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I pulled out my phone and texted Marta.
Dorothy
I’m at a table in the corner.
Her reply was almost instant.
Marta
Ooh, lunch by ourselves? Guess that means Ace is playing hooky today?
Dorothy
Hurry! So much to tell you.
While I waited for her, I looked around to make sure no one could see what I was doing, then I pulled up Google on my phone. I put the word omega in the search bar.
I know, I know, I told Ace I would wait for him and not to do my own research but I couldn’t stop replaying his and Madoc’s conversation over and over in my head as I tried to connect the dots.
The more I thought about it, the more none of it made any sense. It was all starting to drive me crazy.
What Ace doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?
The first thing that came up from my search was a fancy watch company, so I edited my search to say omega definition.
Google informed me that omega was the last letter of the Greek alphabet, which I already knew, and I scrolled down until I came across the search suggestion: What does it mean to be called an omega?
This brought me to a Wikipedia page for something called omegaverse.
According to the description of this fictional genre of literature—which seemed to be very popular among readers—an “omega” was a “submissive,” and an “alpha”
was a “dominant.”
I had no idea what that meant but I felt my stomach roll with anxiety nonetheless. I was about to keep scrolling when I heard Marta’s voice behind me.
“Why are you looking up the definition of omega?” she asked. “Are you studying Greek or something?”
I jumped and slammed my phone down on the table, covering it with my hand.
“What?”
I scanned the room for anybody listening to our conversation—lord forbid someone run off and tell Ace—but was relieved to find everyone minding their own business.
Even Madoc was too busy looking down at his own phone to notice that something worth his attention was happening across the room.
“Jesus, what’s got you so jumpy?” Marta took the seat next to me, setting her lunch down in front of her. “Does this have something to do with whatever it is you’re so desperate to tell me?”
I looked around us one more time to double-check that no one was listening to us and then nodded. “Yeah, I, uh, I sort of lost my virginity last night,” I whispered.
Marta’s squeal was immediate and incredibly loud. “You did what? ”
“Shh! Keep your voice down!” I slapped her arm.
“Was it with Ace?” Marta prodded. “Who am I kidding? Of course it was with Ace.
Was it good? Did he make you cum? How are you even walking—?”
Someone cleared their throat loudly behind us. I whirled around and did a double take when I saw Madoc looking down at us.
How the hell did he get over here so fast? I just saw him sitting across the room, like, ten seconds ago.
“Madoc, I already told you, I don’t need a babysitter—” I started to say.
“I’m here to suggest that you put this conversation on pause,” Madoc said, cutting me off. His tone was much more serious than I was expecting.
Marta raised her brow. “So Ace is definitely playing hooky today.”
Marta knew that every time Ace left me alone at school, Madoc was put in charge of watching me. She also knew it drove me absolutely insane.
“He had a family emergency or something. At least, that’s what he told me,” I explained. I looked back at Madoc. “Why should we put our conversation on pause?”
Madoc lowered his voice. “Because I’m pretty sure you don’t want everyone in the cafeteria hearing what you’re talking about.”
Heat blasted my cheeks, and I looked around us. No one was watching us, thank goodness, but I did notice it was a tad quieter than it had been moments ago. Maybe they really were listening to us…
“Okay, I know I’m loud but I’m not that loud,” Marta replied, coming to my defense.
“There’s hardly anyone around us. I seriously doubt anybody can hear us.”
Madoc crossed his massive arms over his chest. “I beg to differ.”
“Fine, then what were we talking about?” Marta challenged.
Madoc kept his eyes on me. “I don’t think you want me to say it out loud. But it had to do with a certain activity you and Ace got up to last night.”
All the blood drained from my face.
How did he hear that? He had been on the other side of this massive room, and there was a bunch of commotion happening between us that should have drowned it out.
Marta scoffed. “You’re bluffing. You would have to have superhuman hearing or something.”
“Or maybe you just have really bad hearing,” Madoc shot back.
His eyes softened when he took in my distress. “Look, it’s no big deal. That’s why I came over here. I didn’t think you wanted the whole school to know the details is all. And I know Ace doesn’t.”
Madoc’s phone started to ring in his pocket. He fished it out immediately. “Ace.”
My eyes widened. I grabbed my phone, noting that I had missed two calls from my boyfriend in the last few minutes.
“She’s fine,” Madoc said under his breath. He looked me up and down as if to confirm that his words were true. “Just a small hiccup. It was my fault. Not a big deal.”
Marta looked at me and mouthed, What the hell?
I shrugged. I had the sudden urge to bang my head against the table. “Welcome to my life,” I grumbled to her.
Marta’s eyebrows tugged together. She looked as bewildered as I felt. It was actually nice to share my never-ending confusion with someone. Made me feel a little less insane.
“Your boyfriend wants to talk to you,” Madoc said, holding his phone out. “Careful, he has a short fuse today.”
As if I didn’t know that already. As if he didn’t always have a short fuse.
I sighed and took the cell from him. “I’ll be right back,” I told Marta.
I walked through the nearby doors that led outside, where I was sure my conversation would be in private. Well, private with the exception of Madoc who, of course, followed close behind.
Thankfully, he gave me a wide berth and wandered over to some nearby trees, pretending to look very interested in their leaves.
I brought the phone to my ear. “Hello?”