Two Sides of the Same Coin ( camp camp )

Wrong Number

Max glared accusingly at the coffee maker, waiting for the sputtering machine to churn out the shit he needed to start the day.

David looked worriedly at the boy, but flashed a smile. "Glad to see you awake Max!" He chirped. "Suck a dick David." The angry boy spat back.

"Max! Language!" Chided David, but the left him to his own devices. After all, there were campers to take care of! He decided to let them make ice cream from scratch today, since it was pretty hot.

Max sat at a table with Nikki and Neil, actually kind of enjoying himself for once. If only for the ice cream. Especially since Neil seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Science kid and all that.

"Alright Nikki, now mix this for a minute and- WAIT WAIT NO SLOW DOWN!" Neil desperately tried to stop Nikki from spilling the mixture everywhere, and Max snorted.

The entertainment grew boring, and he looked around the room, eyes falling on David. He looked uncomfortably warm, and pulled off his makeshift scarf for a little to wipe away the sweat.

That's when Max noticed the marks.
There were bruises peeking out from the collar of David's shirt, and what looked like scratches on his neck. And when Max looked closer, there was dried blood flaking off under his nose that he had apparently not wiped off or noticed.

Then David readjusted the "scarf" and the marks were hidden again. What the hell?

"Hey Nikki, Neil. Did you see that?" He asked, still looking at David curiously. The two stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "What do you mean?" Neil asked. "David had bruises all over his neck and there were scratches on his throat. Can't you see the leftover blood under his nose?" Max sounded a little hysterical, even to himself.

"You think David got in a fight?" Nikki asked excitedly. "Or fucked someone." Neil added. Max cringed at that. "Don't make me imagine it." "Ooh ooh!! I'm gonna ask him!" Nikki said excitedly, and hopped out of her seat.

Before either Neil or Max could stop her, Nikki was marching over to David.
"Hey David! Did you get into a fight?" She asked excitedly, looking up at him with shining eyes.

Even from across the room, Max could see David lose all color in his face. "W-why would you get that idea N-nikki?" He stuttered, looking weary.
"Well Max said he saw bruises all over your neck, scratches too! Plus there's still some blood around your nose!"

David yelped and rubbed off the dried blood, looking sheepish. "I didn't get into a fight Nikki. I walked into a net trap and my neck got tangled up. While trying to free myself I must have scratched my neck. The impact made my nose bleed too!"

Nikki let out a sigh of disappointment, turning to leave. Clearly the story convinced her, but Max didn't believe it for a second. "He's definetly lying." Neil said once Nikki got back, voicing Max's thoughts.

"How can you tell?" Asked Nikki, wide-eyed at the prospect.
"Because David was sweating buckets the whole time! And he was wringing his hands, David never does that!" Max snapped, rolling his eyes.

"But why would he lie?" Neil wondered. "Oooh we should totally find out! We can be like detectives!" Nikki said excitedly. "That's-" Max started disdainfully, but paused. "Not actually a bad idea."

"Yea!! Let's investigate David! It'll be an adventure!" Nikki was once again vibrating excitedly, a huge grin on her face.

This wasn't gonna end well.

The next day, all three kids slipped away from activities, sneaking around after David. But everything seemed totally normal. Until he was standing alone, and his phone chirped out a cheery text tone.

David pulled out his phone, looking at the screen. It was a text from a number he didn't know. At first he thought it was a wrong number, however the text was adressed to him directly. "Dear David... meet me at the pier after all the kids have gone to bed. From your good pal-?" Reading the text aloud, David's face became more and more puzzled. "Who sent this I wonder..?"

Shrugging, the redhead pocketed his phone and pushed off the wall, heading back to where the campers were, leaving Max, Nikki, and Neil to process that information.

"Someone wants to meet David alone!" Neil said worriedly. "What if they're gonna kill David? He doesn't even know who it's from!" "Where were they gonna meet again?" Nikki asked. Max and Neil shrugged. "Fuck! None of us heard him then?" Max cursed.

"No, and he'll see us if we follow him, or hear us." Neil unhelpfully added.
"How do we even know that he'll take the invite?" Nikki made a fair point, but Max knew better.

"Nikki this is David we're talking about, of course he'll go!"

The three of them thought for a bit, and Neil finally spoke up. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see if David's ok tomorrow morning..." Max didn't like that, but Nikki nodded dejectedly. "Yea I guess..." Max growled but nodded reluctantly. The trio snuck back into the camp activities. However now nervous thoughts plauged their minds, most of all Max.

As much as he claimed to hate the counselor, he didn't want David dead.
All he could do was hope for the best.
If he could sneak after David he would, but it would be pitch black and the woods were near impossible to navigate without light, which David would see. And there was the issue of animals at night too.

David practically lived here, he could walk the woods like the back of his hand. But Max? Max had only been here a few weeks, so he was fucking screwed. Same with Nikki and Neil. Nikki had the best chance, but she was not quiet at all.

There was nothing he could do.

Nothing but hope David would be alive and well tomorrow.