Chapter Three

When P’Arthit came out I watched him and he avoided my eyes. I was half tempted to grab his chin and force him to meet my eyes, but I didn’t think that was a good idea. I didn’t want to breach anymore of the no contact rule I had enacted last night. P’Arthit didn’t look like he was having any fun at the beach though. In fact he looked right out miserable.

The guys had divided into groups to water fight. The girls thought they were too violent and left to go play volleyball on the beach. They were having fun making P’arthit the easy target as he wasn’t really fighting back. I had to protect him and fight against P’Pem, and P’Bright who were seriously playing too hard and did not seem to notice that P’Arthit was not feeling it.

“P’Arthit, grab P’Bright I will take P’Pem!” I called to him and he seemed to wake up from his daze and jumped at P’Pem .  They fell into the water laughing and struggling to beat each other at the water game. I slipped away from P’Bright’s splash and sent a large splash of my own and like that we were playing like kids for a while.

When we got out of the water and started heading back to the hotel I felt a shiver flow through me. It was a little too cold to be getting wet. I glanced at P’Arthit and found him hugging himself. Quickly I took off to get the towels under the umbrella, came back and passed it to them.

“Thank you,” P’Arthit said without looking at me and started wiping off water from his face. He wasn’t getting to his hair very fast and seemed to be lost in thought. I was also wiping off too but he distracted me completely.

“P’Arthit?” I called him yet he did not answer. I called again and the guys seemed to have noticed too. I grabbed P’Arhtit’s arm and took the towel from him then I began to dry his hair for him.

He looked at me with wide eyes. “Don’t look at me like that, you can’t wipe yourself off fast enough you are going to get sick at the pace you were going,” I said.

He blinked and said nothing but he continued to stare at me and I tried my best to ignore his eyes. The guys cheered at us. I had half forgotten we had an audience. It was really easy for me to me to slip back into the man who thought of nothing but of caring for P’Arthit. I didn’t pull away though and only turned to look at them.

Grinning from ear to ear the two said, “Wow so the husband is taking care of the wife.” Did they rehearse it?

“Are you two back together again? That would be so great we were getting bored with all the staring.”

What were they talking about, I didn’t stare at him all that much. His hand caught mine to stop the slow movement I was making with the towel. I turned to seeing him flushed and remembered that he didn’t like being seen when I show affection or when we show each other affection. I tried not to be hurt by that as I pulled my hand back and apologized.

He shook his head, “thank you Kongpob.” Getting a thank you instead of a silent glare terrified me a little. What was he thinking? He walked past me and was heading for the seats. I suddenly felt apprehensive because I couldn’t understand P’Arthit. I think at some point I was walking with a clear understanding of where I stood with him. P’Arthit cared for me and doesn’t want to keep being silent with me like we did all these years but as far as romantic feelings go, he didn’t have them for me. For men in general. That was a lot easier to accept than I thought. I was going to have to deal with being just friends with P’Arthit; I don’t know why I agreed to that. Just that P’Arthit looked a little desperate when he asked me and I didn’t want to refuse him.

Now I was very confused. One arm fell around one of my shoulder, I turn to see P’bright’s grin. “Hey man,” he said.

“Hey man,” another arm wrapped around my other shoulder.

“What?” I asked cautiously.

“We were just wondering if anything happened,” they exchanged looks of pure mischief and I had no clue what they were talking about.

“Happened where?”

“You know, you spent the night alone with Arthit.”

Oh crap, these two. I narrowed my eyes at them. “Exactly what are you two planning?”

They pulled away from me quickly. “Nothing, why do you think we are planning something.”

They were as guilty as they looked. “Listen, please don’t try to interfere with us,” I said with barely restrained anger and stalked off seething. Now that I knew this was part of a ploy to try and get me and Arthit back together I wanted to go home. They mean well but couldn’t they see that P’Arthit felt nothing for me? How many times do I have to confront that truth?

Kongpop looked mad about something. We were sitting under a thatched shed and watching dancers over dinner. Our friends were each with their partners sharing the moment and I felt like a sore thumb in their midst. I wasn’t having fun on this trip. Except for the time Kongpob helped me dry my hair on the beach I haven’t felt anything but miserable, and now Kongpob looked angry.

I got up to get food and saw Kongpob leave. I didn’t know where he was going; it was still too soon to leave. I returned and asked Aim, “Where is Kongpob going?”

“To use the bathroom.”

“I need to use the bathroom too, Arthit come with me?”

I frowned at Ai’bright, “you can go yourself.”
“The bathroom is out in the back. Unless I want to use the hotel’s that one is pretty dark.”

“Then use the hotel's”

He whimpered, “Please, it’s too far.”

I sighed and gave up trying to argue, “Fine, let’s go.”

We excused ourselves from the large group and started down the sandy hill to the shed. It really was dark out there, only a light bulb at the entrance. I refused to follow Bright in no matter how hard he begged so I was waiting outside when I spotted Kongpob on the beach. I figured Bright could find his way back on his own and went up there to speak with Kongpob. There was nothing to say but I still walked towards him till I was right behind him thinking of the first opening line.

“Kon—“I wasn’t done before he reacted and elbowed me in the face. It hurt like I broke my nose and I yelled turning away from the assault holding on to the injured place.

“P’Arthit?” he grabbed for me and angrily I shoved him away. He grabbed my arm." ‘I’m sorry, let me see it.”

“Let go,” I didn’t want him to see my face but I was no longer angry, I figured it was an accident and he hadn’t meant to hurt me.

“Just let me see for a moment.” He turned me around to face him and touched the hand I had over my nose so I slowly let my hand fall and stared directly at him. He studied my nose like he was a doctor or something and said, “It doesn’t look broken.”

I said nothing. The sting had reduced a bit and I could only now pay attention to how close we were. “We should put ice on it or its going to swell though. I’ll go get it.”

“I’ll come with you.” He was already turning away but he turned around to meet my eyes. I don’t know what he saw but he looked trouble. “I don’t think I need to go back very soon anyway. No one would miss me.”

“That’s not true.”

“If it’s not a problem I would like to go with you” I was insisting too hard on something that didn’t matter but it seemed to matter.

“Okay,” I think he wanted to smile but was controlling himself. “Let’s go then.”

There was a service building where we had bought some of our afternoon snacks. Kongpob thought we could find some ice there instead of going to the hotel which was quite a distance from the beach but not very far. Kongpob and I walked in and there wasn’t much of a light in there. The walls were yellow, some parts made with bamboo wood and there was a counter, a fridge, some wood framed chairs and a corridor that possibly led to an inner room. There was no one there.

“hello.” Kongpob called out to the inner room, no one answered.  We shared a look then I opened my mouth to offer going in to see if anyone was there.

“We’ll just grab something from the fridge,” he said. I nodded and said, “And I’ll go see if someone is inside.”

I walked into the narrow corridor, the light kept flickering. There was a room in the end which looked like where they stored goods for sale. I peered in and found it empty, the lights still flickering there too. Someone shoved me from behind and I fell forward and caught myself on what felt like packets of snacks.

“Who was that, “I groaned and turned around to see a large ominous shadow. I yelled in sudden fright before I could even think.

“P’Arthit?!” I heard Kongpob call and soon saw his frame fill up the doorway. I was ashamed and flushing over how easily I got scared. I expected he would tease me till the end of time if I told him.

“Are you alright?” he walked in to take a look at me. The light went out and I thought I heard the door close.