More Than Words Book III: More Than Love

Chapter 23

SOTUS S ended :O

Arthit is strumming on his guitar and all his friends are singing including Toota who is playing the tambourine. They are all on the chaise lounges lined on the beach. The rest of the people are the audience, sometimes singing along with them and constantly cheering them on. Knot and Bright jig time to time. Arthit loses his practised concentration when Knot and Toota interlock arms and skip around all the while puckering their lips and making kissy faces at each other. They are all tired from their snorkelling trip but the energy is infectious and once this trip ends, it'll be back to the mundane lifestyle for them all and no one knows when they'd be meeting next. Probably, next Prem-Wad anniversary celebration. When the sun is right above their heads and they are closer to sunburning than suntanning when they decide to relocate to the Grand Ocean Villa. Prem and Wad's private pool is way more spacious than it has any right to be and Arthit tries to non-judgementally wonder the kind of friends Kongphob has and their ostentatious ways of living. In his discreet ways, he has come to find that this resort doesn't belong to Kongphob's other ex or to her family. Arthit is glad. Extremely. 

They are all sitting on the polished wooden floor or are cooling in the bluish water of the pool. They are being served mocktails and assortments. Arthit is sipping from his glass as he watches a very bare-chested, dripping wet Kongphob appear from out of the waves. The latter is pushing his hair back from his head and there is something incredibly delicious about the way his skin glistens and the reflecting water gives the muscle movements of his arm a rippling effect. The cold green-coloured liquid does nothing to quench his thirst. More of the same skin comes into view as Kongphob is coming closer, coming out of the water. Arthit is disappointed to see the other man in black trunks. He continues to watch the approaching man over the rim of his glass as he finishes its content and he is readying himself to excuse himself from there. He is zeroed on Kongphob and doesn't hear the conversations going around him. The tall, muscular man has finally crossed over and is closer to the villa's private pool. Kongphob is ruffling his jet black hair with his left hand, slightly leaning towards Wad while talking and Arthit roves his eyes all over him hungrily. He is about to set his glass down. He can sniff the smugness off him from miles away and right now Arthit wants to drag him back to the privacy of their own villa and go back to debauchery behind locked doors and walls.

On second thought, he is amenable to open spaces. Maybe he too has an exhibitionist side.

Arthit stretches his right arm and is lowering the glass on the floor, next to the pool, still not taking his eyes off Kongphob. He misses the ledge and the glass tips over and falls into the pool. He isn't very concerned but someone else decides to be as they climb into the pool, right next to him.

"Are you okay?", the voice asks, concerned. Arthit does an 'mmm' distractedly, his eyes still on the man giving a temperature more than the sun who has decided to join them in this pool and is making his way to him. "You okay?" The voice persists and touches his elbow unnecessarily and finally, Arthit has to tear his gaze away and has to look at this person.

"What?" He asks, waspishly.

"You fine?" Weera is asking, his eyebrows furrowed and Arthit rolls his eyes. He smirks immediately to not come off as rude. He is probably just being courteous.

"What'd happen to l'tl ol' me?"

"No harm in making sure." Weera smiles, the same disarming smile he always has around Arthit. Only if he weren't so smitten with Kongphob, he might have swooned 'cause of these smiles but he is smitten with Kongphob so it's all moot. He quickly looks back wondering why Kongphob hasn't already interrupted them and whisked him away when he notices Kongphob standing rooted to his spot in the middle of the pool, his eyes squinted. Arthit opens his mouth to say something like asking him to hurry but Weera tugs his elbow and some gut feeling makes his heart sink as he dreads something to go wrong. Kongphob isn't moving forward and even though the pool isn't that big, Kongphob still feels far away.

"Kon-"

Someone whistles and then Prem's cousins and Prem himself, they start chanting, 'Weera and Arthit sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g' and Arthit's mouth falls shut. Kongphob takes a step back. Arthit takes a step forward, trying to reach out to him but the hand at his elbow is stopping him. The chants change into 'Weera and Arthit standing in a pool, k-i-s-s-i-n-g' and a sliced lemon comes whirling at him and hits him square on the face.

"You ass, you never told me about your date." Prem mock glares at him and slings an arm around Knot's shoulder who looks flummoxed.

"What date?" Arthit hears himself asking, his stupid fucking mouth moving on its own accord and he wants to kill himself because he knows very well which date Prem is talking about.

Prem rolls his eyes. "The one with my cousin, idiot. He is my brother! Shouldn't you be like informing your best friend first?" Arthit sees Ruethai snap her head towards them and hears Bright's very loud 'what the fuck?'. Prem is grinning. "I knew you couldn't resist him."

"I am standing right here," Weera says dryly.

Arthit looks at Kongphob and sees the look of utter betrayal on him before it is being replaced with a mask of indifference and Arthit's skin burns where Weera continues to hold him.

"When the fuck did this happen?", Bright asks loudly.

"Why did no one tell us?" Someone else asks.

Arthit's palpitates hard and fast and he can't hear much above it except for Weera's "Don't think he was ready to disclose that." He doesn't know if the man next to him means now or then and he doesn't care because the man in front of him his retracing all his steps and going further out of his reach. Kongphob goes back to the pool's ledge but doesn't leave the pool. He simply looks away, choosing to not participate in any of the gossips that Arthit and Weera's date seems to be stirring. He only sits up, his feet dangling in the water. Arthit is cornered by almost everyone over there and he is stumbling through words, stammering, paling unable to get what the fuck is happening except for that he knows he has ruined everything. He has to have.

Then, there's that cousin of Wad who had been hitting on Kongphob even last time- what the fuck is up with all these cousins- who saunters up to his man and sits next to him, in her bikini and skirt clad figure and Arthit wants to tear her apart from limb to limb as she makes Kongphob laugh, as she leans into him and places a hand on his thigh. To his horror, Kongphob responds to her flirting as he says something and grins at her, holding her hand and finally, finally Arthit remembers why- why he shouldn't have gone back to Kongphob.

As Arthit struggles to breathe, crowded in by the very people he likes to be with, he watches Kongphob get up and leave with her, her wrapped skirt twirling in the air and swaying with the breeze as he tries not to notice how she too falls into the Kongphob's "type". And, he finally remembers how Kongphob can damage him just as much he can do to him.