Precious

Bestfriends

3rd Person POV

Beam was sitting in the hall with his dad, Forth, Phana and Kit. His mother was feeling weak so they had asked her to take more rest.

"Now, tell us how you know her and I'll tell who that woman really is..."

Beam told them how one day he was all alone after the results came out and he had stood at the second place.

He was quite happy and wanted to call his parents but after trying ten times or so, they were not receiving the call. His sister, as usual, had her phone switched off. He was so sad. His best friends already knew his progress and were out on dates with their lovers and he had no one to share his success and happiness.

He was just having his coffee at the café when someone tapped on his shoulder.

"By your own?" He heard a woman's voice and turned.

There she was. Maya. A woman of his mother's age.

That day was the day Maya entered his life only to fill poison and depression in his life...

That day when Beam told her why he was alone, she told him how he is ignored and unloved, how he is pushed by all. The advantage she had was that she was a psychiatrist. It wasn't very difficult to manipulate the boy who was already sad. And she also told Beam that he is stressed and needs her help. She offered 'help'.

"Really Beam, why did you not tell us anything about her?" Asked Phana with an annoyed tone. "To be honest I am very mad at you, Beam. I never expected an intelligent kid like you to fall for some evil plans like this..."

Beam hung his head low. He knew he deserved some scolding. Afterall, Phana and Kit were his best friends. He should have told them and shared a problem with them instead of sharing it with a stranger.

"It was not we who left you, Beam. It was you. Wayo and Ming always asked you to join us for dinners and lunch. It was you who rejected the offer saying because you didn't want to be the third wheel." Kit nagged.

"If Phana could have not found those medicine strips in your room, we would never have come to know about all this!" He looked at Beam with anger. "Did you really want to be lost forever, Ai'Assh..." Kit couldn't curse before Beam's father. Pha was serious but laughed inwardly at Kit's state. Kit glared at Phana.

"I'm serious." Kit shouted.

"Yeah? Me too." Phana looked at Kit.

"What... What medicines?" Beam's father asked. He was worried.

Beam was still looking at the floor.

"Ask him uncle!" Kit said coldly looking at Beam's father and pointing his finger towards Beam. "The medicines given by her didn't even have anything written on its strips."

"Beam?" Asked Beam's father. Beam was not looking at anyone.

"And he is going to be a doctor. Can't even understand that you should look at the contents of any medicine before taking it." Phana nagged.

Forth was sitting Beside Beam. He just took Beam's hands in his and Beam looked at Forth to see if Forth was disappointed at him like Phana and Kit.

"You were lucky enough that the medicines you were consuming were just some vitamins." Kit said. "Why don't you just slap this stupid, uncle?"

"How could he do that? He's scared that Beam will get depressed for real this this time and go to Maya." Phana said sarcastically.

Beam looked up now. His eyes were filled with tears. He looked at his father who was sitting silently and showing the exact emotions on his face that Phana described. Forth released Beam's hand and Beam walked towards his father. He sat on the floor near his father's feet.

He took his Father's hands in his.

And in a shaking voice, he said, "You can scold me or beat me, Dad."

His father looked at him and pulled Beam in his hug. No words were needed to show how much his father loved him.

"I never hated you my son." Beam's father said, still having Beam in his arms.

He broke the hug and wiped Beam's tears. "I never hated you. Your mother was hospitalized when your results came out. I was so worried that I couldn't receive your calls that time. But when I called you back, you never received it.

So, I called Phana and got to know from him that you stood second in the exams. I was, I still am proud of you, my son." Beam's father couldn't control his tears.

"You should have asked me once. You should have talked to your mother and your sister.

We tried to call you so many times. With your mom's condition I cannot come to meet you there. You should have shouted at us, vented your anger at us but not cut off yourself from us." Both of them were in tears.

"I am sorry, Dad."

"Good news for all." Phana said as he came inside the house with his phone in his hands. He had gone outside to receive a call when Beam and his father were talking.

All eyes were on Phana with question marks on their faces.

"I and Forth had done some "research". We found out that Maya is a fraud. Forth had already filed a complaint against her when he got to know about her. The police investigated more about her and tried to track her. When she came here, I informed them about her location. Seems like she had a bad day. She was caught by Police when they followed her. Now she's in their custody."

Phana looked at Forth and shared eye contact. They both were at some ease now.

"You... How did you know?" Beam asked Phana and Forth. For him, everything that was going around him always seemed natural and he never thought that Forth and Phana might be doing something like that without letting him have a hint.

"Remember when you told us about you and Forth? You were not you when you did that. We just tried to trigger your anger and the next thing we knew was you were drunk outside the Botanical Garden. I and Kit were shocked. We didn't know that you'll behave this way just because I and Kit didn't like Forth. Or showed that we don't like Forth."

"We were actually observing you from some days and after the incident when you just disappeared at night and then came laughing and blushing in the morning. We saw you having lunch at our food court and Ming saw you, eating in the engineering food court." Phana said.

And Kit continued, "We had a doubt that you two are a thing. We just planned on pulling your legs. We were just wishing for you to tell us about it sooner." He sighed. "And when you did. Boom!! It was an explosion. We never expected that you'll get so angry and get drunk like that."

"And when Forth told us that this was not the only time it is happening with you we were shocked."

Beam looked at Phana and then his father. He didn't know if Phana had told his father about it. But by looking at his father's calm expressions he guessed that maybe his father knew it already.

"Forth told us that every time you felt that you are not loved or thought that you are not someone's priority or that you are just being used by someone.... This behaviour would trigger. And you went wherever you wanted. And that's the reason that Forth had gifted you this watch."

"I saw you taking some medicines when you thought I was not around you. I told Phana about it." Forth finally said something after a long time. "We found out that you were visiting some psychiatrist and when we dug more about it, we found out all this."

"And we all decided to tell uncle about it. When we told him about you, he was very worried." Kit said. "We all wanted to plan to catch her red handed but never knew how to do it."

Phana said, "And just yesterday that uncle found out that he saw Maya near your house. And we immediately came here and asked Forth to bring you here. It was the right time, when you saw her real face."

"How did she come to our home?" Beam asked.

"She's actually your mother's friend. She had come here to visit her."

"Mom's friend?" Beam asked.

Now he was curious to know how Aunt Maya knew his mother and what did she want to do!

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