The group met up that Friday to work on the project at Sol’s place. They were supposed to be making a pre-lab for their upcoming chemistry experiment except Sol and Aaron couldn’t stop fighting over how they would do it. 

“Are you stupid? That’s not how it works.” Aaron loudly told Sol. 

“At least I’m actually working on it.” Sol shot back a quick remark and pointed his finger at Aaron, pushing it into his chest. Their bickering had gone on for at least an hour and they had made no progress on their project. Sol felt as though he couldn’t keep his emotions in check whenever Aaron was around. The beta just angered him in unimaginable ways. 

“Look, guys, I’ve already finished the calculations. All I’m asking you to do is the background information. It’s not that hard.” You could tell that Carter was becoming exhausted at having to listen to the two. He slumped back onto the couch in Sol’s living room and closed his eyes for a moment. 

It was then that there was an unexpected knock at the door. 

Sol was quick to get up and opened the door to a dishevelled Bo. 

“What are you doing here?” Sol asked, confused.

Instead of responding, Bo briskly walked over to the couch to lay face down on it and gave out a long sigh. 

“I’m so tired,” Bo slurred out.

“Why?” Sol became increasingly concerned. What could make Bo so tired that he was open about it in front of a stranger? Aaron was still there.

Sol went over to the couch and patted Bo’s shoulder, trying to comfort him. 

Bo, apparently not acting weird enough, pulled Sol down onto the couch and sat up to tightly hug him. He squished his face into Sol’s fluffy light pink jumper and gave out another frustrated sigh. 

“I don’t know. I just feel off.”

Black hair brushed Sol’s cheek, tickling him.

Both of the betas hadn’t said anything and when Sol looked at them, he saw that they were sporting a look of pure confusion. Neither of them appeared particularly comfortable being there when Bo was so open with his affections.  

Sol had never had to deal with this type of Bo before. Usually, he was anxious, yes, but he could always identify it. For Bo not to know what he was feeling meant something else was going on. 

Looking over at Bo, Sol was unable to see Bo’s face and had to lift Bo off him to see it. Bo, in return, started to whine and cried out about how he felt worse. Sol was only able to get a glimpse of Bo’s eyes before Bo went back to shoving his face into Sol’s neck. He did spot something though. Dilated pupils. 

What could that mean? Sol had never heard of a sickness that would dilate someone’s pupils to that extent. Was Bo on drugs?

When he went to check Bo’s temperature, he was just about able to feel his forehead before Bo uttered: “I’m going to be sick.”

Immediately becoming alarmed, all three boys set into action and awkwardly helped Bo to the washroom. Sol, unable to get Bo to let go of him, had to follow him in and keep Bo’s hair out of his face as he threw up. 

Sol had no experience dealing with people who took drugs. He had no idea what to do. 

“I think Bo took something.” Sol was reluctant to tell Carter, but he figured that Bo’s health was more important.

“What are you saying? Bo wouldn’t do that. You know what, I’ll take care of him. He’s clearly just sick. Your assumptions would hurt him if he was well enough to understand.”

“You can’t do that!” It was obvious that Carter would just think of Bo as sick in hindsight, but Sol didn’t know that in the moment. And yet, he still knew that the situation was bigger than Carter was making it.

“And why not?” Carter asked. 

It was then that Bo came up to Sol, hugging him again. As Sol tried to pick his mind for a reason, he got a whiff of vanilla off of Bo and finally put Bo’s symptoms together. 

“Because he’s in heat!” He said it loud enough for the whole neighbourhood to hear. 

It wasn’t like betas could smell pheromones, so Carter wouldn’t know. But Sol, an omega, could be greatly influenced by them. 

Omegas have a natural instinct to protect other omegas in heat. Sol, refusing to hand Bo over, held onto him tighter to the point where he made a noise of complaint at the sensation. 

Carter was angry already, but he got even more exasperated at Sol’s supposed lying. That is until Bo pointed out something that he couldn’t ignore. 

“You know, you hurt my feelings when you said Sol and I shouldn’t be together,” Bo mumbled out the words to Carter, unaware of the effect it would have on both of the boys.

 Sol didn’t know what to think. What was he supposed to say to that? Contemplating being angry or sad, he decided to go the angry route.

“You said what?” He furiously spewed out towards Carter. 

Carter froze in shock.