ALPHA BECK

CHAPTER 8

April first had come and gone under Millie's nose. With everything that had been happening with Beck and her health, March had slipped away. Usually, she liked to prank her mother, but life felt hadn't felt normal and honestly, she had forgotten all about her tradition. Sunday marked the second day of April, which meant she had just about a month left of high school. Sunday also meant she was going to Beck's house for dinner.

Millie was absolutely petrified to go to his home. It wasn't a sickening fear that plagued her but instead a stomach rolling nervousness. An army of butterflies were marching around her stomach, making her heart palpitate worse than it usually did. The irregular rhythm had calmed slightly from the day before, but it still stuttered every few beats. She could feel it as clear as anything. No matter how normal she tried to make her morning, nothing settled her. Millie got up, showered, dressed, made coffee, took her medications, and tried to do the paper she didn't finish the day before. It was becoming impossible to focus on anything but dinner.

"What's your plan today?" Sandra poked her head into the living room where Millie lounged on the couch as she looked over her math text.

Millie shrugged, looking back down to her book and flipping the page idly.

Sandra's eyes immediately narrowed. "You're not telling me something. And it's big."

Millie laughed a little too nervously. "It's nothing mom, don't worry."

"Not funny, Mill. Spill it."

With a huffed sigh, Millie closed the massive book and shoved it off her lap onto one of the cushions. "I may be going on a... date tonight." She wasn't sure if date was necessarily the right word. She vaguely hoped that it was. He was her soulmate after all, he said that he was wooing her, Beck probably considered it a date too. But it was also a meeting, they were finally going to start figuring out what had happened to her.

"A date?" Sandra perked up. It had been over two months and the only boy Millie had mentioned was Mitch. She wanted her daughter to have some normalcy in her life after all the bad shit she had dealt with. Sandra hoped for Millie to be able to find some little boy flings at this school. Sandra worried about her in Wyoming where she struggled to find a single good friend.

"Technically?" Millie squinted one eye and shrugged a little in an attempt to hide her excitement and keep her mother's interrogation to a minimum. "You know, it's hard to label things so early."

"Of course," Sandra smiled, seeing right through her daughter's front. "Where is your date at?"

"His place," Millie responded.

"Does he go to your school?"

"He graduated..."

"How long ago?"

"Not long," Millie tried to quell her mother's obvious skepticism with a smile.

"Is he nice?"

"Nicest person I've ever met," Millie said, and this time she was entirely honest.

"Well, I want to meet him." Sandra folded her arms over her chest.

"Mom," she groaned.

"I do! Don't argue, you just told me you're going to some older boy's house for a date. I would like to meet him, it would make me more comfortable with you going off to his place." Sandra scolded her, the dark line of her brows pulled together on her forehead. She was deadly serious.

"Mom," Millie tried as she rolled her head back. Her eyes closed against the pounding that began in her head.

"For christ's sake, Millie. You were already kidnapped once, I don't want it to happen again." Sandra snapped, Millie's eyes darted to her, suddenly sober from her complaining. Her mother suddenly looked very tired. "Please, just have him come pick you up so I can meet him. Okay?"