He had to go; he had to run, so he did. He heard Mark calling him, but it was as if Caleb was underwater; all sound was muffled, distorted, jumbled.

He sped up, his fumbling steps turning into a jog. He ran deep into the forest, deep into the darkness, deep into the trees that wouldn’t judge him. Wouldn’t lie to him. They were just there. 

Caleb curled into a ball and completely fell apart. He let out big, bellowing, whimpering sobs. He tried to breathe, but found he couldn’t. 

He shakily stood up, clutching onto a tree for support, and everything started to go black. The sounds of birds merrily singing became impossible to hear. 

He started falling. Falling, falling, falling. And just before he completely blacked out, he saw a face looking down at him. That face. He knew that face, that fa-

                                                                 ... 

Darkness. Utter darkness. Complete and total darkness. And then light. Light. Wonderful glowing light. Wonderful glowing light coming from a wonderful glowing person. 

Person...a person, a wonderful person...Mark. Mark! It was Mark, the wonderful glowing Mark, and everything was okay again. 

But he didn’t deserve to know someone like Mark, to have a friend like Mark. Suddenly, Caleb remembered what had happened. How could he do something so embarrassing? And in front of Mark Baker, no less. 

“Welp, I better delete my life now.” “Caleb? Caleb, you’re awake now! You’ve been out for 5 minutes; I kept trying to wake you up, but nothing worked. Wait, what did you say?” 

Caleb began to blush fervently as he realized he had spoken aloud. “Uh, nothing! I said nothing. You should just shove something into my mouth. To make me shut up, that is! Not to do...anything else. You know, I should stop. So that’s what I’m doing. Shutting up. Being quiet. Only silence from me,” Caleb nervously babbled. 

Mark chuckled, then suddenly turned serious. “Hey, are you all right? You looked pretty bad back there. I mean, you didn’t look bad, but your condition did. Is it a condition? Should I call it that? Well anyway, my point is that you always look good. Wait, no, that’s not my point! My point is that I don’t know if you’re okay right now, and if you aren’t, then I want to help you with that. Only if you’ll let me, though.” Mark smiled awkwardly. 

“Thanks, Mark, but I’m fine.” Caleb tried to look happy, but his smile faltered and his lip began to quiver. Soon, tears began rolling down his face once more. “Fuck. Goddammit, why do I have to keep embarrassing myself? Why can’t I just be normal?” 

“Because, Caleb, if you were normal then there’d be too many normal people in this world, and it would be so boring. People like you liven up other’s lives. You liven up my life,” Mark whispered, while tightly holding on to Caleb’s shoulders. 

“God, Mark, how are you so perfect?” The two boys smiled at each other. “Happy birthday, Caleb Smith,” Mark murmured. “Why thank you, my good sir,” Caleb drowsily replied. Mark smiled down at him. Caleb fell asleep, the picture of Mark’s smile imprinted in his mind.