"I gonna kill you if one more forest pun comes out your mouth," Max yells to Nikki.
"Fine I'll leaf you alone now. Birch your gonna regret not letting me stick." He lets out some sort of demonic scream/grunt sound. He starts chasing her around. I'm left alone with Tabii. I'm going over Preston's wise advice to me over and over. Don't be awkward and just have fun. I scratch my arm.
I take off my glasses and look over towards her. She's admiring every part of the path. The trees and wildlife. Sunlight peeked through the overlapping leaves. I smiled watching her amazement. "It's nice isn't it."
"Definitely." She ran over to a pair of bird on the ground. She produced some seeds and they came to her. I watched as they ate directly from her hand. A few more appeared. Some landed on her shoulder and others landed on her leg or in front of her.
She got up when she was done. I look into the distance and see a little hole dug in the ground. "You guys I think I found it." I grab her hand and lead her to it. The others follow suit. In the hole was our mascot Platty the Platapus Pussy. She had gotten old. She wasn't as crazy as she used to be.
I pick her up and brush her hair. I hear her make soft hissing noises. "Let's get her back to the camp," Nikki says. She pats Platty on her head and turns to head back.
"Can I hold him Neil?"
"He is actually a girl," I say handing her over to Tabii. She cradles the marsupial in her arms. She looked like an amazing mother. "Be careful. She still has poison." She walks slowly with her as we head back to the camp. I feel Max's hand on my shoulder.
"Hey man. Do you still like her?"
"Um, I don't think I'm allowed to."
"So then can I try to win her heart?"
"You don't need my permission."
"I just thought that since she used to like you I should ask. You're a real friend, man." He pats me on the back and runs over to her. I try to keep a smile as I watch them walk away. We give Platty a bed with David. I head to my tent as quickly as possible.
I throw myself into the bed. Preston's not here yet. I scream into my pillow as loud as possible. Then I just start crying. My tears soak the pillow. I'm such an idiot. Now all I can do is play along and watch as their love story goes on.
My thoughts take me to darker places. I didn't think cutting was an option. I honestly never got the reason for it until now. If pain is the only thing you feel then why not make more. I pull an army knife from my bag and make little streaks on my wrists and my thigh. I decided the longer my pain went on the deeper they would get. I didn't want to feel like this, but I deserved it.
I cover the wounds with my jacket and pants. Then I cry myself to sleep. Something has never happened to me before.
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I wonder where Neil went. The way he handled Platty was amazing. Max is talking to me, but his voice sounds like background noise right now. I'm not really thinking about anyone. Not Neil. Not Max. Not Nikki. I just stopped. I don't understand. I shake my head to try to come back to life.
"I didn't notice you drift off. You okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
"You sure? You aren't sick or anything?" He put his forehead to mine. My blush was so red people might have thought I was a tomato and plucked my head from my body. "Your hot, but I another way."
"Oh, shut up," I say, laughing at his flirting. David comes over to us and bends down.
"Uh, guys? Sorry to ruin this moment, but it's time to go back to your tents."
"Sorry David. I'll head back. Nikki's probably waiting for me."
"It's quite alright. You too kid. Head back to your tent." Max flicks David off and he just pats him on the head. I chuckle. I wave them both bye and head to my tent. Nikki is sitting on the bed waiting for me. I enter very cautiously.
"Sooooo?"
"Sooooo, what?"
"Max is getting bolder. This is only day one since you've been back. Imagine how the rest will be." I sigh thinking about constant flirting. I think of Neil's off brand shyness. He doesn't seem like he would be shy anymore. Then I think about Max's boldness. He's always been bold. Just never like this.
"I don't know what to say."
"Well tomorrow's a new day. We'll see where this goes. Okay?" I nod in agreement. "Welp. Lights out. Good night."
"Night." And with that the lights were out.
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It's been only 2 two weeks and we've already done some crazy shit. I somehow caught a bear in the lake. Survived some wild curse of the cafeteria. And learned how to save someone from a heartattack. We also kept up with rhyming, but they wasn't that interesting. What was really interesting was how much time I'd spent with Max.
He helped me in every one of those things. I think we're becoming inseparable. I don't understand how he couldn't deal with Nikki's puns. He does pick-up-lines non-stop. It's cute, but a little annoying. He hasn't done a lot in the last two days though. Maybe because he talked to Neil.
That's when I noticed that Neil was moving sluggishly today. He seemed to be wobbling from side to side. I walked over to him from across the camp. "Neil, are you okay?"
"No."
"What's wrong?"
"Too much." He stopped and ran behind a tree. I heard the sounds of him throwing up.
"Too much alcohol?"
"No. Too much Quartermaster food. He wasn't here last year. He said he had something to do and took a vacation. His replacement gave us better food. Everybody should be feeling what I feel, but then again I never really had a strong stomach." He threw up on the tree again. I patted his back. "Thank you for the support." He threw up again.
"No problem." I rub his back in circles. He throws up five more times before he's done. "Neil if you don't mind me asking, why don't you hang out around me?"
"I don't want to interrupt you and Max."
"What do you mean interrupt?"
"I mean I don't want to be a third, actually, fourth wheel."
"You do know four-wheeled bikes are a thing?"
"That's not what I mean. I don't want to feel awkward while you to go around all cheesy and stuff."
"Why not just be around Nikki then?"
"I don't know if Nikki told you, but we used to date. And now our friendship is awkward without Max inbetween. If he's with you we can't really be around each other." He looks towards the slowly changing sky. "Times used to be so much more simple." He waves me a goodbye and heads for his tent. I notice a little limp he does.
Something is wrong, but he won't tell me. I feel like coming here has only caused problems so far.
