One Boy. A Thousand Feelings | Duncan

~ Chapter 23 ~

After the challenge, the teens were to reside in the Dining Hall for lunch. Unlike the garbage they were fed the other day, on the menu's cuisine was a bowl of badly made porridge; appearing as goopy, sticky white mush or gruel. Armana spooned at her food but never brought it to her mouth, playing at the consistency as she thought about Duncan. She missed him although she told his pina colada head ass that there would be repercussions for his actions, and what happened? The consequences were more than what he intended to precipitate.

"You haven't eaten your food, Armana. You ok?" Geoff asked her.
She nodded.
"Is it about Duncan?"
"Can you tell?" She groaned.
"Well I mean, you guys are usually inseparable from each other. Ever since you two met I always saw you together. Heck, he hangs out with you more than me and DJ."
Armana laughed.
"That boy has got me hooked. I'm not sure what it is about him actually. If it's his aesthetic, his personality, his natural appearance, his courtship."
"Maybe it's all of those things."
"...You're right. I'm gonna go check up on him. It's the right thing to do. And I'll bring him some food."

She took her bowl of thin, soupy porridge and urged in her footsteps to the Boathouse. Once she reached it, her pace slowed into a traipse, that same type of menacing impression from a few nights ago creeping into her prudent judgement. Her eyes averted in different directions as if to have omnidirectional vision. The respiration through her nostrils condensed into tiny droplets as visual clouds of her breath. She thought in question of why the shed had to look much spookier at night, figuring it as one of the reasons why other campers feared going in. At the door, she pressed her ear against it, unable to hear anything through the barrier.

'Wonder what he's doing.'

She slowly turned the door knob, shrinking at the harsh, high pitched creak at hinging open the door. Leaving it open to let light in, she walked mindfully into the darkness.

"Hello? Duncan?" She called out to him, announcing her presence.

However, she wasn't answered back to, her gut now suspecting her surroundings in perplexity.

'Where could he be? He's supposed to be in here. Did he manage to sneak out or something? That would be like him. Ooh just he wait when I see him, I am going to be on his ass like a hound dog.'

"Duncan?" She attempted calling to him again, her eyes searching relentlessly through the partiality of light.

She then heard someone slowly step onto a loose floorboard, emitting a loud screech at applying their weight on it.

"Boo."

Armana abruptly jolted in alarm, dropping the bowl of porridge which spilled its contents. Duncan maniacally laughed at frightening her, irking her into recanting to herself why she worried about him in the first place.

"Duncan!" She angrily called him.
"Aww what happened to that sweet little voice looking for me? Here I am, aren't I?" He reflected amusedly.
"That doesn't mean you scare me!" She groaned. "I don't know why I bothered coming in here to check on you. You look like you're doing plenty fine by yourself if you're drawing people away
by—

He pulled her into him and shushed her with a kiss, longingly connecting with her lips. She didn't pull away despite her voicing disapproval to him before. Instead, she cupped both of his cheeks in her hands, reciprocating effort, knowing he purposely used it as a method. Although when they separated, she felt less angered by the situation, seeing he sensed it by the way he smirked at her.

"No need to be so upset babe, I was just playing around." He claimed, smoothing his hands on her hips.
"Whatever. It's like you were waiting for me. How did you even know I was coming?" She asked.
"I didn't. There was just something my gut was telling me that my loving, caring girlfriend Armana would see how her suffering boyfriend is holding up."
"Well her poor, self pitying boyfriend wouldn't be in this predicament if he would've just listened to me and not try Chief like I told him. Why did you do that? It's like you know your conscience is telling you to rationalize or think rationally. But then you have this devil on your shoulder tempting you into doing and enjoying things only for short term and not thinking how it affects the long term."
"I don't know. Maybe I just don't care. I'm used to being corrected for my behavior, taken to detention centers. It's part of my lifestyle. Ya know? I'm not disregarding your words, I'm just responding from my perspective."
"Yes, I want to see from your perspective because I don't understand how hardheaded you could be."
"Yeah, I know right. I have a family full of policemen, you know? Dad, mom, uncle, aunt, grandma, cousins, ancestors. They always ask me the same thing 'cause I'm the black sheep of the family. Cause I don't want to follow in their footsteps."
Armana deeply sighed, "Here, let's sit down."