"Sorry." I murmured, rather embarrassed by my earlier actions. At that moment it seemed like letting him go would kill me but now with the tears all gone and nerves calmed down, in retrospect not one of my best decisions.

He didn't say anything but just gathered the wood and put it where I had left space for it.

I worked beside him arranging the wood together to form a pile. Our hands brushed from time to time and I could feel a spark between us.

"Fire?" I spoke out loud. Realising that though I had watched enough man vs wild, I never paid any attention to the way he started the fire.
"Positives of smoking, I guess. Always have a lighter." He smirked, taking out his silver lighter and putting a log on fire, he threw it in the pile and the fire blazed.

I had set both our sleeping bags opposite to each other with the fire in between but when I was alone I couldn't handle being vulnerable, so I using his backpack as a barrier. I was sitting between both bags with my legs pulled together and a scared hand resting on a flash light.
As the fire continued, I took my seat in my sleeping bag.

"Vince, I kept your sleeping bag on that side." I called out, taking his backpack in my hand and pushing it his way.
He came towards me, took the backpack from my hand and put it beside mine as he sat.

I had assumed he would like to sit opposite to me, but I guess he could feel my inner fears and had been a gentleman to lend me a shoulder.
He sat down beside me, pulling his legs to his chest too, joining our shoulders, a gesture which quite surprised me. I was aware of every place our body touched, and call it teenage hormones or the sudden attraction I felt for the boy beside me alone in a forest but I haven't felt this way with anyone before.

"I'm sorry, I took so long. I might have taken a small cigarette break in between." He said in an guilty voice bringing me out of my thoughts.
"It's okay." I didn't blame him, I've heard how hard it is to let go of your addiction once you start though starting it in the first place seemed like a dumb idea, never judge that's what they say.

He rolled his sleeves up and peeled the cover of a bag of packed food.

"What does that mean?" I asked, looking at the clock drawn on his inner forearm, the art so beautiful, the ink merging with his skin in the utmost artistic manner. Both the hands of the clock were pointing to infinity.

He rolled the sleeves up even more. And small birds could be seen emerging from the clock and leading to two words-'Carpe Diem'.

"Time is endless but it never stops, not for you, not for me, noone. Always ticking, always passing on. One must seize the day. Right now, sitting here in the cold with the fire infront of us, it's beautiful. I want to live every moment in my life." He was looking into my eyes, the entire time he spoke, his eyes shining with deep meaning. I could see his icy blue eyes melt a little, the pain in them a tiny bit visible. The depth in his words shook my entire being,I was mesmerized by it all.

Everything about him was so unique and meaningful.

"What about this?" I asked, still looking in his eyes, tracing yet another tattoo on his body. My heart was beating frantically in it's cage, looking forward to finding out more about this different being infront of it.
He looked down, staring at the tattoo having an anchor with the words, 'Sink or swim' written over them.

"One tattoo at a time, Jinx. I can't let you unravel me in one night." He spoke in a husky voice, still looking into my eyes. He was right, each tattoo on his body spoke about him, none wasted pieces of art.

They all were placed and thought of, his body expressed his life, his emotions, his past- everything.

"Okay." I accepted, still processing all of him.

"What about the piercings?" I asked, looking at the shining ring at the corner of his full lips.

"Well, the one you can see is the only one I have." His lips moved and that's all I could stare at. Shaking off my thoughts on closing the distance between us, I looked back at the fire.

"What about you?" He left me surprised again at his attempt to make a conversation.

"What about me?"

"Well, how many tattoos do you have?"

At his enquiry I looked at both my wrists, the ink contrasting with the pale skin around it.
I had gotten it when I felt I couldn't do it, the two words implanted in my skin speak of my motivation.

"These are the only two." I whispered, still looking at the word 'Family' inked with an infinity sign around it on my left inner wrist and 'Be Strong' printed in cursive on the right.

"Why this?" He asked, taking my right hand in his. He was surprising me at every nook and corner. This touch still sent off sparks in me.

"It's a story better left unsaid." I mumbled, not wanting to remember the difficult times in my life.

"How many know that story, Jinx?" I shook at his question. He had pinned me on point, he knew I didn't tell my life stories and he knew I was still carrying the load of my past.

"Why do you call me that?" I answered with a question.

"What?"

"Jinx."

"It fit, whenever you're around something or the other goes wrong. You threw me off the swing in kindergarten or you either end up almost knocking me off my feet, quite literally," I laughed remembering the time he had walked into me in the party. And stunned for a bit wondering how he remembered our first meeting that had repressed itself in my memories.

"Or you completely ruin my self made tent, do I need to continue with my list of incidents?" He chuckled as he crumbled the wrapper.

"I have a vessel to heat water in, the problem is, I don't know how to make it stay." He mumbled pulling out a kettle.

"You brought along a steel kettle?"

"Yeah, useful, ain't it?"

I looked around and finally recalled a trick I saw on my countless hours spent in watching discovery channel.

"We can use our walking sticks to make a stand and put a long log on it and then balance the kettles handle on that." I cringed at my explaining strategy. I should never take up the teaching profession, I'd ruin lives.

"Thank you for your expert explanation. I think it'll work."

Putting the structure into working was rather difficult as the walking sticks could hardly balance the log we placed over it. And even with numerous tries it would've give up.
"It's useless, one of us has to hold the kettle with the log over the fire till the water boils." I huffed in defeat and sat back down.

"You're right, this just won't stay. I'll hold the log, you can sleep now if you wish. I think it's better we take turns to stay up." Vince said, picking up the log and balancing the kettle over it.

"No, no, I'll do this. You must already be tired because of the wood hunting. You take the first shift of sleep. I'll wake you up a few hours later." I said, trying to take the log out of his hands.
My hand covered his making him first look at our touching hands and then into my eyes, we were only an inch apart.

His face was lit up with the orange glow from the fire, his eyes twinkling in a playful manner. His lip ring was lifted slightly as his lips curled into a smile.

"Did it hurt?" I asked, whispering.

"What?" When you fell from heaven?

"This." I touched the corner of his lips and felt the cold silver under my finger tips. Small tingles went up my arm, did he feel the same way?

"Only for a second." He whispered back, I could feel his burning gaze on me but my eyes had suddenly found the small ring to be more intriguing, rightfully so. As he had spoken, his lips moved and my fingers brushed lightly against his warm lips and a shiver went down my spine.

I wondered what it'd feel like to have to against my lips, the coldness of the ring and the warmth of his perfectly structured lips.

But all my thoughts were put to a rest as he closed the distance between us.

*****

Mwahaghaha, no postponing the kiss that's how my Melvin are :')

Love,
Rojesta 💜