Tuck Sinn

43

Tom's footsteps made a shuffling noise against the ground. Huck turned and startled and got up quickly, wringing his hands.

"Tom." Even through this dark, they recognized each other. "Please don't go." He said. Tom's body flushed.

Tom glanced at him and away, an unsettled feeling coming to him. He started to turn.

"Tom, wait. Wait," Huck said, his voice going from a whisper to a shout, taking steps towards him. "I gotta talk to you." He said. Tom adjusted his bag, trying to hide it.

"I don't know, Huck... I..." Tom sighed, running a hand through his hair with his free hand. "I don't know." There were fireflies in the air, lighting up in that green, lightning sort of way, filling the air like rain, vibrating in their glows. Tom tried to focus on them and hide the fact from himself that his heart was beating fast.

"Really, Tom. I just gotta clear things up. It was real awful how things went." Huck said. Tom looked at him, then. Stared at him, trying to place how he felt. "I..." Huck took a step towards him, and Tom let him. "I shouldn't'a kissed you." Huck said. "That--" He wrung his hands, blinking slowly. "That was a mistake. I... Well, I guess I ain't got the best ways of expressing myself, do I?" Huck asked with a slight, tense smile.

"Guess not." Tom whispered. He let his hand drop from the bag. "Um..."

"Kiss meant nothin'. I... Well, I ain't been taught in affection, so I reckon that was just me trying to help... somehow." Huck said. His voice was staggered, unusual. Tom's stomach felt empty, aching. He wasn't sure if he liked it better this way, with the kiss meaning nothing. He pretended to himself that he did. It was just a kiss. "Tom, I wanna retry that night. It went bad."

"It was just a kiss... that's it?"

"Yes." Huck's voice was dry and rough in the air. Tom nodded.

"Alright, Huck. I... I don't really like the way it ended, either." Tom said. There was such a tension in the forest. A dark silence, waiting. The fireflies stilled in their movements, still flashing like their own storms.

"So can we start over? I really wanna help you, Tom. I still wanna be friends."

Tom felt the forest around them. The harshness of every second, hearing things that he wasn't sure was true. That he wasn't sure he wanted to be true.

"Please, Tom." Huck said. And his voice, smooth and pleading, brought Tom's eyes to his. And Tom breathed with the forest, feeling the darkness all around them, seeing the fireflies' glow in Huck's eyes.

"Okay, Huck. Alright." Tom said, and Huck smiled, head tilting back to the starry sky.

"Thank you, Tom." Huck said. There was a lightness, a release of tension, a relief, in his voice. Tom felt it too, barely. At least he had a friend again. "Can we just... forget all that happened? I wanna start over."

"...Okay, Huck." Tom said.

He wasn't sure why he was going through with this—besides the fact that it was Huck. It was Huck, who always helped him and supported him and who was always trying his best to be a friend. Huck, who made Tom's stomach turn and made his skin hot and made his head swirl-- of course he was going through with this.

"...So..." Tom started, running a hand through his hair. He took a few steps towards Huck, then sat against a tree, dropping his bag down beside him where Huck couldn't see. And he didn't know quite what to do—how could they go from violent ends to a quiet restart?

It was cold out in the forest air. Tom felt as if he would never get this chill out of his skin. The chill of the night and of nervousness. Of strangeness—it felt so weird, just forgetting what happened between them. And he shouldn't be here. He should be with Becky, begging her to marry him, and he should be home, doing his homework or sleeping. Doing anything but being here, talking with Huck. He shouldn't be with Huck.