2 Moons: The Friends Perspective

Chapter 1 - The One Where Beam is Distracted

Beam's POV

Decisions, decisions. I look sky wards and stroke my chin whilst I deeply contemplated my next move. I was confused and started to get a little anxious. What to do... What to do...

I was barged out of my reverie by one of my best friends who was beside me.

"Oi... Ai'Asshat! How hard is it to choose your lunch??!!" He whisper-shouted at me. A hungry Kit is an angry Kit so I shouldn't have been remotely surprised.

He pushed me out of the food line and promptly chose a series of food items and dropped them onto trays for himself, our other friend Phana and me. He paid and shoved a tray into my arms whilst picking up the other 2 himself. He stomped away towards our table, leaving me staring after him.

I trudged towards the lunch benches where Phana was flicking through the pages of a medical textbook. A food tray was placed in front of him and he looked up to where Kit was seating himself opposite.

"Thanks man..." He looked up at Kit who was muttering under his breath. He peered at him cautiously and asked, "What's up?"

"It's this fool." Kit replied nodding in my direction. "His head has been in the clouds for the last few days. Just as well I bought his lunch for him otherwise he would have had an impatient seniors' foot up his ass."

Phana turned and looked at me. I placed my tray on the table and sat down. With my elbow on the top, I supported my head with my right hand and started playing with my food with my left.

Kit was right. I wasn't sure what had caused me to be this distracted over the last 2 days. We sophomores within the faculty of medicine had started our classes several weeks earlier than the rest of Kantaphat University because of the blocks we needed to work through. The work was hard and time-consuming but to be expected when they were trying to prepare us to be doctors and clinical physicians in the near future. As stressful as it was, I knew that this wasn't what was concerning me, but yet, I couldn't put my finger on what was...

"I dunno." I said simply. "Whatever it is, it'll pass... Especially with Kit smacking me upside my head every time I space out." I said sneering at my table mate.

There was a brief silence and then Phana asked, "Did something happen at home over the break? You can tell us you know... "

I quickly scanned my memories and my most recent conversations with my parents and nothing jumped out. I shook my head. "No. No that's not it."

They looked from me to each other, shrugged and continued to eat.

I looked down onto my tray and was surprised to find a litany of unknown substances in bowls and plates. I prodded something brown that I was almost expecting to move on its own and turned to Kit. "What exactly is this that you bought for me? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to eat it or it's going to eat me." I got down closer to the tray to see if the smell could give me any more clues to its identity.

"Hey, you ungrateful bastard." Kit snapped. "What did I just say about you and how distracted you've been? You couldn't have made a decision if your life depended on it back there." He got back to his own food and proceeded to shovel it into his mouth. "C'mon, we don't have a lot of time for lunch as it is without you dithering about your food choices. Just eat it... It won't kill you!" But he continued to mutter under his breath, "I might if you don't get your shit together but the food won't."

"I heard that." I grumbled. I cautiously spooned a mouthful of the brown substance into my mouth whilst I looked over at Phana who was still thumbing through the textbook.

"Are you studying, Ai'Pha?" I asked. "Is there some test or lab that I need to prep for that I don't know about? I know I've been distrac.... Hey! This food is pretty good." My questioning stopped as I continued to eat with gusto.