Stolen Soul

Chapter 15: Late Lunch

Lexi

The tension in my shoulders starts to fade as I submit my creative writing assignment into the drop box portal. A few days ago the prompt felt like an impossible task, but now the prompt turned into a therapy session. Rehashing the memories of the last day and a half was cathartic, and now that the assignment is complete, and the stress has left my body, the gnawing of hunger is finally starting to register. In order to get the paper down and over with I skipped lunch, and it seems to be quickly catching up with me, as I reach for my phone absentmindedly, I realize I don’t have it. This is the first little bit of downtime I have had to myself in all of the chaos of the last 36 hours to remember I left it at the lake. s**t, I need to at least get my car and my phone. My parents think that my real birthday is tomorrow and will definitely try and contact me, and my roommate is probably worried about me too.

I head towards the downstairs cafeteria, partially hoping to find some snacks, and really hoping to run into someone I know that could take me to get my stuff, and maybe even to the dorms so I could grab some clothes that fit, especially some at least a bra that fits, this one is starting to dig into my ribs, and my back is hurting from it being a size too small. I make it to the bottom as I run right into Matt as I round the corner.

“s**t, sorry I didn’t see you.” I sputter out. He is just standing there holding me up from slamming into him, looking down at me with a smirk on his face. Luke coughs from beside me, and Matt lets his grip from my arms loosen. I step back away from him looking at the ground.

“Where you heading in a hurry?” Luke pipes up from behind Matt.

“Snacks?” I half ask, half state.

“Oh okay, we can show you were to grab some snacks, is that all you need?” Matt asks, his right eyebrow moves up slightly as he asks. I can’t help but blush at the gesture, for some reason it sends a few butterflies through my stomach.

“Well not exactly, I need to go get my phone and car from the lake, you know freaking out from shifting the first time I just left everything. Also my wolf ran out of pockets, and turns out she has no use for a cell phone. Think you could take me?” I c**k my eyebrow the same way as I stare in both desperation and hope at Matt, hoping he doesn’t sense how much I need him to say yes.

“Yeah no problem, you want to take my truck or run back to your car in wolf form?”

“Truck please, last time I was covered in leaves and dirt,” I can hear the discernible relief in my voice at the ease that he said yes.

“Yeah, that will happen. Do you want a sandwich or what kind of snacks, he asks as he heads towards the back of the pack house.”

I jog quickly to catch up to him, “Oh, a sandwich would be great, I’m starving.”

“Yeah, I didn’t see you at lunch, thought you might have just grabbed food upstairs, maybe the stares from this morning were too much.”

“People were staring, I didn’t even notice really. I also forgot about the kitchen upstairs, I wasn’t even sure there was food in it, but I didn’t look. It’s not my house, feels weird to snoop in their cabinets,” he turns and looks at me as understanding dawns in his eyes.

“This must be really overwhelming for you,” he says the earnestness and concern showing in his eyes as the connect with mine.

“Well, its not how I imagined meeting my birth parents, that’s for sure. I am just starting to realize the gravity of this situation, it still seems pretty surreal,” I answer honestly. He nods his head and moves through a door, when I pass through the door I find myself in a very large kitchen. There is 2 of everything, and it looks like a commercial kitchen. A few people are hanging around and turn their heads towards us as we enter the room.

“Matt, what can I do you for?” A large man at least 6 foot 3 with short black hair, and green eyes asks as he approaches us.

“How about some subs, Lexi what do you want on yours?” Matt asks me, like they might have anything I could possibly want.

“Oh, umm just a turkey on white with provolone, and lettuce, I guess,” I answer as my stomach growls again. The large man chuckles and begins pulling items out from the fridge, as another man comes in from the pantry with sub rolls.

“Any condiments? Matt what about for you?” He asks without looking away from the fridge. Same, but tomatoes too please, and just mayo, at the mention of mayo I pipe up and ask for some too.

“Coming right up,” he says as he emerges from the fridge ingredients in hand and a large smile plastered to his face. He makes quick work of preparing our sandwiches, and we thank him as we exit the kitchen.

“Woah, made to order sandwiches whenever you want huh?” I tease Matt.

“Well that’s just a privilege for the entire pack, its not just for me,” he answers without realizing I was just teasing.

“Well that’s cool, so can we go back to get my stuff after we are done eating?” I ask excited to sink my teeth into the sub.

“Sounds good, we can just grab a table in the dining room, no one should be in there right now,” he says without turning towards me. I follow silently as we enter the dining room, and like he predicted no one is in here. We eat in silence, comfortable silence. A few times I brushed my foot up to his to see his reaction, which was mostly stillness, once he looked up and smiled at me, when he did his eyes swirled between the normal brown with flecks of amber with an almost ebony black like his wolfs. It sent shivers of excitement down my spine, and butterflies danced in my stomach through our silent lunch. When I took the last bite of my sandwich, Matt moved his chair the nose startling me as I looked up at him.

“I’ll go grab my truck, wait here,” he states as he turns on his heel heading toward the front of the pack house. I wipe the crumbs from my hands and then stand to make sure I don’t have any remaining in my lap. I tend to be a messy eater. Wiping the crumbs from the chair and then double checking to see that I don’t have any crumbs left on me, I brush my hands against my jeans one last time, satisfied that I am clean I turn to leave. As I leave the dining hall and head towards the front doors of the pack house, I hear a car horn honk. I pick up my speed when I see a matte gray Toyota Tundra pull up, stopping right next to me.

As I open the door, familiar music plays in my ear, while I hear Matt sing along, “I’ve got my toes in the water ass in the sand not a worry in the world a cold beer in my hand.”

“Zac Brown Band huh?” I say nonchalantly.”

“You know them” Matt says with genuine surprise.

“Yup, I’ve even seen them in concert once with my older brother.” I answer, turning my body slightly to face him. I think I see a little bit of jealousy in his eyes when he lets out a breath and hits the gas.

“So, what’s your favorite song”, he asks.

“In general, or Zach Brown Band? In general, I couldn’t answer that changes daily, if you’re asking ZBB then that’s easy, Free.” He nods his head and then grabs his phone and switches it over to Free. “Do you have all of their songs?”

“Nah, apple music. Why this song?” He looks at me curiously, his brown eyes swirling with darkness once again.

I close my eyes just letting the beat of the song and lyrics wash through me for a moment, humming to myself before I open my eyes to see him staring at me. “I feel peace when I hear this song. Stop the car for a second. Close your eyes, breathe slow, and just listen.” Matt pulls over to the side of the road and places the car in park before he turns the stereo up, and closes his eyes. The interlude starts up, followed by my favorite part, and I begin to sing louder and louder with the song, “No we don’t have a lot of money, no we don’t have a lot of money, all we need is love.” When I open my eyes, Matt still has his closed, as the song ends, he opens his eyes and smiles.

“I see,” he answers.

“What’s yours,” I wonder out loud.

“Zach Brown Band? Hmm more of a classic.”

“Seriously, Chicken Fried it’s a good song but really,” I interrupt before he could finish his answer.

“For a girl from Florida I would have thought Knee Deep would be a classic for you, also there is nothing wrong with Chicken Friend, it’s a great song.” He responds, and then picks up his phone to switch the song again, this time to Knee Deep. I stay quiet as the song plays, and when it ends, he turns the music off, and hands me his phone. “Why don’t you pick?” He questions as his smile spreads from ear to ear.

Looking up, I can see the area where I parked my car. I point out the window on his side and half shout at him, “My car should be right up here, you should pull over now. We can walk back towards the lake where I left my phone and keys and shoes, then come back and grab the car. I also think we should go back to the university, so I can talk to my roommate, and grab some clothes.” He does as I have asked and parks the car in the tree line. As we exit the car, I begin to head towards the lake, as I walk amongst the trees, that blissful smell hits me, not as strong, stale, but still in the air.

Mate, Ela whispers in my head, I can hear her pain and sadness, but choose to ignore her for now. Focused on finding my stuff and getting through the day without another argument about my so called mate. I move further through the woods, Matt silently following behind until we hit the lake. Everything is where I remember leaving it, I grab my phone first. Its dead, go figure. I grab the rest of my stuff and head back towards my car, Matt still follows behind me silently.

I can see my car up ahead, and turn towards Matt, who stops walking when he sees me turned, head c****d slightly, “Do you want to just take my car, we need a parking permit and you don’t have one, unless you want to take both and pay for parking.”

“We can ride together in your car,” he says without any hesitation.

“I jump in the driver seat and am again hit with that blissful smell, but nothing in my car seems out of place. My mate was clearly in my car, and the evasion of privacy is a bit unnerving, but I don’t really want to give off any discomfort, so instead of looking around to see if anything is missing or moved, I place the key in the ignition and start up the car, as I would if I didn’t smell that someone was clearly in my car.