(Neil’s POV)
“Nikki I need you to help me wake Max up, I don't care what Daniel has to say we need to get Max out of this trance and take down Daniel!” I shouted to Nikki while we were in our tent. Daniel was long gone and I was starting to sweat. This wasn't supposed to happen, Max was supposed to lead me and Nikki to Daniel demise guns blazing, but now he was obeying Daniel’s every command. There had to be some scientific formula to break him out of his trance but I didn't know it right now and I was too busy freaking out to think of one so I was resulting to just waking Max up and then winging it. Nikki rushed to Max’s side and nudged his shoulder.
“He's out cold, snoring too, I don't know how we will pull him out.” she said, I rushed over beside her and shook Max shouting his name. I kept doing this hoping he would open his eyes but he just kept snoring, eyelids seemingly glued together.
“What are we going to do Neil?” Nikki asked me, I scratched my head.
“I don't know! Max is the one with the plans and he's out for the count I don't know what to do!” I started to freak out, I wasn't good in situations like this - I always needed someone to calm me down but that person was Max and he was passed out. Nikki walked up to him and looked at him as he snored away. She cleared her throat.
“Hey Max, David’s here and he doesn't know how much you appreciate him!” Nikki shouted, as if she said the magic words, Max sprung up from his sleep looking around for David with a huge smile on his face.
“Where is he? I have to tell him I think of him like a father! Same with Daniel!” Max screamed, well, the sentence came out of Max’s mouth but I didn't know who it was. Nikki sat him down on his bed and smack him in the face. Max still sat there with a huge smile on his face.
“Nikki! Stop stalling me I need to see David and Daniel! Especially Daniel, I love Daniel!” he rambled, trying to get out of Nikki’s grasp. I stepped in front of Max and held onto his shoulders. He struggled a bit with me continuing to just go on about how great Daniel was. This wasn't Max, and every time he said another damn word I grew more and more angry at Daniel for doing this to him.
I wanted the old Max back, the one that complained about everything, the one that swore when ever it was possible, the one that hated everyone but me. I liked that Max, that was the Max I stood by, that was the Max who called me his boyfriend. That was my Max. I loathed Daniel for what he did, and I would do anything to get that old Max back.
I slowly turned to see that Nikki was staring at me, I looked at her and she looked really confused.
“Umm… Did you just say boyfriend?” she asked, my face went red. I said that whole thing out loud, and even though Max was still talking Nikki had heard me clear as day. I was beyond embarrassed, however, I got an idea from what Nikki said. Max was my boyfriend, and I was going to remind him about it. I looked at Max, he was still talking. I pressed a kiss against his lips. His eyes shot open and he leaned into me. I pulled off of him and he didn't say anything at first. He felt his jaw and his cheeks and looked at me in confusion.
“What is wrong with my face? Why is my jaw all sore?” he asked, I exhaled. He looked over to Nikki and then tumbled backwards further into his bed.
“Neil what the fuck we decided not to tell Nikki about us because she would tell the whole camp! You just kissed me in front of her!” Max yelled, I smiled. He was back. Nikki crossed her arms.
“Wow guys, glad to know you trust me.” she complained, I laughed a bit and nudged her.
“You know you would have told the whole camp don't even lie.” I said, Nikki though for a second and then agreed with me. I turned back to Max who was still rubbing his jaw.
“Max, sorry. Daniel did something to you, your jaw hurts because you have been smiling all day. He brainwashed you into thinking he was like god or something and you spent all day telling in and David how much you appreciated them.” I explained, Max ran his hands through his hair in regret.
“Oh fucking god. That sociopath! He brainwashed me because I found his phone! I can't remember what I found on there but it was horrible enough that he did brainwash me. Fuck we need to get that phone again I knew he was up to no good!” Max informed us, I exchanged looks with Nikki and then looked back at Max, a slight smile on my face.
“C'mon Max! Daniel is in the counselor's cabin! Let's go kick his ass out of here!” I cheered, Nikki opened the tent for us and Max lead us outside. I was so happy to have Max back. We began to sneak over to the cabin, it was dark and everyone was sleeping and no one was watching us because this camp sucked so it was really easy to get over to the other side of the camp where the cabin was. Nikki asked me and Max about our relationship but we didn't go into much details on our walk over to the cabin as it didn't seem like the time or place but Nikki was, well being herself.
We finally reached the cabin and noticed the lights were on inside, I could also hear some muffled noises coming from the other side of the walls. Max pressed his head against the door as to listen in, he pulled his ear off of the wooden door panel and shot me a look.
“I don't know what's going on in there but it does involve David and Daniel, I can hear their voices.” Max explained, walking over to the side of the cabin, stopping just underneath a window. It was too high up for us to get a look inside from the ground so I started looking around for a stump or rock. There was nothing for miles. Suddenly, we heard a shout from inside, it sounded as though it was coming from David, and it was clearly the word fuck.
“Was that David?!” Max asked, obviously mind blown because we all knew David never swore. Whatever was going on was bad, it was something so bad it caused David to do something he had never done before. Max grabbed my arm.
“We don't have time! If Daniel is doing something horrible to David we need to stop him now. Give me a boost to the window.” Max requested, I knelt down and hoisted him up on my shoulders, he grabbed onto the window ledge and peered in. I couldn't see what easy going on still, and I waited a while for Max to tell me but he didn't say anything.
“Max what's going on?” Nikki whisper-yelled from beside me, standing on her tiptoes trying desperately to see inside.
“Yeah Max what's happening in there? Is Daniel hurting David?” I asked, Max didn't say anything again, he didn't even feel like he was breathing. Nikki called out his name again and he just slowly climbed off of my shoulders and stood on the ground, eyes staring blankly into space.
“What happened? Was it that terrible?!” I asked, Max still didn't say anything. I shook him and he took a shaky breath.
“We need to leave. I need to go shower or something. Right now.” he said, me and Nikki gave him a weird look. Nikki asked Max what he saw again but Max didn't say anything else and just stared off into space. I pulled over a plastic outdoor chair that was leaning against the front of the cabin and brought it under the window sill, curiosity getting the best of me. I climbed on it with Nikki and just as we were about to look in, Max pulled the chair out from under us.
“You guys do not want to see what I just saw - unless you are interested in seeing 2 grown ass men naked and on top of each other!” Max shouted, my whole entire body caught on fire.
“What the fuck?!” I shouted back to him, Max covered his face with his hands.
“They were fucking FUCKING! We need to leave immediately! Clearly this was the universe's way of punishing me for not following camp rules and leaving my tent in the night and I promise I will not be doing this again!” Max yelled, walking away from the cabin with his hands over his eyes. I followed him closely and we all hurried back to our tent. Once we did get back, Nikki tried to bring up the scene Max had just seen but Max just kept pushing the memory out of his head. We all climbed into our respective beds and then said nothing for what felt like an hour. Max did finally break the silence.
“David is David, we all know him right? He would never do something like that. He must be brainwashed or under some kind of spell from Daniel. What we need to do is get back Daniel’s phone without him catching us and show David that there is something on there that proves Daniel is up to no good.” Max suggested, me and Nikki agreed with him. He turned to face the wall of the tent in his bed and get more comfortable.
“Tomorrow we will start setting up a plan and then when Daniel is busy we will take his phone and end this. It's getting out of hand.” Max stated. Me and Nikki replied with an ‘ok!’ and then turned in our beds. Nikki tried to bring up Daniel and David fucking one last time and Max shut her down again before it was silent and everyone ended up going to sleep. As soon as I closed my eyes I started to drift off, waiting for tomorrow when we could finally get Daniel the fuck out of our camp.
A/N wow this chapter was a bit of a filler but next chapter - HOOEY it's a good one! The working title for this chapter was ‘Maxie, do you love me, are you riding?’ because I never have serious titles for the chapter when I start writing it..
also
THANK YOU SO MUCH ON THE READS AND VOTES AHHHH WE ARE GAINING NEW READS ALL THE TIME AND THIS BOOK IS GROWING I'M FREAKING OUT LOVE U GUYS GLAD U LIKE IT MORE TO COME SOON!!