Just By Chance

17. Jealous

Oat ran into Forth's back because of his sudden stop and Lek ran into the back of Oat. Forth was unfazed by the commotion behind him as he could now only see Beam...and the person next to him that was showing him a bit too much attention.

Oat followed Forth's gaze and when his eyes landed on Beam he started to snicker.

"Oh ho hoooo. So that's why you're in such a hurry. Well? What are you waiting for? Get over there." Oat said as he gave Forth one big shove.

Forth stumbled forward a bit but quickly regained his balance. His eyes kept darting from Beam - whose face was down in a textbook - to the the guy next to him - who was sitting too close and staring for too long at Beam.

Forth eased his way over while Oat and Lek waited for him at a distance, but close enough to still hear.

"Come on Beam. Come drinking with us." The guy was saying. Forth absolutely hated the way he was looking at Beam. It was more than obvious that he was trying to flirt. With all the guys and girls that had tried to flirt with him after becoming the runner up for the Moon and Star pageant, he was all too familiar with the way the students at this school tried to "run game". The body lean in, the flirtatious look, the sensual voice. Forth couldn't stand it, and it added to why he hated all the attention he would often receive.

Why was no one else at the table seeing what was happening?

"I can't." Beam answered, never looking up from his book. "Our workload is already starting to get heavy, you know that."

"Not studying for one night won't hurt you. Everyone knows you're super smart." He said, scooting closer.

Forth could feel his face starting to get hot. Everyone else at the table was talking or scribbling in their notebooks. Where the heck were Phana and Kit? They wouldn't allow this to happen, would they?

"Sorry, man. No drinking for me tonight." Beam said as he scribbled down some notes. The guy stared some more then reached over to stop Beam's hand from writing. When Beam looked up at the guy, Forth had had enough. He coughed loudly before fully approaching.

"What's up, Beam." He said. His voice was still louder than it needed to be and it had taken on a hard edge to it.

Beam looked up from his books and immediately broke into a smile. "Forth?"

Seeing how quickly Beam smiled at him made Forth go soft inside. See, you idiot? He doesn't care about this loser next to him.

"What are you doing over here?" Beam asked, checking his watch. "Don't you have class in 30 minutes?"

He remembers my schedule too...

"Y-yea...but I wanted to catch you first." Forth's voice had softened too.

One of the other guys across from Beam finally looked up from his book and his eyes went wide. He was a small, mousy looking guy with glasses that were too big for his face. "You were the Campus Moon runner-up." He smiled and waiied. After he said it, the other guys looked up too and stared.

Great...

"Oh, this is Forth. Forth, these are my classmates." Beam said.

Everyone greeted him and Forth greeted them back.

"Welcome to the table. Please, take a seat." The mousy one said excitedly as he cleared away the multitude of papers that were covering the table and motioned at the space next to Beam. Forth gladly took the seat. He looked at Beam and Beam looked back. It didn't take long for him to blush and look back down at his book. The guy on the other side of Beam noticed.