The Not So Sad Rejection

Chapter Ten

Friends

The rest of the day went fairly smoothly but Grant's question still plagued my mind. Cooking had always relaxed me and helped me think so I started on dinner. Nothing elaborate, just spaghetti. I was half-way through browning the meat when the Omega from earlier joined me in the kitchen. "Beta Greyson!" he said startled to see me there. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making dinner," I answered. "I'm usually the one who cooks at our pack house."

"Oh," he said. "Well would you like some help?"

I wasn't much in the mood for company but it was nice to have a member of my old pack around who didn't hate me. "Sure." So he joined me by the stove and helped me cook. I listened to him chat conversationally with half an ear while I thought about the Grant situation. "What's your name?" I suddenly interrupted. I felt rude for not knowing.

He grinned. "Oscar Beckerman." Now I saw the similarities. The dark hair, the deep brown eyes. The slight curve of his nose.

"I used to babysit you," I said surprised. "And I worked for your grandmother Patricia. She owns the used book shop on Second Street."

He nodded sadly. "She used to own it. She passed away a couple years ago. My aunt and uncle own it now."

I felt a swell of sadness in my chest. Patricia was a sweet woman. Some of my favorite memories of this pack was working in that shop. I still remember the musty smell of old books. "I'm sorry," I said sincerely. "She was a good person."

He smiled, "She talked about you, you know. Considered you family. Even after what Alpha Holden did." His voice had turned hard surprising me.

"I didn't think anyone really felt that way," I confessed.

He nodded again. "Not everyone agreed with what he did. You should hear the way my cousin talks. You sat for him too, but he was young when you left so he doesn't remember you. But he remember the way our grandmother talk. It broke her heart when you left."

I grimaced. "It seems I did a lot of damage by leaving."

He shrugged, "She never blamed you. She always said that she understood why you had to go."

I smiled a real smile. "She was an understanding person."

He smiled back. "Yeah she was."

After that we chatted. Oscar was a really easy person to talk to. He was easygoing and good-hearted. We finished cooking about thirty minutes later. "I should get going," he said and I frowned.

"Aren't you going to stay and eat?"

"Nah," he said shaking his head. "I've got a roommate who starve if I don't make something for him."

I laughed. "Then I'll see you tomorrow Oscar."

He tipped an imaginary hat. "Tomorrow my lady."

With that last moment of dorkiness he left and I called everyone down to eat. "When did you learn how to cook?" Tyler asked suspiciously as he poked his food with a fork.

"Mrs. Greyson taught me," I answered nudging Jason with my shoulder. "She said that as least one of her children better know how to. And this knucklehead couldn't cook a piece of toast."

Jason ruffled my hair. "I can too, it's just a little burnt."

I snorted. "Your cooking is almost as bad at Trina's!"

"My cooking is not bad!" Trina butted in.

I raised an eyebrow. "You set the stove on fire! Fire, Trina!"