memory of what happened made Matt groan internally and he recounted. "Danny was talking shit again."

"Ah, something he's really good at."

"I didn't even do anything that bad."

"And what did you do?"

Matt huffed. "He cut in front of these girls in the cafeteria and started horsing around with his friends. Kept bumping into them, and then they bumped into me, which pissed me off. All I did was tell him to knock it off and he started saying a bunch of crap. Bleh, bleh, bleh, 'one-eye' this, blah, blah, blah, I'm 'just trying to impress the girls'. Stuff like that."

"And how did you respond?"

Matt smirked. "Told him to fuck off, of course. What else?"

"You have a knack for that."

"That's when he shoved me and...well, you know. This." He pointed at his face and Velasquez nodded.

"Sounds like he was being a jerk," she replied.