L' appel du vide

Chapter 5

As we walked towards the large building made out of logs, I felt the tall grass brush my calve. It was starting to get slightly darker, the sky was turning bluer. The air tastet like rain was going to fall soon. The small stones made popping sounds under my roughed up Converse. The atmosphere was calming,something I hadn't experienced in a while. As we stepped through the wide door, I heard laughing and chattering coming from various tables ,some more crowded than others. The other kids had already supplied themselves with food. Ollie signaled me to do the same, by tugging slightly on the sleeve of my shirt and pointing to the small buffet. If you could even call it that. It was a bunch of metal trays with some sloppy looking food in it, so nothing better than at school basically. Ollie, noticing my not so appealed expression, tilted his head. „You alright dude?" he asked, with a confused tone to his voice. I glanced down at his tired eyes, that were silently expecting an answer from me.
"N-no, well yeah. Im okay. I don't think I want to eat right now though."I answered, glancing at the "food" and then back at him.
He didn't say anything, but instead gave me an understanding smile and a reassuring nod.
"Let's go then" he said "the others are waiting already." 
"Aren't you going to eat anything?" I ask, narrowing my eyebrows in confusion.
"No, I'm fine. Thanks for asking though." Ollie replied, patting my shoulder as he walked past me and up to the table, wich Finn and Milo sat at. As I joined them, by sitting down next to Ollie, I accidentally bumped shoulders with him, wich resulted in both of us chuckling. The rest of dinner-time went...well. I had a great conversation with Milo about the Environment around here, and actually found out some cool stuff. For example: there are endless fields right beyond this big forest. And also some small waterfalls around the hills here.
When it was around eight o'clock we got up. When we walked out of the building, the warm and unfiltered summer air hit my face. It was nice to get some fresh oxygen.
As I stopped to breathe in for a moment, I smelled something different. It was inviting, despite also being quite harsh. When I looked a few meters infront of me, I saw that the bonfire was now actually burning, and had some people sitting around it.
I looked over to Ollie, only to find him already looking at me.
"You wanna go sit around the bonfire?" I ask after a short moment of silence.
"Sure. Finn and Milo have already gone to their shed, so it's just us two now." He returned, looking away quickly and starting to pick at his nails.
"That's cool." I shortly reply before laying my arm around his shoulder. "Cmon let's go!" I insisted.
"Alright. Lets go." Ollie grumbled, probably because he was tired.
As we wandered over to the fire, chuckling because we tripped over our own feet every two seconds, I felt the air get warmer than it already was.
Ollie and I sat down on a wooden bench together, and talked and talked about endless things. About music, art, animals, school, the camp, and mostly life in general. As time went on, we both got more relaxed with each other's presence.
Though Ollie's eyes were glazed the whole time, and were nearly reflecting the cackling fire in front of him, I did not get the slightest hint that he was even remotely sad. The corners of his mouth were always slightly angled up, and he would follow my silly hand gestures when I was explaining something about a topic I was genuinely interested in. Occasionally, his sight would slip up to my eyes, our gaze's meeting for a spilt second.
When he would talk, he wouldn't look me in the eyes. He would seek an answer to all things in the flame before him, and would talk in a husky voice. Something about him was different from the others, he was like an old soul, handing me over a comprehensible piece of his wisdom... or something. After a while, I could sense that he was getting tired. With his eyes getting droopy, and his almost constant yawning, it wasn't hard to tell that he had a long day. Or week.
So, I walked him back to our shed, with him heavily leaning against my shoulder on the way. He practically fell into his bed when I opened the door, with the key given to me by the lady at the reception. I put a thin blanket on his body, his chest now rising up and down calmly. As I looked at the,now peacefully sleeping,dark-brunette I wondered : hadn't I met this boy just a few hours ago? It had already felt like ages.

Like this camp was timeless.