Lies We Tell To Stay Alive

8

media rec:Blue Lips by Regina Spektor

***
"Max?" Neil mumbled sleepily, noticing that Max wasn't in the tent. If Max was a morning bird then this would not be a big concern, but in all of Neil's time at camp, there had only been one or two instances of Max getting up before Neil in all of their years of camp. In addition to that, it was only three or four in the morning, and there was no logical reason for him to be gone from their tent.

Neil jumped up in a panic, pulling on his clothes as fast as he could, and then started running around the camp, looking for Max, checking both the bathrooms and storage closet. With no signs of Max, Neil was too worried for Max's safety to care about how much he would hate Neil for what he was about to do.

Fully out of breath, Neil ran up to the camp counselor's cabin and began pounding on the door. Less than a minute later, there stood a groggy David in front of him, and Neil immediately launched himself into conversation. "Max.. He's missing." Neil took a pause to catch his breath then continued, "It's an emergency, we need to find him right now."

"I would ask what's going on, but if it's an emergency, we should probably go find him." I'll wake up Gwen so you two can look around camp, and I'll start looking in the forest."

No matter how much Neil and Gwen searched for Max, there were no signs of him anywhere on the campsite.

"So.. what's so important about this that we need to get even less sleep?" Gwen asked.

"They are gonna murder me when we find them," Neil mumbled. "The last time I woke up and they were gone, they came back half an hour later covered in blood from self harm, so I'd call this pretty damn important."

"Fuck..." Gwen whispered.

Neil and Gwen may not have had any luck at the campsite, but David on the other hand, searching through the forest, did.

Coming across a small clearing, David didn't immediately see the boy, but when the flashlight skimmed across the trees, David couldn't hold back his small scream when he saw Max, leaning against a tree, covered in blood. He rushed over to Max, picking the unconscious child up in his arms, hoping that the cigarette that fell from Max's hand wasn't still burning at all, and he rushed Max back to camp.

"I found him," David informed Gwen and Neil as he ran into them and they all rushed into the councilor's cabin. David laid Max down on his bed, and then ran off, quickly returning with a first aid kit.

David pulled up the sleeves to Max's shirt, assessing the damage that had been done, and then proceeding to treat Max's wounds.

Just as David began to put away the first aid kit, Neil hesitantly spoke back up saying, "There's probably more to bandage on Max's legs..."

Once Max was fully bandaged, David pulled the covers over him, and sat off to the side with Gwen and Neil, waiting for the boy to wake up. As they waited, Neil ended up falling back asleep leaning against Gwen.

Close to eight am, Max began to come-to, and scanned his eyes across the room, trying to figure out where he was. Max began lifting himself out of the bed he was sitting in - since when was there a real bed to sleep in at camp? As he lifted himself up, he felt a sharp pain in his arm and looked down, seeing that there was blood seeping through his bandages - bandages that he did not remember wrapping himself or Neil wrapping for him. When Max heard movement coming from the other side of the room, he looked over to see that David, Gwen, and Neil were all sleeping leaned up against each other, and Neil seemed to be waking up.

"Max..." Neil whispered, standing up carefully and walking over to where Max was laying.

"What happened..?" Max responded, his memories from that night still all a blur.

"You had... a pretty bad relapse. I woke up in the middle of the night, you weren't there, and I went to David. He found you bleeding out in the forest, and took care of your wounds..".

"Fuck.. Goddammit, why'd you have to tell David?"

"I was scared Max. You weren't there, you weren't in the bathroom, and I knew I couldn't find you on my own." Neil reached out grabbing Max's hand, whispering a small 'I'm sorry'.

***

"Gwen, you can watch over the campers. I'm going to stay here with Max for now."

Begrudgingly, Gwen agreed, going to watch over the campers considering most of them were awake by now, and make sure that they only burned down a minimal amount of the camp.

In the councilor's cabin, Neil decided to stay behind with Max and David, wanting to do anything he could to make Max less uncomfortable with the situation.

"Max, I'm afraid I am going to need to call your parents about this," David said, gently setting his hand on Max's shoulder. Max immediately flinched away from David, and choked on his own breath. David couldn't call his parents - he just couldn't.

"Please.. Please don't. You can't call them," Max pleaded to no avail.

"I'm sorry Max." David said, stepping away from the crying child. "You make sure he stays safe til I'm back," David instructed to Neil as he left the room to find the camper's papers with their parents' phone numbers.

Once David had left the room, Max began hyperventilating, rocking back and forth, and barely getting enough oxygen from how ragged his breaths were, having no room left in his brain to worry about how vulnerable he was being, and how Neil was seeing him in such an embarrassing state.

"Max, I'm going to pick you up, okay?" Neil said, waiting half a second to see if Max would respond before picking him up. As Neil held Max, Max fought back, trying to push Neil away for a few seconds, but fairly quickly he gave in, now blubbering and sobbing into Neil's shirt rather than hyperventilating. "It's gonna be okay, Max. It'll be okay," Neil tried reassuring.

"It's not okay. It's jot okay, he'll. He's gonna. He'll kill me, he'll be so mad," Max said in rapid succession. Neil didn't know how to comfort his friend, so he did all he could and tried reassuring him - reassuring him that everything will be okay, that he was safe here with Max, that Max and their counselors would do everything they could to keep Max safe.

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