My Chocomallows Cake by ARIE78 (on hold)

Chapter 19

  The headmistress turned from him to Beam, the wrinkle in her forehead deepening when she noticed the gaping gap between the two.

She looked at the report before her with a remarkable amount of patience.

"His grades," she paused and Forth held his breath. "Have considerably improved," she said, looking up just in time to see Forth heaving a sigh of relief.

"But he'd need to keep up the hard work."

"I'll make sure he does," Forth said, his eyes flickering to Beam who was looking outside the window and not listening to the conversation.

"He's lucky to have a cousin like you. Right, Nong Beam?"

Beam didn't answer, his gaze was fixed on the high-schoolers thronging the field.

"Nong Beam?"

No answer, yet again.

"Nong Beam!"

He snapped out of his reverie and turned to her sharply. "Y..yes."

The headmistress just sighed.

The walk back to the car was awkward and silent. Even when they took their seats in front. Forth didn't start the car, instead he kept his hands on the steering wheel and stared ahead. If Beam was wondering why, he didn't raise the question.

"What's with you?" Forth finally muttered.

Beam turned to him in surprise. "Nothing," came the quick answer.

"Yeah, right," Forth mumbled and sighed, wondering why he had to care so much. "You've been avoiding me. So... you hate me now or somethin'?"

Beam shrugged. "Well, you were the one who said I was too... clingy."

Forth gave Beam a weird look. "I didn't mean it that way."

"Yeah, right," Beam said, echoing his earlier sarcasm.

And then, silence again.

Because Forth didn't know how to take back what he'd said. That was the trouble with words. It was never easy to take them back. He'd never meant it that way either. Beam's closeness only kept reminding him of that strange feeling burgeoning in his heart, which he was fighting hard to ignore. Of course, one little contact with the boy made the whole struggle futile. That's why, everytime Beam stepped a little too close for comfort, he had to push him away.

Forth paused to look at Beam again and reached out to ruffle his hair.

"I like you the way you are."

Everything paused for a moment when he heard Forth and felt his warmth on top of his head. He tried to convince himself that the sudden rush he felt was due to the abrupt forward motion of the car.

Yet it did not explain why he froze like that or became so surprised...no...pleasantly surprised.

Good thing he was looking out the window. The sudden tense of his body must have been visible on his face.

When it all registered suddenly he couldn't remember the depressing thoughts from before and somehow it became of utter importance to say something back.

But it was another struggle to figure out what was appropriate. "I like you the way you are too." That kind of pseudo love confession is kind of well...strange even by his standards.

Beam turned to Forth who was intently looking ahead and it was almost a reflex the way he reached out to hold him; hand resting on his thigh almost in a silent, "I'm glad" which was not as embarrassing as an audible confirmation of it.