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Attempting to be sneaky when you’re the shortest kid in the entire camp seemed a lot harder than what Max expected.
But when it’s broad daylight, everyone is doing their own thing and Max has to pretend like nothing is wrong as he awkwardly walks over to a tent that is very obviously not his.
Max looks over across the campsite, where David is trying to stop Space Kid from accidentally stabbing himself with safety scissors after Neil showed him how to make a rocket using an empty soda bottle. He thinks about the mayhem he can cause. Maybe switch out the pair of safety scissors with those huge scissors made for cutting fabric when David isn’t looking.
But he doesn’t have time for that. Not right now at least. Maybe later.
“Preston,” Max whispers, rather loudly as he looks around to be sure no one can see him.
“Come in, Max!” Preston’s voice was always grating, like those annoying theatre kids in the seventh and eighth grade at his school that made Max want to blow his brains out right then and there.
But Preston was Max’s best bet. He couldn’t let this opportunity pass him.
Max takes one last peak around, and when no one is looking, unzips the tent and takes a step inside. He zips it up behind him just as quickly.
It takes a moment for Max’s eyes to adjust to the darkness of the tent and Preston facing away from him. It was dimly lit, only a flashlight lighting the place and therefore giving off a vibe Max wasn’t all too comfortable with. He didn’t have the greatest feeling about this entire situation. But hey, Preston was also incredibly dramatic so Max wouldn’t put anything past him.
“Hey… Preston?” Max asks, swallowing his words just as quickly as he spoke them.
“Hello, Max,” Preston turns around, finally meeting Max’s eyes. Preston has this monotone look on his face, matching his voice. Max subconsciously takes a step back, quirking an eyebrow, still confused.
The tent is quiet for a moment until Max finally speaks.
“Umm— hi,” Max says, almost like a question. “Are you having a stroke?”
Preston sighs. “I’ve been thinking about this since our last session, Max, and I think I’ve decided that I don’t want to teach you anymore.”
Max’s heart drops. “ What? Why?!” His voice is laced with desperation. It almost cracks.
He feels like he’s just been hit by a truck. No, scratch that— a semitruck. Maybe four semitrucks.
“Because you’re mean and I honestly don’t want to be seen with someone like you.” Preston takes a couple of steps forward, getting closer towards Max. Preston was always towering over most of the campers— Max was sure it had to do something with his shoes.
Even if Preston is able to tower over Max, Max has the ability to make himself known in a room, no matter the height.
“The fucks that supposed to mean?” Max immediately retaliates, crossing his arms. Preston wishes he could wipe that offended look off of Max’s face.
“You’re mean , Max. And don’t get me wrong— we’re all mean to each other, but you’re like— meaner than anyone else.” Max wasn’t sure if Preston’s words were meant to hurt, but he was more hung over on the idea that Preston wouldn’t help him anymore.
“I’m fuckin’ Max, Preston! I’m supposed to be mean!”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about,” Preston waves a hand in front of Max, motioning to him. He looks defeated just as he looks angry. “You’re mean. You’re fucking mean, Max, and I don’t want to lose the people that I care about just because I’m hanging out with someone they don’t like.”
“Preston,“ For once, Max inhales and thinks before talking. Something he thought he would never do. But this was too important for him to run his mouth. He cannot fuck this up. “We are in the same boat here—“
“ Ohh, ohh! Neil, do you hear that? It sounds like Max! And he oddly sounds calm. Huh. That’s not normal. That means we have to check it out!”
Max continues, “And you are the only one that can help me. I can attempt to be nicer— maybe we can plan these lessons later in the night, so there’s a lower chance of getting caught?”
“Max, what do you not understand by ‘no, I don’t want to help you’?” Preston’s patience was clearly thinning. “We might both be trans, but unlike you, I’m not an asshole!”
“You don’t understand–”
“Ha!” A bit of Preston’s theatre kid voice escaped as he sarcastically laughed. “But I do understand. You aren’t the only one struggling, Max!”
“It’s not my fault I need your help.” That sentence came out more like a snide remark than a retaliation.
“And it’s not my fault you’re not a boy!”
Everything suddenly goes quiet. Max’s hands shook as he stared at Preston with wide eyes. He swears his heart was going to beat out of his chest and his face is practically on fire. The words that impulsively escaped Preston’s mouth almost didn’t feel real.
“You take that back, you fucking–”
“Max is a girl?!”
Max and Preston both turn their heads towards the voice. His hands tremble even more as his eyes land on Neil and Nikki, both standing in front of the entrance of the tent. The zipper behind them was lazily zipped up, almost half of it still open. Neil was staring at Preston and Max, surprised and slightly confused. Nikki however just looked excited and dumbfounded, like she usually does. Dirt was spilling out of her pockets and Preston prayed that they would leave the tent immediately.
“Nikki– what? No!” Max says, only now realizing how loud both him and Preston could have been. Who knows if anyone else heard them?
“Well, now that you mention it, I’ve never really seen Max without his hoodie on.” Neil thinks out loud. At this point, Max looks like he is filled with seething resentment.
“I just thought Max was allergic to dirt.”
“Nikki, shut the fuck up.” Max spits.
“So, are you a girl?” Neil steps closer to Max, almost interrogating him. Max takes a step back and inhales sharply. He looks down at his beaten up red and white sneakers, and slips his hands into the pockets of his hoodie in an attempt to fidget with his hands without getting odd looks.
“None of your business.” Max replies nonchalantly. He looks back up at Neil, who somehow looks even more confused. He wants to punch him, but instead of doing that, Max just clenches his fist so hard that his nails harshly dig into his palm.
“Actually, is it my business,” Neil has this sarcastic, all-knowing tone to his voice that makes Max fume even more. He was not even sure if that was actually possible. “Considering we share a tent.”
“Listen–”
“No,” Neil interrupted once again. Possibly Max’s biggest pet peeve was being interrupted, especially if it was by a know-it-all. “You listen. If you’re not a boy, we can’t bunk together. Not to mention the problems–”
“What fucking problems?!” Max snaps. “Even if I–”
“Kids! Is everything okay? I hear yelling!”
Everyone in the tent turns their head towards the voice. It’s muffled, but it’s all too recognizable.
“Everything’s fine, David!” Neil calls back. He turns towards Max with an annoyed look. There was no way this was Max’s fault, was it? “We’ll talk about this later.”
And with that, Neil leaves the tent as Nikki follows him closely behind. Max stares silently at the now unzipped tent, watching the sunlight fill into the gap and light up the tent. He can feel Preston’s eyes burn into the back of his head.
Max wants to scream.
“Max, I am so sorry–”
“Don’t, Preston. Just don’t.”
Max doesn’t care enough to debate with Preston about this. If anything, it would probably end in another screaming match and Gwen would be prying Max off of Preston. After what happened with Nikki a few weeks ago, he wasn’t in the best mood to get bitten in the arm again.
So Max leaves the tent without looking back. Neil and Nikki are nowhere to be found, so Max takes this as his opportunity to walk back to his tent.
“There’s my favourite camper!”
Motherfucker.
Max wipes his face and rolls his eyes, not even daring to look David in the eyes.
David: the number one camp counsellor here that always made Max want to claw his eyes out. He was practically everything Max wasn’t. Annoying, loud, scarily positive. Max was convinced David was slightly insane and that he probably poured the milk before the cereal. Like a serial killer.
“How’s my happy lil’ camper doing on this fine day?” His voice was always so annoyingly bright. How is David able to stay this positive twenty four seven? Max thinks he’ll never understand how David is… David.
“Not right now, David. I’m really not in the mood.” Max says. He can feel David’s presence right behind him. He radiated the vibe of sunshine and sunflowers. That wasn’t a compliment, but knowing David? He would most likely take it as one.
“Oh, Max,” David’s voice is full of whimsy. “You’re never in the mood.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Max says bluntly. David is almost taken aback, but he quickly finds himself back on his feet.
“Come on, Max. It’s only the early afternoon. I was thinking maybe—“
“David. I said leave me the hell alone. Why can’t you ever listen?” Max doesn’t even look back. He doesn’t care. Seeing David’s slightly confused expression would probably piss him off even more (if that was even possible).
“I—“
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. Leave me alone. I want to be alone.”
That was… oddly a lot less screamy than what David was ever used to. Max was weirdly calm about his approach to telling David to fuck off, which was a daily occurrence. But this time, Max was quieter. A lot more shut in, which gives David probably the worst feeling in his stomach ever.
He stands still and lets Max go, letting the child walk back into his tent to spend some time alone, David would assume.
“I’ve got to find Gwen,” He mutters beneath his breath, and finally walks off.
——
“Gwen? Gwen?!”
“Jesus Christ, David. I’m right here. Chill.”
David looks over and sees Gwen in her usual camp counsellor attire, sitting in a swivel chair with her legs propped up on the nearest desk, which was covered in different papers and forms that Gwen decided she would look at later.
A book was placed upon her face, covering her eyes and her nose, and her arms were crossed across her chest.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” David asks sheepishly. Gwen gives him the most deadpanned look he has possibly ever seen.
“Now you did,” She pulls her legs back and picks up the book from her face, placing it on the desk to cover up some of the forms. She’ll do it later, she keeps telling herself. “What’s up? Nerf stab someone? Harrison send someone into the void and now it’s our problem? Max somehow lit the whole place on fire?”
All of those things have happened before. Not in order, of course. But it sure as hell did happen.
“It’s, umm,” David coughs nervously and grabs the nearest chair from another desk to pull towards Gwen, who is now sitting comfortably in her seat. Her arms are placed in her lap. “Heavy, I guess? I—I don’t know. I never thought I’d see myself in this situation.”
Gwen’s expression suddenly drops. She looks at David with a curious, yet nervous glare. Almost like she knew what David was going to say. “David. What happened?”
—
“Have you found it yet?”
“The more you ask that, the less I want to do this for you.”
“Please!” David says, almost desperately in that childlike tone of his. “You know how much I suck at reading!”
“David, if I had a nickel for everytime you brought up your dyslexia as a defence for not reading something, I would have enough cash to quit this job and retire.” Gwen doesn’t pull her eyes away from the records cabinet. She was crouched down, on her knees and using her fingers to push the next file away.
“Oh, man,” David walks back and forth, the wood beneath him creaking with every step he takes. They should probably fix that up. Eventually. Not until someone falls through it. “What happens if he’s actually… you know?”
“What?” Gwen asks, still refusing to look at a panicked David, who’s now biting his fingernails. “That he’s trans?”
He answers quickly, “Well, duh!” David stops in his tracks to look at Gwen and then sighs. The intense feeling of defeat courses through his body as he falls back onto the swivel chair. “What then?”
David runs a hand through his ginger hair. Some pieces stick out a little awkwardly, but the original clump of hair that sits in the middle of his head still sticks upwards. Beads of sweat fall past his forehead. “What if he’s trans? How are the other kids going to react? What if Neil—“
“David. If you keep thinking about how you eavesdropped on the kids, you’re going to rack up more guilt. Take it from me,” She cracks a smile. Even though David cannot see it, he can still hear it in her voice. “I have too many regrets. Why the hell did Campbell keep the old records? Some of these date back to the eighties.”
She mumbles that last part.
“Oh, I know it was a bad idea!” David says dramatically. He slouches in his chair, staring out of the window and towards the trees that surround the camp. His voice gets quieter, as if he was talking to himself, “I just wanted him to be safe, especially in that situation.”
“It’s okay to worry about the kids, especially Max and his gang. They get into the most trouble, after all. You just need to breathe for a moment and think about what the next course of action is. Because I just—“ Gwen pulls out a file with a proud look on her face. She raises it in the air, staring at it gleefully. “Fuckin’ found it!”
David jumps out of the chair almost immediately and snatches the file from her hand. Gwen pulls herself up and stares at David as he scurries to open it. She watches as he struggles to pull the paper clip off.
“Oh my God, David—“ Gwen snatches the file back from David’s hand and carefully pulls the paper clip off. She pulls the file out. There’s only three pieces of paper, two of which lacked a lot of information.
And then there was the paper with the proper information that was mandatory to fill out. The paper that David was desperately trying to look for, even though a part of him was screaming at him to not read what was on file.
NAME: MAXINE KAUR SINGH
GENDER: FEMALE
AGE: 11
ACTIVITY:
HEIGHT: 143 CM
DOB: 11/7/05
The two stare at the paper as if it was the end of the world. A wave of nerves runs down David’s spine, just staring at the paper.
“Well, that answers our question. His file is super small,” Gwen says, flipping through the other two papers. She skims through the print in Times New Roman font. “Jeez, kid has like— no information on him. Only his address and parents' contact info.”
As Gwen is placing the papers back into the file, she looks up at David, who has been standing still since opening the file. He seems to be in deep thought, staring at nothing as he’s still. It’s odd, seeing David so still. Gwen never thought she would see the day.
“You okay?” Gwen asks and slips the paper clip onto the file and slides it into the mess of the other camper’s files. She kicks the cabinet harshly, closing it. There’s a small crack in the cabinet. That was a good enough job well done in her standards, at least.
“Yeah, I— yeah. I’m fine,” David sounds almost sarcastic. Gwen softens at the reaction.
“That doesn’t sound like you being okay. David,” Gwen is silent for a moment, before finally speaking her mind. “I’m not trans, so I can’t speak on this. You should speak to him. He likes you more after all.”
This cracks a smile out of David. Gwen places a hand on his shoulder, grinning at him and squeezing his shoulder slightly.
David’s tone is more gentle. He places his hand on Gwen’s. “Yeah. Thanks, Gwen.”
—
I’m not hungry.
Max stares at his food. He wishes he knew what he was currently staring at. The Quartermaster still scares him and he refuses to touch anything that man—thing will hand him. Thank god for David slipping him different snacks every morning. Even if he wasn’t the biggest fan of bananas, it was ten times better than whatever the hell was served in the cafeteria.
Everyone was chatting in the mess hall, laughing or yelling at each other. It was a strict schedule that David swore to stick by, and everyone seemingly enjoyed it. Some more than others, but dinner was always when everyone was at their highest energy.
Max just wishes it was happening to him, for some odd reason. Something still feels missing.
He looks across the mess hall, where Nikki is sitting on the table with Ered because it’s ‘cool’, when they both look stupid. Well, as Max would say, stupid attracts stupid.
“Hey,”
He looks over. A bright yellow jumper is the first thing he notices. Neil sits down right next to Max, putting his plate of nonsense down in front of him. Max refuses to look at him.
“Hi,” Max mumbles, just above a whisper. The two sit in a long, awkward silence for a long moment. Someone wants to say something, but both of them don’t want to say it. Max can feel Neil glance at him constantly, before looking away.
“So,” Neil begins.
“So?” Max asks cautiously.
“So, are you a girl?”
There it is.
Max pushes himself up and slams his fists against the table. Everyone around the duo suddenly gets quiet, all eyes on them.
“When are you going to shut the hell up about that?!” Max yells, looking directly into Neil’s eyes. He refuses to look away.
“It’s a genuine question, asshole! If you would pull your head out of your ass and answer my question—“
“Oh,” Max almost finds this amusing as he does infuriating. “Pulling my head out of my ass? Talk about hypocrisy.”
“Are you saying I’m selfish?”
“If the shoe fits—“
Max is quickly interrupted by Neil also pushing himself out of his chair. The chair topples over and now everyone is suddenly quiet in the room. Max pretends their presence isn’t making him want to scream and leave the mess hall in a stupor.
“Don’t start that shit with me when everything is always about you. I just want a straight goddamn answer from you, but you never listen. It’s always about you.”
“Neil, shut the fuck up,” Max says it sternly, like how he was when he was speaking to Preston earlier. He knows all eyes are on him. He just wishes he cared more about them. Maybe that would have stopped him from lashing out. “None of this is about me. You’re acting as if I play the victim.”
“Ha!” Neil laughs sarcastically. “Are you kidding? It’s always been about you. It’s always about Max this, and Max that!”
“None of this has ever fuckin’ been about me, dickhead! You always talk about yourself. You’re the most selfish person I have ever met.”
Neil raises his fist. Max cannot do anything but stare.
“You don’t know anything about me!” Neil screams.
The next few moments are a blur, but Max finds himself on the dirty floor of the mess hall, his nose pulsing with pain. A headache is slowly coming on and he’s confused for a moment.
Not necessarily where Neil was aiming for, but he hopes it got the message across.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Gwen’s voice booms across the mess hall, echoing off against the tall walls. Everyone turns their head towards the front doors, where Gwen is looking at Neil and Max, eyebrows furrowed in anger and her shoulders slouched over with her fists clenched so hard, she swears she could punch a wall. “We leave for five fucking minutes—“
Meanwhile David is just frozen, staring at the two with his eyes widened. No one pays any attention to him anyway.
Gwen runs up to Max, leaning down at his level and placing a hand on his shoulder. He flinched violently, causing her to pull back.
“Hey, kiddo,” Gwen’s voice is suddenly so gentle. The switch almost makes Max want to recoil. “You okay?”
“He started it.” Neil pouts.
“I know we condone arguments, but we are not fucking hitting anyone,” Gwen turns her head towards Neil. “Give me one good reason as to why I shouldn’t call your parents to pick you up right now.”
“I—I—“ Neil struggles to come up with a single excuse. He nervously wrings his left hand with his right. “He—he wasn’t telling me the truth.”
“Why the hell would you hit him, then?! Neil, you are probably the smartest one here. I expected anything but hitting.”
Gwen turns her head back to Max, examining his nose. She can tell he’s obviously holding back tears, trembling and he’s clenching his fists so tightly, it was as if he was holding the universe in his palm, and if he released his hand, it would overflow with his tears.
“It’s not my fault he wasn’t telling the truth!” Neil begins, frustratedly grabbing onto his hair and pulling on it. “I just wanted a solid answer, but no! No, instead, he has to throw this temper tantrum and—“
Max pushes Gwen off, sloppily pushing himself off of the ground and sprints out of the door without another thought. He passes David, who was still standing at the door frame. Max didn’t even attempt to make a joke or annoy David like how he usually does. He just ran past the awestruck man and into the woods.
Gwen gets up from the ground and calls out, “Max! Fuck— David ?”
David is suddenly brought back to reality. He’s staring at the mess hall. Everyone’s eyes are on him, almost staring into his soul. He looks at his hand and feels himself fading in and out of the world.
“David! Are you there?” Gwen exclaims. “Go get Max! Everyone, stop staring and go back to whatever the fuck you were just doing. Now, Neil,”
She gives the boy a death glare. Neil looks at her with a blank stare. Gwen rolls her eyes.
“Come on.”
—
“Max?!”
God, this was the last thing David thought was going to happen. He was zoned out during most of it– he doesn’t even remember walking into the mess hall, only to see Max on the floor with a bloody nose and Neil standing over him.
David should have done something. Why didn’t he do anything? He just stood there like an idiot and watched as Gwen argued with Neil.
Why did he have the reaction that he did? He hasn’t reacted like that in years. Since he was a teenager–
David doesn’t have the time to unpack all of that right now.
“Oh gosh darn,” David mumbles, then proceeds to yell, “Max?! Where are you?”
He was sure to not be too loud. Attracting a family of bears was not on his to-do list tonight.
The sound of faint, muffled sobbing can be heard from further up into the forest. It sounded like it was coming from the lake. Running through the trees and long grass is going to piss Gwen off, if he gets a tick bite and somehow develops Lyme disease or something.
He finally makes it to the lake. The sun has already set and the moon is coming out, glittery bright stars litters the sky like a splatter of paint. Some shine brighter than others, but David acknowledges the smaller ones for what they are. They’re trying their best.
David turns his head to see a figure sitting on a log, hands covering their eyes and they’re sobbing. The same sobbing David heard earlier. He slowly approaches them cautiously.
Max looks at David with a surprised look. He quickly wipes his tears and snot away with his sleeves and looks away.
“The hell are you doing here?” Max says in a shaky, quiet voice. He curses beneath his breath and covers his eyes with a sleeve.
“You okay?” David asks, just as quietly, as if Max was some kind of small animal that he couldn’t scare away.
“What does it look like?” Max spits, still refusing to look at David. He wants to bury himself into a deep hole and never see the light of day ever again. His hands shake against his face.
Everything hurts. Everything sucks.
“I’m sorry, Max,” David sits down next to him. He leaves some space between him and the boy, to avoid making Max uncomfortable. The last thing David needs is for Max to run off again. “You didn’t deserve that.”
“Bullshit!” Max retorts, finally uncovering his face to punch the log with his fist. He winces in pain but keeps his eyes on David, who is staring at Max with an almost pained expression on his face.
“Hey, are you okay—“
“You just watched! You dickhead, you could’ve done something to maybe stop that prick of a know-it-all, but he had to tell everyone that I—“ Max stops himself. His face drops as he suddenly feels heavy. He wipes his eyes again with his sleeve, this time the feeling of being pathetic rocking his core instead. “Oh, what’s the point? Everyone knows now—“
“That’s not true, Max,” David interrupts. He looks down at his boots and sighs heavily. Fidgeting with his watch, David says, “You don’t have to tell anyone anything if you don’t want to. It’s not that you didn’t trust Neil, it’s just that you didn’t want to tell him something. And to him, that might have been his way of assuming that you don’t trust him. But to you, it was just the case of not wanting to tell someone something personal, and that’s okay. You don’t have to tell anyone anything if you don’t want to.”
Max stares at David with an incredibly confused look on his face. “Are you… okay?”
David shrugs. “I don’t know, Max. I just want you to be happy, I guess. You deserve that.”
“I…” Too many questions bounce around in Max’s skull. He is too confused right now. “where the hell is this coming from?”
David doesn’t tear his eyes away from his boots. He keeps fidgeting with his wristwatch.
“Neil was out of line today. I’m sorry he hit you,” David’s voice becomes quieter. The crickets begin to make themself known, loudly chirping deep into the forest. “I’m sorry he was forcing you to tell him something you didn’t want to tell him. No one is entitled to your personal information.”
Max’s brain only hits dead ends. He has no idea what to say to that. What even is he supposed to say? Thank you? Goodness, Max would rather drown himself in the lake.
Maybe he didn’t need to say anything to that. Maybe that was okay.
“Hey, David?”
“Yes, Max?”
“Why—why did you freeze?” Max’s voice becomes shaky, but he swallows the lump in his throat and hopes that he won’t cry anymore than he already has tonight.
David opens his mouth to speak, but when nothing comes out, he presses his lips together. It’s his thinking face, Nikki would call it. Max recognizes it almost immediately.
What else was there to say? What was David supposed to say to that question?
“I—I have to come clean.”
“…About what, exactly?”
David sighs once again. “We looked at your records.”
Max stares at David with a dumbfounded look for a good moment. David waits for it to hit Max.
“Oh my fucking—“ Max blurts as the realization suddenly dawns on him. His tears quickly disappear with anger. “Are you fucking kidding me? That’s— I—“
“Max, Max—“ David attempts to say, but Max is still freaking out. Max punches the lumber once again, shaking the log beneath the two. David whimpers beneath his breath. He can already feel the pulsing pain in Max’s knuckles. “Calm down—“
“You— does Gwen know? Did you tell— I cannot fucking believe this,” Max’s breathing quickens. His anger quickly transitions into the intense squeezing sensation in his chest.
“Max, listen—“
“You— you fucking—“
“I’m also trans.”
This seems to shut Max up immediately. He’s staring at the lake, his hands tangled up in his fluffy, uncombed curls. His eyes are widened, sweat on his forehead and he feels uncomfortable to an unfathomable amount. His mouth is slightly agape. He turns his head towards David in shock.
David is now staring at the lake with a seldom smile. The moon is finally out and it reflects against the water. It is the only thing David is able to stare at.
“That’s why I didn’t say anything,” David finally lets go of his watch. He finally looks at Max with a sad smile. His eyes are slightly brighter. “I wanted you to deal with it because it’s not my story. But it obviously got out of hand and I should’ve stepped in— or told you earlier. I’m sorry, Max.”
“Turn back the fuckin’ clock— listen, that’s the least of my worries right now. You’re trans ?” Max asks in disbelief.
David laughs at the boy’s reaction. “Not the reaction I was expecting.”
“Are you kidding?” Max sounds almost excited and he makes a terrible attempt at hiding it. “You’re— and I didn’t know?! Hell, David. That little piece of information would have been super fucking helpful!”
“I didn’t know you were also—!” David defends himself. He lets out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t like telling people.”
“Neither do I,” Max repeats, his voice now filled with defeat. His hands shake. “Why didn’t you tell us— me?”
David looks back at the lake. “It was right here.”
“You have to stop talking in fucking code.”
David laughs once again. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. When I was a teenager— maybe fifteen? Sixteen? I don’t remember— wait, I think it was fifteen—“
“David. The story.”
“Oh right! I came to camp to volunteer. It was my first time properly teaching a group of kids— and it meant a lot to me, you know? Campbell was off doing whatever he was doing, and so I was put in charge.”
David traces the tip of his pointer finger over his knee nervously. He swallows hard and closes his eyes, pretending like he wasn’t in the moment. “A kid asked me what my pin meant, and since I was allowed to wear it because I wasn’t at home, I explained what it meant and why it meant so much to me.”
Max has a feeling he knows where this is going.
“The kid told Campbell and this is where he…” David breathes out rather heavily. “Screamed at me, ripped the pin from me and stomped on it. He’s not a bad person, I just—“
Max’s heart dropped. He stared at David with a blank stare, even if his thoughts were going a thousand miles an hour. He has so many questions— so many things to say. But instead, “David, you fucking idiot. That is the definition of a bad person.”
David shrugs. “Well, he’s okay with it now, I think. I’m not sure if he let me run the camp just because I was the only one who kept coming back.” He looks up at the stars as Max stares at him with a confused look.
“Why would you come back? Even after what Campbell did? I would never fucking come back.”
“This place was a comfort to me, even growing up. When Campbell left, I was able to be my true, authentic self. But I was terrified of telling anyone, so I didn’t. It took me two and a half summers to tell Gwen. Hell, I haven’t even told Quartermaster. But I have a feeling he knows.”
“That guy is into some weird fuckin’ shit. God, remember the thing with his sister? That was fucking disgusting. I hope she’s dead.”
“Don’t remind me—“ David quickly backtracks. “Max! Don’t be mean to Quartermaster. He’s trying his best.”
Max holds back a laugh at David’s obliviousness. “You agreed though.”
David stays silent, which already speaks volumes.
“What do you mean you weren’t at home?” Max quickly changes the topic.
“What?” David says it so softly, the words almost fly over Max’s head.
“You said you were able to wear the gay ass pin—“
“Hey,” David scolds, though it never comes off as menacing as David thinks it does. “language.”
Max rolls his eyes and finally finishes his sentence. “You were able to wear the pin because you weren’t at home.”
David slightly turns his head and looks at Max. He brings his knees to his chest and wraps his hands around his legs. “I think you know the answer to that, Max. You’re not that stupid.”
“Are you calling me stupid?”
David shrugs and holds back a grin. He’s doing a terrible job at it. “I dunno.”
“I have you know—“ Max is about to speak his mind, before everything suddenly hits him once again. He quiets down just as quickly. “ Oh ,”
David recognizes this and hums in response. “I moved in with my aunt when I turned seventeen. Things at home got too bad.”
“David, I—“
“It’s not your responsibility to apologize for what happened to me. I’m telling you this so you can understand, Max. Understand that me and Gwen are here. We know a lot more than what you might think.”
David’s voice is soft. His entire persona is nothing but gentle right now. It reminds Max of when David was trying to light that huge bonfire. He remembers everything David said so vividly.
“Because somebody fucking has to.”
David has to care. If not him, then who else will?
It’s honourable, in an odd way. That David cares so much about this piece of shit camp. Either the parents couldn’t deal with their kid so they sent their own children off to a scam of a summer camp, or the parents thought this was an actual camp made for their kid.
Either way, it was miserable, and David’s positive demeanour always made it ten times worse.
But David was the one to make this camp worth it. Even if there’s times where Max wants to sleep in for the entire day, or if he refuses to take off his hoodie even after the sun sets.
Because Max has David.
“Thanks, David.”
“Of course, Max. You also probably have a few splinters and a fractured nose.”
“Oh, shut the fuck—“