A Scenic Connection (BoyxBoy)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"Where are you going?" I asked Tyce as he sat up and started getting dressed. He threw on a pair of grey sweatpants and a black hoodie.

"I uh, gotta pee," he replied, chuckling a little. I smirked. It was still raining outside, though it seemed to have lessened a little bit. I thought for a moment before sitting up and slipping on my black joggers and a blue hoodie. I reached in my bag and in a separate pocket fished out my toothbrush and toothpaste. I turned back to Tyce.

"I hope I don't get too wet," I said, pulling a face. He laughed.

"I hope neither of us get wet. I'll get mine and join you down by the water spigot in a minute." He grabbed his toothbrush before quickly unzipping the flap and stepping outside into the rain. I followed and hurried to zip the flap back up.

I ran down towards the spigot while Tyce went off under some trees somewhere. It was raining but not enough to completely soak you immediately like it had been.

I quickly squeezed some toothpaste onto my brush before running it under the water a little.

"Hey!" Paisley said, hurrying over to me. "This rain sucks." I chuckled.

"I think it's kind of refreshing," I told her. She gave me a look.

"You would say that Griffin, seeing as it's trapped you and Tyce in a tent together for a while. How's that going?" She asked teasingly. I rolled my eyes playfully at her.

"Oh stop. It's nothing. I just like rain," I said. She didn't seem convinced.

"Uh huh, sure," she said. I slipped my free hand into my pocket for warmth, while I hurried to brush.

"Are you gonna brush or just watch me take care of my pearly whites?" I said, poking her on the shoulder. She giggled.

"I'm way ahead of you. I already did. I just heard someone was awake so I hurried out to see who it was," she explained. I nodded.

"Hey guys!" Tyce said as he joined us. I handed him the toothpaste.

"Ugh, I'm starting to get wet," Paisley said, looking down at herself with disgust. She then whirled her head around. "I'm gonna go stand over there! C'mon!" She waved, pointing us towards a group of trees nearby. Tyce and I followed. I secretly hoped there wasn't any lightning around like last night or this would be a really a stupid idea.

"Is everyone still hanging out in their tents?" Tyce asked Paisley after he finished brushing.

"Yeah," she nodded. "April and Hadley and I were out here a bit ago, seeing if it would lighten up, but it didn't so we headed back in. I think Jordan and Zaiden were out here earlier. Hadley said they wanted to start a fire but it didn't stop raining and everything is literally soaked," she told us. Tyce and I looked at each other.

"So has everyone been out but us?" Tyce asked.

"I don't know about Brooke and Izzie, but Chloe was out for a bit too, so mostly," she said, winking at me. I looked away from her and back to Tyce.

"Did anyone bring like a tarp or something we could set up?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"I don't know. We could ask?" He replied.

"Right. While you guys do that, I'll be back at my tent, unless it stops raining of course," Paisley declared. With that, she skipped off back to her tent.

"It's worth a shot," I said, shrugging my shoulders at Tyce. He nodded. We ran over to Zaiden's tent that he shared with...April? Honestly I didn't know who else shared with who.

"Hey Zaiden? You up?" Tyce said loudly as we stood in front of the tent.

"Tyce?" Zaiden answered. "Come in quick!" He said, unzipping the flap of his tent and poking his head out. We hurried inside.

Jordan and Zaiden were both sitting in the tent playing cards. Jordan looked up and lifted his chin, acknowledging our presence without speaking.

"We were wondering if you know if anyone brought like a tarp or something?" I said, looking at Zaiden. He shook his head.

"I didn't. Did you Jordan?"

"I didn't even think of a tarp. The weather forecast didn't say anything about rain, let alone this downpour," he replied, clearly frustrated with being cooped up. I looked over Tyce.

"I guess we could ask Alex and Sam?" I said, though it sounded more like a question. Jordan cut in.

"They didn't bring one either," he said gruffly. I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

"Is there a problem?" I asked sternly. Zaiden's eyebrows shot up.

"No there's no problem," Jordan answered without looking at me. Instead, his eyes were on Tyce.

"What?" Tyce asked.

"Nothing," Jordan muttered.

"If you have something to say-" I started, but Zaiden cut me off.

"Guys! It sounds like it stopped raining!" We all went silent for a minute, listening to the sounds outside the tent. Zaiden was right, we didn't hear the water droplets hitting the tent anymore.

"I guess we don't need a tarp anyway," I observed. I moved over to the flap and unzipped it again, making my way outside. Tyce and Zaiden followed behind me.

"You coming?" Zaiden asked back to Jordan. There wasn't an answer, or at least that I heard, and Zaiden zipped up the tent behind him.

"What's his problem?" I asked Zaiden as we made our way over to the fire pit area. He shrugged.

"I don't know," Zaiden said. "He was fine earlier."

"I know," Tyce answered. "He's mad at me. Jordan, Sam, Alex and I used to be pretty good friends, but I haven't hung out with them as much lately and now that you and I have been hanging out," he said, looking at me, "they don't like it. Things changed between us when they found out I was gay. It's not that they rejected me so much as just treated me different," Tyce said flatly.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I hope I didn't make anything worse." On the inside, I knew that the kiss between Tyce and I had actually probably made whatever problems they had with each other a lot worse, and now I felt terrible about it.

"You didn't," Tyce replied. "Nothing that wasn't already going to happen." Zaiden silently walked along with us.

"That's messed up," he finally said. Tyce and I looked at him. He looked pissed off.

"Are you okay?" I asked cautiously.

"Yeah. That just pisses me off. Like why would they treat you differently? That makes me so mad," Zaiden said, clenching his fists. Tyce put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay. Really. It shows me who my real friends are," Tyce said with a half smile. Zaiden nodded.

After at least a half an hour trying to get the fire stared, I was finally successful, even if it was pretty smoky and not very big. Nobody had even thought to cover the wood we had been using before the storm, so everything was completely soaked through, making it almost impossible to get any real flame going.

"Some fire you got there Grif," Hadley joked, pulling a face as the smoke enveloped her. I laughed.

"Serves you right," I said. "My fire doesn't like when you insult me." She scoffed.

"Haven't you heard? Smoke follows beauty," she replied. I rolled my eyes and Tyce and Zaiden both laughed.

"What are we eating for breakfast?" Paisley said, rejoining us for the first time since earlier at the water spigot. Nobody answered.

"Um, granola bars?" Zaiden said with a fake smile. Paisley frowned.

"Unless you have a better idea," Tyce added with a wink.

"I can't believe we didn't prepare at all for rain," she replied, dropping onto the log next to Hadley. "Great. Now my butt is going to be wet," she said, looking down at the wet log underneath her. We all chuckled.

"It's part of camping," I told her. She didn't look amused.