kind regards.

Kie came over a few days later, she felt awful, she realised she shouldn't have done what she had done and she needed to apologise.

She had texted Otto asking if she could come over, she decided randomly showing up probably wasn't the wisest idea.

Otto didn't reply for a few days, it was the school holidays so she didn't have to see them at school and she was free to ignore them as much as she wanted for the next few weeks.

The teenager hadn't once left the house, she actually hadn't left her room, Laura just came in ever so often with food. Otto didn't ask her to do that, she just did it.

But eventually Otto needed to see someone she wasn't directly related to, so she texted Kie back that she could come over. Ten minutes later her car pulled up in front of the Moreau's house and she walked into Otto's room.

Otto sat at her desk, she was in a jumper her dad got from his college days and some plain shorts.

For some reason, despite being almost certain Kie knew, she didn't want her to see it.

When Kie opened her door she hovered awkwardly in the door frame, not knowing what to do or how to act.

"Sit on the bed, I'm not going to bite your head off."

Kie gave a tense smile and took a seat on the plush bed. Stupidly, she tried to get a read on Otto, staring at her, trying to figure out any curve of the lips or raise of the brows that could give her some idea as to what she could expect.

But, as always, nothing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were avoiding him so intensely, I thought it was something less severe. I don't really know what I was thinking, I just wanted it all to go back to the way it was, but that isn't possible bec--"

"Stop rambling. You're sorry, I'm over it, let's move on."

Kie was relieved, the next thing her mind switched to was a question she so desperately wanted to ask, but she was already on thin ice with her friend.

Otto could tell what she was thinking, kie was painfully easy to read.

"Spit it out."

"Are you... you know?"

"No, I don't know. Please enlighten me." She wanted to make Kie say it, she could see how uncomfortable it was making her. Prying into Otto's business was always a minefield.

"Otto, I just. I mean, like, are you like pregnant?"

"Sure am. My life sure is fun at the moment."

Kie couldn't tell if Otto was excited or annoyed by the news, by her words most people would assume she was not happy about the situation. But Otto was always sarcastic and pretty negative, so that left it difficult to decipher.

Which was pretty much the motto of Ottilie Moreau's life.

"You don't have to answer, but I've got a few more questions. Is it JJ's? We all saw what happened, which is how we kinda figured out you were pregnant."

"It is his. He doesn't want any part though."

Kie nodded, the news wasn't all that shocking. While Otto didn't have any exact details on JJ's home life, only that is was shit. Kie knew just about everything.

The fact he wouldn't want to be a parent came as no shock.

"I assume your aren't that far along."

Otto smirked, "You know ages ago when you asked if JJ and I had history?" Kie nodded, "Well, on one of the last days of summer we hooked up."

Kie's eyebrows shot up and a wide smile spread across her lips, "I knew it! You totally gaslit me, I thought I was crazy." She laughed.

Otto sunk back further into the chair, "What can I say, I'm - for the most part - an impeccable liar." She stretched her arms out on each side in a cocky manner.

"So how far along does that make you?" Kie was straggling to do the maths.

"Around seveteen weeks? Give or take a few days."

Kie exhaled a breathy laugh, "How the fuck did you hide it? And how long have you known?"

"I didn't know for a while, mostly because of denial and the circumstances I was in. So it was pretty easy to hide because I had no clue myself. I've known for about a month, but no one really knew except for my parents so most of the time I completely forgot I was pregnant."

"So JJ's known for a while, then?"

Otto brought her thumb up to her mouth and gave it a light bite, something she did when stressed.

She didn't want to talk about it, she had left it too long, she knew that.

Her mum was right, he should've been one of the first people to know, but so much happened, things got so dark, and then things got better. And she didn't want to ruin it, so she kept putting it off.

"I told him the day before, sent him a text."

Kie smiled and then quickly brought a hand up to cover it, "That's really not funny. That's really bad. But you sent him a text?"

Otto nodded slowly, "I didn't know what to write so I wrote it like a fucking work email. All, 'Dear, JJ', I used the word impregnate, and then I signed it with kind regards or something like that."

The friend couldn't contain the laugh, it was one of disbelief and amusement.

Kie by no means condoned Otto's actions, they were indisputably wrong. She shouldn't have done that, but it was a little funny.

"What did he say?"

That was when the story got a lot less funny.

"Nothing. So I avoided him, it's why I didn't go to the Chateau, it's pretty much his house, and it seemed wrong to go to his house if he wanted nothing to do with me. I wouldn't want him to show up to my house, so I didn't go."

Kie had stopped laughing, she sensed the amusement in Otto's tone had been sucked out and changed into something completely impassive.

"What did he say, when you two spoke?"

Otto wasn't going to tell Kie, the majority of the stuff he said was bad. And it didn't seem fair to put that burden on Kie's shoulders, she and JJ were very good friends and Otto didn't want to get inbetween that.

She was above that petty shit. Mostly.

"Nothing interesting. He doesn't want to be involved, that's all really."

"Kind of a dick move. I think he'll come 'round, he probably just needs some time to cool off."

Otto nodded like she was agreeing with Kie, she was really not agreeing. With what he said and how he said it she knew he wouldn't.

She got a choice, and so did he, and they chose differently.

That was just the way the cookie crumbled.

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