After his last class for the day, Forth decided to go sit in the study room for engineering students. It was still far too hot to be sitting outside doing homework that even being in the shade wouldn't cool him down. He'd rather just be inside where the air conditioning was. When he walked in, he was met by his engineering seniors P'Toy, P'Pond, P'Lon, and a few others.
"Ai'Forth! What's up, man! Come sit over here." P'Toy grinned and waved him over. P'Toy was always smiling. Unlike Forth, he actually liked all the attention he received from being the Campus Moon during his freshman year. And girls still continued to treat him as if he was the current Moon.
"Sawatdee khrap, P'Toy. Sawatdee khrap P's." Forth walked over and set his bag down in an empty chair.
"We were just talking about you."
"Me?"
"Yeah. We just had a quiz in our class today. We're going out drinking tonight to let out some stress from studying. We figured you and your friends might want to come. Your friends are always out at the bars anyway. So, what do you say?"
Forth shrugged. He really didn't want to go out drinking. But could he really tell his seniors no?
"I don't know if I should, P. I also have a quiz this Friday."
"Don't sweat it Forth. You always pass your exams. You can afford to come out drinking with us." P'Lon chimed in.
It was true that Forth always passed his exams, but he studied hard in order to do so. Forth was also not surprised that P'Lon knew about his grades. He was the senior that kept an eye on all his juniors' grades and class rankings.
"Yea, Forth." P'Toy slapped him on the back. "We're not going until tonight anyway. You still have plenty of time to study until then."
Forth checked his watch. It was a little after 3:30pm. "What time are you going?"
"We're gonna head out around 9pm. We are going to Poom's brother's bar. He's having double Happy Hour tonight."
"Did I hear double happy hour??" Came Oat's voice from behind them. They all turned to see a grinning Oat with a stack of books in his hands.
"See? I knew he'd want to go." P'Toy pulled him over and shoved him down in a seat.
"Yea, every Wednesday my brother does double Happy Hour at his bar." P'Poom said. "The first one is from 5 to 6pm. Then again at 9."
"Can I come??" Oat asked excitedly.
"Of course. The more people, the better." Toy said then turned to Forth. "So what do you say, Forth? You should be done with your homework by then. Invite your other friends too."
Forth looked from Toy to the rest of his seniors when he felt someone's elbow in his side. Forth sighed and slowly turned to Oat who was nudging him repeatedly with an idiotic grin on his face.
"Okay, I'll go."
"Weee!" Oat cheered and immediately began taking out his homework to get started right away. The seniors started talking amongst themselves again. Forth was about to open his notebook when he heard P'Toy say something about the school of medicine. Forth jerked his head back up.
"You should invite your friends from the school of medicine. Those doctors love to go out drinking too."
"Ooh, yea! Invite Sam. And tell him to invite his junior; the one that was the Moon last year. If he comes, there will be so many girls there." P'Pond said.
"Oh you mean Phana Kongthanin?" Oat chimed in. "Ai'Forth can-"
Forth jabbed Oat so hard in the ribs to shut him up Oat lost his breath. He actually hadn't meant to elbow him that hard. He knew Oat was too skinny and frail to take too much of anything physical.
"Jeez Forth, don't kill him." P'Toy laughed and the other seniors chuckled. "Are you not cool with N'Phana?"
"Why would he be? He took the crown of Moon when Forth clearly should have won last year." P'Lon said. Just like Forth's friends, his seniors believed that he should have been crowned the Moon that night too.
"That's not it. We're just not that close, that's all." Forth said. He was trying not to panic in front of his seniors. If P'Sam invited Phana to come, Phana would for sure have Beam and Kit tag along. And If Beam came, that meant Forth would have no control over how wild his heart would beat if they even came remotely close to each other. As much as he tried to deny it, he knew he had been acting funny lately with his friends. But he just couldn't help it. His brain was stuck on BEAM BEAM BEAM!
"No worries, Forth. I'll invite Sam and Phana." P'Pond said.
Forth nodded stiffly and his seniors went back to talking amongst themselves. Forth sat twirling his pencil in his hand as he stared off into space. Would Beam really come? Could he stop himself from acting so sprung if Beam showed up?
More questions floated across his mind as he felt Oat lean in to him. Forth turned to look at him and that same idiotic smile was back on his face. Oat wiggled his eyebrows at him, knowingly, then turned back to start his homework.
****
"Are you sure we're even invited? P'Sam only invited you, didn't he?" Kit asked as he packed up his things to head back to the dorm. He, Beam, and Phana were in the library studying for an upcoming quiz; a practice quiz in preparation for their first exam of the semester which would take place next week.
"Of course you can come. It's a bar. Anyone can go to a bar." Phana threw his bag over his shoulder. "Besides, P'Sam is your senior too. Why wouldn't you be allowed to go?'
"Yea, but he's so...mean and cranky."
"Oh, you mean just like you?" Beam smiled and stood too. Kit scowled at him. "You can't be mad that you guys have the exact same personality." Beam laughed and Phana smirked because it was true. Kit was forever in a cranky mood unless he was not-so-subtly blushing over Ming. He thought Beam and Phana hadn't noticed how much more he and Ming had been talking, but they noticed; and they noticed how frequently his eyes would dart around the canteen looking for Ming too whenever they would go.
"Yeah well...whatever." Kit turned away.
"Who's all gonna be there, Pha?" Beam looked at Phana. They all three made their way out of the library as they talked.
"Mmm...I'm not entirely sure. P'Sam and the rest of our seniors for sure. I think I heard him mention something about the engineering seniors going."
Beam went rigid. "Engineering?"
"Yea. P'Toy and P'Sam are pretty close. So if P'Toy is going, I'm sure some other engineering guys will be there."
"...um...you mean...do you think they invited their juniors too?" Beam didn't want to come right out and ask whether or not Phana knew if Forth was going but he was dying to know. He wanted to see Forth again, but he didn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of people from school; too many people to see him turn clumsy in front of him.
Kit caught on to what Beam was really asking.
"He wants to know if Forth will be there, Ai'Pha." Kit said flatly, then had to quickly duck out of the way as Beam swung at him. "What!? That's what you mean, isn't it???" He laughed.
"Stop it you two." Phana said as he passed his friends. Kit and Beam settled down like obedient children. "I don't know if Forth is coming or not. I haven't seen him in order to ask. But..." He turned to Beam and raised his eyebrows. "There's only one way to find out."
Beam looked at Phana then turned to Kit who was standing with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face. He turned back to Phana. Phana raised his eyebrows and smirked again.
He hated how smug his friends were about this whole thing but it was true indeed. There was only one way to find out.
****
Forth entered the bar with his friends flocked on either side of him. They stopped in the doorway to scope the place out and see if they could find their seniors anywhere. They all looked like they were making a movie entrance with the way they strolled in so confidently. A girl and her friend walked by with drinks in their hands eyeing Forth up and down but he didn't even see them. Oat grinned at them but when they saw how he was ogling them in return, they shook their heads and hurried away.
Oat flung his skinny arm out and pointed. "There's P'Toy and the rest of the seniors over there."
All seven of them made their way over. P'Toy was leaning on the arm of a chair laughing at something when he looked up and saw them walking over.
"Oh, good, you made it! Come over here, Forth!" He stood and wrapped his arm around Forth's shoulder, pulling him over to take his place on the arm of the chair. He turned back to the group of people.
"I'm sure you all know my Nong here, the true Moon of the university, Forth."
"In your dreams, Ai'Toy!" A voice rang out. A very tall and brown skinned guy stepped to the side to reveal a slightly bored yet uncomfortable looking Phana. He threw his arms around Phana's shoulders. "I think the results speak for themselves. Right, Phana?" Phana tried to smile but it came out as more of a wince.
Forth felt for him. They both had to have been the only Moon contestants in history that actually hated all this kind of attention and never wanted to be a Moon in the first place. For that reason, Forth couldn't hate Phana no matter how competitive he was.
"That one judge was definitely biased. She was a teacher in his faculty. Forth is the one who won the popular vote. Why wouldn't he also win Moon of the university?" Toy continued.
Forth was growing more uncomfortable by the second and so was Phana. Forth cleared his throat.
"It's really no biggy..." He just wanted all of them to change the topic. The competition was long over and a new Moon was going to be crowned this year in only a couple of weeks, so why were they still harping on this?
"No need to be so humble Forth-" Toy was saying but the world around Forth went silent when two people stepped from around Phana to join the group. One was Kit and the other was Beam who had two drinks in his hand. They locked eyes.
So he did come.
Beam halted as he stared back at Forth but quickly realized that they were in the middle of a large group of people. He dropped his head and silently handed the second drink to Phana. Forth didn't know how long he had been staring at Beam but he was brought back to reality when the group erupted into laughter.
"Ahh whatever man!" Toy laughed and said loudly. "Forth, you and your friends go get some drinks."
"And bring a bottle back. We're out already." P'Pond chimed in.
Oat rubbed his hands together excitedly and was about to lead the way when P'Lon put his arm out to stop him.
"And don't let this little shrimp drink too much. Watch him, will ya?" He added as he pushed Oat into Chris. Chris gripped Oat in a playful chokehold. "No worries, P." Oat squirmed in annoyance.
All seven of them walked off with Forth in the middle. He locked his eyes on Beam again and headed straight for him. Beam's heart went into overdrive and those pesky butterflies immediately started attacking his stomach again. What was he doing? Was he going to hug him? Right now? Was he really going to do something in the middle of all these people??
Right when it looked like Forth was going to walk directly into him – or kiss him – he maneuvered slightly so his mouth was at his ear.
"Hey, Beam." He whispered, but before Beam could answer, Forth had continued to walk on.
Forth's breathy tone of voice mixed with the feeling of his breath against his ear made Beam's stomach completely flip and a new feeling also started to emerge through the butterflies that moved down and landed right between his legs.
Beam was stunned to silence as his face went completely red and he tried to swallow again, but his mouth and throat were now entirely too dry. Phana, who had been watching, stepped close to Beam's other ear and turned so his back was facing his seniors.
"Breathe, and fix your face. Our seniors are watching." He turned back like he hadn't said a thing while grabbing Beam's wrist to lift his cup to his lips. Beam drank deeply then exhaled. He blinked a couple times to get his head together. If tonight was going to be like this, he didn't know how long he would last.