Dorm Norm - 5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Come on. Let’s find a place where we can sleep,” Michael said.

His calmness at this matter was very odd for Michael himself. In course of time he had developed intolerance towards the mistakes people made, however small it be. The reason behind people’s stupid acts was not his concern. It was not his responsibility to know. He was not their friend; he was never anybody’s friend.

“Sorry Mike,” Mark said holding his head low.

He was never anybody’s friend, no one was ever his friend—except this guy standing right in front of him. How could Michael be angry with his best (and only) friend?

“This expression does not suit you,” Michael said.

Mark gave a big smile and said, “I went camping with my dad once when I was young. I remember it being a lot of fun. Do you have any fun camping memories?”

“I never went for any school camps, not that anyone wanted me there in the first place. And dad, well he left before I could know,” Michael said.

“Well bad luck for all those people. I’m the lucky first one to be camping with you!” Mark grinned.

“That’s true,” Michael nodded smiling.

“By the way why do you say that nobody wanted you to be there at camp?” Mark asked.

“Because I was the bad guy,” Michael said.

“I think I heard you wrong. Please repeat yourself,” Mark laughed.

“Someone hadn’t done his homework the instant excuse was Michael had torn off his/her homework. Someone was late for a class Michael had threatened him/her. Any problem occurred and it was assumed that I was the one at fault. After all I was the bully, the delinquent,” Michael said.

“Bully and you? I could bully you and you wouldn’t say a word,” Mark continued laughing.

“Really? You think you can get away with bullying me?” Michael challenged.

“Yup. Come on let’s see how big a bully you are,” Mark said.

Mark positioned himself in front of Michael and pulled Michael’s shirt. Strangely Michael thought that he would play along.

“Stop this at once! I am going to complain about you!” Michael said.

“How dare you talk to me like that? Take off your shirt I say,” Mark said.

“Bullying is against the rules!”

“I make the rules here! Off with it!”

Michael took off his shirt.

“See I bullied you,” Mark said and the both of them burst out laughing.

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“It is getting dark. We need to set up a fire,” Daniel said.

“You want to burn the forest down?” Sam asked.

“No! I just want to stay warm at night. Hurry up! We have to find all the dry leaves and branches we can,” Daniel said.

Sam got up and began helping Daniel in collecting the dry leaves and branches.

“I think this much will be enough. Now to light the fire,” Sam said after some time.

“Yes. It will be enough. Now to find some rocks and some stones,” Daniel said.

“What for?” Sam asked.

“So that I can light the fire,” Daniel said.

They gathered some small rocks and arranged them in a circle and put some of the leaves and branches inside the stone circle.

Daniel took two other stones and started rubbing them against one another.

“What are you doing now?” Sam asked.

“I’m trying to light the fire using the force of friction from these two stones,” Daniel explained.

“Wouldn’t this be easier?” Sam said taking his cigarette lighter out of his pocket.

Daniel nodded and Sam lit the fire.

“See if I hadn’t ever smoked then we would have frozen to death by now,” Sam smirked.

“Not funny,” Daniel said.

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“Mike, you got a mean body there,” Mark said running his hand over Michael’s chiseled abs.

Michael instinctively slapped Mark’s hand away. Nobody had ever touched his body this way.

“Ouch!” Mark exclaimed, “Chill!”

“Sorry. You just caught me off guard,” Michael said putting his shirt back on.

“It is starting getting dark and cold at that,” Mark said.

“Do you know how to light a fire without burning the whole forest down?” Michael asked.

“No. But I got an idea,” Mark said taking out his a paper box.

“What do you have there?” Michael asked.

“First help me to clear off the leaves from this place,” Mark said standing up.

Michael too stood up and helped clear the leaves away from where they had been sitting. Once they had removed all the leaves from the place Mark opened the box. There were candles inside the box.

Michael looked at Mark a tad bit confused.

“When I went shopping for this trip I found these candles on sale. I figured I could practice carving things out of wax in case this trip was boring so I carried these along. Hold the torch near here,” Mark said.

Mark arranged the candles in a line on one side and began lighting them with the help of his lighter. Soon there was enough light for them to see in the darkness after the sun had set.

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Sam rolled his eyes which Daniel noticed.

“Roll your eyes as much as you want but what you said was not funny or smart in the least,” Daniel said.

The fire had almost burnt out all the leaves and very little was left of the branches. Although there was another pile waiting to be added to the fire, it was 9pm.

“I need to go to sleep now. Good night,” Daniel said glancing down at his watch.

“Seriously? How do you plan to sleep here?” Sam asked.

Daniel opened his jacket and lay it down on the forest floor. He took out two blankets from his backpack and placed them on his jacket. He was getting ready to sleep when suddenly there was a sound.

“Oops! I guess that would be me,” Sam said.

“Yes. We need to eat something before we go to sleep. But first we have to get the fire burning properly,” Daniel said.

Daniel and Sam added the pile of dry leaves and branches which had been laying aside and the fire began burning with renewed vigour.

Daniel used the hand sanitizer which he always carried and passed it to Sam. Then Daniel took a small plastic box out from his backpack.

“What’s in the box?” Sam asked praying that there was some food inside.

Indeed there was food inside the box.

“This is not much but I have some dry fruits here which I had brought to add to my breakfast cereal. Please help yourself,” Daniel said.

“Thanks man. You’re so awesome!” Sam thanked.

Daniel and Sam shared the dry fruits between them and chatted. Sports and music were Sam’s main topics while Daniel spoke about art and literature.

When the food was finished Daniel put the box back into his backpack and took out a bottle of mouthwash and proceeded to one corner of the clearing to use it. Once he was done he came to sleep.

“Goodnight,” Daniel said as he set one blanket on top as a pillow and spread the other one out over his body.

“Good night,” Sam smiled.

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Mark began to look around with a lost expression.

“What are you looking for?” Michael asked.

“I need to eat something. I am trying to decide which tree’s leaves I should try first,” Mark said.

“Are you crazy? Wait I have an apple with me. I guess we could both share it,” Michal said hunting an apple out from his backpack.

“Come on take a bite and give it to me,” Mark said.

“You seem really hungry. You eat first,” Michael said.

“What if my teeth fall off while trying to bite into a whole apple? You’re the strong one. You eat first,” Mark said.

“Okay. Better my teeth than yours,” Michael said biting into the apple.

After Michael had taken a bite he passed it to Mark and Mark took a small bite from where Michael had eaten.

“Isn’t this like an indirect kiss? But I have to do this to protect my teeth,” Mark laughed.

“Huh?” Michael said his heart beating rapidly.

“Ya. When I was young I tried to bite into a whole apple and my tooth came off,” Mark said.

He passed the apple back to Michael and this time Michael bit at a different place. When he passed the apple to Mark, Mark again bit at the same place where Michael had bitten a moment ago.

Mark’s words about the “indirect kiss” continued to move around in Michael’s mind and he asked Mark to finish off the apple although he himself was still hungry.

“Ahh! I am so sleepy,” Mark said stretching out his arms.

“Let us go to sleep,” Michael said.

Michael spread out his jacket on the ground and turning away from Mark and closed his eyes. Suddenly Michael felt something around him. He opened his eyes to see hands around his abdomen. He turned his head to see it was Mark who had his arms around him.

“What are you doing?” Michael said pulling Mark’s hand away from himself.

“You’re so warm. Please Mike let me sleep like this otherwise I am gonna die in this cold,” Mark said.

Michael hesitated for a moment then left Mark’s hand and Mark again hugged Michael and drifted off to sleep. But Michael for some reason found his heart beating really hard and it took some time before he fell asleep.

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As Sam crouched down to lay his jacket down and get ready to sleep his eyes fell on Daniel.

Daniel looked so innocent and vulnerable now that his glasses had come off. And in the dying light of the fire his face glowed like an angel. Daniel looked so beautiful that Sam couldn’t take his eyes off him.

Sam took out his cell phone and clicked a picture. Then one more and then another. For some reason he wanted to capture that face, that beauty.

The fire began to crackle as the leaves and branches were now almost burnt out and Sam suddenly became conscious of the fact that he had been clicking pictures of a person without permission that too of a guy, for some time now.

‘What the hell am I doing?’ Sam thought shaking his head.

Sam quickly put his backpack below his head and lay down to sleep.

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Sam felt someone pushing him. He opened his eyes to see Mark standing beside him.

“Huh?” Sam reacted.

“Get up man. It’s morning,” Mark said.

“How did you find us?” Sam asked sitting up, rubbing his eyes.

“Everyone came searching for Michael and me in the morning. We had gotten lost too you see. And then we find out that you and Daniel were missing too. So we joined the others and were searching for you both till we found you here,” Mark explained.

“Where is Daniel?” Sam asked.

“He’s right there,” Mark said moving aside.

Daniel was folding his blankets and packing them back into his backpack.

“Samuel please contact your father as soon as we get back to camp. He has been very worried about you,” the teacher-in-charge said.

Sam nodded his head briefly.

Everyone walked back to camp chatting happily.

“Let us eat breakfast together when we get back,” Daniel suggested awkwardly.

“Sure,” Sam smiled.

On their way back Sam stole glances at Daniel, comparing his face now to the face he had seen at night—the face from the night which had stuck in his mind.

On getting back Daniel, Sam, Mark and Michael sat together for breakfast and were chatting, with Mark as always taking the lead with the talking, when the teacher-in-charge interrupted them.

“Excuse me. Samuel there is a call from your father’s office,” he said.

Sam had been laughing happily till now but on hearing about the call his expression changed to one of annoyance.

“I will be right back guys,” Sam said as he took the phone from the teacher’s hand.

“Hello,” Sam said impatiently once he was quite some distance away from everyone.

“Your father is worried about you. He would like to know where you were last night and how you are doing now,” the voice from the other side said.

“Tell him he has no need to try bothering about me now after all this time. I can manage my life on my own. I am hanging up,” Sam said ending the call.