A Scenic Connection (BoyxBoy)

CHAPTER TWENTY

"Well that was..." Hadley said, trailing off as if she couldn't find the right words. Zaiden and I watched the fire in silence.

"I'm sorry that happened," I said suddenly, breaking the silence that had enveloped us. Zaiden looked at me in surprise, his eyebrows raised.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," he said matter-of-factly. I rested my chin in my hands and didn't respond. I just felt responsible. Like somehow this all could've been avoided.

"Stop that," Hadley said, looking at me from across the fire.

"Stop what?" I asked.

"Thinking about how you're responsible for what happened because you aren't!" She said, determination in her voice.

"I just...I-I can't help but feel that if I hadn't made a big deal of it then they wouldn't have left. Maybe they wouldn't have even known," I said, shrugging.

"You mean they wouldn't have known you and Tyce like each other?" Hadley asked, her eyebrows furrowed. I nodded.

"Yeah. They wouldn't have known about the kiss if I hadn't made things so awkward and then they wouldn't have just up and left Tyce like that," I replied, sighing deeply. Hadley shook her head. "They were his friends and I feel like I'm the reason they probably aren't friends anymore."

"Okay, Griffin honestly. For one, you didn't do anything wrong and they had every chance to try to be good friends to Tyce and secondly, Tyce wasn't exactly hanging out with them much so it's not like he's now missing out on something," Hadley explained confidently. Clearly she was trying to cheer me up.

"I just don't want to ruin things for someone. This is what I hate. I hate this. I hate that relationships sometimes get ruined over this!" I said, raising my voice.

"Griffin you can't blame yourself for something you have no control over. Sam and Alex had a choice to make. They chose to me rude and unaccepting. That's on them," Hadley said. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply.

"She's right Griffin," Zaiden added. "You can't control how you were born and how others choose to react to it."

"It's-its just not fair," I said, my voice breaking.

"Hey," Hadley said gently, coming over to sit by me. "To be honest, this kind of stuff happens all of the time. Do you think it's only gay couples that have friends up and leave them over who they're dating?"

I thought about that for a moment. I guess it's true, friends sometimes don't approve of their friends relationships. Not that Tyce and I were in a relationship.

"I guess you're right," I replied. "Although we aren't a couple." Hadley rolled her eyes, giggling a little.

"Yeah. Uh huh. Right," she smirked. I pulled a face at her.

"We aren't!" I said honestly. I mean sure we hugged sometimes, and held hands earlier today...okay and we've kissed a couple times..and cuddle together at night, but that didn't make us a couple. We weren't boyfriends. The topic had never even come up. We just liked each other was all, and we happened to share a tent so..yeah. Zaiden chuckled.

"You guys sure seem like you are," he said, looking over at me from the fire.

"You know what? Why do we always end up talking about me?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "I'm really not that interesting. How about um. How about..." I trailed off, thinking. "What do you guys wanna do tomorrow? We're running out of days left." I said. I smirked clearly pleased with myself for changing the subject successfully.

"Um I don't know, we could try to swim again?" Zaiden said, sounding unsure. Hadley shrugged.

"I'm in!" She replied. I nodded.

"That actually sounds like a good idea," I told them. I hoped that things would turn out very differently than last time I attempted swimming in the lake. I suddenly worried that Tyce would be sad the rest of the time and not wanna come with us tomorrow.

I sat and mulled that over for a while and we settled into a comfortable silence again, watching the flames lick at the wood and turn it black. Occasionally it would make small crackling sounds.

"Well guys I'm gonna head to bed," Zaiden declared, standing up off the log. Hadley yawned.

"I guess Paisley and April decided to do the same," she noted.

"I'm getting kinda tired too. Tyce is probably already asleep," I said. If that was true, I hoped not to wake him when I slipped inside the tent and changed my clothes.

"Goodnight, see ya in the morning," Zaiden said before disappearing into the darkness. I looked over at Hadley.

"Do we need to put the fire out?" She asked worriedly. I looked down at the flames. They were barely any as the soft orange glow of the coals took over and the wood burned down.

"It should be fine," I told her. "There's not much left to burn and it's in the pit so it won't spread." She nodded.

"Alright well, goodnight Grif. See you tomorrow," she said, giving me a hug.

"Night Hadley," I replied. We both walked our separate ways in the darkness towards our tents. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and used the flashlight on it to make my way towards the tent. I flicked the light off once I was close enough, as I didn't want a bright light to wake Tyce up.

I slowly unzipped the flap, trying as much as I could to be quiet, before slipping inside the tent and slowly zipping it up behind me. I carefully moved around Tyce's sleeping form and fumbled around in my bag for my shorts to change into. I kicked off my pants and slipped my shirt off. Tyce rolled over. I froze and turned around to look at him.

I could just barely make out his face. I was pretty sure his eyes were closed. After a moment I continued to change before slipping under the blankets, laying on my back and settling in for the night.

"Did everyone go to sleep?" He asked sleepily. I turned my head and looked in his direction.

"I thought you were asleep," I replied. "Did I wake you?"

"No I was dozing off but not completely asleep," he answered.

"Oh," I said. "Yeah everyone went to bed." He rolled over on his side so that he was facing me. "I'm sorry about what happened."

"Shh," he said, putting his finger against my lips. "It's not your fault." He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer to him, so that my chest was against his. I could feel his heartbeat and he radiated such warmth. I felt like I could just melt.

His lips touched mine, gently at first, before Tyce deepened the kiss. I tangled my fingers in his hair and kissed him back hungrily, craving that electric feeling I got every time our lips touched. It was as if every part of my body came alive when he touched me.

He rolled over on top of me and I let him, wrapping my legs and arms around him as our lips never broke apart. I ran my hands down his back, feeling the muscles moving underneath, his smooth skin so prefect and slightly warm to the touch.

Tyce moved his lips down to my jaw, kissing all the way from my ear down to my chin, before moving down to my neck and sucking and kissing gently. I suddenly became aware of just how turned on he was, feeling his long hard on pressed against my own.

He continued to kiss my neck before moving down to my collar bone, kissing it once, then arriving at my nipple. He took it into his mouth, sucking it gently. Then he nibbled it slightly.

All kinds of thoughts rushed to my mind and for a brief moment I wondered how many times he'd done this before.

"Tyce," I moaned. He ran his hands around on my chest, flicking my other nipple as he sucked. He moved his head down, kissing my stomach.

"Tyce," I said. He looked up and I touched his chin with my hand.