"C'mon, star boy, chug!"
Keos's obnoxious laughter echoed in the frat house. Phainon looked up from his phone. A glass of cheap beer was on the coffee table in front of him and around him, three other frat boys waited for him to drink that.
"I'm good," Phainon said, pushing it away. His phone buzzed; it was Mydei asking how the transfer was going. He'd typed three different texts before deleting them all. He didn't know how to lie without it sounding like one. Because his transfer was anything but good.
"Let me see that." Lydus snatched up the phone before Phainon could lock it. "Ooh, are you texting your boyfriend?"
"Yeah, bro, don’t keep him waiting! He'll start crying!" Keos chimed in, making kissy noises while the other frat boys laughed.
"Give it back." Phainon almost snatched the phone back, but Lydus handed it over to Keos.
"Make me." Keos dangled the phone over the glass of beer that was given to Phainon before.
Now, he could've taken it. Could've laid Keos out flat with one hit. Instead, Phainon reached for it again, just as Keos "accidentally" let go. The phone submerged to the bottom of the glass like a stone does in the depths of a forgotten well. That's when Keos handed it back to Phainon.
He fished it out, and before the phone shut down, Mydei's text flashed over the screen;
You better be making friends who aren't assholes.
Phainon grit his teeth when he felt Lydus sling an arm around his shoulder. "Relax," he said, in that obnoxious high-pitched voice. "It's just a joke."
Right, a joke that cost him a few hundred bucks. A joke that chipped away at his patience.
---
That event happened not even a week ago and these two are back to their bullying. Phainon looked away from the rain covered window and saw Keos and Lydus enter the library. Their target was a freshman this time.
Were it anyone else, Phainon could've turned another blind eye for his 'friends', but it wasn't. These two were bothering आप. Keos was making fun of them while Lydus filmed it with his phone.
"Dude, isn't this the asshole who corrected you in class?" Keos yanked आप's textbook away before they could react.
The look on आप's face is what hurt the most. Like if they stayed still enough, the bullies might lose interest. Phainon knew that look. He himself practiced that.
"Hey, Keos," Phainon's laugh came out strained, the kind one would use to calm a scared animal. “Leave आप alone, man. They’re just trying to study.”
"Aww, is our star boy feeling bad?" Lydus walked up to his side, fingers digging into Phainon's shoulder. "You got a crush on that nerd or something?"
That's when he heard the rip of paper echoing in the library. Phainon looked to find that Keos had torn आप's book in two.
Phainon didn't remember much. Just the satisfying crunch of Keos's nose under his knuckles. The squeak that came from Lydus when Phainon twisted his arm. By the time campus security arrived, the two were already bolting, clutching their injuries like they were the victims.
आप was nowhere to be seen, so Phainon then sat down and carefully glued the book back into one piece, then waited for it dry. The clock hit 1:23am but the rain didn't calm down. So, he wrapped the book in his jacket and ran to आप's dorm in the pelting rain.
By the time he made it outside their door, he was drenched in the rain; his hair clung to his face, his white shirt stuck to his body and became see through.
The door creaked open to reveal आप and Phainon gave them his most apologetic smile.
"Hey uh..." he quickly unwound his jacket from the book before holding it out to them again. "Sorry for what those two did in the library. Here, I... tried to fix it."
