Camp Where The Hell Are We? | ✓

49

Saturday, November 5th, 2017
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Marley never thought that she'd have a connection with Leo Kahn.

But right now, they were on the same wavelength. Right now, they shared looks, spoke volumes without a single sound leaving their lips. Honestly, Marley felt closer to Aiden's best friend then she was with the man himself right now.

"Matthews, why don't we-"

"Why don't we what?" Aiden replied calmly, but his words had a jarring edge to them, a chilling flatness.

And right then, Marley and Leo shared another look around Aiden's body. Hazel eyes on green. Though the colours were starkly different, the emotions swirling within them were the same.

Concern. Care. Fear.

Marley thought she'd have to calm him down, bring him away from the edge. As he stood there — seconds away from tackling the buff, tattooed man she ran into — as if a lion released into the wild for the first time, unsure of what to do or where to go, Marley wanted to be his compass the way he always was with her.

She wanted to guide him back to himself, reassure him that there was no danger, that the person he loved was safe. That whatever it was which haunted his fears in losing what mattered to him — wouldn't be the case here.

But Marley didn't get to do any of that. Instead, it was like a switch went off.

One second, Aiden was standing there, his hand shaking as he held her behind him, present but not present at the same time, and the next his shoulders were relaxing, and he was walking away with his hand calmly locked around hers and entire demeanour casual.

The guy seemed to realize that something else was going on, letting them go due to confusion and doubt. Now Aiden was casually strolling foreword — the group had been slowly making their way towards the main attraction of the park, the Ferris wheel — with her hand in his left one and the giant, stuffed husky under his right arm.

Leo was at his other side, the rest of the group lagging to give them space to handle this.

Aiden was behaving like a robot, mechanically leading them along with darkness about him that was starting to scare her — creep her out.

She didn't like phantom Aiden, at all.

"Aiden, can we stop please?" She asked gently, nervously to the side of his head. He was refusing to spare her a glance.

"Why would we? There's still a lot left to do, and they want us back at camp by 10 pm."

He was walking casually so she could keep up, his sharp blue eyes scanning the crowds around him. Aiden was trying to be discreet about it, but he was evaluating their surroundings, on full alert, hackles raised.

Marley's eyes flickered back to Leo, lost as to what to do right now. He was staring at Aiden with an unreadable expression, parting his lips to say something before he was pressing them together again. Leo is Aiden's best friend, and he didn't know what to do either.

She gulped nervously, tugging lightly on his hand, "Can we talk for a second, Aiden. Please."

"About what?"

Jesus Christ.

"Talk to her man, seriously. We'll go and you can-"

"I don't want to talk." Aiden cut him off brutally, his calm demeanour cracking at the edges for a few seconds before he was back to shielding everything.