Page 3 of Secrets & Stoners
The alpha in front of me stilled, blue eyes blazing with desire, as did one of the other men behind him. Eliza didn’t pay any attention to his reaction though. Despite being a fucking bombshell, she was fairly oblivious to most of the flirting and advances thrown her way. If we didn’t point it out, she would likely be single forever. “Thanks for the help. Let’s go, Hazel.”
“Thanks for the help, boys!” I waved at them over my shoulder as she manhandled me to the back of the truck.
“You omegas need a place to hang out, you’re welcome at Neon Nights.”
“Oh, Eliza, isn’t that where you have your interview tomorrow?” I asked my friend who shushed me fervently.
I threw a wink over my shoulder at the two interested alphas, receiving a lazy grin and a wave of acknowledgement before they walked away.Gotta help a fellow omega out, and I think those two could definitely help her get her groove back.
“Do we need to have a talk about stranger danger, Hazel?” Eliza hissed at me, but that only had me cracking up all over again. If only she knew that I’d walked up to the bar and asked for help. She’d have a never ending lecture going without hesitation.
“No, Eliza,” I deadpanned. “It’s broad daylight, and there was a huge group of them. Plus, he was the president of the MC. They have codes and shit. I was fine.”
She muttered to herself about reckless friends and heart attacks as she hoisted herself into the truck and started to unload our stuff. I had half a mind to go back and offer pizza and beer to the entirety of the bar just to help us carry this stuff upstairs. Who knew that four omegas could have so much shit? Teagan was the only one of us that didn’t have a ton, and that was because she’d lived most of her life on the road, so she’d never put much thought into material possessions. Most of her belongings consisted of her cameras and tripods that she used for her blog.
Now, Eliza, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. She’d filled half the moving truck herself, so Sienna and I were stuck shoving what we could in the remaining space.
“I’m slowly dying,” Sienna groaned as she passed me yet another box markedEliza. I passed it down and looked around for Teagan, who was supposed to be setting them on the sidewalk, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Teagan?” I called out, but there was no response.
Somehow, she’d snuck away while we continued to unload. She was gone long enough that Eliza was getting huffy, and I was about to drag her back out here. Knowing our luck, she had run into a cute, flirty alpha or found somewhere to take some pictures. I swore we were always having to drag her back to reality, and right now it was getting dark. The last thing I wanted was to be unloading and stumbling around at night.
“I’m back!” Teagan called. She flashed her phone toward us, showing off the grocery app. “I got us the essentials since our cupboards are bare.”
Eliza froze and blinked at her. “Wow, Teag, that’s really nice of you.” The fact that she sounded so damn shocked had both Sienna and me biting back laughter, while Teagan flipped her off.
“Bitch, I’m a nice person,” she grumbled. Eliza rolled her eyes at that.
“Don’t lie,” she sassed back. They both cracked up, not an ounce of real resentment present. Our usual banter likely sounded like arguing to outsiders, but it was our way of showing affection.
Omegas weren’t usually as close as we were, instinctively becoming territorial because they viewed other omegas as competition, but we had grown up together. Over the years, we’d realized that we didn’t have similar tastes in men,at all, so living together wasn’t an issue.
“Come on, we’re on the last portion, and my ass is exhausted. Get to work,” I ordered everyone, hopping up to help Eliza drag out the final few boxes. Once that was done, we each grabbed a side of our time-worn couch. It took a bit of work to get it out of the truck, but we managed to maneuver it inside and collapse on it just as the sun finally dipped below the horizon. Not long after, the doorbell rang.
“That’s our groceries,” Teagan sang out as she skipped over with more energy than anyone should have after carrying boxes and furniture all damn day.
She thanked the delivery person and carried in far less bags than there should’ve been. I was confused until I saw her pull out chips, wine, and coffee. Clearly, her priorities were messed up.
Eliza groaned. “I take back the nice comment. You only got wine and coffee?”
“Andchips,” Teagan countered like she couldn’t understand Eliza’s annoyance.
“Fuck this. I’m ordering pizza,” I said. There were a few places nearby that we didn’t have back home. Our small town only had one mom-and-pop pizza place that burned your food fifty percent of the time. Not exactly the variety a girl needed in her life.
“Oh yum,” Teagan sang out as she twisted the cork off of the cheap wine and carried the whole bottle with her to the couch. She took a swig before passing it around. I’d just hit the order button when it got to me, and I winced as the warm, tart wine filled my mouth. Next time I was taking the initiative and ordering fucking weed because that would have been much better than the five-dollar wine this tasted like.
“Classy,” I choked out. “Next girls’ night needs to not be here. We live in an actual city now.”
“Well, that might be a while, between interviews and getting our shit organized,” Sienna said. I hadn’t really taken a look around our apartment since we first arrived, but now it was pure chaos. Boxes were precariously stacked, our furniture jumbled in one room.
“I don’t have time to waste. Dad messaged me today, and we’ve got a trip to New York City next week,” Teagan announced.
“How long this time?” I asked. Her dad was a huge music producer, so he tended to travel wherever he needed to check out venues and do promotional shoots. More often than not, he hired Teagan for the photography elements, so she traveled almost as much as he did.
“Just a week,” she said. “There’s a huge gala that one of his bands is playing at. Remind me to pack ear plugs and migraine meds. They’re trying to bring boy bands back, and I just can’t handle that.”
“But you’ll be in New York!” Eliza reminded her. “All the fun places you can go will make up for it.”