Silence in the sound

Chapter Six

Deklan had greeted me a good morning and I quickly thought about what to say in correlation with argument we had battled last night

"Morning." I said to him as I got up out of my sleeping bag to stretch

"Yoga, huh?" Deklan mocked but I ignored him and continued my morning stretch.

Stretching out my body felt nice, my legs felt horribly stiff from all the walking we had been doing.

Not that it really mattered how I stretched, and I don't blame Deklan for seeming confused. As I noticed my thoughts consuming me again I got sent back to reality by Deklan's raspy voice.

D: Tianah, I need to have a word with you

My mind instantly raced to what he could possibly be needing to speak to me about, was it about last night? Was it about this "journey" we had been embarking on? Before I could let another thought enter the facility of my brain's capacity, Deklan continued to speak,

D: I think we would benefit from spending a few more nights at this camp

T: Deklan... Dekyboy... We don't even have a TENT!

I exaggerated on the word tent to try and get the idea through to him of how foolish he sounded, what did he even mean by "benefit" from staying here?

T: Deklan I need you to tell me whats going on this instant!

I said crossing my arms and looking up into his eyes trying to appear as intimidating, although I should have known it wasn't a good idea, obviously. He took a step forward and leaned his head downwards,

D: What are you going to do about it hm?

He huffed as he continued to look down and stare into my eyes.

We stared at each other, the tension in the atmosphere could be sliced with a knife.

His eyes dazzling in the sunlight and my brain running at two hundred times it's normal pace had me complacent with his image.

We continued to stand and stare for what I wish could have lasted longer, eventually Deklan broke off his gaze, gently shaking his head and saying,

D: It's official, we're staying here for a couple more nights, and don't even try and asked why dickhead.

Time passed at a reasonable pace, I made pass times out of silly little things such as finding tree branches and placing them around our sleeping bags to act as some sort of barricade or wall to our sleeping quarters and fire.

As the sun began to set over the horizon, I couldn't help but continue to consider the exchange between Deklan and I from earlier today. His dazzling eyes had a hold on me that I didn't want to confess to.

Deklan had gone back into town to purchase a tent or swag or one of those camping shelters for us to sleep in, hence why I was trying to make the area pretty.

Not long before dusk, Deklan returned with a two person tent

T: Ew! do we really have to share?

I said in a repulsive manner

D: I don't need you trying to sneak off in the middle of the night if I cannot supervise you.

I felt a bit offended at his comment, I didn't try to sneak off when he went on a full trek to town to buy camping gear. I chose to ignore his off-putting remark and generously offered to help him set up the tent, but he declined my offer and insisted I would "somehow find a way to mess up building the tent".

I sat and watched as Deklan put up the tent, I found it quite appealing how he was taking on the more masculine tasks between the two of us, but at the same time he is just acting as a control freak and doing everything difficult so I could take no control. I sighed as I caught myself over thinking again and got up off the ground to just pace around lightly as Deklan finished off the tent.

D: Tah dah!

Deklan exasperated after he had finished the tent

T: Only took you until slightly after dawn,

I rolled my eyes,

T: I could have done it a lot more efficiently.

Deklan just rolled his eyes and the two of us worked together to move all of our stuff into the tent. It wasn't very spacious but there was enough room.

After a short while we laid down to get some shut eye, unfortunately, due to the lack of space our potential sleeping arrangements were limited. We decided the most comfortable thing to do would be to just lay side by side one another in a parallel state.

Laying next to someone felt comforting in a strange way, I wasn't used to the idea of someone's body warmth being within such a small grasp. It felt torturous knowing this was purely for his benefit, the sake of his journey, and that we could do nothing but act as if we didn't feel a magnitude of force reeling us in to embrace each other's comforts.

As the hours passed and the moon moved itself across the night sky I continued to lay there, awake. You know the drill by now and I wish I didn't have to. I could tell it was late, Deklan had not spoken in awhile and as much as I wish I could wake him up, I knew it was the wrong to do so I stuck to my belief and didn't wake him. I had done it too many damn times already!

Unexpectedly, I heard Deklan groan, in a tired sort of way, his voice was raspy and deep, as if he had just woken up,

D: Tianah, are you still up?