KISS: Casablanca High School

Ch 67: Party Foul (Peter)

I looked over Ace's shoulders, lips pursed into a frown. "You know Paul likes pie more than cake, right?" He shot me a glare, shaking the cake layers out of the pans. "Well I don't know how to make a pie, so he's gonna take the cake and like it." 

Laughing, I slipped an arm around his waist, but he slapped my hand away. "Not here, you know that!" he hissed, reaching behind me to grab the bowl of icing, which was no longer on the counter. "JoJo! Where's the icing?!" he bellowed. There was barely muffled giggling from the pantry, and I sat on the counter, eager to watch the unfolding drama. Ace yanked open the pantry door revealing JoJo and Frankie, who were sitting hunched over the bowl, gleefully trying to shovel as much purple icing into their mouths as possible. "Hey! Give that to me!" Ace cried, snatching away and looking at it sadly. "Guysss! You ate like half of it! Aw come on, go get cleaned up," he snapped, pulling them to their feet.

His brothers, faces covered in frosting, ran off giggling. Shaking his head, Ace started to throw the icing on the cake. "Hey that kinda looks like it's melting," I said with a grin. "I know." "The cake layers are sliding off each other." "I know." "It looks like garba--" "I know!"

I jumped off the counter, leaning against him as he dropped the cake into a box. "Dang you suck at decorating cakes." "All that matters is that it tastes good," Ace retorted, giving me a grin. "Now come on, we need to get to your place before the rest of them do!"

The instant we stepped into my apartment he slipped an arm around my waist, pulling me into a kiss. "Now you can do it," he murmured. I grinned, kissing him back and nearly knocking the cake out of his hands. 

We sat on the couch making out while ignoring the sound of the front door opening. "You know you really shouldn't leave that unlocked," Gene muttered, pushing the presents on the table into a neat pile as he added one of his own. I shrugged, reluctantly breaking away from Ace. "Eh, if it kills me it kills me. So did you call Paul?" 

He let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You said you were going to do that!" Ohhh yeah I did say I'd do that. Oops. 

As Ace and Gene tried to get everything ready for the party and Eric walked in the door, also commenting on how I should lock it, I tried to reach Paul. "Come on man, you gotta pick up, you can't miss your own surprise party," I grumbled. "Hey Peter, what's up?"  "Hey Paul! You left a shirt here after you came over after formal, can you come and get it in the next half hour?" "I mean...yeah? Yeah I'll be there in like twenty minutes."  "Alright see you then! Bye Paul!" 

I hung up and turned to the rest of them, grinning. "We've got twenty minutes before he gets here." 

"Perfect. Bruce said he'll be here in ten minutes with pizza so it'll be fine," Gene said, looking at his phone. Eric stiffened, face flushing red, but he didn't say anything. Interesting. 

He didn't say anything to Bruce when he showed up, and Bruce didn't say anything to Eric either. Veryyy interesting. 

There was a knocking at the door before Paul decided to just let himself in, looking at the five of us in surprise, smile spreading across his face as he saw the cake and presents. "Happy birthday Paul!" 

"Aw you guys! You didn't have to do this! Thank you," he said, smile widening as Gene slipped an arm around his shoulders. 

After we had sung happy birthday to him and Ace had cut the cake which had basically fallen apart at this point, the six of us sat around the living room, which I had actually cleaned up for once. Eric and Bruce sat as far away from each other as possible and I frowned, watching as they deliberately avoided making eye contact with each other. They hadn't said a word to each other the entire afternoon. Bruce rose to his feet, giving Eric a pointed look before walking into the bathroom. Eric's face grew pinched and, hands shaking, he stabbed his piece of cake so hard the plastic fork snapped in two. 

"Alright what the hell happened between you two?" I asked in a low voice. He shook his head, repeatedly stabbing the cake absentmindedly. "Nothing happened between me and him, it's fine," he growled. 

I raised an eyebrow as his scowl darkened. "Yeah ok, seriously, what's going on? You're super pissed at him and he seems to be just as mad at you! Is it something I can help with?" "No. Just...I appreciate it, but don't worry about it. It's fine." 

Shrugging, I turned back to my cake, watching as Bruce shot Eric another furious glare as he took his seat on the couch again. Trembling with barely suppressed anger, Eric rose to his feet. "Uh, I have a lot of homework to catch up on from last week, so I'm gonna have to leave, sorry to bail. Happy birthday Paul!" Paul grinned, nodding, while Bruce flipped Eric off, making his face turn a bright red. He slammed the door shut behind him.

Less than five minutes later, Bruce rose to his feet. " My mom wants me home in thirty minutes so I gotta head out. Happy birthday, Paul. See you guys at school Monday!" The instant he was gone, the four of us looked at each other in confusion. "The hell was that?!" Paul cried, setting down his fork. "Sheesh curly, I wish I knew. They're apparently super mad at each other," Ace said with a shrug. "Sure hope Bruce doesn't like jump Eric in the parking lot," I mumbled. Gene let out a sigh, leaning back on the couch. "Yeah well Eric ended up confronting Bruce about...well I mean I don't know if I should...damn okay so Bruce...basically I guess they had an argument after wrestling practice yesterday and are still mad at each other. So...yeah. But I'm sure it's fine, I don't think they're actually that mad at each other." 

Shaking his head, Paul finished off his slice of cake. "Nice. Here I was thinking we had all worked everything out and then it's the two last people I'd expect to fight who get in a fight. Anyway, thanks for the party guys, I really appreciate it!" 

"Yeah of course man! It's the least we could do for your 18th birthday and all that!" I said, giving him a smile as Ace leaned against me. "Now that you're a legal adult we can use you to buy cigs and stuff without having to use fakes!" Paul laughed, rising to his feet and motioning for Gene to follow him, scooping up the handful of presents. "You and I both know if there's a charge on my credit card from a tobacco shop I'm dead. And besides, you gotta be 21 for that anyway. But I can buy you spray paint or a BB gun." 

"Aw, fine. Bye curly, happy birthday!" Ace said, waving as they walked out the door.

With a sigh, I fell back on Ace, resting my head on his lap and reaching up to grab his face, trying to pull him down into a kiss. "I mean it could've gone better but it could've gone a whole lot worse." Giggling, Ace gave me a quick kiss. "Look babe, they'll work it out. And Paul was happy with a party and that's what matters! That was nice of you to do that. I'm gonna be looking for something similarly thoughtful for my birthday." 

"Mm well if your family leaves on your birthday to go across the country then I'll think about it." 

He shrugged, running a hand through my hair. "I'll take it," he murmured, leaning over to kiss me.