Chapter 38 Raven
RAVEN
“Okay,” Harriett says. “I want at least eight poses so I have some variety to use for social content.”
How much social content do people really want to see from the failed omega? Why can’t skating just be about skating? Why does everything have to be publicized and spun and marketed? Harriett’s explained to me over and over how I’m not just a skater, I’m a brand, but I still hate it.
Sighing, I step in front of the mural, right under Gran Elizabeth, and smile.
“That’s your fake smile, Raven,” Coach admonishes.
I try to correct my face without really knowing how. I didn’t have so much trouble when I did the photoshoot for The Hart Foundation. But Coach’s hard gaze sets me on edge. What am I even supposed to do with my hands? Standing here by myself is so awkward.
Harriett makes a disgusted face as she looks at her phone screen to review the shots. “Ugh, no.” She turns to Foster. “Say something funny.”
“What?”
“Say something funny so she’ll laugh.”
“I can’t just—”
He’s cut off by the guys bursting out of the arena and Vann yelling, “Raven!”
Their hair is dripping wet, and they’re all panting like they raced through showers to make sure they didn’t miss us. It’s so comical that the guys who ostracized me in high school are now racing to get to me that I laugh. A genuine laugh.
“That’s it!” Harriett says. “Just like that.”
Vann runs straight toward me and scoops me up before spinning me around.
“Keep shooting,” Coach says even though I know we won’t want to use this.
We can’t have people thinking I’m an alpha-hungry omega.
But, hell, who am I kidding? The second I’m in Vann’s arms, all the tension I didn’t know I was carrying melts away.
The jittery feeling that was making me anxiously ruminate, quiets.
Maybe I totally am an alpha-hungry slut. But why does it have to be him?
The second he sets me on my feet, I take a giant step back, but only manage to run into Orion’s broad chest. He throws his arms around me from behind and nuzzles his nose in my hair. “Missed you, omega.”
I hear the snap of the camera.
“I can’t use this,” Harriett hisses.
“Raven might want these pictures for herself,” Ana says. “They’re old friends afterall.” The way she says friends makes me uneasy, like she’s making fun of me subtly.
Friends. Right. I laugh again, this time with less humor.
“Hey, it’s one of the omegas!” someone yells.
A group of people exiting the arena stop to look our way. Before any of them can get any ideas about coming over to pester me, the guys have closed ranks. Joined by Foster, they create a barrier between me and the fans, guiding me over to Harriett.
“We should leave,” Harriett says. “I’ve gotten enough.”
There’s a small part of me that wants to stay and stare up at Gran Elizabeth a little while longer.
I wish she could tell me what her experience at the Olympics was like.
Did she have fun or was it just all schedules and competition and anxiety?
But she died before I was born. All I know of her is the legacy she left behind.
One I was expected to live up to and exceed.
But I didn’t.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Tanner whispers, walking beside me as we leave the area following Harriett.
“What’s hard?”
“Living under that kind of shadow.” His chin jerks at the mural just before we turn the corner and leave it.
“What would you know about it?”
“More than you think.” He picks up his pace, not giving me a chance to ask what he means. He’s clearly said everything he wants to about it. For now, anyway.
I’m left feeling like he parted a curtain without pulling it back to let in the light. I don’t know if I’m ready to forgive, but I want to see more of what’s behind the curtain. I want to know who Tanner West really is.