Just By Chance

13. The First Date

Forth stepped inside and stood behind Beam in the mirror.

"Nothing's wrong. You just make me feel a bit under dressed." He smirked.

Beam let out a breath of relief and smiled a bit. He had been about to start panicking.

Beam watched Forth in the mirror and saw his eyes trail from Beam's feet, all the way up until their eyes met in the mirror. Beam swallowed as the butterflies in his stomach began to take flight. He cleared his throat.

"Should we um...get going?" His voice cracked on the last two words and he blushed and cleared his throat again.

Relax, Beam. It's just Forth.

Forth nodded and took a step back. He watched silently as Beam put on his shoes and he just couldn't stop staring. Beam's hair was done neatly, with his bangs lightly feathered and swept out of his eyes. And the air in the room smelled like whatever it was that he had just showered with. Like a mixture of fresh linen and a very clean beach. Forth inhaled and leaned against the mirror.

"Okay, I'm ready." Beam popped up from tying his shoes.

Forth stood up straight immediately.

"My uh, my car is down stairs." Forth stepped around Beam, out the door. He didn't want Beam to catch him staring again. Beam quickly grabbed his wallet and keys and followed, not too far behind Forth.

****

In the car, things were fairly silent. Both boys kept stealing glances at each other then quickly looking away before the other one could see that they were staring.

Forth decided to break the silence.

"So...what did you do today?"

"I only had one class today, but I had to go back to the infirmary."

"The infirmary?? Are your headaches getting worse? Are you sick? How are you feeling now? Are you-"

"Forth!" Beam stopped the stream of questions that were pouring out of Forth's mouth. "I'm fine. Really. I just had to go back for a final check up to make sure I'm really okay."

"And what did you find out?"

"That I'm really okay." Beam chuckled.

Forth let out a small sigh of relief but Beam still heard him.

"Beam, I-"

"Don't you dare apologize again." Beam cut him off. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. Okay?"

Forth gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead with his lips pressed together.

"Okay?" Beam leaned over so he could get a closer look at Forth's face. Why was he so upset about this?

Forth looked at him quickly then turned back to the road. "Mmm."

"Not 'mmm'. Okay?" Beam asked again.

"....okay." Forth finally said.

Beam watched Forth for a while before turning to look out the window. A part of him liked that Forth was so worried about him. He was actually more worried about him than Phana and Kit were. But then another part of him didn't really understand why he was the one taking it so hard.

"So where are we going?" Beam wanted to change the subject so that Forth could stop frowning as he drove. He also noticed that they had left the center of Bangkok and were heading just outside it, into the nicer part of town.