Chapter 4-Revon

“What a jerk,” Avery muttered as we sat at our usual table at the corner of the cafeteria. “Did you guys hear about what happened in Hallway C?”

The rest of our friend group sat at the corner table near the garbage cans, the least desirable spot. Eaton, Quinn, and KC raised their head as we slumped in our seats. All scholarship students had their specialty. Avery was the artist. Eaton was the geek. Quinn was a swimmer, and KC unironically called himself a hacker. They were a bunch of goofs, but good people, and I’d been friends with them since we all started here.

All of them were also Betas. They were quite happy when I lied to them about my designation.

“Yeah, we did. Sucks to be you, man,” KC replied with a wince.

“She shouldn’t have done that to you,” Quinn said in that quiet voice of hers. “Isn’t she supposed to be your friend?”

“Whatever,” I muttered. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

After everything that happened yesterday, I did not think my life could get worse, but clearly I was wrong. Right now, I was barely holding it together, and I needed to get through the school day without breaking down.

When they told me I was a late-presenting Omega, I didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be. I never felt like an Omega, didn’t act like one. Now, I knew that there were stereotypes about Omegas. They were weak-willed and less assertive. Never leaders, always followers. Always so sensitive, only caring about finding an Alpha. Feelings before facts. Babies, flowers, and freshly baked bread. 

I wasn’t prejudiced, but as soon as Dr. Lewis said I was an Omega, all I could think was, “But I’ve never had a crush on an Alpha!”

I’ve always identified with being a Beta. So, I was ready to present as one.

Even after getting the news, I still didn’t feel any different; I was just me. Even though Dad made me wear a scent patch, I would only get a distinct Omega scent once I had my first heat. Until then, I could coast on by, but Dad didn’t want to take any chances, so there I was.

Even though I tried not to let it worry me, it did. I just couldn’t let it go. I thought that I would get to just ruminate on that instead of all this drama, and maybe talk to the Omega classmates in my grade. Get a feel of my situation, try to unlearn some prejudices, and come to terms with my condition.

I may have been pheromone blind, but biology was biology. There was no use denying it. Even though Dad would never let me be an Omega, and I didn’t particularly want to present as one, I had to come to terms with the reality and understand what I was.

But then Annalise happened, and suddenly, I was the school laughingstock.

My tried and true method of dealing with life’s hardships was to either snark at it or ignore it, and I did not feel like snarking, so ignoring it was.

“That’s going to be hard to do,” Eaton said, looking over my head. “Heads up.”

With dread settling in my stomach, I did, only to see Annalise coming at us with us, holding her bougie insulated lunch bag and wearing a smile. The entire cafeteria stopped minding their own business.

Oh, God, the drama is not going to end, is it?

“Hey, guys,” she said, “what’s up?”

“What the hell are you doing?” Avery demanded as she touched a chair.

Annalise blinked at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“You've got some nerve to show you face back here after what you did to Revon,” Quinn said, glaring daggers at her. “How could you, Annalise? He’s your oldest friend.”

“Oh, that’s what this is about?” Annalise actually rolled her eyes. “Look, don’t misunderstand it. Revon made things weird with his love confession, and I was just trying to loosen things up. You know, make everyone laugh.”

“You made fun of Revon to loosen things up?” Eaton snorted. “Yeah, pull the other leg, Annalise.”

Annalise frowned. “You guys are really taking sides over this? Come on, Revon, are you turning our friends on me?”

KC snorted, looking at Annalise with barely hidden contempt. “Let’s stop pretending, Annalise. You just used Revon’s confession to bully him and ask Adam out.”

“That’s not what happened. You’re my friends, I thought you would support me over this!”

“Except we aren’t really friends, are we?” Quinn asked. “You always made it clear that you didn’t really belong with us. You’re just here because Revon, and now that you’re betrayed Revon, that link's broken. How can we be your friends?”

That sounded harsh, but she wasn’t wrong. Annalise wasn’t close with them. Sure, she sat with us for lunch from time to time, and she spoke with them time to time, but mostly, she paid attention to me.

Annalise gritted his teeth. “So, just because I said no to Revon, I’m the bad guy? A girl doesn’t have a choice anymore? What is this, the 1950s? I have to go out with every Alpha and Beta who asks me out?”

“Don’t turn this into something it isn’t. We wouldn’t have given two shits if you let him down and got together with Adam. I would be the first one to congratulate you as long as you’re happy. The problem is that in order to do that, you humiliated the boy you claimed is your friend, and you still think there’s nothing wrong with it!” Avery burst out. “If you’re a decent person, you will apologize to Revon.”

Annalise glared at us all. Then, her glare turned to me.

“You’re going to let them talk to me like that?”

I didn’t answer. I didn’t trust myself to be reasonable.

So, I looked away.

“Revon, look at me!”

I did not.

“Revon, I said, look at me!”

With that, she lunged forward, snatched my arm, and pulled me to my feet.

The action was so out of line that I didn’t have the chance to prepare myself for it. I lost my balance and tried to grab onto anything that would keep me from falling.

Thankfully, Avery jumped into action and clutched my waist with both arms.

“Ahhh!” Annalise's voice came in the form of a cry.

Following the sound, I look down at the floor.

The entire cafeteria burst into action.

“Oh, my god, he pushed her!”

“Dude, that’s out of line. You don’t treat an Omega girl like that.”  

“First, he got their friends to turn on her, and then he hurt her! What a douche!”

“She only said no to him!”

“I suppose it’s tit for tat. Humiliation for humiliation.”

“Adam’s going to have a handful with this one if Revon keeps hating on his Omega.”

And then a different voice came. Commanding and angry.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”