Growing Together

Chapter 4

When Kao had told Pete he was pregnant, and he had freaked. He'd been spending majority of the time avoiding their gang because Sandee and June—occasionally even Thada—would not shut up about Kao. Especially, when June had let it slip about what had happened at the SunRain cafe.

"What did you do?" Sandee had let out venomously when she had managed to corner him.

"I didn't do anything," Pete said furrowing his brows at her. He hated being cornered like this was all his fault, despite known well it was his fault.

"Kao's dropped out of school so suddenly and that makes me think your dumb self said something," Sandee had accused as she placed her hand on her hips. Time and time again, Pete had only proven that when something was off between the two it was usually Pete's fault. It really infuriated Sandee. She tried staying out of it most of the time unless they needed an intervention, but when she had heard Kao had dropped out she could not turn a blind eye to it anymore.

"What?!" Pete said sounding right out surprised. He'd been avoiding Kao like the plague because of what he had told him. That was news to him.

"Kao dropped out of the classes," Thada had repeated as he moved closer to Sandee, "You would know if you bothered showing up too."

"So what if he's dropped? What's that got to do with me?" Pete had hissed as he stood up from the bench and pushed past Thada and June.

Clearly there was something going on, and Sandee was going to figure it out. She didn't believe all this crap about her dear friend not having anything to do with it. Pete was far too angry and hostile for it to be nothing as he said.

"What about we ask P'Sun? Eh?" June said with a smile. He hated this kind of tension between their gang so he wanted to help and make the mood a bit lighter, "We can even grab some coffee."

"Good idea," Sandee said as she linked her arms with the two boys.

****

Ever since he Sandee had cornered him, his mind was being driven by guilt. Kao hadn't really dropped out, right? Sandee was just saying that to get him to reach out to Kao, right?

It didn't matter how much he wanted to shake that sense of guilt from his mind, it was there and it wasn't going away. It was ruining his mood, and even though he just wanted to go home and forget he just couldn't. Forth was dragging him along towards a restaurant by the school.

"Come on, I want to introduce you to some guys," Forth said with promises that it would ease Pete's mind of whatever had him so pissy.

"I'm here so get off me," Pete had nearly hissed as he tried to escape the man's firm grip. Which to his relief he had let him go, just as they reached the table.

"Forth, your late that means you're buying," One of the guys had said jokingly as he moved seats make room for the two.

"Er, I'll buy then," Forth had said with a chuckle before he was sitting down. "Guys, this is my friend Pete. Pete this is Tom, Deer, Leo, Pick and Porsche."

"Hey, what's up?" They had greeted.

Porsche had passed them both a drink as he said, "Since we're all here let's drink."

"Well since Forth's buying lets drink as much as we please," Tom said with a cheeky grin as he wrapped his arm around Porsche.

"I'm not going to protest to that," Pick had said clinking his glass with the other two idiots, "Cheers!"

"Everyone here is from our program, except Pick and Porsche, they're from the Veterinarian Program, but they're pretty cool." Forth had whispered to Pete before he was pleading to his friends, "Don't actually overdo it like last time. I'm not going to babysit any of you."

"That's right, Forth is on a curfew now," Deer had said with a little snicker as he hide his smile behind his glass.

"I should tell Beam to visit your department to get this guy a collar." Tom had joked as he nudged Porsche, making him nearly choke.

"Speak for yourself," Forth said joining in.

"How come you didn't invite that friend of yours?" Leo asked Pete from across the table, but seeing the look of confusion on Pete's face that clearly read 'what friend?' Had Leo elaborating, "You know the one with that pretty face, pale skin, and yea high."

"Kao?" Pete asked furrowing his brows as he put his drink back down. What the hell did this guy want with Kao?

"Yeah, Kao," Leo said nodding his head, "I thought I'd be meeting him here tonight."

How was this supposed to be relaxing? When this guy would not shut up about Kao? It had more than just guilt drowning Pete. Possessiveness and anger were mixing in with it, and it was frustrating him to no end.

"Hey, Pete slow down on your drinking," Forth said taking the bottle from him when he was pouring himself another drink.

"Isn't that why I came? To drink." Pete asked but in reality, he still just wanted to go home and not hear Kao's name.