6. Lila
Lila
“I'm being fucking watched, Wendy!” I yelp into the phone as I speed walk through the pouring rain. “Do you think Larry is stalking me?” I attempt to whisper-hiss but end up shouting to be heard over the rain, and Wendy snorts.
“The man who barely left his desk chair to fuck you on the bed? No, I doubt he's even realized you're gone,” she snarks, making me snort next.
She’s not wrong, though. I expected more of a reaction when I told him I was leaving after I finally returned to the apartment Saturday morning.
He didn’t even notice I was packing until I put my bags by the door.
Still, I’m a bit freaked out right now. Glancing around the street, I spot an all black four-door sedan of some kind.
I don’t know shit about cars, so I have no idea what it is, but I swear I’ve seen it around recently.
“I'm seriously weirded out. I really think someone is watching me… I get these chills sometimes.”
“Good thing it's just me!” Wendy steps out in front of me, scaring the soul from my body, and I scream like I'm being ax-murdered.
“You evil witch!” I snarl, too distressed to worry about the rain currently pelting me as I bend at the waist and heave in air.
“Ha! You should have seen your eyes.” Wendy cackles a laugh before linking our arms and dragging me down the sidewalk beside her.
I’m still gasping for air as we make it to her apartment.
Thankfully, she’s been letting me crash on her couch for the last four nights.
Sadly, there's no end in sight. Fucking Larry.
“You’re a cruel woman,” I hiss, chest still heaving, limbs shaking from the shot of adrenaline. My scent sours the air around us with the remnants of my fear. Good thing no alphas were close by, or they would have rushed to aid the frightened omega.
“You’re being so paranoid!” Wendy releases me as she pulls out the mail key, then unlocks the box. She’s flipping through envelopes while I ring the water out of my hair. “Oh, this one’s for you.” She frowns, but hands me the card.
There’s no return address on the envelope, only my name and Wendy’s address.
“This is suspicious, right?” I squint at it, but she just shrugs.
“You changed your address with the post office already, so not really. I’m surprised you haven’t gotten more spam, honestly.”
She’s got a point.
I tear it open as we head upstairs to her apartment.
It’s a one-bedroom with a single bathroom, but it’s cozy.
She’s one of the rare omegas who has her own place, because her parents are loaded and considered progressive.
Which just means they believe their daughter should be able to live her life however the fuck she wants, regardless of her designation.
Without them signing the lease, it would be very hard for a lone omega to get her own place. Which is why I’m seriously fucked.
“Huh,” I mumble as I drop my tote by my suitcase that’s taking up half her living room. Wendy is the kind of ride or die that everyone deserves in their life.
The embossed card inside the envelope has an arcade-style font, printed with bold black and pink colors. “Join us for free this Saturday, the twentieth, at the hottest new escape room around.”
“Oh, you’re going!” Wendy snatches the card out of my hand and grins at me.
She flips the card, her grin growing as she reads it.
“I’ve heard of this place. It’s supposed to be super fun.
” Her dark blue eyes sparkle in a way that makes me a little nervous.
She is the chaos to my calm. “You did say you wanted to experience life, not just watch it pass you by. Didn’t you sign up for a bunch of other stuff as well? ”
Flashes of the night after my birthday fill my head as I think back to my drunken web search. Wendy and I stayed in and celebrated my break-up with a bottle of vodka. This, of course, led to me telling her every single detail of the night before, including the delicious alpha cuddles.
It wasn’t a very scandalous story, seeing as I passed out on Harrison’s chest and slept like a fucking rock until the early hours of the morning. I slipped out of his room unnoticed, but didn’t make it out of the apartment so lucky.
“Usually when a woman slips out of a man's room while he sleeps, it’s because she doesn’t want to face the feral things he did to her body the night before,” a deep, sleep-laced voice says from somewhere ahead of me.
I pause, considering making a run for the door, but fuck that, I have no reason to be ashamed.
“Actually–”
“But seeing as you and Harrison didn’t make so much as a peep last night, I don’t think that's the case here,” he says, cutting me off as I step forward, and a man comes into view on the couch. He’s lit up by the early morning sunlight.
“I’m sneaking out as he sleeps because Harrison is one of the most incredible alphas I’ve ever met and doesn’t deserve to be dragged into the disaster that is my life, if you must know,” I huff, flipping my messy hair over my shoulder.
“Shouldn’t that be his call? Assuming you like him, that is.”
“He’s not the only person to consider.” I shrug, not sure why I’m still standing here, defending my choices to this stranger. He’s naked except for black briefs and, oddly enough, white socks. Who sleeps in socks? Ew.
“Do you mean yourself, or his pack? Or are you already someone’s omega?”
“I was. I’m not anymore.” I shake my head. “I have to go.”
“See you soon, omega.”
“Possibly.” I wince, though I’m not sure if I’m wincing at my decision-making or the memory of the third pack member whose name I remember Harrison mentioning but can’t recall.
My email is currently filled with dating app notifications, cooking courses, and a bungee jumping sign-up. The last of which I will be canceling. I want to have more fun, not break my damn neck. Thank you very fucking much.
“Wonderful.” Wendy’s grin is half-feral, making me laugh.
“Fuck it.” I shrug. “What’s the worst that can happen?” My phone rings at that exact moment, and when I glance at the screen, it almost feels like the universe is taking my words as a dare.
“Larry?” Wendy grumbles, and I nod. “I can answer,” she offers in a way that sounds slightly threatening.
“No,” I sigh, heading for her small balcony. “I need to eventually speak to him.” Once outside, I answer, hoping I don’t sound as upset as I feel. “Hello?”
“Lila, finally,” he huffs, sounding irritated.
“Cut this shit out and come home already. Your tantrum has gone on long enough. I’m not packing anything up, and unless you’re coming over to stay, I’m not letting you grab anything else from my place.
” I guess we’re cutting straight to the point, then.
“I already told you, I’m not going to do that. I just want my stuff, Larry. I don’t need you to pack it, just let me come pick it up.”
“No, no. Stop.” He lets out this scoffing laugh that rubs me the wrong way. Like he can’t believe I would have the audacity to deny him. “Look, I’ve put up with your little tough girl act long enough. You need to come home now. Rent is due next week,” he snaps.
Ah, so that's why he’s fighting so hard to get me back. He doesn’t have money for rent.
“What’s my favorite color?” I ask, feeling the icy indifference he always subjected me to slipping over my heart.
“What? Pink. What the fuck does that matter?” he barks at me, his desperation showing. But not because he wants his girlfriend back. Not because he misses me, but rather because he wants what I did for him back.
Because he’s wrong. My favorite color isn’t pink. It’s lavender. My grandma’s favorite color. Which he would know if he knew me at all. If he knew why it was my favorite. If he knew it’s lavender because it’s the only color my grams ever wore, and it reminds me of her kind soul and loving spirit.
He knows I’m not close with my parents, and that when my grams died, I practically ghosted them. Or does he?
I laugh. I can’t help it. The sound cuts off whatever idiotic bullshit Larry was just rambling about, and I feel the final wall around my heart slot into place.
Why would I want a love like this? With a man who sees me as nothing more than an object. Who values me because of what I am, and not who I am.
I hang up and mute my phone. I can’t block the bastard because he’s holding the rest of my stuff hostage, but that doesn’t mean I have to subject myself to his bullshit.
“What’s my favorite color?” I ask Wendy as soon as I step back inside.
“Lavender, like your grams used to wear,” she says without even looking up from her phone screen.
Like, the answer is so basic and easy that it requires zero thought.
Tears sting my eyes, but not because of Larry’s lack of thought.
No, these tears are for the best friend who knows me so well that she doesn’t have to think about the answers to my favorite things.
“Yep.” I nod, pull open her freezer, and grab a tub of chocolate ice cream. What can I say? I’m a basic omega.
Basic needs. Basic wants.
Basic. I huff out a breath as I grab a spoon.
The bar is on the fucking floor, and Larry couldn’t even meet that.
Someone should have words with his mother. Not me. Someone else. Someone stronger.
“Ugh,” I grunt, the thought pissing me off. I should be stronger. Braver.
Maybe I will go bungee jumping after all. What's that saying? Courage isn’t a lack of fear, but the ability to do things while afraid.
I snatch my phone off the cushion where I tossed it and head to the website on the back of the escape room invitation.
In three clicks, I RSVP.
I will never let an alpha treat me like I’m less than, ever again.