What I Want

Chapter 21: Camp Fire Talk

Whoosh! A paintball whizzed past Ben's mask, narrowly missing him. He breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted this paintball game to last just a bit longer, as the sun had just started setting. Both he and Carlos were tied with Jay and Doug at two winning games a piece. Whoever won this game would be declared the winner. Even though they were wearing padding to prevent bruising, being pelted by paintballs was still painful, but Ben was glad he chose this and camping for his bachelor party. There was no chance he was going to be one of those guys who got strippers for his bachelor party. He only had eyes for Mal, so there was no way he'd ever allow himself to even glance at another woman. He smiled to himself, knowing that Mal would be his for the rest of his life.

Ben snapped out of his stupor when another paintball blasted into the tree in front of him, blue paint splattering onto him. He shook his head to focus himself. He then poked his head out from the tree to see if he could see either Jay or Doug. Ben could barely make out Doug in the prone position, as if he was a sniper. He was calculating his shot and waiting for the right time to take it. Ben wasn't going to let him, so he aimed his X7 Phenom paintball gun at Doug's mask, and squeezed the trigger. He watched as the paintball smacked Doug's mask, a big blob of plaint exploding on it. Doug was out. He only had to take Jay out. Before Ben could make a second thought, another paintball flew past him, and this time, he heard it burst against Carlos's chest. Carlos was out now. It was now just Ben and Jay. Unfortunately, Ben couldn't see his opponent. Not wanting to be a sitting duck, he immediately dropped down onto his stomach and began to army crawl, his paintball gun held tightly against his chest, knowing Jay wouldn't be able to see him under the thick forest brush. Ben moved quickly, aware of the fact that Jay would be less likely to hit a moving target. After crawling for a few feet, Jay's green mask appeared between a few trees, but Ben didn't have a clear shot due to his current angle. Thinking he saw movement, Jay began to fire rapidly with his A-5 paintball gun. Luckily for Ben, what Jay was seeing was the wind moving the leaves.

Jay was quick and had a heavy trigger finger, but he wasn't very accurate with his shots. Ben was very precise with his shots, but he was too patient and slow. As Jay continued to fire, Ben got up to his feet, but remained low. He then found an opening in the trees that he could use to aim at Jay. He took aim, and fired, but no paintball came out. He shook his gun, but no sound came out of his hopper, which is the mechanism that held paintballs. It was empty. He then set the X7 Phenom on the ground and removed his TiPX paintball pistol from its holster and slowly stalked toward Jay, who couldn't hear Ben over the sound of the animal noises echoing through the forest. Soon, Ben found himself only a few feet from Jay. He aimed his pistol at him, but he didn't fire.

"Surrender," Ben commanded. Jay slowly turned around to find out that Ben had snuck up on him. There was no way he'd be able to get a shot off before Ben did.

"Good job, Bennyboo," Jay taunted as he slowly laid his gun,"you got me. I surrender."

"Thank goodness," Ben sighed in relief as he lowered his pistol,"I didn't want to have to shoot you at point blank range."

"And I don't want that either, so as much as I hate to say it, you and Carlos win. Congratulations. Now why don't we head back to the campsite?"

"That is probably a good idea. It will be dark soon, so we don't want to get lost out here. Let me go grab my X7 and we can go."

"Good, because I'm hungry!"

Ben and Jay arrived back at the campsite just as Doug and Carlos were waiting to light the camp fire. After Ben had set down his paintball gear, Doug handed Ben the lighter, thinking he should get the honor of lighting the campfire, as this was his bachelor party. Once the fire was lit, Doug went and grabbed the hot dogs while Jay grabbed the forks they would use to roast the hot dogs. Soon, everyone was sitting around the camp fire roasting a hot dog under the stars. They all sat there in silence, content with the peaceful scene around them. Despite having been in Auradon for so long, Jay and Carlos still weren't quite used to things being so quiet. Back on the Isle, it was normal to hear gunshots and screaming throughout the night. This quietness was alien to their ears, but they enjoyed it. It gave them a chance to think as everyone ate their hot dogs.