The Bet

Ch 3 | Gay or Not

Waking up while still dozing, Beam yawned loudly before throwing the blanket aside. For some minutes he was in a daze while sitting on his bed when the alarm went on, it gave him a headache.

He wanted to sleep more, he hasn't been getting much sleep nowadays, all his day time has been consumed by Forth and at night he has to do house chores and study.

He shut his eyes tightly and opened them before finally getting up from the bed, not bothering to switch on the room's light; he was used to the dark room.

After stretching his body he went to the bathroom then changed his clothes and sat back on the bed dozing off.
For a few minutes everything was silent, then bam!
A loud noise came from the kitchen, Beam jumped off from his sleep and rushed towards the sound.

He was shocked to see a mess of everything on his way, but he got more surprised when he reached the kitchen.

"Mom?" Beam said in disbelief.

A woman in her late forties was cleaning the broken glasses on the floor.

"I thought you won't be back till next year." He grabbed a broom and dustpan and pushed his mother away to clean the glasses him self.

His mother let him handle it and sat on a chair squeezing her head by her both hands.

"My head hurts...." She murmured tiredly.

"Mine too." Beam said as he packed all the glass pieces in a newspaper, warped it with tape then threw it in the dust bin.

After that he washed his hands and looked at his mother, she was a mess, it looked like she haven't slept for many days, her cheerful nature that Beam was used to see wasn't there anymore, she seemed more thin and pale too.

"Why don't you rest in your room? I will get some warm milk to drink." Beam went and grabbed a milk bottle from the refrigerator.

"I want coffee." His mother again mumbled.

"You drink too much coffee, it's not good for your health." Beam knows that his mother drinks coffee at her workplace to keep herself awake for all those overtimes.

"Coffee, no milk and low sugar." This time it wasn't a mumble anymore, she emphasized her words.

Beam sighed and thought, totally like Forth.

He did as his mother said, he made coffee for her but warm milk for himself. Then he went to prepare for school.
A little while later his mother came following him in his room.

"Do you need something?" He asked as he threw his clothes in a basket.

"No, well I don't have any work today, wanna go somewhere?" She asked lightly.

Beam didn't know what to say here, he clearly want to spend some time with her but she needs rest.

"I don't want to be in an accident, it looks like you will faint any time." He said it as a joke and chuckled a little. Though he meant it for real.
"Just rest here, I am going to school. Order some food later, cause I might come late." Saying this he left his mother there and went to school.

On his way he met Kit who gave him a lift.

When they reached school, they met Phana, who was glaring at Kit right off the bat.

"Wha.. what?" Kit asked hesitantly.

"How come you and Ming are Facebook friends?" Phana asked, more like he threatened Kit to answer.

"Well, he sent a friend request and I accepted it." Kit shrugged as he said it matter of factly.

"And you sent a friend request back." Phana hissed.