Hold on Tight

2. Where We Started

» Beam «

"Why do we have to accompany you again? Waiting is boring! And we do nothing there!" I complained openly as me and friends were headed outside of our faculty building. Pha had asked us again to accompany him since they had practice for the competition that day (like every single day for that matter).

"Beam's right, Pha. You guys take so long, what will we do?" Kit asked.

"I don't want to go there alone," Pha reasoned, uncharacteristically bordering close to a whine. And it was weird,  Pha never does that.

"How old are you? Shit Pha, you're already a grown up. Stop acting like a child," Kit scolded lightly.

"Yeah, says the man-child." I snorted at Kit's words. Like he's any better.

"Shut up, I wasn't talking to you," Kit snapped back.

I rolled my eyes at Kit and he glared at me in return as we continued pacing towards the parking lot to get our cars.

"Just come with me na? I'll buy you guys dinner again," Pha offered. "Na na?"

My ears perked and Kit agreed almost instantly at the promise of food. Inconsistent much? But wait... isn't he watching over his weight since he's on a diet?

And Pha was loving the fact that he had us wrapped around his fingers. He was blackmailing us with food (not that it's a bad thing though). With heavy hearts, we agreed to his proposition. It was free food, who wouldn't agree to that?

"You're lucky there are a lot of pretty stars there or else I wouldn't he caught seen in that place!" I exclaimed hastily.

"C'mon Beam, you're more dramatic than Kit is with this."

It was Pha's turn to roll his eyes at me, Kit smirked knowingly just the same and I cursed at him. "Shit Pha!" Remind me again why we're friends?

Without furthermore banters ('cause what's the point?), we all went inside our respective cars when we reached the lot and drove off to the practice hall in a huff. The place was already full of people, staff and contestants alike when we arrived at the scene. Somehow I got a weird feeling that me and Kit didn't belong there. Oh well. We don't have regular classes yet until the end of the competition so we were lax, Phana could actually force us to tag along with him wherever he went (and he's actually going it already).

There was only one main door, so when we arrived, heads were turned towards our direction. And of course, the attention was mostly on Pha. Although it was just the second day of their practice, rumors had already spread around that he will win. Well, he's Phana. And given his looks, we're sure he will. But my best friend could care less about that. Pha was used to the attention ever since we were younger that he shrugged it off like it was nothing and casually went to a nearby bench, me and Kit followed closely behind.

Every step we took, the whispers increased, from the females mostly. Why, haven't they seen 3 handsome guys together before? Some admiring gazes were directed on Kit and me but Ai'Kitty hated stuff like that. Not that he wasn't attractive. It just made him conscious and he preferred a low profile. How noble, right? Haha.

Unlike Kit, my eyes wandered to the girls in the room, some of them had their eyes focused on me, giving me knowing stares and I couldn't help but grin slyly at the thought. I may not be the same kind of handsome as Phana was but I definitely didn't lag behind when it came to looks.

If Phana wasn't there then I would be most likely be the faculty moon instead. Wouldn't that be awesome?

"Ai'Pha." We were seated by the same empty bench we were at yesterday when we heard someone call my best friend's name.

We looked up in unison and saw a visually pleasing sight.

Ah, it was the handsome Engineering moon.

"Hey Ai'Forth," Pha greeted back with familiarity. He wai-ed at us and we did the same.

"Hi Ai'Beam," he said suddenly when he regarded me and I was shocked. He actually remembered my name!

"Hey," I answered back and he grinned. I was taken aback for a moment.

It was almost weird, how Forth smiled at me that time. Why was it?

But before I could ponder on the thought some more, the contestants were called by the head of the production staff so they could gather around and start with their usual practice.

"What was that about?" Kit asked in a hushed voice when the two moons took their leave and was out of earshot.

"Hmm?"

"Ai'Forth," Kit said, jerked his head at the tall male.

I turned to stare at Kit, brows knitted in both query and confusion at the mention of the name. "What do you mean?"

"I might be seeing things but the way he looks at you is— different." Kit sounded curious yet unsure. "Very different."

"That's nonsense," I replied incredibly. It was insane. Why would Forth look at me differently like that? "You're just taking things into account wrongly."

But Kit wasn't convinced— he didn't look like it. "Yeah, maybe so," he trailed off.

But I brushed the idea aside before I thought about it seriously in my head. Kit was just imaging things. "C'mon Kit, let's go find some stars to hit on! I want to ask their numbers," I said excitedly when I saw the sophomore stars, who were there to help with the pageant and take care of the new stars, wave at me from the other side of the hall, beckoned for me to come near. It seems like my lucky day.

"Leave me out of this. Flirt on your own!" Kit scowled in annoyance and I chuckled at my best friend's irritated face before I shot to my feet and went to where my potential girlfriends were. I decided to look for someone to play with later on.

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A/N: Ah, yes. I'm definitely taking my time with this. Lol. I'm a big fan of slow build but I promise, it would progress much more later on, chapter by chapter. XD Anyways, hope you enjoyed it!