Arthit & Kongpop ✔️

Bad Driver

Monday, at school, Prae was already waiting for me when I walked to my locker. She recently re-dyed her hair black, and it shone underneath the fluorescent school lights. She's scratching off her black nail polish, not because she wanted to, but because she's nervous.

I knew this because I knew her.

"Morning Prae." I wished

"Oh my God, there you finally are. I've been dying to tell you what my tarot reading said this morning. "

I took a few books out of my locker while I listened to the outcome of Prae's reading.  It's mostly positive.

"Except," she said, "it said that one of my friends would get into an accident this week."

"You have more friends though. "

The bell rang and we started walking to Chinese class together.

"I know I know, but I wanted to warn you. Just in case, you know?"

"That's nice. Thank you."

"So keep an eye out for ladders and cars and potholes."

"I will."

There's a crowd in front of the Chinese classroom, because our teacher was always late when we had Chinese on first period. A few of the gathered students were yawning and staring blearily at the door like their minds were still asleep.

Not Prae's though.

Judging by the little lovesick sigh beside me, Prae had already spotted her three year long crush.

It took her a moment to come back to earth, but she eventually tore her eyes away and focused on me once more. "So how  was your weekend?"

"Alright. I went to the neighborhood party-"

"Oh right!"

"-but we didn't do anything special.  We just played some Truth and Dare. And Oh, I got my first kiss."

Prae's eyes widened in slow-motion, like her brain was catching up to her ears.

"Yeah" I said and pushed up my glasses.
"Oh. My. God."

"It was for truth and dare."
"Truth or-  but still - Oh. My. God," she repeated, hands gesturing in the air like she's trying to make sense of it all.

Before she could, our Chinese teacher finally showed up, a coffee pot in her hand.

I went inside with the rest of the students. Behind me, I heard Prae whisper furiously, "I will  get a name from you, Arthit Rojnapat!"

I looked over my shoulder. "Oh you don't  need to pry. It was Kongpop Suthilak."

At that Prae stopped in her tracks and stared at me with her mouth open.

-----------

Monday at lunch, I had frankly forgotten all about this morning.

I was listening to Prem and his boyfriend, Wad, talk about their weekend, while Bright dozed off - as he usually did on Mondays.

"And it was so big," Wad said. "They rented this entire hotel, which was necessary too because it was packed with people."

"And so many people were cosplaying Lord of the Rings," Prem added. "I didn't think people still thought that was cool."

"I mean, it's Comic Con," I said. "Everyone there probably grew up with Lord of the Rings."

Prem laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

"So anyway, there we were," Wad continued, "waiting in line for what seemed like two hours-"

"It was only half an hour," Prem said.