I should not have done that.

“Hey! The break’s over. Let’s get moving, boys and girls." Steph snapped her fingers.

Chris handed me over the bottle and began following the group. There goes my chance at apologizing to him.

Mason noticed me standing as still as trees. He put his arm around my shoulder and dragged me towards the group. He said, “Got some good pictures of this forestry world.”

I told him, “There will be more, especially near the lake.” Thinking whether he had noticed me and Chris and my pathetic flirting attempt. Wait, was it even flirting?

"Yes, you are right.” He told me. “I have some pictures of you all, guys too.”

‘Yeah, that’s great.” Ok, he did not notice us, right? If he had, he would have said something about it now, or-

“I will share all of them.” He looked towards the front and then leaned closer to my ear and said, “Shall I share those caught in ‘gay act’?”

“WHAT?” I said baffled by what he said.

Clara turned her towards us with annoyance and said, "Michael, lower your volume. We don’t want unwanted attention from forest residents, do we?”

I glanced at Chris; he was trailing behind the couple. Well, he was far away from us enough to not hear what just Mason said—more of what he whispered to me. I turned my attention back towards the sly photographer. “What do you mean by that?” I asked him also in lower volume.

“You know what Chris knows, what I know.”

“Dude, stop twisting words and delete that picture.”

“Correction its ‘pictures’, Michael.”

“Then delete all of them.”

He shook his head and said, "Nah, because I bet in the future you and Chris will cherish those pictures. Wait, none of you have seen them yet...” I nudged my elbow into his ribs, but he continued, "Oh, and I know that you would frame those pictures and place them on the bedside table.”

He better not show them to Chris specifically. I made a blunderous move with my flirting. What was I thinking at that time?

Clara shouted, mostly directed towards us, “Guys at the back, get a move on.” So much for not making loud noises. Steph glanced at us and smirked, “Put that sporty body of yours into work.”

Mason said, "Yes, we got it.” and then removed his hand from my shoulder.

~~

“This is it; I am done.” Clara huffed and sat on the rock.

“But look around yourself.” Mason raised his arms in the air. “We made it to the top of the hill."

From the hilltop, we could see faraway hills covered in green with some dark brown patches. The hills circled around a forest grounds, which had a lake in the middle of it. On closer observation, one could see the watch tower. The trees were dense in portions adjoining the lake’s perimeter.

“Is that Halcyon Lake? And that is the watch tower?” Clara asked Steph.

"Yes, it is that watch tower.” She said while scanning the area and looking back at the map she had with her.

“Ok” Clara said while peeking at the map. "Wait, you are talking about the same tower that I am talking about?”

Step lightly smiled. "Yes, we are.”

Clara turned towards the olive-skinned boy who was submerged in the beauty of that place; she asked him, "Chris, isn’t it that place we searched about?”

His eyes averted towards Clara, and he said, “Yeah, but I never thought this place so scenic. The pictures we looked at did not really give us such vibes we are getting now.”

These words caught the attention of the sly photographer. “Really? Then behold my photography skills.” He began adjusting his camera. “The pictures I am capturing will definitely give you those vibes that you are feeling now.”

Clara scoffed. “Oh really? You don’t even have the qualifications of being a photographer in the first place.”

“One does not need a paper degree to take pictures, but proper skills.”

Mason took the picture of her and Steph out of nowhere. Steph looked from the map and raised her eyebrows. “Huh?”.

Mason told her, “Just taking pictures of two love birds.”

The lovebirds faces turned into crimson red. One turned their attention back at Map, and the other began complaining to Mason to not do something like that without warning.

“There will be more things to capture after we get to the campsites.” I told Mason.

Steph cleared her throat. “Alright guys and girls, let’s get moving. I hope you hydrated yourself.” She stood from the rock. “We are going downhill, so be careful. We have to get to the campsite before night befalls and make our tents.”

Mason moved closer to Chris; here goes my chance to say sorry to him. Mason asked him, “Chris, do you remember how to put up a tent? Because I forgot all the steps the instructor told me back in high school.”

Chris shook his head. “I don’t remember much about it either.”

Mason adjusted his bag straps, whining about the weight of camping gear we had upon our shoulders brought by Steph. She said that we needed it to survive for the night and told us that she would assist us with tent setting up.

“10 on 10 for our Guide.” Mason announced to us.

Steph told us to focus ahead.

~~

Coming downhill was faster than I thought. It was afternoon; in some time it would be evening. We began setting up our camp somewhere near the trail that led to the lake. Chris and I did the job of setting up the tent with the help of Steph. Mason and Clara handled the work with firemaking and preparing the food. Steph said we could stroll around the lake but not go into the water no matter what. It’s alright though; it's fine for us, as none of us were inclined to go for a swim after the disturbing theory by Clara.

“Hey, um... Chris, so you wanna hang out near the lake with me?”

He broke his focus on the task he was doing and looked towards it. “Ok, let’s go.” He turned towards Steph. “Do you want to come along with us?”

Steph said, “I would love to, but...” She then averted her eyes towards the boy and the girl fighting over the box of sandwiches. “.. I think I need to keep an eye out for the two kids over here, or else they will probably set fire to the food we all brought.”

“Who was the one who gave them responsibility for that?” Chris asked.

She sighed, “Whatever, just go both of you and don’t go too far from there.” She turned towards me, gave me a wink, and began heading towards the ‘kids’.

Chris said, “We should get going before it gets dark.”

"Yeah, let’s go.”

The trail to the lake was not as far as I would have thought. It was silent, like the forest relaxing; we could see birds flying around near the lake. I looked towards Chris; it turns out he was looking at me too. We quickly looked away from each other.

“So.. ah.. I am sorry about what I did before back there when we took a break, if that made you uncomfortable.” I told him, turning towards him.

He thought for a while and said, “It's ok; it did not bother me. I was quite surprised.” He kicked a stone in his path, and it went forward but was still on the trail. He continued, “I just don’t know what it was back then.”

Without giving any thought, I said, “What do you think of it now?”

“I don’t know; I am clueless.” He kicked the same rock again on the trail.

So he was clueless about the pseudo-flirting? Coming to think of it now, I don’t know when I began liking him. Was it when I first saw him walking out of the library while I was exploring the college during my admission into it? It’s strange that I even remember that he was wearing a hoodie with an illustration of a guitar on it. His brown hair was messed up from the front, as if he had ruffled through it during studying. Falling for someone at first sight does not make any sense to me, so definitely not that time.

One thing I was sure of was that I was just curious about him back then. Like the times when you would look around and see people walking by you, and then the silent thought in your mind comes wonders over the fact that who could be that person, what are they thinking, where are they headed, and then that thought disappears into the void of your mind, back to the normality to go about your own life and routines. In my case, these thoughts keep coming back and forth in milliseconds every time I see him somewhere in college. The only times I would see him occasionally in the same place where I was present as part of my routine was near the basketball court.

“We are here.” He said, his voice so quiet that it would perfectly blend with the forest’s breathing.