Not His Omega To Love by GS Holmes

15Cody

Piper: I’m sorry. Izzy’s car broke down this morning. Can’t pick you up.

I groanedat Piper’s message. Great. Now I had to rely on Reggie to drop me off at school. He was always so surly as if he thought I was going to change my mind and require anything from him for the baby.

“What’s wrong?” Ethan breezed into the kitchen, dressed in faded jeans and a T-shirt that clung to his huge chest and biceps. His dark hair was still damp from his shower, and I wanted to pull him upstairs, get the towel, and rub the strands dry.

I shuffled where I stood at the island, drinking my habitual peppermint tea. I’d never been this horny before, but it was like the hormone changes my body was going through made me aware of Ethan in ways I shouldn’t be.

“Piper can’t pick me up for school,” I said. “I’ll have to grab a ride with Reggie.”

“Oh, Reggie already left, but I can drop you off on the way.”

“I don’t…” Ethan raised his eyes, and I swallowed the words. “Okay, let me grab my bag.”

“You have enough lunch money?”

“I don’t need any. The cafeteria food is gross. It makes me want to hurl, so I made a sandwich.”

“Just a sandwich?”

“I’m good.” Before he could argue, I bolted out of the kitchen and up the stairs to get my bag from my bedroom. I stood next to the bed. How long would it take me to jerk off before going to school? That would take some of the edge off how horny I was.

But he’s waiting.

I grabbed my backpack and took the stairs down a lot more slowly. With the baggy sweatshirt I had on, no one would suspect that I was pregnant. It had worked so far for the past three weeks, but I could no longer close the buttons on my jeans. Thankfully only a few weeks left in school. My belly was growing faster than I’d anticipated.

“Ready?” Ethan asked.

“Yes.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Remember your appointment to see the doctor is next week,” he told me when we were in the car, driving to the school. “We’ll get a note from your doctor to explain your absence.”

“I can’t believe I’m graduating soon.”

“See, you’ve done it.”

Yes, I couldn’t have without this man who took me in and insisted on looking out for me and my child.

“Almost,” I whispered.

He didn’t drop me off at the corner and insist I walk the rest of the way. He didn’t even drop me off at the school gates. Ethan drove onto the school grounds and parked.

“I should be home early today,” he said. “You want to practice your valedictory speech on me?”

“All right. I can make us dinner.”

“You’ve cooked almost every night since you’ve been living with me… us. I’ll order something tonight, and you can concentrate on your speech.”

“I don’t mind cooking.”

“Cody.”

“Okay.”

“One more thing.” He dug into his pocket and retrieved his wallet. “Now I don’t want to hear it.”

He took my hand and put five ten-dollar bills in my palm. How can I take money from him? But how can I turn it down when I’m all out of cash?

“For the baby,” he said.

It was always for the baby when he wanted me to accept his generosity.

“Thank you.”

I climbed out of his car and closed the door, ignoring the curious gazes as I made my way across the parking lot. Reggie and his friends were fooling around on the grass as usual.

“Hey, dude, isn’t that your dad’s car?” One of his friends asked aloud. “What’s he doing with that omega?”

I lowered my head and hurried inside. I didn’t want to hear Reggie’s response. A student jostled past me, almost knocking me to the ground, and I sidestepped another. With the weeks counting down to graduation, the hallways were buzzing with activity, friends using what was left of the time to spend every moment together.

And mine waited for me at my locker.

“How’s Daddy McHotty?” Rhett asked, and I laughed, shaking my head.

“Still unavailable and uninterested.”

“Shucks,” Rhett groaned. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re trying to hog him all to yourself. You won’t even let us visit.”

Open. Open. The stupid locker took forever to open, but I buried my face inside to hide the guilt that was for sure stamped on my forehead.

“Uh-oh, what’s that look?” Piper asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lie. Do whatever it takes so your friends won’t find out about the embarrassing crush you have on Ethan.

“I think you like him.”

I snorted. Good. Keep it up. “Of course, I like him. He’s a saint, and he’s letting me stay in his house rent-free despite you-know-what.”

“But that’s not all there is, is it?”

How long could I keep looking through my locker for a book that was already in my bag? At what point would they realize I was stalling?

“Come to think of it, he was pretty worked up that night we went to see him about you staying in that sleazy motel,” Piper said.

“And they were quite chummy at the restaurant. Remember that, Piper?”

I shut the locker with a bang and glared at them. “Will you two stop that? I can’t have a crush on him.”

Piper waggled her brows. “But you didn’t say you don’t.” She wound her arm through mine. “How long has this been going on?”

Oh, what’s the use of lying?

“I don’t know. It sort of caught me out of the blue, but anyone would have a crush on him. The man’s wonderful.”

“I’m just trying not to be miffed that you stole my future baby Daddy,” Rhett said.

I scowled at him. “Cut it out.”

“Oh my god, you’re so into him.”

My face flamed. “I can’t be into him. I’m pregnant.”

Someone gasped beside us, and I spun around. Two omega students were staring at me, hands clapped over their mouths. Oh no. Had they heard? This was why I never talked about this at school.

“Just keep walking.” Piper poked me in the back. “For all they know, we’re joking around.”

“Yeah.” Who would believe Cody Gooden got himself pregnant?

“Let’s not talk about this anymore.”

* * *

At lunch hour,I had to rush to the bathroom to relieve my bladder. A couple of omegas exiting the room covered their mouths and giggled when they saw me. My heart skipped a beat, but I shook off the alarm that speared through me. You’re being paranoid, is all.

I stopped and stared at the writing on the wall in black bold letters. “Cody Gooden slept with his boyfriend’s dad and got pregnant.” They’d used a red marker to draw lines beneath the word dad and pregnant. Surrounding the sentence were the words slut, whore, and a whole lot more that got distorted behind the tears.

I sucked in a deep breath and escaped into one of the bathroom cubicles. They can’t make me cry. They can’t. It didn’t matter the lies they’d written. How did they know about Reggie and me anyway? Someone must have seen us at one point when we’d been dating, or they’d never make such connections now.

Avoiding looking at the wall, I washed my hands and didn’t even bother to dry them. I walked right out of the bathroom and into Reggie lurking in the hall.

“Hey, we need to talk.” He took me by the shoulder, and I went along without a word. We turned down another corridor that brought us to the science lab. The door was open. Reggie peeked inside, then stepped in.

“I thought you were being careful,” he said.

“I was.”

“Yet it’s going around school that you’re pregnant? That someone overheard you talking about it with your friends.” He paced in front of me. “What are you trying to pull?”

“I don’t know what you mean?”

“Everyone’s saying it’s my dad’s.”

“Why would anyone think that?”

“You mean besides the fact that he dropped you off at school this morning?” he snapped. “Now anyone who saw you and I together is talking. Saying shit about us not dating long because you were fucking my dad.”

“Don’t you dare talk to me like that, Reggie Finch!” I glared at him.

He had the grace to flush. “I’m sorry. I just can’t own this.”

My chest rose and fell. “So, you’re going to let them all think I slept with your father when you can make this right?”

“It’s too late to make this right. I already told you I don’t want this baby, so yeah, I’m not going to say anything at all, and I’d appreciate you not dragging my name into this either.”

“But what am I supposed to say?”

He shrugged. “Omegas sleep with older rich guys all the time.”

“Don’t be an asshole.”

“I can’t accept this responsibility. I don’t know what you’ll say, but leave me out of it, please.”

I shuffled back through the door. “Got it.”

There was no way I was going to the cafeteria after everything. Instead, I went to the library, where I wasn’t allowed to eat, but I was no longer hungry anyway. I dug my phone out of my pocket and scrolled to Ethan’s name. No. That was the problem. I reached out to him for everything. I put my phone back and opened my textbook, but I couldn’t concentrate at all, my thoughts going back to the horrible graffiti taunting me.

I made it in the classroom just before the bell rang and was relieved the teacher was already there. During class, I blocked out the whispers and stares, not wanting to give my classmates the satisfaction they’d gotten to me. I succeeded until someone tapped my shoulder and extended a piece of paper to me. Foolishly, I opened it, then crumbled it tightly into a ball, but the words stayed.

“How many men did our valedictorian fuck to make a baby?”

And then the intercom crackled with an announcement.

“Cody Gooden, please come to the principal’s office immediately.”

The students snickered. Blood rushed into my ears, and I couldn’t for the life of me get my legs to cooperate.

“Cody,” Mrs. Lane called to me from the front of the class. “You heard the announcement. Please go to the principal’s office.”

Without a word, I grabbed my schoolbag and stuffed my books inside. This could be about only one thing. The walk to the principal’s office took forever. His secretary, Mrs. Potts, greeted me with a tight smile.

“Principal Wexler is waiting for you. Go right ahead.”