Breathe || Max X Reader - Camp Camp

Ⅻ

Y/N's POV
Word Count: 1,536

     As expected, the store was nearly empty, except for a family of three and a little old lady a few aisles away. I was in the birthday section, looking for streamers or other various exciting things.
     Streamers weren't exactly exciting, but they were nice to look at and would help pull everything together. While I only found one pack of blue streamers left, I also ended up finding confetti poppers near the birthday cards. Should probably get a card, too, right? I nodded at that and walked over to the cards. There were a bunch of categories. There were funny cards, husband birthday cards, son birthday cards, and finally, friendly birthday cards. I ended up browsing through the "birthday for him" cards.
     Nearly every single card had an incredibly stupid caption, and there was no way I would give one to Preston. I especially wouldn't be giving him the one with a wine bottle on the cover, warning him not to drink too much. That didn't apply to kids. Most kids, anyways.
     I turned my head to notice Neil walking up to me. "What all have you got?", he asked.
     "Let's see," I started. "I've got streamers, confetti poppers, a birthday card, and I'm about to get a 'Happy Birthday' letter banner."
     Neil shook his head. "Don't worry about the banner, Space Kid found one. I think we have everything, so we should meet up with David.", Neil replied. I nodded.
     After a minute or so, I found David where the laundry detergent was. I had no clue why we needed that, but I assumed the camp was just running low on detergent. Neil and Space Kid had already met up with David. "David, are we done yet?", I asked.
     David inspected the items that each of us had collected. Lastly, he compared it to what he had. "Yes, I'd say that we have everything we need.", David announced. "We can go ahead and check out. After that, we need to go get the cake."

About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at a sweet shop in the middle of town. The entire exterior of the shop was decorated in pink and blue stripes and had neon signs littering the windows. It was just begging me to come in. So, as anyone with half a brain would, I followed my instinct.
On all sides I was surrounded by fudges, cupcakes, regular cakes, and chocolates galore. I'd never seen so much beauty in one place. The sweets which immediately caught my eye, however, were the cake pops. "Neil! Look at these!", I shrieked.
"Which one?", asked both Neils, in unison.
I buried my head in palms. "The one with the big hair!", I sighed. "Look! Look at all the flavors!" I pointed to the cake pops.
"Now, don't get too excited, we came here for the cake.", David warned. I nodded my head. "Gwen also ordered some pizzas for the party, so I doubt you'll still be thinking about chocolate."
"Bet."
"What?"
"Bet. I bet you I'll still be thinking of chocolate and cake pops.", I explained. I forgot that adults didn't comprehend slang. "It's a thing. People say it sometimes. I don't know."
David chuckled. "Well, you can bet me all you want, but you're not getting anything other than the cake and the pizza. That's a promise.", David asserted. I pouted by lip. "Now you stop that, Y/N. Trust me, you'll like the cake."
I do like cake, but not better than cake pops. "Yeah, but sometimes the icing makes me sick, so I'd rather have cake pops.", I explained.
David shook his heads. "Those are all the same thing.", he argued.
"No they're not!", I fumed. I hated it when adults did that. I totally knew what I was talking about, but he overrides it because he's older. "Cake pops don't have icing, they're dipped in chocolate, so they don't get me sick!"
     David patted my head. "Don't get all wound up, now," David warned. "I'm still in charge of you kids."
     "And who is the cake for?", the lady at the counter interrupted. She looked as though she was fresh out of high school, and acted like it, too. She was super annoyed.
     "R-Right!", David muttered. He was taken aback by the sudden interruption. He pulled out his wallet and took out forty dollars. There's no way in heck that a cake costs that much. "Gwen, that's the name it's under." David smiled at the grumpy cashier.
     "For Gwen!", she hollered. A few people working in the back scattered around to find the right cake. Finally, someone came to the cashier with the right one. The cashier opened it up and showed it to David. "Is this it?"
     The cake was very pretty. It was complete with white icing and little blue roses to border it. There were also little music notes and speech bubbles to compliment Preston's love of theatre. While music notes didn't directly translate to theatre, and more or less concert band, it still brought up the idea of musicals. The focal point was in the center. In beautiful yellow cursive, the cake read 'Happy 14th Birthday Preston'.
     "That's it! It looks amazing!", David commented.
     The lady behind the counter nodded and scanned the cake box. "Your total is thirty-six ninety-seven, cash or card?", the lady asked. She spoke with a piercing tone.
     David handed the lady the cash. Holy crap, that's expensive! I had no clue how adults were able to summon that much money on command to do anything. Then again, I didn't really understand how money worked in general. Maybe forty dollars wasn't really all that much.

     Once we arrived back to camp, we all bolted to the mess hall. I was the last one to go in. Right before I entered, Max stopped me. "Hey, little shit!", he hollered. I whipped my head around to see him waving and running up to me. "What are you up to? Why did you leave camp? You're being real fucking shady."
     I parted my lips. "Um, it's nothing, really. It has nothing to do with you, I promise.", I explained. I didn't want to give anything away, but at the same time, I didn't want Max to feel like I was doing anything behind his back.
     "What? And you think I believe you?", Max challenged. "Think again. What were you doing with David? Be honest."
     "Supply run, that's really it.", I confessed. It wasn't exactly a lie, I was getting supplies.
     Max grabbed my wrist. He squeezed it and twisted it a little. I felt the muscles near my wrist start to pull and cause pulsing pains. "What were you doing?", he asked, slowly. His tone switched from something neutral to something monotone.
     I wished that he didn't touch me like that. "I was talking to him about some stuff that was bothering me and it has nothing to do with you!", I screamed. I was sick and tired of Max treating me like that. He shouldn't be able to hurt me. "Let go!" I tried pulling away, but he didn't let go until I stopped struggling. Then, he released his grip.
     Max rolled his eyes. "Stop being a little bitch, Y/N," Max ordered. "I still don't believe you, not even a little bit, but I'll let you off the hook for now. Don't go and do anything you'll regret, Princess." And then he walked away.
He called me 'Princess'.
     I walked into the mess hall to see everyone working. David was putting up the banner, Neil was setting up tablecloths, and Space Kid was laying out the food on a separate table in the corner of the mess hall. He was also on plate duty.
     After a minute or so of observation, I realized that nobody was decorating the tables, aside from putting a tablecloth on them.
     So, I spent the next half hour putting confetti poppers in the middle of the tables, and littering little sturdy pieces of confetti shaped like balloons and cakes across the tables. I seen those at graduation parties, except that they were little golden graduation caps. I normally used them to scratch up the tablecloths. It was mean, but it distracted me from how boring most graduation parties were.
     I was really hoping that this party wouldn't be boring. I'd poured all of myself into this, and I couldn't let it fail. Wait, will the pizzas be here in time? Oh, stop it! Of course they will!
     All I could think about was how anxious I felt. But, with all of the efforts that everyone was making, it couldn't have gone wrong.
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A/N - How do I have four hundred freaking reads? Three days ago I had two hundred! Also, huge thanks to my voters. I swear, it actually does motivate me and when I get notified that someone voted for me I really can't help but smile. I love you guys. ☁️

Comment Question of the Chapter:

Does anyone know Preston's actual birthday? Is it accurate to the story's timeline? (If not, I can't do squat about it, but I'm just curious!)