A Touching Of Lips (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 24. Heart To Heart.

I was sitting on my own on the wall by the basketball courts, waiting for the twins.

It was Sunday morning and the place was almost deserted. I had forgotten how quiet the Campus was on the weekends as I had usually returned home last semester. It felt strange....., especially not having Pang around.

By the time I had arrived back last night it was late, later than ever before, and my roommates were all asleep. The twins were already showered and out by the time I had woken, and I had sent a text arranging to meet them here at noon.

It was almost that now.

Golf had showered just after me and had gone out without saying where he was going. He had been urging me all week to swallow my pride and go to Pang to sort things out. This morning he said nothing about that, he just swore that he had no recollection of seeing Ming and I when he was drunk last night when I asked him. I didn't believe him. He hadn't yet returned my text asking him if he was joining us for lunch later either.

Pang had been avoiding me since I had let fly at her. Hardly surprising, is it? I was in two minds as to what to do about it.

I knew that she expected me to crack first and to go to her to apologise, which I would do if I thought she had accepted the reasons why I had blown my top in the first place. She hadn't joined us for any meals or for our study periods, but had sat with Sky, well away from us, ignoring any of my attempts to catch her eye.

I had seen her crossing the Campus, and tried to talk to her, but again she had publicly blanked me.

Karn has been telling me to hold back from doing anything about it just a little longer. He said if she was blanking me, then she was not ready to talk. He said that the weekend could make her realise how much she missed me being around, and was convinced, having no one she could boss about as much as me, she would phone me today or tomorrow to ask to meet and talk.

I wasn't so sure she would do that. I knew how stubborn she could be. I had already thought that she was put out with me for not going home because she still was. She was jealous of my new friendship with Ming, and with Pond, and her nose was definitely out of joint.

That was it in a nutshell.

That was what the row had basically been about in the first place. Her jealousy of my budding friendship with Ming to her possible loss. She was now expecting me to call her, apologise and offer to take her out or arrange to do something one evening or next weekend. That's what usually happened if we weren't seeing eye to eye. Always me calling her. But nearly a week of not talking, for us, was unheard of.

Anyway, it was too late, as I had already arranged to do something next weekend.

Something that she would have loved to have done and been involved with....., and that was helping me choose what temporary new apartment I would have and in what complex. I wasn't going to need her input or opinion, as Ming was going to come with me. She would be put out by that if, or when, she found out.

Korn thrust a bottle of pomegranate juice under my nose. "You got back late last night. Your cherry still intact?"

"If I hadn't returned you would have a good reason to ask that question. Where's Karn?" I answered, finding his terminology funny and not taking offence.

"He's gone back to the dorm to fetch some para's. He's been fighting a real bad headache this morning and can't shift it. He had that bad dream about you again last night. Woke me at 2pm looking to see if you were back."

Korn offered me some of his snacks. "Seriously dude, you should have texted you were okay. He was getting a little anxious until I reminded him that he had told you to tell Ming you liked him."

I declined the snack. "He told you that then?"

"Didn't have to, did he?"

I smiled nervously. "I'm sorry. I didn't give it a thought as you knew where I was. I thought I heard him call my name out last night, but wasn't sure if I just dreamt it. I'm sorry to have got you both involved with my mess."

"It's not your fault, is it? If Karn didn't like, or care about you, he wouldn't have had the visions in the first place, would he?"

"I suppose not, but I feel really guilty that you've been dragged into this. It's not fair on you, is it?"

"I don't know why it has to be the one of you naked again being touched up by Pond. Maybe Karn's a little frustrated at the moment and is needing to beat off a little bit more."

I noticed the wry smile passing over his lips.

"I wasn't being touched up and you bloody well know it. Although it did feel kind of nice having someone wash my private parts. It's not every day you get such intimate service ....."

Korn laughed. "When we first met, I wasn't sure about you. I thought you were just another one of these rich kids trying to be cool by hanging around with ordinary guys like us. I thought you were after something, but I couldn't work out what. Thought at first you were trying to buy our friendship because you weren't running high in popularity stakes. Karn said you weren't like that. He got you straight away. He said you were genuine and he liked you. Not that he liked you as in liked you, but liked you as a person."

"I know what you mean because I liked him too ..... not that I didn't like you." I hastily added. "It's just I spent time alone with him and didn't with you. We also have quite a similar outlook on things."

"I actually kept my distance from you, not because I didn't like you or anything like that, or because that Pang was a bit scary. It's just that I couldn't read you or seem to get close to you."

He looked at me uneasily, watching for my reaction. "I didn't always understand you either, not like Karn. The only thing I get is your humour. It's pretty cool for a rich dude. I wasn't sure if it was your relationship with Pang that confused the hell out me, or there was another side to you that you were hiding. You said she wasn't your girlfriend, yet you spent most of your time with her. You never dated any other girls and if one came anywhere near you, she saw them off pretty sharpish. You didn't have any other friends or seemed bothered about making any. The thing is, Karn could read you easily enough, and you seemed to read him too. I was pleased that he was making a friend in you as he's always relied on me far too much. I didn't realise how much he cared about you until he started to have those visions. I don't mean he's gay or anything like that, just that for him to care as much as he does means that he trusts you. I've never known him to trust anybody other than me. Period. It's something we just don't do easily."

"Thanks Korn, I didn't know you ever felt like that. I've never felt awkward or uncomfortable with you, but I know what you mean about reading each other. I couldn't read you at all either. I just put it down to you both having very different personalities. I can see that it's the differences between you that balances you out, and that he needs you, just as much as you need him. You took me by surprise the other night when you said that you would do whatever he wanted because you loved him. I'm guilty of thinking that you always called the shots, because you're quite dominant over him."

"I am often seen as the dominant twin because Karn doesn't disagree with me in public. We've always talked things through privately. I certainly don't bully him like people say I do. They know nothing. I accepted ages ago that he's far brighter than me and I would be a fool to ignore his point of view. That's partly why I agreed to do as he wanted the other night."

"I'm glad you did because I really do think they would have disposed of us all, if you hadn't."

Korn gave me a quizzical look as he pondered on exactly what that meant.

"What makes you say that they really would have to dispose of us all?" Korn eventually asked. For the first time I saw a hint of fear in his eyes as he gave me the strangest of looks. "Karn noticed the smile and the nod that Pond gave you and gathered it was just scare tactics."

"Some of it was, yes, but things would have become pretty scary for all of us because of what happened to me." I parried. "I'm not allowed to say much but Pond had to prove to Khun Chiang that I was worth rescuing. He had to put his life in danger to do so. I didn't really know that mine was at risk too until afterwards. He told me that if he couldn't prove I could be trusted he would have had to kill me and then would have been killed himself. They are paranoid about being betrayed and exposed. Trust means a big deal to them. Ming says once you are proven trustworthy their world fully opens up to you. There are important people all over the world that help protect them. It's like a secret club. He says doors will open other doors."

Korn looked at me with his eyebrows raised, "There you go again. Ming says this and Ming says that. We said last night about you always doing that now. We've noticed that you seem to take onboard everything Ming says without questioning it much. We're just worried that, because you and Pang aren't talking, you've locked on to him on the rebound."

"When you say we, do you mean we, as in you and Karn, or do you mean I, as in just you?" I queried.

Korn went red. "We always say we and not I, as we usually both think the same. Force of habit saying the plural. We..., I just think it odd for someone like you, who don't make friends easily, has suddenly become best buddies with a gay guy."

I took a deep breath and was just about to say something when Korn beat me to it.

"Before you throw a hissy fit and call me for all sorts, I know what you told Karn in the washroom. What you said and what we have seen don't tally. You may proclaim you're straight, but to us actions speak louder than words. We've seen the way you look at him and the way you are around him. It's a bit obvious, you know, feeding each other like lovers last night. You like him .... like he likes you..., don't you?"

"There you go again using the plural. Does Karn think this?"

"Yes! Actually, he was the one that noticed and asked me what I thought. You getting jealous over River last night, and then throwing another hissy fit when we walked home says it all really, doesn't it?"

"Great! First it was Pang. Then it was Pond, and now it is you two. What is it that everyone sees that makes them think I'm gay?"

"I think I better let Karn answer that," Korn said as Karn was walking towards us. "I'm not sure that I could take a tongue lashing from you without decking you, but be assured whatever he says I endorse 100%."