Reaching for the Stars

Chapter 51: Crying in Blood

Warning: This chapter contains violence.

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Octo sat down on his seat. In front of him were Tom and Max, the former looking as nice as usual while he could sense the nervousness radiating from the latter. Sipping his juice, the panther held back a chuckle as he looked at them. They were in the campus café, in the seat next to that funny looking plant in a black pot.

It was kind of funny, the situation, even the table. This was the table he first told Max that he was bi. This was the table where Max told him he wanted to apologise to Lucas.

Really, he already suspected what happened, heck, he already suspected what happened ever since they picked up Max's belongings from his flat. Seriously, Tom had done the impossible. That really, really impressed him. He really wanted the details—and whether their first night was as juicy as he imagined. As for Max, he couldn't wait to slap him some "I told you" in the face, or maybe some "suck dick" just for the fun of it.

Kevin sat down next to him, looking somewhat rough. "Ugh, why here again? I fucking hate this place." He said, without the usual joking tone.

Octo saw Max looking at the red wolf, confused, then at him. Octo shrugged; he didn't know what happened either. Kevin had been cranky ever since he was back from his hometown—also he didn't want to tell them where was it. The red wolf looked tired and his fur looked kind of pale. Octo's suspicion resurfaced, but he forcefully quelled it down. They were here, they were fine, that was all that mattered. Maybe Kevin was just still cranky from the trip.

The red wolf's air didn't seem to scare Tom, though. The grey wolf sipped his green tea latte like nothing was wrong. "Took you long enough."

"Fucking traffic." Kevin took a gulp of his chocolate frappe. "And they say that 'the metro is not supposed to be late' or whatever."

Tom just shrugged, then looked at Max. "Andy's not coming?"

"Yeah, he got stuff to do." Max put his phone down and looked up with a smile, a nervous smile, he noticed.

They then just talked like usual. None of them told him that they were going to come out to them but based on their nervousness and the fact that Max now lived with Tom, he had a hunch. A very strong one.

Octo slurped his drink amusedly. This was interesting, and pretty funny, too.

Their food arrived after that, and they dug right in. The panther looked at them; he noticed both Max and Kevin weren't eating as enthusiastically as they usually did. While he was amused at Max, he was concerned at Kevin.

Tom then booped Kevin, earning him an angry but bashful retort from the red wolf. After that, his mood seemed to be better... a bit, but at least it was better.

"Do you now have a job, Max?" Octo asked the dog since he had been quiet since the food came.

Max looked up and swallowed his food. "Not yet. I got an interview back at my intern place, though. Pretty sure they're gonna hire me since I heard from my co-workers that they need more people."

"Nice. You, Tom?"

"I'm going to start working next week at my intern place." The grey wolf put his utensils down and pushed the empty plate away. "Lucas was glad to have me back."

"Who's Lucas?"

"A workmate."

"And a friend, too. We played his team during the Nat-Champ." The German Shepherd added.

Kevin perked up. "Is he hot?"

"Yeah. He's pretty hot."

"That's the first time you say he's hot, Oct." Max piled his plate on top of the grey wolf's.