Just By Chance

32. Heart To Heart

When the song ended Mai Ding started clapping loudly, grinning from ear to ear. Oat took a dramatic bow and Lek and Chris smiled. They were all clearly feeling very proud of themselves. Beam clapped too as Forth sat back with an approving look on his face.

"Please enjoy the rest of your meal." Lek said into the microphone. Then he propped his guitar up off to the side and they all walked away from their instruments and joined Mai Ding, Duke, and Gear at the back of the room.

"I'm gonna run to the restroom. I'll be back." Beam leaned across the table and whispered. When he reached the door, Mai Ding and Duke opened both doors for him so he could leave. Beam walked slowly to the bathroom. The truth was, he didn't have to use the bathroom at all. He just felt that this would be as good a time as ever to allow Forth and his friends some privacy. He knew they needed to have a talk.

Back in the room, Forth looked at all his friends. "How did you guys pull this off?"

"A lot of it was Beam's idea. We had other plans." Oat said.

"Kidnapping is never a good plan, Oat." Chris said flatly.

"Yea. It was either surprise you with this lovely dinner date," Lek said, motioning to the rest of the room. "or kidnap you and force you to talk to us. It was almost a unanimous decision to go with this idea."

Yea...almost." Gear emphasized, looking at Oat.

"It could have worked!" Oat threw his hands up in defeat.

Duke shook his head and moved to sit in Beam's seat. "So? What do you think? Do you like it?"

Forth nodded and chuckled under his breath. "I do...thank you." He said seriously.

There was a moment of silence between the boys until Chris nudged Oat roughly which caused him to stumble forward a bit. He cleared his throat, feeling a bit embarressed.

"Look, Forth. We're sorry." Oat blurted.

Forth looked at him but said nothing.

"I never meant to ruin things between you and Beam. We like the guy too. He's cool."

The rest of them began nodding their heads in agreement.

"I didn't know I was bothering you that much. And I didn't think Beam would get mad either. I didn't know the bet was a secret."

"In short, Oat didn't know a lot of things." Lek said in his cool voice.

"I thought he would find it funny!" Oat said defensively. "But, yea...I'm sorry Forth."

"Us too, man." Duke chimed in. Mai Ding nodded vehemently.

"Yea." Gear said, nudging Forth.

"Honestly, I didn't know I would get so mad either. But..." Forth trailed off.

"You love him." Gear finished for him.

Forth's eyes widened as he looked up at Gear and the rest of them started nudging and poking at Forth playfully.

"Eeeeee, Ai'Forth's in looovveee."

"Woooowww."

"Eeee, Forth!"

"Meehhh, someone's in looovveee."

Forth ducked his head as they toyed with his ears and ruffled his hair.

"Oiiii! So annoying." But he was smiling as he said it. He fixed his hair and looked at his friends.

"Thanks, guys."