KISS: Road Trip

Ch 19: Well, Look Who It Is (Peter)

I looked at the text from Paul in the groupchat, feeling my heart flip.

Paul: found gene. heading back now

"Oh shit. We're gonna see him again," I said softly. "Oh man I'm starting to freak out now," Eric said quietly, eating another piece of bread. "Eric. No more stress-eating our last loaf of bread. It'll be fine!" Bruce said, patting Eric on the shoulder and gently taking the bag of bread from him.

"I dunno babe I'm kinda with Eric on this one. I'm almost scared to see Gene," Ace said with a sigh, leaning back in his chair. "Let's do something, I don't want to just sit and wait forever. Let's do like two truths and a lie," I said, giving Ace a kiss. "What is this, a girl's middle school sleepover?" Bruce asked with a grin. "Oh I'm sorry did you have a better idea?" I snapped back, but he shook his head with a laugh. "No, no. You go first."

I frowned, trying to think up a good lie. "Mm okay let's see. I'm missing a tooth, I got adopted when I was 12, and a dog almost bit off my finger as a kid." "Uh, the tooth, obviously. You have them all," Eric said. Bruce nodded in agreement. "Yeah that's my guess too." "Nah it's gotta be the dog one. You're not that dumb!" Ace said, giving me a warm smile.

I sat back in my chair, folding my arms across my chest with a smug smile. "Damn babe you know me so well! Yeah it was the dog one, I don't really mess with dogs a lot. I'm more of a cat person, ya know?" "Wait what the hell you're missing a tooth?!" Bruce cried. I nodded, grin widening. "Yep! It's this one," I said cheerfully, grabbing my right front tooth and pulling it out, revealing a gap before I snapped it back into place.

"Eww that's disgusting. How the hell did that happen?" Eric asked, pulling a face. I felt my cheeks burning and let out a sigh. It had been awhile since I had told the story, or even really thought about it. "Ah, let's see. It was fifth grade I think? One of my dad's drug friends shoved me into a table. My dad was furious when he found out so he beat the guy up and then got arrested for assault which meant I moved in with my grandparents again and when they legally adopted me a few months later I got it fixed. So I've got an implant now!"

"Oh! Oh I remember that! Oh yeah you told me that the first day I met you at school! We were eating lunch and you just ripped out your tooth!" Ace said, grabbing my arm excitedly. "Yeah I don't know why I started our friendship like that," I said with a laugh, giving him a kiss. "But I'm glad I did."

The thirty or so minutes dragged on for an eternity despite the game before the sound of the knob turning made us all turn to look as the door swung open and Paul and Gene walked into the room. There was a long awkward silence as Gene's face turned red before he ran a hand through his hair, staring at the ground. "Uh...hi guys," he said quietly. "Gene! It's good to see you!" Eric said excitedly, jumping to his feet and giving Gene a hug, which Gene gratefully returned.

"Gene look I got engaged!" I said gleefully, holding up my hand and showing off the ring on my finger. "Oh! Oh, damn congrats! To...?" "Uh, me, obviously," Ace said, rolling his eyes and leaning over to kiss me, which I happily returned. "Oh, sorry I wasn't sure if you guys were--you know if Ace and Paul were still--I don't know, sorry!" Gene stammered, getting flustered.

"Dude, me and him haven't dated since high school," Paul said, raising an eyebrow. Face growing even redder, Gene ran a hand through his hair. "Oh well--sorry man I wasn't sure, I didn't want to assume any--I'm sorry man, I just--you know it's been years and like--" he said, stumbling over his words with his face getting redder every second. "Gene, it's okay, we're just teasing! It's good to see you again, it really is!" I said, kissing Ace this time. "Well congrats though, that's really cool. I'm happy for you guys," Gene mumbled, crimson at this point.

Paul rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest and elbowing Gene. "Yeah, yeah, why don't you just tell everyone what you've been up to for the past five years?" The four of us looked eagerly at Gene as his face somehow got even redder. "Oh! Uh well you know. I finished college and all that and uh...uh I got...got married and um..." "Just spit it out, man! Tell them or I'm telling them!" Paul snapped.

"And--and my wife's pregnant, so yeah, that's uh...that's really exciting," he said, small smile spreading across his face.

There was a stunned silence as we all tried to process that huge bombshell. "What the hell, man?! You got married and you're having a baby and you didn't tell us?!" Eric cried. "Holy shit dude, you're having a baby? That's wild! Congratulations!" Bruce said, giving Gene a smile. He smiled back, looking extremely proud, and nodded. "Thanks! Yeah it's really exciting, I'm really looking forward to when he's actually born. Shannon's about seven months pregnant so yeah the kid'll be born pretty soon. That's my wife, Shannon is. If you guys want and she's up to it I'll have y'all over to our house for dinner and you can meet her. I'm sure she'd love to meet you!"

"You have a house?!" Ace shrieked, clutching my arm again. "Exactly!" Paul cried, shaking his head. "All this stuff happened and he literally didn't tell any of us!" "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," poor Gene mumbled, looking like he wanted the ground to swallow him up. "What's Shannon like? How'd you guys meet?" Bruce asked, trying desperately to salvage the conversation for his sake. Good old Bruce.

Gene gave him a grateful look, smiling. "Oh she's great, she's really fantastic, I love her. We met in college, she was a linguistics major and she works as a publics relations manager for an advertising firm now. We started dating halfway through freshman year and I proposed when I had gotten my first job, which was after graduation, because like...if I was gonna get married I wanted to be able to take care of her. We got married around seven months ago, but only legally. We're going to wait a bit to have an actual ceremony, when we have a bit more money set aside."

"What do you do as a job?" I asked, hitting him with softball questions he'd be able to answer so he wouldn't have to get interrogated by Paul. "I'm a biology teacher and I coach wrestling at this hella nice private school, so it pays real well." "Nice! That's cool!" Eric said, giving Gene a smile. "What type of baby are you having?" Ace asked, taking a bite of bread as we all stared at him in confusion. "What...type?" Gene asked slowly, before his eyes widened. "Oh! Oh yeah we're having a boy." "Aww! You guys have a name?" Bruce asked, and Gene nodded, proud smile spreading across his face. "Yeah we're gonna name him Nick."

It was honestly really nice to be able to catch up with Gene, to be able to just see him again after having no idea what he was up to for the past half decade. At like ten pm though he looked at his phone, letting out a sigh. "Uh Shannon wants me to come home so I gotta head back, why don't you guys come over for dinner tomorrow?" We all nodded and he gave us a small smile, looking a bit like he was about to cry. "It was really nice to see you guys again. Sorry for...for doing what I did. That was fucked up, I'm sorry," he mumbled, before he and Paul headed for the door.

"Whoo that was awkward!" I said once the door closed. "Seriously," Bruce muttered, shaking his head. "I mean it's really nice to see him again but it's also kind of weird seeing him again since we haven't seen him in years." "Yeah. It'll be good to catch up though! It's been weird not having him in the group," Eric said, snagging another piece of bread despite all of us telling him not to.

Paul got back a half an hour later, slamming the door shut behind him and storming off to his room. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight," he spat, slamming the door shut behind him. The four of us exchanged glances. It made sense he was pissed at Gene, Gene hurt him the most, but man I was not looking forward to how awkward that was going to make everything.