Chapter 16: Busted!

Arman is covering the marks with his hand and looks like he's sulking because his girlfriend won't kiss him. He looks directly at Max and Max avoids his gaze and doesn't speak. The cafeteria is of course full of people like yesterday and everyone's looking at them both. They all are assuming that Max and Arman just had a fight with each other. A group of girls is giggling and making up imaginary conversations between them in their minds.

"You've been bad,Arman. Slaps. Slaps. Your punishment is to fuck me till I can't sit anymore"

"Yes, master" hehehehe

Max knows what exactly they are thinking but Arman doesn't. Arman is still looking all angry at Max and Max feels like the rat who disturbed the lion.

"Couldn't you just tell me?" Arman asks coldly to Max.

"Umm..." Max shivers "I tried"

"You tried? So how come Raven happens to be the one telling me about it? Look around" he says and Max really does look around.

"Look around at what?" He asks like an idiot that he is.

"Everyone's thinking what Raven is thinking" he clears it out. He sighs and puts his head on the table. He bangs his head slowly on it and says,

"Last night a guy asked me if I was really gay and if you were really my boyfriend"

"Oh, really? Why?" Max sounds so excited that it annoys Arman even more. He glares at him and Max gets the point.

"He wants me to be his boyfriend, that's why. I'm never getting a girlfriend"

Max opens his mouth to say something but a beautiful girl happens to be the one saying,

"You need to put some ice there" she smiles at Arman. And looks at Max.

"It clearly was an accident, wasn't it?" She asks looking at Max.

"Clearly!" Max says, trying so hard so the girl doesn't misunderstand them both.

Max gets up in a hurry as he says to the girl,

"I'll get some ice for him. Why don't you keep him company till then"

Arman is glad that his roommate is making up by helping him with this girl. He truly is a best friend.

"Sure," The girl says smiling. Arman already likes her.

"I'm Laura by the way. I'm Canadian"

"I'm Arman. And this is Max. We're both Bangladeshi"

Arman smiles at Laura and Laura also seems to be smiling back and she's feeling shy? Wow

Max feels like the third wheel here when he looks adorably at the two and so he rushes to go to get ice. He turns around and boom! he bumps into someone taller and bigger than him and the person drops his tray because of that.

"What the fuck!" The person yells "Don't you have eyes or what?" He says loudly. This guy sure had a bad morning. His accent is American so obviously, he's from the US. Has brown eyes and blonde hair. Max stands stunned as he looks at the guy.

Fuck! he looks hot! Fuck! He's angry.

"Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry," Max says but the dude comes right at him with fire in his eyes.

"Hey hey hey" Arman gets up "It's just a mistake. Calm down" he stands between the guy and Max.

"Oh," the guy smirks giving a knowing smile on his face "Boyfriend's being defensive, huh? Cute" he puts one hand on Arman's shoulder and says,

"You're handsome so how come you ended up with this guy"

"What do you mean this guy?" Max asks as the person clearly hurt his ego.

Arman shoves the guy's hand and gets closer to him. Arman and that boy are almost the same height. Everyone at the cafeteria is looking right at them and Max is not feeling okay with this. If these two start a fight and Max tries to stop them, he'll be the one with the broken bones at the end. He thought Arman would lose his cool and give the guy a punch right in his stupid fucking handsome face. But instead.

"He's not my boyfriend. Plus we're both straights" He looks at Max while he says so and Max looks like he just got caught robbing a bank. The girl looks confused and so does Arman. But the handsome blonde hair guy with amazing biceps laughs a little.

"Wait" Arman turns to Max "Aren't you?"

Max knows he should be denying it but he also knows this might be a sensitive topic but it's an important one as well. If he and Arman are going to live together as roommates, both have to know each other more than anyone. And one has to put up with the other. It's a relationship that needs understanding from both sides.

Max doesn't say anything but looks at Arman with eyes almost filled with tears.  

"Busted," the guy says.

Laura stands beside Max indicating that she totally supports him even if they just met and don't know each other completely. She holds Max's hands and Max doesn't feel bad about it. He thought Arman would simply ignore him for the rest of the days but he stands surprised at what Arman said next.

"So what? We're still not together" he pauses "as in boyfriends" he winks at Max and Max's heart melts.

"Whatever" the guy scoffs and leaves. What an asshole.

Everyone at the cafeteria now knows about Max's secret. So it's not a secret anymore. Not that it actually mattered. But the good thing is they also know that Arman is not his boyfriend. The misunderstanding is cleared out. But Max never imagined he would come out like this way. Even his best friend Rohan isn't aware of this.

Arman may have supported him but he's also disappointed at Max for hiding such a big thing from him

"I wish that you had told me earlier," Arman says sitting down. Everyone else is still quiet. Laura is too. She's sitting beside Max like he's her close friend who needs her support.

"I know," Max says softly "I didn't want to hide it but the things that happened ever since we got here... "

"I understand. It's OK" Arman smiles wrapping Max with his right hand "And anyway, I don't have any problem with you kissing a guy as long as it's not me"

Max laughs and so does Laura. Laura is like the only person who didn't assume the two as boyfriends like everyone else. Even though she's sitting beside Max, she secretly looks at Arman. She liked how he supported his roommate in front of everyone. It's no secret that she likes Arman too.

"And also, put a sock on the doorknob when you, you know, bang someone"

Max's cheeks turn red and even Laura felt shy at this. But Arman can't seem to stop laughing looking at the two tomatoes. "Ow ow ow," he says as he laughed so hard that his cheeks hurt.

"You still need to put ice," Max says.

"Don't worry. I'll get it" Laura gets up to get ice leaving Max and Arman alone. Both are silent. And it's an awkward silence like the relatives you don't like are in the same room as you looking straight at you. Finally, Arman breaks the ice.

"Hey, we're cool. I meant what I said....."

"I appreciate it,Arman"

".... about putting a sock on the doorknob"

"Oh..that...OK"

Laura is smiling from ear to ear at the queue waiting to get the ice. Her best friend from Canada is also at this University. Both had the same dreams. This University too. Her friend noticed the way Laura was looking at Arman and like a best friend that she truly is, she's worried for her.

"Are you sure you like him? And you're not going to hit on him because you want to get back at your ex?" She asks Laura.

Laura turns behind and sees Rita's face. She smiles and simply says,

"I've told you. I've moved on. And I think I really like Arman" she takes a breath "Arman. I love his name" Rita smirks at her and Laura turns around to get the ice.

The orientation, class, however, did not go as how Max thought it would. Of course, this isn't like other Universities in Bangkok. This place is for people all over the world. He didn't even get the blue colored nameplates. All they got was a welcome speech from the professors and the board members. Max was super disappointed at this. While the professors here were delivering their boring speech Max wanted to get away and call Nadia and tell her everything that happened today. But who knew this boring ceremony would finish at night? All the newbies got their syllabus and their schedule. They came here 6 months after the academic year. So obviously they have to get their ass back to their study table too, well, study and keep up. Max was yawning throughout the whole "orientation class" while Arman was having nice chat with Laura. Rita and Max were the same in this scenario because Rita was yawning too. They both laughed when they looked at each other's yawning faces and got introduced properly.

"Hi.Max.Arman's roommate slash best friend"

"Hey.Rita. Laura's roommate slash best friend"

Talking with Rita reminded Max of Nadia. It hasn't been a week and he's already missing her so bad. At the cafeteria, he badly wished Nadia was there too. But seems like he will not have any problem since both Rita and Laura are very friendly. And Arman is the best roommate slash best friend. Max feels guilty for referring Arman as his best friend because he already has one. Rohan. Shit! I have to talk to him. Shit! he's not answering. Nadia.

"Shut up" Nadia screams "This did not happen"

"Yes,Nadia. It did"

Max returned to his condo without Arman. He is out there hanging out with Laura. Max didn't want to be the third wheel so he left. And talking to Nadia is the only way to feel better after that tragic coming out event.

"Awww. Arman is such a sweetheart" Nadia says like he's the cutest thing ever.

"Seriously,Nadia? I got outed like that and you're drooling over Arman?" Max says raising an eyebrow. "And also the orientation class was boring"

"I know. I'm sorry you had to go through all that and I wasn't there!" Nadia says. And this time she actually feels bad for Max. "I'm also sorry that your orientation class didn't go as you thought"

"Nevermind. It's good that it happened. Now, look. I won't have to worry about anyone finding about it anymore, right?" Max smiles. "Enough about me. Tell me about you two. How's Rohan? I called him but he didn't answer"

"Oh oh oh" Nadia jumps throwing away the pillow she was holding. "He's jealous because I called Arman hot" she laughs loudly.

"What! Rohan is jealous? Impossible" Max laughs too.

It's been so many years since he's known, Rohan. But he has never seen him get mad or even jealous.

"I know,right? He's so cute when he's like that!"

Max talked to Nadia for more than an hour. He now feels good. He'll feel even better if he watches another BL series.

Arman returns about thirty minutes later. Seems like Arman had a very nice time with Laura since he's smiling so hard.

"That was nice, wasn't it?" Max asks. Being nosy.

"Sure was" Arman smiles "I'm tired"

"Me too. This day was so exciting at first and then got so boring. All thanks to that asshole"

Max was talking about it so much that he didn't realize that Arman had fallen asleep. He wraps himself with the blanket and lies down to sleep. The classes start from tomorrow. He has to wake up early.

***

Next afternoon. Class break. 2:30 PM

This time when Max and Arman entered the cafeteria together in the morning no one was looking at them like yesterday. It's like the drama is erased from everyone's mind. But there's still one problem. They are now shipping Max with someone else who is not Arman. Someone who is an asshole. Max was so surprised when he found out about it. But that asshole of a dude is sure hot.

Laura and Rita are also sitting with Max and Arman. And Rita glares at them with a raised eyebrow. Max does the same.

Max's phone chimes with countless notifications coming in non-stop and HOLY SHIT!