“NO,” TAY SAID.
“No?” New echoed.
“Our tents are made for one person. We wouldn’t fit.”
“We can squeeze —”
“And we wouldn’t fit in one sleeping bag either,” Tay continued.
“Let’s unzip the sleeping bag, use it as a blanket—”
“That defeats the purpose of a sleeping bag. We’d be cold.”
“Not if we cuddle,” New argued, then remembered the skin-contact thing. “I mean, we don’t have to cuddle. All we need to do is share body heat. Just sleeping close together would do it.”
“Sleeping close together?” Tay looked at New as if he’d suggested they become serial killers. He jumped to his feet. “No. No way.”
New creased his brow. “Are you upset?”
Tay's eyes drifted to the space between New's legs. New looked down, wondering if the wasp had returned and was sitting on his swimming trunks. But no, there was nothing there. By the time New looked up again, Tay had already averted his eyes.
“I’m not mad,” he said. “It’s just a bad idea. We’re not doing it.”
New forced a smile. “Okay. All good.”
*
New turned the tap. Turned it some more. Turned it until it started making a horrible metallic squeaky sound. Still no hot water.
Well, all he had to do was wash the remnants of Tidal River off his body and clean his hair. It’d take only a few minutes. He could deal with the cold water. With that, he turned the cold water tap. No water came out of the shower head. He turned the tap some more until that tap started squeaking too. Nothing.
“Tay?” New called, his voice echoing through the men’s bathroom.
After the river, they returned to the campsite, picked up their bathroom supplies and went to the bathrooms, a simple building painted camouflage green. On one side was the women’s and on the other side, the men’s. Within the men’s bathroom were three toilet cubicles, three urinals, three shower cubicles and a long sink in front of a mirror.
It was still early in the afternoon, so when New and Tay came in, only one of the showers was occupied. No need to wait.
“Yeah?” Tay said.
“Something’s wrong with my shower. Can you help me?”
On the other side of the wall, Tay turned off his shower and made a couple rustling noises. A moment later, he knocked on the front of New's door.
New unlocked it and swung it open, and Tay's eyes shot straight down.
“Jesus, fuck,” Tay said, slapping a hand over his eyes and turning away.
“What?” New asked.
“You’re…” he lowered his voice to a hiss, “naked.”
“That’s what you do when you get in the shower,” New said dryly.
“I thought you’d have covered yourself up,” Tay said. Clearly that was what Tay had done, with his gray towel tied around his hips.
“We have the same parts,” New said
“Cover yourself up. Please.”
New stared at Tay's back, heart sinking. The words were polite enough, but they still hurt. Tay really didn’t want to see New's naked body, huh? New tried to not take it personally — Tay probably didn’t like looking at any guy’s naked body. But still, they’d been friends for ages. He thought this stuff wouldn’t matter.
YOU ARE READING
Tent Tales By The Firelight | ✓
Short Story"Is there someone you like?" New asked. "Yeah," Tay said after a moment. "You should tell her," New said. "Or him. Them." Tay sighed. ~ When New and Tay set out on a camping trip, New faces a dilemma - he forgot his sleeping bag. Though sharing with...
