Over the Years

Part Eighteen

Disclaimer: not mine. But everyone knew that.

PETER

I woke up, my head pounding. What the hell happened last night? I groaned, then sat up in bed. Where was I? I looked next to me. Blonde hair. Claire….wait, the hair was too long to be Claire….

Oh my fucking god.

I jumped out of bed. Niki sat straight up, clutching at her head. "What the-" She broke off, staring at me wordlessly. "Oh my god." She finally stuttered.

I frantically started pulling on my clothes. "What the hell happened?"

"We were drunk." Niki answered, just as frantically. "It doesn't count. Nothing happened."

I stared at her. "Right, that's going to work."

Niki glared at me. "Just act like nothing happened! Claire doesn't have to know!"

I ran a hand through my hair. "Fine, it didn't happen." Then I walked out of the door.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to sit at a table with the woman you love and the woman you had a one night stand with? Its completely horrible. Not to mention, I couldn't even look at Niki, and Claire kept giving me looks that clearly said I was acting funny.

After dinner, Niki and Micah finally left and I sat in the main room, staring at the wall. Claire was in the shower. What did it mean that I slept with Niki and didn't want Claire to know? There was no doubt in my mind that I was in love with Claire, and Niki really was one of my best friends. So why did I sleep with Niki?

The water turned off in the bathroom, and I quickly laid in bed and acted like I was asleep.

The next week passed quickly. And horribly. I love Claire, really, I do. But I know that this isn't working. We moved across the country, and it still felt like we were hiding. We still couldn't be what we wanted, and now we had also lost every person we cared about. Nathan wouldn't return my calls, Niki was avoiding me and Claire, and there wasn't anyone else to talk to. Hiro and Ando were always off playing hero, and Matt and Mohinder knew why Claire and I had left, and neither of them were exactly supportive. That just left me and Claire.

And now I knew that as soon as do what I plan, there wont even be that.

Claire walked in the apartment. "Hey!" She exclaimed. She took one look at my face and froze. "What's wrong?"

I took a deep breath, then slowly told Claire to sit down.