* * *
He had to find Kyle. Had to talk to him.
He couldn’t talk to Kyle.
He had to.
He couldn’t.
A thousand worst-case-scenario situations swam through his mind, and Kyle being pregnant was the star of many of them.
He inhaled and sighed a shaky breath. He tried to stay calm. Perhaps Kyle wasn’t pregnant at all. Maybe they never even had intercourse that night; Stark couldn’t remember the details, after all.
Lying to himself was only making him feel worse.
Okay, he thought. Even if there was intercourse, it wasn’t 100% necessarily true that Kyle would be pregnant already. Many shifter couples took multiple tries for the pregnancy to finally take. Hell, some couples even had to take fertility drugs or use artificial insemination.
That made Stark feel a bit better. He nodded to himself. Maybe he was just working himself up over nothing, as he often tended to do. Maybe Kyle wasn’t pregnant and they would laugh off their drunken one-night-stand and this would all blow over as something hilarious that happened between them.
Stark’s grim smile fell. Yeah, right.
He stared over at his nightstand, where his phone lay waiting, like a beacon of guilt. Stark knew he had to call before, but now that Killian had delivered the message that Kyle was trying to reach him. If he didn’t call now, he would just be avoiding him - and that would make everything even worse.
The phone rang and Stark nearly jumped out of his skin.
He panicked, wondering if he should pick it up or not. He glanced at the screen, and didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved that it was just Chase.
“Hello?” he croaked, then cleared his throat. He didn’t want Chase to know he felt like shit.
“Hey, what’s up, Stark?” Chase said, sounding cheerful as usual. “Yo, I totally lost you at the party last night. I wanted to go home with you, but when it got late you totally disappeared. Like, poof!”
Stark felt another twinge of guilt. “Oh, yeah. I’m - really sorry about that.”
“No worries, man, I just wanted to know you went home safe,” Chase went on. There was athumpon the other line, as if Chase flopped onto a couch. “Anyway, did you have fun?”
“At the party?” Stark asked.
“No, at the amusement park,” Chase said with a chuckle. “Of course at the party.”
This was not a conversation Stark wanted to have right now. He bit his lip, trying to think of an excuse to escape it, but nothing came up.
“I guess so,” Stark said after trying and failing to think of something better to say. Maybe he could shift the attention off himself. “I mean, did you have a good time?”
“Yeah, it was totally awesome!” Chase said. “I’ve never been to the manor before, although Scout’s invited me a couple times, I just never thought, like, hey, I should go up there today. I dunno, just been busy, you know?”
“Yeah, definitely,” Stark said, only half paying attention.
“So this was a pretty cool change of pace,” Chase continued. “What was I saying? Oh, right. Where did you end up after we got split up? I looked for you a bit but gave up after a while. No offence.”
“None taken,” Stark said honestly. “But I, um…” He trailed off, trying to think of a good excuse. “I guess I just got sidetracked.”
“No kidding,” Chase said with a laugh. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was like someone dragged you off, kicking and screaming.”
Stark grimaced while he forced a chuckle. That sounded about half right.
“To be honest, Chase, I kind of…. forgot what happened last night,” Stark admitted. “I must have gotten pretty hammered.”
“Huh,” Chase said. “You don’t seem like the type to drink. I guess we have more in common than I thought.”
