Engineering Moon Forth and Doctor Beam

Chapter 3

Warnings: There will be angst. This is a love story, after all, what's love without that miserable angst? But still, Forth POV, bit of language, smart-assness. Grammar spoofs, perhaps.

Sometimes, things happen that challenge my complete lack of belief in a benevolent divine being. Or at least, spur me to find Lady Luck and kick her unnecessarily interfering ass. So, what is making me want to pummel a deity held in high regard by most and the non-existent lady worshipped by gamblers?

The fact that Beam and I actually talked. That's right, we talked, with words. English words.

You're thinking, oh that's good, you should be happy. But oh no, there's nothing to be happy about. You want to know what I'm yammering about?

Let's back up and see what the hell is actually happened, shall we?

Anyway, after finished class one day, not too long after that Ying mess, it could be a Tuesday or even a Wednesday, they all blur together in a mess, I went over to Nicky's house to hang. Usually, we hang at his place because it is massive. Mansion massive. (his parents are incredibly loaded)  Like, I got lost there one day looking for the bathroom and had to use a planter while ignoring the maid's scandalized screams. Yeah, he has maids. And butlers who wear those tuxedo things and talk to you with that upper crust Brit accents. I guess you got the correct impression that Nicky, or at least, his father, is loaded.

So it's more fun to haunt his house than mine. He has the house all to himself, minus all the servants and cooks and gardeners and some such, so no one yells at him. His father is a big business guy who travels all the time and for the near three years Nicky and I've been friends, I have yet to see they guy. His older brother,Mick is at overseas university and his older sister, Tammy, moved out when we were in our sophomore year to live with her boyfriend. Nicky's kind of lonely because he's there all by himself, so I kind of invade his home as often as possible. He doesn't mind at all, he even said if I wanted, I could just move in with my guardian, P'wan. Cool, huh?

I did ask P'wan if we could, to which he replied in various choking noises and bulging eyes. I took that to mean 'no,' but hey, the idea was awesome. Living with my best friend and my guardian in a house the size of Texas, fully loaded with electronics, basketball court, swimming pool, you name it, it has it. Too bad P'wan doesn't think it's a good idea. I mean, I like our house, it's small, always in a mess because neither of us likes to clean, and got that cozy feeling, but come on!

Okay, off that tangent and back to the story of how Beam and I came to have a conversation. Where was I? Oh yeah, hanging out with Nicky and playing video games. And I'm trying to convince him, between the messy ways he's killing me in yet another game, that I do not have a crush on Ying.

"She's got purple hair, Nicky! Purple isn't my color at all." (well, actually i don't even care what color human hair is. it just one of my reason to answer him.)

The little shit smirks, like he doesn't believe me. Which he doesn't.

"You know," he murmurs, his voice a low hum, "you have been telling me how and why you do not like Ying for.. oh.." He glances at the mantle clock above the immense television entertainment set, taking his eyes off the video game but still kicking my sorry ass. "An hour and forty minutes now."

"That's because you won't believe me!" Yeah, I can whine. "What kind of best friend doesn't believe me when I say something like that?"

"The kind with a brain." Oh lord, the fucking irony.. "and besides, you heard of the phrase, 'thou protests too much'?"

"Stop that! That's from something I haven't read, isn't it?"

In case you want to know, Nicky likes to toss in cool and intellectual sounding phrases into his speech pattern. Why? Who the hell knows? Half the time, I don't know what he's thinking and the times that I do, I wish that I didn't.