Beta in an Alpha World (Chapter 6)

But of course that wasn’t the case. Whatever cordial plushness there was to be found in Bethany’s sole skin was cancelled out by the incredible heft with which it was heaved down upon me. Not to mention the continued pressure as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, the total darkness, the sliminess of her perspiration, or the salty leathery lotion-sweetened stink that all came as a package deal with being trodden upon by an unfortunately unaware Alpha.

I could’ve tried squirming as hard as I could to get Bethany’s attention and make her step off of me, but she’d stood upon me so abruptly and with such overpowering gusto that I truly couldn’t even shudder my limbs to let her know a living thing was held captive by her leaden stride. For the duration of her foot’s claim to this precise spot on the floor, I just had to lie still, rapidly overheating while that moisture and aroma from her stuffy sole pores crept over me. Ironically, I could tell just by this one encounter that Bethany wasn’t even someone who normally went stomping aggressively around, since there was a certain grace to the way she’d accidentally trampled me here, barely making a sound when she’d turned away from her desk and unknowingly began walking in my direction. Not that there’s much difference to be appreciated between a “light” or a “heavy” stepper when you’re just a Beta caught beneath the oppressively muggy and steam-drenched creases lining an Alpha’s roomy nude pink sole. But her lither gait at least meant I wouldn’t come away from this experience with broken bones. That’s never a positive way to make someone’s acquaintance.

After maybe twenty seconds, though it felt much longer, Bethany’s heel arched off my body and she marched on her way. For one bracing moment, my body remained suctioned via fast-held pressure and that sticky sheen of shoe perspiration to the bottom of her foot. But I came unpeeled from her firm damp arch flesh just a couple inches above solid ground, and landed clumsily on my butt, while the Alpha herself sauntered off across the lab floor, still with no clue she’d just stamped right onto her new coworker. I could hear Bethany muttering data notations to herself, confirmed when I saw her rush over to a notepad on a nearby countertop and begin furiously scribbling. She really was dedicated her work already. Which would’ve been great, if she wasn’t so absorbed in the science that she failed to keep track of any much-punier peers she could so easily snag under her sole like a wad of chewing gum in the street. And it seemed my bad luck for the day wasn’t finished unleashing.

Just when I’d stood up and prepared to groggily waddle back over to the safety of my desk for some relaxation and recovery post-tramping, not to mention the chance to wash some of the soggy underfoot saltwater out of my work clothes, Bethany pivoted on her unshoed heels and power-marched back in my direction with a pointed purpose. Though not wounded, I was certainly sore and a little tender after that first accidental stepping, which left me with slower reaction time and less-than-stellar agility. And if it was possible, the dark-haired giantess seemed to be paying even less attention to her lowlier surroundings this time. I did my best to scramble clear, but couldn’t help but feel some slight resignation as I realized it was too late to evade her again. So simply rolled into a ball like a pill bug and shielded my head as the Alpha’s other foot careened down on top of me. She didn’t pause in place this time, but just kept walking right onward toward the other workstation, the momentum of which actually kept my body adhered to the humid sour-fragrant slab of her sole for another two entire steps before I rolled clear again onto the floor, still pitifully unnoticed. Luckily, I still wasn’t injured, but I was beginning to feel how a foam dummy in a judo class might feel if given sentience. After being squashed a total of four times already between Bethany’s bare peds and the ground, without even having had the chance to exchange our first-ever “hellos” yet, I was left completely out of my breath, close to bruising in a few spots, and with my professional lab garb all but soaked straight through by my gigantic coworker’s foot sweat as if I’d had a bucket of saltwater dumped over my head.

“Um… hi? It’s Bethany, right?” I awkwardly piped up as loud as I could, once I’d gotten my bearings again. But still the Alpha didn’t turn around. I repeated her name, louder this time, and was just beginning to wonder what the deal was – I may be only half an inch tall, but I can yell louder than a whisper – when I saw that, since returning to the desk, she’d plugged in a pair of earphones while listening to a company tutorial on her phone. It almost seemed like a mean joke played on me by the universe, though the even meaner joke came when Bethany turned back around (still with her eyes glued to the screen) and, for the fifth time this morning, failed to notice when her humongous bare sole slapped down upon my immobilized frame and rubbed off another splatter of sweat before scrunching the whole span of her weighty arch and lunging away once more. By that point, I gave up on trying to make introductions, before my clothes could get any filthier and my body could take any more unintended subjugations by Bethany’s lack of self-awareness, and just shuffled back to my desk for the remainder of the day. Now I knew I needed to do a better job of watching where I was stepping, or rather watch where others were stepping, both at home and at work. Sometimes you just can’t catch a break.