My stomach dipped as I glanced between each tree, even the skinny bushes that wouldn't be able to hide anything or anyone behind or in it.
I wasn't taking any chances.
My eyes thinned into slits as the sun glared into my eyes. Almost making a sting spread through my irises. Twigs dont snap on their own, wild life could possibly make some twigs snap. But - I doubted there was anything big enough in these parts. The first sign of humans being near they would have left.
"Who's there?" Mabel questioned, feeling bold as she stood to her full height. She looked almost comedic in her denim shorts, out here in the hottest weather yet. Free to have any amount of bug eat at her sweaty, bare skin. Her short frame would make any man over 5'8 laugh.
I rised to stand beside her, I wasn't much taller than her, maybe a head or two but my presence could stop anyone from wanting to attack. Taking down two people at once would almost be a challenge. That was - if the unknown person was alone.
There could be a group of people we didn't know travelling through. But I prayed that wasn't the case. At least with the group of men in the camp now, I know their intent. I wouldn't know the others travelling through. It could be something as common as wanting to hike through the parts. Or - under age, care free sex. Or to get rid of a body.
Either way, I stepped in front of Mabel, fingers spread as I glanced around the area. I know I wouldn't be able to take on a man, let alone a woman. But I would be damned if I stood in front of her, not allowing her to take the blunt of a possible attack.
It wasn't who I was.
"Come out." I forced my voice high, shuttering along with the breeze that carried through the air. "We know someone is out there." I said, voice carrying confidence I didn't know I had.
"Don't shoot." Max and Connor grinned. Hands up in surrender, a playful look graced both of their faces. I sighed, feeling my muscles relax just a fraction.
"Very funny guys." Mabel rolled her eyes, stepping forward as she threw her hands around Max and Connor, giving a squeeze as she laughed the scare off. I can understand it. The relief, I felt it too. But I knew Max's type like the back of my hand.
Good-looking and cocky. Their goal with a Woman is to fuck her and then leave her. I've witnessed a few girls in my dorms cry over the slut calling they receive after. If Max was here it was for a bad reason. My gut was almost always right. I wasn't going to stop now.
"What. Were you scared Jason voohrees was out in the woods." Connor grinned as he referee to the camp fire story last night.
"No," She scoffed. I balled my hands into a fist. The tension is enough to cause a small tremor. "Not you too." I said, voice even.
"What?" Connor questioned, he didn't see the fault in his joke. And maybe if I didn't have a heart as soft as I did, maybe just maybe I would be able to understand why exactly they found stuff like this funny. "You of all people should know Connor." His face paled slightly. "Death is no joke."
Back before I had decided what type of career path I was going to choose. Connor and his ex- girlfriend took some tabs, mixed it with some alcohol. His ex - girlfriend was fine, but Connor had an overdose. I had saved his life that night, half an hour later and we would have lost him. He was dancing with death that night. How he could speak of death with such ignorance almost baffled me completely.
"Why would he of all people know?" Mabel questioned, head tilted back slightly, Waiting for my answer. So he didn't tell her. But that wasn't my business to discuss with anyone else.
"He's training to be a surgeon." I said. Connor looked gratefully at me, before his eyes slid back over to Mabels.
Max laughed. "All the more reason to live your life to the fullest, proof you don't see tomorrow coming." Max's voice was light, almost as if he could feel the pulsating tension.
"I agree, I mean come on iris we spend so much time stuck in our dorms that we forget what the simple things are." Her voice is low. "I forgot what freedom was until I met these guys."
A free spirit. I reminded myself. It wasn't because of the drugs or the drink. It couldn't be. I refused to believe it was anything other than her free spirit.
"But isn't that apart of maturing, not going to parties every night, not having sex with the nearest guy." Mabel and Connor shared a glance, a shade of pink crawling across their faces. And then it hit me.
They where having sex.
I sighed. This conversation was going no where. As we walked home, max fell back. Walking in sync with my footing. His knuckle grazed against the back of my hand. I jerked it away, side stepping him.
"You don't like me much do you?"
"It's not that I don't like you max, I just don't trust you and I certainly don't agree with most of your views either." I said.
Max hummed, a small smile on his lips. "Do enlighten me, we haven't talked since we came here, so how on earth would you know anything about my views?" He raised a bushy brow, challenging me.
"I heard enough when you guys were laughing at that boy's death last night." I said simply. "All legends originate from something, in this case it's coming from a little boys death, they have nothing to blame the drug filled teens that they have to blame it on a little boy who died."
Max stayed quiet, and I continued. "Do you know what happens to a drowning victim?" I questioned. And Max shook his head. Staying quiet for me to rant on.
"You fight so hard to get air, so desprate you kick and claw at the water to get that big gulp of air your lungs so desperately need." I said, tears stinging at my eyes. "Soon your lungs start to burn, and because of lack of oxygen you black out. Your heart goes into over drive - and you have a heart attack. But mean while, at the end you take a big gulp of water and everything feels warm. You stop fighting and you die." I stopped walking, as I watched the two walk down the path. To the lakes edge.
"Why are you so fixated on Jason anyways?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Because you guy's won't let him rest." I shrugged my shoulders. "And his mom too. I mean calling the woman crazy because she wanted revenge on the same people behind killing her little boy is just down right wrong." I sighed "but yes, I do agree she didn't have to kill them, but grief does weird things to people."
After a minute he sighed, thinking it over.
"I'm sorry." He mumbled. "I never thought that. Fuck that it would be so serious." His words are laced with sympathy. "Knowing the details suck."
I hummed. "Kids only know what their parents teach them, it's our job to be better than our parents for the sake of the next generation." I said. "Tell me max do you want kids?"
He shook his head. "Imagine the next time you think about drugs. That your child taking it. At first it's okay. But then one day with one tablet they don't get lucky." I could see his eyes swarm with emotions. "Imagine you have to break down their door to get to them. Meanwhile you're hoping and praying you got there on time." The emotions that night when I had found Connor laying In a puddle of his own vomit rushed to my mind, the emotions made me seem as if I was back in that moment.
I licked My lips. "I don't want my babies to grow up in a world where men and women are so blinded by sex, drugs and alcohol that they aren't safe in a camp." I gestured to the water. "Or that they can't walk to school incase a mad man offers them some drugs."
"I respect that." His voice was deeper. "But not everyone sells them for enjoyment, when you got bills to pay. You do what you gotta' do."
I pursed my lips. "You don't think I don't know the struggle of being poor?"
****
"Thank you Sir." Connor gripped at the phone. Grin on his face as he looked out at me through the opened window of the main house. "Thursday? Five thirty? Yes. Perfect."
He placed down the phone with a click.
"Finally we can get my baby up and running." He sighed, sitting down on the white chair across from me.
"Men and their cars." I laughed, sliding my leg over the other, as I sipped at the glass of water in my hand. "Don't hate me because I've got some taste."
I shook my head, fluttering my eyes closed. "Hey, do you remember the first time you attempted to drive a car?"
Connor groaned, throwing his head back. "That was an accident." He defended. "I didn't see the trash can."
I doubled over, laughing. Connor hadn't always been so skilled on the road, he didn't even know how to shift gear sticks. But everyone starts somewhere and he was proof of that.
"Why." Connor stopped. Thinking over his words. "Why don't you like the others?" He questioned.
"The only thing drugs have ever brought me. Was heart ache and bad luck, I just don't want To go through the same song and dance as I did in the past."
Connor leaned forward, features full of sympathy as he leaned forward. Placing a hand on my knee. "Iris. You can't blame them for someone else's mistakes." His voice is low as he speaks slowly. "They are good people. Give them a chance. For me. For Mabel."
I sighed. Squeezing my eyes shut tight.
"What if I can't?" I whispered.
"Try at least." Connor got up off his seat. Shuffling over to me. "It's hard, I know, but they aren't him." Connor moved a strand of loose hair from my eyes. Tucking it behind my ear.
Their is nothing but softness in his eyes. "He can't hurt you (y/n), he's locked up, I promise."
"Fine." I clipped. "But the first guy that gives me the creeps I'm not leaving this cabin for the next 9/8 day's."
Connor grinned, standing tall. Latley it seemed to be his trade mark. Grinning like a fool every chance he gets. The camp is doing him some good, and maybe it would do me some good If I did give them a chance.
It's exhausting and limiting my chances of seeing the lake for itself. I don't have to love it, nor like it. I just have to tolerate it.
For them.