chalk ; tyrus {completed}

chapter 18 - the campfire (day 2)

"You look pretty nice."

He couldn't help but look up then, his eyes widened in alarm.

"I mean - uh - you are pretty nice. You're a nice person." TJ stuttered.

"That's not what you meant!" Cyrus laughed.

"Hey - you know what we should do? Start canoeing again!" The boy announced, grabbing his paddle.

Cyrus gave him an incredulous look, but he turned back around with an amused smile nonetheless.

"You're a liar, TJ Kippen."

"And what about it, Cyrus Goodman?"

That earnt him another disbelieving look.

~

That afternoon found them scavenging the forest for sticks. Although - Cyrus used the term 'them' lightly, because it was really just him doing the stick collecting.

"You know, we'd probably have enough sticks by now if you weren't stopping every two seconds to take photos of the animals!" he called over his shoulder.

TJ huffed. "Oh come on, you're the photographer here, aren't you supposed to be excited about all these photo opportunities?"

"We promised your parents we'd be back soon with sticks!"

"We've only been out for 20 minutes!"

"Yeah - that definitely counts as 'soon!'"

All he heard was the sound of footsteps after that, so he turned around with an exasperated sigh. "Come on, let's - oh..."

TJ was close now. Far closer than he had sounded a few moments ago. The look he was giving him now was heart-melting to say the least, and Cyrus very nearly forgot why they were out there in the first place.

Neither of them spoke for a few long moments, and the silence seemed to make him about ten times more aware of the all the sounds coming from the forest.

"We should uh...get a few more sticks so we can head back." He murmured, not moving at all.

"Yeah." TJ agreed, and there was that damn low tone again.

They lingered for a moment longer, reluctant to tear their gazes from one another, but TJ eventually stepped back with a teasing smile.

"Let's go then, shall we?"

Cyrus looked after the boy as he walked away, his expression disbelieving.

That jerk had to know what he was doing.

~

There were a lot of things that Cyrus despised about camping. The insects, the terrifying animals, the air mattresses, the communal bathroom blocks, the total lack of privacy and the dirt, which seemed to get all over his clothes no matter how hard he tried.

However, there were also things he liked about this camping trip in particular, and they could all be traced back to a certain basketball-playing, chalk-loving boy.

As he discovered later on that night around the campfire, TJ's family were all fun people to be around. Mr. Kippen played the guitar and he had no issue with initiating sing-alongs despite his very questionable singing abilities. Mrs. Kippen had no problem with joining in on these sing-alongs, and she was nothing but kind and accommodating towards Cyrus. Amber was...well, she was Amber. Kind, funny and very sarcastic; especially when it came to her brother.

Eventually, when the sun had well and truly set, they stopped adding sticks to the fire so that it could burn out. Amber very pointedly told her parents that they should probably retire for the night, which left Cyrus and TJ alone by the dwindling fire.