Page 38 of A Second Chance for the Beta
I sit up, brushing over my arms. “Yeah, I guess so.” When I try to stand up again, though, I feel a piercing pain in my left foot. “Or not,” I mutter.
Austen approaches me, his expression worried. “Your foot?”
“My ankle.”
“Okay, come.” He and Gisela help me back to the benches to take a rest.
“Can you move it?” Austen asks, carefully circling my foot.
“Yeah.”
“Doesn’t seem like it’s broken,” he says. “Just cool it and be careful during the next couple of days. We are not heading out for skating until the weekend anyway.”
“How come you know so much about this?”
“Austen’s mom is a doctor, and his dad is a warrior with first-aid knowledge,” Gisela explains.
I didn’t know that. Originally, I bonded with Gisela because I’m not really in the mood for boys. “Cool!” I say, noticing how Austen blushes. Ty is the hot one, but Austen is kind of cute too.
“It’s past midnight,” Gisela says. “Maybe we should go back. Mom’s pretty chilled, but I don’t think she is going to be happy if she finds out that I’m not home.”
“Yeah, same,” Austen agrees. “Let’s not push our luck.”
He gets up and hurries to Ty, talking with him. Once he returns, he grabs my arm to steady me. “Ty’s staying,” he says. “I’ll take you home.”
Gisela grabs my skateboard. She looks very delicate, like a little angel, with her long blonde hair and her pink hair tie. I completely misjudged her at first, which makes me feel pissed at myself. I hate people who judge a book by its cover. I thought she would be too girly for me to click with her, but she is really nice and fun. We are going to be in the same class together in school too, which is great.
We make it back to the packhouse without anyone seeing us. The beta suite is located at the backside of the building, so at least we are not prancing around right in front of the entrance. To my horror, the light is on in Ella’s and Dante’s room, but I don’t see any movement, so I don’t think they noticed my absence.
“How are we going to get you up this tree?” Gisela mutters.
“I will climb up with Charlie,” Austen says. “You are pretty fit; I think we can do it, Charlie.”
I feel proud that he calls me fit. So, while the sheer height of the tree scares me now with my foot being hurt, I don’t want to be a baby. With Gisela’s help, I make it up to the first branch, and then climb up further with Austen pulling me along and helping me with my balance. My window is still open, which means neither Ella nor Dante noticed I was gone.
“My skateboard?” I whisper to Austen.
“I will take it with me. I have a few of them; my parents won’t notice it,” Austen answers in a low voice.
“Thank you. Good night,” I say while climbing into my room.
“Bye, Charlie. See you tomorrow.” He pauses. “You are kind of cool.”
“You too,” I say before finally landing in my room. I watch Austen while he climbs back down and then how he and Gisela disappear into the darkness. I hope they get back home without being seen, but I trust them. It’s not the first time they have done this.
Once in the safety of my room, I feel all the stress falling from me. For a few minutes, I just sit on my bed, taking a few breaths. I have snuck around in the orphanage back then, but this is the first time I did something so risky.
What the fuck was I thinking? I feel shocked at the risks I took but also amazed and a bit guilty.
I don’t regret it though… do I?
With a sigh, I get up to change and attend to my ankle. I thank God or rather Goddess that there is a little bathroom attached to my room, giving me some privacy and the chance to wrap a cold, wet towel around my ankle.
How am I going to explain this to Dante and Ella? I could tell them I dropped out of bed… or stumbled on the bathroom floor. I took a bath today, so I’m sure they will believe me when I say I fell on the slippery floor.
Good plan.
With that, I drop into my bed, and my eyes wander to my phone, thinking about Mom and how she twirled in her dress. I’m too tired to think about it further or to even dream.
