Max sat up in bed, a slight pounding behind his eyes as they opened to the sliver of light peaking through the tent opening. He rubbed his head and threw his blanket off. Looking around he saw Neil across the room sitting at the end of his bed, facing Max. He was reading a book about computers. Nikki sat next to him, although he wouldn't call it sitting exactly. She was upside down, her legs in the air leaning against the edge of th tent, and her head hanging off Neil's bed. She looked like she was trying to balance a pencil on her chin. As it fell she made a small noise of distress and reached out to grab it. Her eyes darted up and a grin spread across her face.
"Neil look, Max is awake." she said happily, reaching up and pulling the book down. Neil let out a sigh but smiled soon after.
"Morning Max." he said reaching over and pressing the green button on the coffee machine. It turned red and started to brew a singal cup of coffee.
Max grabbed his hoodie from the coat rack next to the bed and wiggled into it. Slowly he made his way over to Neil's bed. Nikki flipped forward, landing on her hands and knees. Max took a seat at the top of the bed, Nikki following to sit in the middle. Max and Neil both lifted their arms, Neil still paying attention to his book. Nikki turned her body toward Neil and fell backwards her head landing in Max's lap and she lifted her legs to rest in Neil's. The boys both lowered their arms as the coffee machine beeped. Neil put down his book and grabbed the cup carefully. He passed it carefully to Max, being mindful of the girl laying on them. Max raised it to his lips and blow softly into it as steam rolled out of the cup.
Nikki grinned from ear to ear. "So now that you are awake, what are we gonna do today Max?" Nikki asked with great enthusiasm. "How about we go try and find that trap I lost in the woods? Or we could go jump in the lake and look for treasure? Or wait, wait, wait! We could go raid the kitchen for snacks!" she said raising her hands above her head, almost knocking into Max's coffee. Luckily the three had gotten used to this and knew how to avoid those situations.
Max blinked and took a swig of coffee before letting out an exasperated sigh. "I don't fucking care Nikki, just pick something." Somehow he seemed more on edge this morning. The other two took this into account and stared at Max for a moment. "What?" Max asked with an irritation in his voice.
"You ok Max? You need some more sleep?" Neil asked, setting his book aside. Nikki sat up and looked at Max.
"You seem more grumpy than normal, and that's hard to do with how grumpy you always are in the morning." she said holding her chin.
"I'm fine, just had an exausting dream." he replied. Nikki and Neil looked at eachother and shrugged. Nikki looked back to Max and leaned forward.
"What did you dream about?" She asked, her eyes hopeful for an answer.
Max turned away. "Nothing important." he muttered. Nikki persisted, leaning closer to Max with a wide smile on her face. Max remained silence for a moment before speaking again. "Let's go raid the kitchen." he said standing from his spot and setting his empty cup on the small table in the corner. Nikki and Neil stood up and followed Max out of the tent.
Slowly they walked to the mess hall, trying not to draw any attention to themselves. Max peered around the corner and motioned to the other's that the coast was clear. They made their way behind the building and slipped through the back door. The lock was busted and it never closed fully so it made it easy to sneak in. The kids walked in with no one in sight. Nikki rushed to the pantry and grabbed a hand full of candy, stuffing it in her pockets. Neil grabbed a box of graham crackers and a jug of grape juice. Max looked around for anything slightly appealing.
He walked to the fridge and dug through, finding a small tub of chocolate pudding. Quickly he snatched it and the three started heading back to the tent.
"Max!" a voice called from the left.
"Dammit." Max cursed quietly. He shoved the snacks into his friend's arms. "I'll meet you back at the tent." he assured running off towards the voice to buy time. Nikki and Neil took off in a half sprint, half jog back to the tent.
"Max there you are! Good morning." David greeted happily with a smile. His face dropped and he looked around. "Where are Neil and Nikki?" he asked.
"How the hell should I know?" Max replied crudely. David rubbed the back of his head, a smile coming back to his face.
"Well they are your friends." David laughed. Max's face grew annoyed.
"Who ever said that?" he retorted. David looked surprised.
"I just assumed since you guys hit it off right away and have been together ever since." David explained.
Max pointed at him and glared. "Don't just assume David! I don't need friends!" Max spat, turning on his heels and walking back toward the tents.
He stared at the ground as he walked. He didn't need friends or pity and he definitely didn't need people finding out about his home life and trying to get involved. He'd already slipped a few times but that wasn't his main focus at the moment. Max thought of what the word 'Friend' actually meant. The closest he ever had was this stuffed bear, Mr. Honeynuts. But even Max knew it was just a stuffed animal and had no soul.
He thought back to the dream he had the night before, where he, Neil and Nikki had gone on a huge rampage in the camp and wrecked the place. He smiled and let out a small laugh as he walked, stopping before he entered the tent. 'Is this what it's like to have friends?' Max thought, he stared forward, something stopping him from entering the tent. It was like a cold feeling that pushed him back. Max shook his head, and remembered that they aren't friends, just accomplices. 'Besides' Max thought to himself again. 'Summer's almost over and when it ends, they'll leave and I'll just be alone again.'
His face turned sour, as he sighed he pushed the tent open and walked into the white setting. Neil and Nikki looked up at him with happy greetings. Nikki grabbed the tub of pudding tossed it to Max, along with a spoon.
"So what did David want?" she asked grabbing a piece of candy from her pocket and unwrapping it, throwing the wrapper into a lazy pile in front of her.
Max shrugged, sitting on his bed across from him. "I don't know, I left before he got that far." Max replied opening the lid and taking a spoon full into his mouth.
It was quiet for awhile as Neil continued to read his book, Nikki fiddled with the candy wrappers, and Max half enjoyed his snack. It wasn't until Neil lowered his book and spoke, did the silence surpass.
"Are you guys coming back next summer?" He asked, looking directly at Max.
"Why the fuck would I want to come back to this god forsaken hell hole?" Max scoffed. Neil's gaze lowered.
"Oh." was all the tallest of the three said.
Nikki looked over her shoulder at Neil with a smile and shrugged. "I wouldn't mind coming back here to see you guys, but it's not like we won't see eachother around anyways right?"
"No we fucking won't." Max muttered, avoiding looking at them. Slowly he began to slip into thought and became distance from the conversation.
He looked down at his hands his head pounding with a bit Neil noticed this and stood from his bed, walking over to join Max. Nikki scooted across the floor, stopping to sit with her back to Max's legs. She twisted slightly nad leaned her head back.
"You ok Max?" Neil asked, placing a hand on
Max shook his head, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I may ormay not come back next summer. So this might be out last few weeks together, not that it fucking matters." He said trying to be cool about it, though they could tell something was wrong.
"Well maybe we could come visit you, or you could come see us in Jareson." Neil shrugged one shoulder and smiled a concerned smile. Nikki nodded in agreement.
"Wait, Jareson?" Max asked a surprised look crossing his face.
"Yeah, that's what we were just talking about." Neil assured.
"Yeah Max, weren't you listening?" Nikki asked with a small mocking tone to her voice. "Neil and I both live in Jareson, but I live in the cool south part of the city and Neil lives in the posh, rich, snobby north part." Neil glared at Nikki before facing his attention back to Max.
"It's about an hour and a half drive from here. Where do you live Max? We come try to come visit you."
"I live there too." Max replied. "Well sorta, I live outside the city, near the central part." Nikki's eyes lit up as she jumped and hugged Max.
"Oh this is going to be so much fun we'll get to see eachother all the time!" she squealed. Nikki released Max and turned to Neil, getting as close to them as she could.
Max stared at the two as they talked about the upper class and the lower class, how they could hangout on weekends. Then that word slipped back into his mind 'Friend'. The word pulled at his heart and a smile formed on Max's lips before he even knew it. What started out as a tugging smile, turned into hidden chuckles, and not soon after became full blown laughter. The two turned heads and watched Max as he help his side and wiped a tear from his eye.
"You guys are too much!" he said throught the laughter. After a moment or two, everything had settled and it was calmer than before.
"If only we went to the same school." Nikki said looking down, her face dropped and tone grew more sad. "Then I'd have friends and not have to worry about a bunch of people picking on me." Max and Neil exchanged a look before Neil leaned over to Nikki.
"Well maybe we can." He said with a strong smile. Nikki and Max stared at Neil before glancing at eachother then back. "Hear me out. The school are all close, only a ten to twelve minute walk between each one. It wouldn't get to hard to transfer us, since its all in the same city."
Nikki hopped up, grabbing Neil and shaking while singing praises. Max got up from the bed and walked out of the tent. Neil and Nikki stopped and watched him for a moment, they peeked their heads out of the tent and stared. Max looked up at the sky with a flat expression. Suddenly without warning, he yelled as loud as he could and held it for as long as he could hold his breath. This surprised Neil and Nikki just started laughing. When Max came to a hault, he continued to stare at the sky for a moment, a small peaking onto his face. He quickly dismissed it and turned back around.
"Hell, let's do it." he said without emotion. But nothing could hide that small happiness he had in his eyes.