Hi all, I looooooooove your replies. Here's the next chapter and it may have to hold you until Sunday. (I'll try to get another one posted this weekend, but I'm not sure I can make it happen.) I think this one will make the Jestiny fans happy, but also leave the Matt and Des fans feeling okay. I hope you enjoy!
The Tempest – Chapter 11
The Monday, after her breakup with Matthew, Destiny didn't want to get out of bed for school. Still, she knew it was time. She had been in bed from the time she returned home from Matthew's rehab facility until she awoke that Monday morning. Shaun had begun to worry. And honestly, she knew she couldn't stay in bed forever. She also could not afford to miss any days of school because she would probably miss more when the baby arrived.
Both Dani and Jack telephoned her nonstop over the weekend, but she couldn't talk to either of them. If she talked to Dani, she would tell her about Matthew. If she told Dani, Dani would tell Jack and she wasn't ready for the conversation she was sure to have with Jack. Dani would also want to meet with her and she would probably bring Jack along. Even the thought of Jack made her feel guilty.
That morning, she managed to avoid Dani and Jack. Still, she wandered through the familiar hallway feeling unusually lost. When she was just feet away from her locker, her heart nearly stopped as she saw Jack waiting. He looked taller somehow, even more imposing than normal. She tried to get away before he saw her, but it was too late.
He called out, "Snooks, wait. Where are you going?" He touched her arm to keep her from leaving.
"I have class." She snapped as she pulled away from his grasp.
"Why are you avoiding me? Is it because of what happened the other night?"
She took a deep breath and decided to face the inevitable...talking, at least a little to Jack. She opened her locker, doing her best to avoid eye contact with him. "I really don't want to talk about it, okay?"
Jack leaned against the locker next to hers. "Destiny, I thought we were friends."
"We are." His use of her real name caught her attention. She closed her locker and leaned back against it. Where should she start? Did she begin with how she broke Matthew's heart because she might have feelings for him? That would open another can of worms. "It's complicated."
"Too complicated for us to talk about?" He grabbed her right hand and held it. "You know you can talk to me."
Before she could say a word, another complication she hadn't expected came around the corner: Matthew. Her mouth dropped. Matthew wasn't supposed to be in school for another couple of months. She knew the moment their eyes met that he was still furious. Destiny could tell he planned to ignore her, but she couldn't let him.
"Matthew!" She called out pitifully. "Can we talk?"
"What do you want to talk about, Des? How you cheated on me with Jack? How for all of your self-righteousness about Langston and Dani, you're exactly like them." He was furious. Destiny was supposed to love him. It had always been an unspoken promise between them, even when he hadn't deserved it.
The tears began to well in her eyes. "I never cheated on you. I just asked you for some time."
"And that's why you're here…with him?" He eyed Jack with disgust and he immediately noticed they were holding hands. Jack Manning was a 16-year-old kid and a bratty one at that. What did Destiny see in him? "You want to talk, fine. Let's set some ground rules. As long as you insist on being with Jack…"
"I'm not with Jack."
"Whatever." He couldn't believe she would deny it when he'd caught them together. "As long as you are hanging out with Jack, you and I have nothing to say to each other. Unless you want to talk to me about our baby, you pretend I don't exist. Got it?" Matthew turned and began to walk away.
"What was that all about?" Jack wore a confused look on his face.
"I told you, I don't want to talk about it."
She closed her locker and walked away from Jack, except, she didn't realize he continued to follow her. All she saw was Justin and Becca. As she passed them, Justin said to Becca loudly enough for everyone in the hallway to hear, "See, Becca, not even a baby could make Matthew stick with Density."
Destiny wanted to cry, harder than she'd already started to cry when speaking with Matthew. But before she could, she was startled by the sound of Jack's voice.
"What did you say to her?"
Before he could stop himself, Jack had Justin pinned to a nearby locker. He wanted to strangle the punk…even as he realized he once was a different version of Justin with the way he treated Shane. And it was because Destiny knew exactly who he was and she had chosen to accept him that he would not allow them to hurt her. At that moment, Jack vowed mentally to pummel Justin, even though he could hear Destiny calling him and begging him to stop.
Surprisingly, another voice that brought him back to the present. It was Matthew.
"Justin you're an idiot. " Matthew had a sad look in his eyes. Although the truth hurt him, he couldn't let Justin and Becca humiliate Destiny. So, he knew what to say to make them stop. "If you want to know the truth, Destiny dumped me to be with Jack. And the only good thing I can see coming from that is that he's about to kick your ass."
Matthew walked away. Destiny turned to follow him. Matthew had stopped Justin and Becca from tormenting her. Maybe he was extending an olive branch. Maybe she could still make him understand that she was cheating on him.
Jack, on the other hand, thought he was dreaming as he heard Matthew's words. Although Destiny had been avoiding him, Matthew said that Destiny had dumped him so they could be together. So, why was she avoiding his calls? She must have been afraid of what she was feeling. But what was she afraid of? He would never hurt her. Jack turned to look for Destiny. And while he looked for her, he failed to see the sucker punch from Justin.
At the sound of Justin's fist hitting Jack's face, Destiny turned back to face Justin and Jack. She watched helplessly as Matthew walked away and Jack fell to the ground. Her heart felt torn into two, the same way it had for weeks. Still, the immediate circumstances made her choice easy: Jack needed her right now and Matthew wouldn't talk to her.
As Destiny arrived at his side, she touched his eye that was quickly beginning to swell. "Are you okay?"
Jack felt no pain. Instead, he looked up at her and smiled. "Is what Matthew said true? Did you dump him for me?"
"No!" She protested too much.
Jack sat up on his elbows. "Then why would he say that?"
"Because he's overreacting. I don't want to talk about this now." A crowd had gathered due to the scuffle between Justin and Jack. Some were still standing nearby listening and Destiny had no desire to have them in her business. " We need to get you to the nurse." Destiny stood and extended a hand to help Jack from the ground. He didn't release it as they walked to the Nurse's office.
Ms. Collins, the school nurse, greeted Jack with skepticism. "Mr. Manning, I see that this year, you're coming to the nurse's office instead of sending people here. Have a seat." Jack sat on the makeshift exam table.
"He was protecting me," Destiny said, quietly. She felt badly as she noticed the way his eye was swelling. Instinctively, her hand reached to touch the redness that surrounded his eyes, but she stopped when she noticed Ms. Collins looking at her protruding baby bump.
"Well," the nurse said, "I see impending fatherhood has changed you."
"He's not the..." Destiny began before Jack cut her off.
"Thank you. And you're right, I'm a changed man." Jack grinned at the nurse. Destiny pushed him in the arm. She should be furious with him for even implying he was the baby's father, but something about the gesture made her smile.
The nurse handed Destiny an ice pack to hold on Jack's eye while she completed some paperwork in the other room. Destiny moved to Jack's side and held the ice pack in place with both hands. Jack felt emboldened by the knowledge that Matthew and Destiny broken up. He slipped his hands onto her waste near her belly; she didn't make him move them. But, she hated that she felt a certain electricity from his touch.
She spoke softly. "Jack, you shouldn't have let Ms. Collins think that this was your baby…"
"Snooks," he practically whispered. He didn't want to scare her into running again. "I don't care about what anyone thinks but you. Why did you and Matthew break up? It's okay you can tell me. I promise I won't hurt you."
Destiny took a deep breath, knowing that she would have one shot at getting the words out. "He broke up with me because I told him that you and I almost kissed."
"If he would break up with you for that, he doesn't deserve you."
It was more than that and she knew it. Still, she wasn't ready to spill her guts. "Actually, I think he broke up with me because I told him I might have feelings for someone else."
Jack grinned at her. "Is it someone in this room?"
"Maybe." Though it felt like her world was falling apart less than ten minutes ago, she couldn't help smiling at Jack teasing her.
"And these feelings that you have for whoever this guy is, are they warm and fuzzy friendly feelings or are they make you weak in the knees feelings?"
"Did you really just say warm and fuzzy?" She found herself giggling.
"I did. My turn to ask you a question. Did you tell Matthew you had feelings for me?" He stopped smiling and stared at her.
Now it was her turn to stop laughing. She bit her bottom lip before giving him a simple nod.
Jack moved her hand with the icepack from his eyes. Then he touched her face. As he leaned closer to her mouth, he noticed that just like in his dream, Destiny wasn't moving. This time there was no David or ringing of Destiny's cell phone to keep their lips from meeting. And this time, their lips met. At first, the kiss was soft and slightly uncertain, but within a minute or so, their kisses became more intense. Jack didn't want Destiny out of his arms and he probably wouldn't have let her go if he hadn't heard Ms. Collins loudly clearing her throat.
After school, when Matthew made it home, his dad was sitting on the sofa going through some paperwork. Bo smiled at Matthew as he saw him enter. "How's it going, Bud?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Matthew headed straight to his room and closed the door. Once inside he plopped on his bed. And then he remembered that he'd only slept there once since being with Destiny for the first and now, maybe the last time. The thought made him want her and hate her at the same time. He reached into his drawer and pulled out the last remnant of his dream.
A few minutes later, Bo entered uninvited. For a second, he thought his eyes were betraying him as he saw Matthew holding what looked like Matthew's grandmother Renee's engagement ring. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah, I guess I better to give this back to Grandma Renée. Especially now, since the woman I was going to ask marry me is with Jack Manning."
"Destiny is with Jack?" Bo had wondered why Destiny was not a part of the group to welcome Matthew home from the hospital on Sunday. He thought maybe she wasn't feeling well. Then he began to process Matthew's words. "Wait a minute, you were going to propose to Destiny?"
"Yeah, I asked Grandma Renee to bring this when she came to visit. Looks like she made a wasted trip." He folded the ring in his hand.
Bo raised an eyebrow at his son. He hated to see him so defeated. "Do you really think you and Destiny were ready to be married? You are both pretty young."
"Dad, Destiny and I have been through more than most people twice are ages. I love her and I thought she loved me."
"Son, if there is one thing I know, it's that Destiny loves you. She's stood by you through things that no one else would. When you were in your coma, she practically lived at your bedside. Are you sure she's with Jack?"
"If she's not, she will be soon." Matthew lay back on his bed.
"Well, that sucks." Bo shook his head. Jack Manning was an over indulged punk whose family bought him out of a prison sentence. Bo sat on the bed beside Matthew. "At least it kept you from making the mistake of proposing."
Matthew frowned as he sat up on his elbows. "How can you say it would have been a mistake? I thought you liked Destiny?"
"I love Destiny like a daughter. I just don't think the two of you are ready to get married. Son, marriage is about patience and commitment. Now, I've seen it in Destiny, the way she was willing to stand by you when you were with Dani and when she thought you killed Eddie Ford. But, if you're willing to give up on her without a fight, you 're not ready."
Matthew sighed; he knew his dad was right. But what if she was already with Jack? "Dad, I never thought Destiny would leave me. She's always been by my side. Now, she wants to be with Jack. What if it's too late for us?"
"Son, you're a Buchanan, it's never too late. Besides, your mother may kill you if she has to spend grandparents' nights with Todd Manning." Bo patted his son's leg before he stood to leave the room.
"Hey Dad," Matthew called out. "Thanks."
"Anytime, Son."
Matthew pulled out his phone and looked at a photo of him and Destiny after prom. Though they'd each gone with different dates, they'd wound up at the Buenos Dias together. As they waited for their parents, a nice lady assumed they were together and offered to take their picture. He'd made it the screensaver on his phone about a year before…while she was still dating Darren. He looked at her face. It was clear she adored him even then and he'd taken her affection for granted.
He dialed her number. She didn't answer. He suspected that she was still furious at him for the things he said. Somehow, he would make it up to her. He would let her know that he was as committed to her as she'd been to him. He knew Jack wouldn't make it easy, but Matthew also knew there was no way he was going to give up on his girl.