Chapter 54: Jeez, Is It Cuffing Season?
Ethan shifts in the hard wooden chair, leaning forward to ease his weight off of his numb butt. It’s not the most comfortable seat when he’s been sitting on it for a few hours without getting up. The beta diverts his gaze to his phone to check the time and sighs. He’s been at the library for exactly three and a half hours, and not once during that time did he take a break. Now is as good a time as any.
He nudges the text book in front of him away from the edge of the table and reaches up to rub the tiredness from his eyes when his vision grows blurry. A cold breeze from the vent above him makes the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. He reaches up to rub it, hoping to ease the goosebumps away. He shivers and frowns, glancing around at the other tables around him.
The library is relatively empty today, only a few people scattered throughout the room. A few scan the shelves, scanning the titles of books in the fiction section, while a couple sit at a table a few feet away. They seem like students too, and Ethan wonders if they’re also cramming for their midterms as well.
A soft groan comes from across him, and Ethan turns to look at Beck. His hair is a mess from running his hand through it too many times, and the dark circles beneath his eyes are heavy. The beta has his midterm in two days, that’s what he told Ethan when he offered to come with him. He looks exhausted, like he hasn’t gotten a proper good night’s sleep in days. Soon that’s going to be Ethan.
He doesn’t look forward to it, if he’s honest. He has half the mind to tell his mom to forget sending him back to college. That he should focus on the restaurant too, but he doesn’t want to disappoint her.
"He’s totally going to kick me out." Beck mutters beneath his breath as he glares down at his notebook. Ethan raises an eyebrow, not sure if he was meant to hear it. He looks like he’s about to have a mental breakdown, and he’d rather not deal with that.
"You’re uncle?" Ethan asks anyway, needing a distraction from the way his brain fries inside of his head from all the information he’s been cramming inside it.
Beck glances up and sighs, "Yeah." He presses a finger into the paper he’s been writing his notes in, "He said if I don’t ace my test, then he’s going to send me back to my parents." He reaches up to tug at his messy hair, "The commute from their house to the campus is ridiculous."
Ethan cringes. He doesn’t know the convenience store owner well, just that he’s nice enough to give him freebies every once in a while when he comes in to buy snacks. It’s times like this that he wishes Leo is with him. Leo knows how to keep a conversation going with his outgoing personality. He knows how to break awkward silence, whereas Ethan is usually the cause for it.
Beck doesn’t seem to mind though as he gets distracted by his vibrating phone. Relieved that he doesn’t have to reply, Ethan glances around the library once more. The vent above him has stopped blowing air for a brief moment, but the strange chill doesn’t go away. The library is quiet, it’s almost eerie with how little people are here.
Ethan rubs the back of his neck and glances behind him, half expecting to find someone looking over him because of the unease that rises from the pit of his stomach, but frowns when he doesn’t find anyone. No one is paying him any attention, but the feeling doesn’t go away.
He turns to face forward and watches as Beck grows red in the face, his cheeks splitting from a grin. "You were just groaning over studying." Ethan scoffs, "Now look at you."
Beck glances up, his eyebrows raising, "My girlfriend texted me." He shrugs halfheartedly, his gaze dropping back to his phone. He nearly giggles like a school boy, and Ethan scoffs.
"Jeez, is it cuffing season?" He mutters in disbelief. First it’s Leo, and now it’s Beck. If he didn’t know better, he’d say his mother is next in line to catch feelings. He glances down at his text book and frowns. He’d rather study and stick with something set in stone. Ethan bites his lip, Chris still hasn’t gotten back to him after he sent the text asking if they could talk. He’s starting to think that maybe the omega really did block him.
"Do you want a drink?" Ethan draws Beck’s attention back to him when he stands up, his chair pushing back. He digs through his backpack and pulls out his wallet, "I’m going to get a coffee from the vending machine out in the hall."
"No, thanks though." Beck says, his eyes dropping back to his phone when it vibrates.
There are two machines out in the hall, one for drinks and the other for snacks. Ethan debates getting a bag of chips but decides against it. He’d rather not get the text books dirty by accident. He pulls out a crinkled bill and straightens it out before inserting it into the plastic mouth that will suck in his paper.
After picking up the canned drink, he pauses when he straightens back up. A familiar figure walks down the hallway. Ethan squints at the slick black hair and expensive clothes.
Is that Zander? He narrows his eyes but the person disappears around the corner. Is that why Ethan has been feeling off? Did Zander follow him here? Before the beta can think twice about it, he chases after him. But when Ethan turns the corner, no one is there.
Frowning, he scratches the side of his face and heads back to the library. Was he seeing things? Seeing things that aren’t really there?