KISS: Casablanca High School

Ch 141: Wait, We Need A Map? (Ace)

I woke up with a slight headache which made sense since I had gotten pretty drunk last night. Peter rolled over in his bed, letting out a groan before sitting up. "Oh man I'm dying," he mumbled. "Aw, stop being such a baby. Come on, it's like past noon, we should go downstairs." 

He let out a sigh, flopping back to the pillows and running a hand through his hair. "Yeah. I guess," he said quietly, staring up at the ceiling. "Hey, you okay?" I asked, heart sinking. Peter sighed again, closing his eyes. "I was really hoping my mom would be at graduation, you know? She made it to Thanksgiving and that was big but then I fucked it all up and got into an argument with her and then it went right back to nothing more than a card for my birthday. Except this year it doubled as my Christmas gift," he murmured, eyes growing sad.

My heart sank even lower as he continued. "And they had said that Dad would be out by May, and man it's been ages since I've seen him. I haven't seen him since I was a kid, it's been even longer than with my mom, but he's at least called me. He did on my birthday and stuff. Told me to watch myself since I could get thrown in big kid jail now," he said, cracking a faint smile before sobering up again. "So I was really hoping he'd be there, or at least call me, since he was saying how proud of me he was since I was actually gonna graduate, but nothing. He got in a fight or something, got a few more months added to his sentence. So that's great." 

I sat on the edge of his bed, patting him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry man, that sucks. Both your parents are proud of you though, I know that." Peter shrugged, closing his eyes. "I was gonna tell Loretta that I got out of drugs and stuff. It was gonna be nice to rub it in, that I was clean and graduating. But nah, she was off getting married again. Maybe I'll call her when I get home. Maybe I won't. I don't really care." 

With a sigh, I grabbed his arms and pulled him upright, giving him a hug. "Well I'm proud of you," I murmured. He hugged me back, giving me a smile. "Thanks Ace." I nodded, ruffling his hair. "Now come on let's go downstairs, I'm hungry!" 

With a laugh, he jumped out of bed, swaying a bit before shaking his head with a wince. "Okay I can stand we're good!" he said with a grin, opening the door and walking with me down the stairs. Paul and Bruce and Eric were playing poker with Oreos while Gene was lying on the floor, holding a bag of ice to his face. 

"Good morning!" I cried, before immediately getting shushed by the three of them. "Shh, Gene's dying. Show some respect," Eric said with a huge grin. "Eric, when I can move again I'm gonna kill you," Gene said in a low voice before letting out a groan and closing his eyes. "I told you not to drink that much! Serves you right your hangover sucks. I mean seriously, after how much it sucked last time why the hell would you do it again?" Paul snapped, kicking him.

"Shhh. Your voice hurts," he mumbled, massaging his forehead with the ice. "At least you haven't thrown up this time," Paul  muttered, losing the hand and sliding his Oreos to Eric. "You're just mad cause you suck at poker," Gene said, reaching up to flip him off. 

Peter and I raided the really full fridge and ate a breakfast-lunch thing as Gene slowly started coming back to life on the floor. I looked at Peter, giving him a smile. "Hey you wanna go on a hike? There's a ton of trails around the lake and stuff." His eyes lit up and he nodded, finishing his sandwich. "Ooh, yes! Let's go!" 

We both ran and put our shoes on and headed for the outside. It was gonna feel nice to get some fresh air after drinking so much, and it would help Peter to get his mind off of things.

"Hey me and Peter are gonna go on a hike, we'll be back later!" I called, one foot out the door. "No, you need at least 3 people to go. That way if one of you guys gets hurt someone can stay with them while the third comes back here. And make sure you take water too. And a map," Gene said, still being the total dad friend even while lying on the floor.  "Mmmrrrgh fineeee," I grumbled, shutting the door and grabbing a water bottle. "Hey Eric! You wanna go for a walk?" 

"No," he immediately said back. "Yeah, you do. I'm tired of losing to you, this is stupid. Come on, we're going," Bruce said, throwing down his cards in disgust as Eric won another hand. "Fine yeah we'll go I guess," Eric said with a sigh, pulling on a baseball cap and shoving a bunch of Oreos into his pockets.

"I'll stay with him so he doesn't die," Paul said with a grin, nudging Gene. "Seriously though, you guys need to stick together and stay on the path," Gene said, finally looking at us with a raised eyebrow.

"Ok Dad," Peter muttered, stepping outside. "I'm serious guys, you better be responsible!" Paul chimed in. A smile spread across my face as I looked at the two of them. "Hey Paulie, kissing Gene's ass isn't gonna get you Gene's ass, you know that?" I teased, closing the door as his face turned scarlet.

"Oh my gosh it's so hot outsideeeee," Eric grumbled as we walked along the trail. "Eric. It's like sixty degrees outside. Shut up," Bruce said with a grin. "My second day being a high school graduate and I'm forced to spend it walking around in nature," he muttered, stumbling over a tree root with a curse. 

"Aw come on curly, it's nice outside! The air feels nice!" I said with a smile, looking at the trees. 

It was nice to be able to walk outside around the lake in the trees. It really was nice outside, even if the trail was a bit confusing. "Hey, where are we?" Bruce asked suddenly, drawing to a halt. "Check the map," Peter said, looking at the trees. "Eric, where are we?" "Me?! Peter said he'd get the map!" Eric protested. "Wait, what?! No, I told Ace to grab it!" he replied. They all turned to look at me and I froze. "Me? I didn't--oh no wait yeah I hella did say I'd grab it, didn't I? That's...that's my bad."

"Ace you've gotta be kidding me," Bruce grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. I shrugged, face turning red. "Sorry! But we're not that lost. Probably. I mean we can just retrace our steps, right?" 

"Uh...we're not even really on the trail anymore at this point," Eric said after a pause, looking around. Bruce let out another sigh, pulling out his phone. "Aaand of course we don't have service. Nice job, guys." 

"Okay well...we'll just turn around and go the opposite way from where we are now! We'll find the path again," Peter said, giving me a smile. "Yeah we better hope so. I'm not trying to die out here two days after I graduate," Eric grumbled, pulling his hat lower over his eyes. "We'll be fineeee," Bruce grumbled. "And besides, we have your Oreos, so we won't starve."

"Uh, no you don't. I won these fair and square, these are mine," Eric snapped, making a big show of eating one of the cookies. Lucky.

We definitely weren't fine though, because it took us like an hour to even find the path again. "This is the last time I trust you two with anything," Bruce muttered. "I mean I don't know why we trusted them to begin with," Eric quipped, grinning. 

We were all exhaused and hot and filthy by the time we made it back to Paul's house. And of course he was lying on the dock, relaxing and looking like he was having the time of his life as he tanned, and also looking really cute in his swimsuit. He lifted his sunglasses as we came stumbling up to the dock, looking at us with a smile. "Damn, took you guys long enough to make it back here. What happened, you get lost?" 

"Not gonna name any names, but someone decided to not bring a map and yeah, we got lost," Eric grumbled. "We got real lost." 

Paul laughed, shaking his head and pulling off his sunglasses all the way to look at me. "Of course you forgot it. Nice going, Ace." I shrugged, kicking off my shoes and sitting next to him, dipping my feet in the water. "Aw, whatever. Where's Gene?" 

Paul's smile only grew and he shook his head. "Oh, he's inside in our room lying in the dark because he's hungover still. So be quiet when you go inside if you're feeling nice. Or don't, I really don't care at this point." 

I giggled, shaking my head. "Aw, Genie, you dumbass." "Yep," Paul said, stretching back out on the towel and slipping his sunglasses back on, blowing me a kiss. My heart skipped and I squeezed his hand, kicking my feet through the water.

This was gonna be a really fun vacation.