Lucid Me

Chapter 5 - The Campfire

Liam and Samuele arrived at the soccer field. Even though the other boys had already started the fire, the fire itself was still small. Somehow, they struggled with increasing the fire. Once they noticed that the two "new ones" had arrived, some guys began to talk to each other silently. Another guy with short blonde hair directly approached them and started to chat.

"You're Liam, right?" he said, "Then you must be Samuele?"

"Correct," Samuele replied, "And you are?"

"I am Lucas."

Liam didn't know from where, but he definitely met this guy before.

"Have we met before?" Liam asked straightforwardly.

"Not that I recall," Lucas answered.

Strange.

"I see. Must have been mistaken you with somebody else then!" Liam laughed.

"What grade are you in, guys?" Lucas asked.

This must have been a common question at the dormitory because Laurin's didn't offer classrooms for high school students. Only middle school students used the Laurin's as both a dormitory and a middle school. That was also the reason why there were so many middle school student rooms on the second floor.

"Fourth grade," Samuele answered.

So he's older than me!

With everything happening recently, Liam didn't even think of asking this question to Samuele.

"I'm in third grade," Liam added, "What about you?"

"I'm also in fourth grade. Which schools are you guys in?" Lucas asked.

"I'm in the sports high school," continued Samuele.

"Me too," Lucas said, smiling, "So maybe we're in the same class!"

"Cool! What about you, Liam?" Samuele looked at him.

"I'm in the high school for web design," Liam said.

"Then you're in the same school as Marc. A perfect fit," commented Lucas.

Liam didn't even know that his roommate and he were going to the same school. Good to know! While the three boys were chatting, someone set up the music system and started to play music to create a better atmosphere. Some others began to play soccer around the campfire.

"Excuse me!"

Lucas ran to the soccer players and joined them.

"Sorry, Liam! I need to join them, too!" Samuele said.

Apparently, everyone except Liam and Marc was playing soccer. Left alone, Liam watched the others. Samuele seemed to enjoy the game, and he also managed to make friends with the others already.

"Sport really does connect people, doesn't it?" Liam thought.

Looking at the game, Liam tried to remember where he had encountered Lucas before. Or if he had met him before. But the more he tried to remember, the bigger the riddle got. Armin showed up and brought a bundle of sticks and a bowl with some dough in it with him.

"Ready for stick bread?" Armin shouted.

Soon after, Armin was surrounded by the mass. All the boys tried to get a stick and, once they got one, started to debark one end of it. The next step was to wrap a bit of the dough around it. Liam watched the others and carefully copied their actions. He has heard of stick bread before but has never actually prepared one. Samuele also seemed to have difficulties, but some of the soccer players advised him. At this moment, Liam was missing his roommate. He hadn't made any other friends than Marc and Samuele so far, so he felt a bit lonely while eating his stick bread. The campfire really isn't that special... Once they all had eaten their bread, everyone put the sticks into the campfire, and Armin went to check up on Marc and bring the bowl back to the kitchen. And that's when everything got crazy.

"Now!" shouted one of the boys that Liam didn't know yet.

"What's going on?" Samuele asked.

"No clue!" Liam whispered back.

"What is a campfire without some alcohol?" the guy grinned and put his rucksack on the ground, "Anyone who doesn't drink?"

Liam looked around. Everybody seemed to be okay with what the guy was planning to do. Liam himself didn't really like the situation, though. He felt uncomfortable with doing illegal stuff, especially when under time pressure since Armin would be back soon.

"Not really in the mood today," he said with a shy smile.

"Perfect!" the guy responded.

That wasn't the answer Liam had expected.

"Then you are our guard! Liam, right?"

Liam nodded, afraid of what was coming next.

"Hurry up! You have to run over there to where we entered the soccer field and watch out for Armin!"

Liam couldn't think of an excuse, so he stood up and ran away from the crowd.

Actually, I don't want to get involved in this! What am I doing??

Arrived at the border that separated the courtyard from the soccer field, Liam repeatedly looked to the door and then back to the field. He was very nervous. Armin must have been in Marc and Liam's room; otherwise, Liam would have seen him coming down the stairs through the big glass windows. He looked back to the boys. One of the boys took a bottle out of his bag and opened it.

"Wait..." Liam started thinking.

Everyone took a sip and then handed the bottle to the next guy. Samuele drank, too. After one round, the boy holding the bottle looked at the others and said something, which Liam didn't hear, but it was definitely a question. The boys nodded and grinned.

"This- this can't be true!" Liam said to himself and started to breathe heavily.

The guy with the bottle poured the liquid into the fire. A strong, big flame escaped into the air and vanished as fast as it got there. Liam couldn't catch any air and put his hand on his chest. During the flash of that orange light, Liam saw Samuele's face. The face looked back at him so that he could see the shining brown eyes of his opponent shimmering in the light of the fire. Liam finally realized what he had noticed earlier when Samuele was holding the door open for him. He realized that he had seen these eyes before already.

Samuele ran towards Liam; the other boys were looking at him.

"Are you okay?" Samuele asked.

Liam tried to answer, but somehow he couldn't say a word.

"What's going on with you?" Samuele asked again.

Samuele approached Liam and shook his body.

"What...?" Liam thought and suddenly collapsed to the ground.

He could still hear Samuele shout to the others. Even though Liam had his eyes wide open, he didn't see anything. He could only hear the concerned voices of the crowd he was surrounded by. Before he lost his consciousness, there was only one thought left in his head:

This just can't be real.