THE ALPHA'S BEAUTIFUL REJECT

3. Birthday plans

CHAPTER THREE

1. BIRTHDAY PLANS

There is a reason I’m growing quite agitated today and its barely only halfway through the damn day. Forget Valentina and her usual efforts to bully me. It just so happens to be Jack that is slowly getting on the last of my nerves. He is more interested in my birthday tomorrow than I do. Its all he has been talking about since morning and between classes. We have just taken our lunch trays, filling them with our lunch. He is making such a big deal out of it.

“I mean what if the most insane thing happens and you end up being the mate to one the high-ranking families’ kids?” He hurries after me while we make it to the usual corner of the cafeteria.

“Right. Because I’m the main character in a cheesy romance novel, ‘It takes everything in me not to roll my eyes.

“No need to be sarcastic,” we sit down but clearly, he is not done fussing over my birthday tomorrow, “So what plans does your mum have for this particular birthday?”

“Same as always. Dinner with her after my shift at the bookstore, a home-made birthday cake that we share, her, Aunt Mads, your mum, you and me. Then we call it a night,” I shrug, pointing out the obvious.

“But this one is like the epitome of your life. You get to have your wolf tomorrow. Finally, you and I could train to like have our wolves communicate. I heard that if we work extra hard, we can make it happen even if we are not intimate partners,” he says, pushing his glasses further up his nose bridge while stabbing his fork into a tater tot.

“That could actually be fun and-“I don’t get to finish before I felt the coldness of something sweet-smelling from my hair and soak into my clothes. It doesn’t take me a second to know that Valentina just dumped her mixed fruit slushie on my hair.

“Happy pre-birthday, Mutt,” she smirks while the rest of the students in the cafeteria descends into shrieks of laughter. When my gaze connects with the teacher on this week’s duty, he just looks away and so does the dining hall monitor. Of course, there is nothing they can do when it comes to her. The Baldwins are among the richest and most influential families in town. It doesn’t help that Mr. Baldwin is not only one the school’s most prominent sponsors but a board member too.

There are tears collecting at the narrow sleet ends of my eyes, begging to just flow and its taking everything in me to hold them back. Seeing me cry would be like handing her a golden trophy and that’s the one thing I’ll never do. Besides, if everything goes well, I’ll be out of this town sooner than I had planned. She walks away with her group of minions to the table where Brian, Theo and Mateo are sitting at the far end of the hall, very much surprised that they made it to lunch this early. Usually, the trio would come way after. I follow her with my eyes until she sits down next to Theo, their lips touching for a brief peck. Goddess, I hope their lips fall off or they get mono or something even worse. The bitter thought is barely complete in my head before I find myself having my attention sidetracked.

My heart stops. Because for the first time Mateo is looking at me and I can feel my heart picking up speed. Who cares if I’m a mess right now? Mateo f*****g Ortega is looking right at me. Not a second long kind of stare. Its longer and almost feels like he is staring right through my soul. Almost like he can see only me in the entire room. Suddenly he breaks the stare and goes back into conversation with the rest of the three musketeers.

Right. What exactly had I thought? That he would be my prince in shining armor? That this is an episode of some cheesy high school romance series? Popular kids like him don’t look twice at people like me.

“You are crying,” Jack’s whisper filters through my wall of disappointment.

“What?” My fingers flickers over my right cheek and sure enough there is a warm trickle of tears mixing with the slushie still dripping from my knotless braids., “ I’ll be back,”

I rush out of the cafeteria and straight into the girls’ washroom. It takes a few minutes but I manage to get almost all the mess out of my hair and clothes. It does leave me wet unfortunately. I text Jack to bring me a dress from my locker and I wait. Barely a few minutes later, there is a knock and when I open the door leading to the hallway to get the dress from Jack, my heart stops for the second time today. No, its not Jack standing there looking back at me. Neither is it Mateo. Its someone else.

Theo stands before me, hands pushed deep in the pockets of his black, handknitted and clearly expensive pants. His whiskey-colored eyes which are usually cold, are now filled with what I can only assume is wrath.

“T-This is the girl’s bathroom,” I stutter, confusion taking over my features.

“How long has this been going on?” His voice is low, firm and clearly, he sounds pissed.

“Excuse me?” I question, still trying grasp the meaning of whatever is going on here.

He is about to open his mouth when Jack appears, running with the dress in hand. Theo gives me one stare and walks away just when Jack comes to a halt, his breath labored like he just ran a hundred miles.

“What the hell was that?” He questions in between bouts of breath, clearly refereeing to Theo.

“Beats me,” I answer, my gaze trailing towards where Theo just disappeared.

I accept the dress, changing into it before we went to AP biology. Jack excuses himself to spend the remaining twenty-five minutes of lunch break at the Robotics club room. Taking advantage of the quietness, I lay my head down, knowing full well, soon my stomach will be rumbling from hunger. This time, I hadn’t taken a single bite before Valentina chose to dump her slushie on me.

“Mango, mixed or strawberry?”

My head snaps up at the familiarity of that voice and instantly connects with Mateo’s russet brown eyes. In his hand, he is holding three different juice boxes but I’m too confused and transfixed by his beautiful smile.

“Huh?” I mutter.

He places the boxes on my desk then pulls a chair and sits on it, the smile never fading from his face, “Well, I heard a little rumor that tomorrow is your birthday. Your seventeenth to be precise. Quite an important that one is for a member of the pack. So, what’s your pick? Mango, mixed or Strawberry?”

“Strawberry,” I answer more meekly than I intended to. What in the f*****g cliche romance movie is happening right now?

“Good pick, “he stands up, leaving all three boxes on my desk and stops at the exit for a second., turning around, “Oh, and tomorrow Brian is throwing a party. You can come with that friend of yours. Jack, is it?”

“Yeah,” he smiles at my answer and disappears out of the door.

Okay, something weird is definitely in the air. That, or I’m caught in a very strange dream that I hopefully would wake up soon from.