It Had to be You

Chapter Seventeen: A Breaking Point

The dining hall was full already. Clearly, everyone else had gotten here right after the dodgeball game. After a quick glance across the room, Max spotted Nikki and Neil sitting at a corner table. He looked up at David for just a moment who waved him away with a smile. He peeled away from the man to go sit with his friends.

Nikki was giving him a strange look, which might have alarmed Max if he wasn't so concerned with her startling black eye. Pushing back all the memories that sight brought up, Max slid in next to her on the bench.

"Dodgeball?" He asked.

"Dodgeball." She brought an icepack she was holding in her lap up to the bruise. "Not Nurf though, shockingly."

Neil started laughing. Through giggles, he managed to get out "Max you are never, not ever going to guess how this happened."

Max gave Nikki a questioning glance, who was retreating to her ice pack-filled hands. "Neil, I will smash your beakers just try me." Her free eye was narrowed warningly.

Neil barely seemed to notice, too caught up in his own amusement. "Okay so Nikki was trying to dodge cause the other side had like all the balls right, so she dives onto the ground-" Nikki gave an embarrassed groan and sunk into the bench, but Neil just kept going. "And then Space Kid fell over one of the balls and it flew out from under him and hit her in the eye!"

Max started laughing then too, and Nikki gave them both an exasperated glare. "Yeah laugh it up. At least I played the game unlike certain other members of this table."

Max raised his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I kept myself safe from that godforsaken game. Don't diss my self-preservation."

"Don't be too upset Nikki," Neil crowed, "At the very least David had to stop the game after you were hit. Truly you are our hero."

Nikki brightened at that thought and gave a little bow. "Well then show your hero a little more respect. Bow down peasants to your superior."

Suddenly Max heard a chuckle over his shoulder. Startled, he looked up to see David standing over the three of them.

"Oh sorry, don't mind me," David said, with his usual singsong tone. "Just wanted to make sure all our campers got their lunches." Looking down, Max saw that he was carrying a lunch tray. On it sat a mediocre-looking ham sandwich, some chips, and a cup of yogurt. David placed the tray down in front of Max. "Three meals a day is very important in making sure you are ship-shape for camp! We can't have you skipping out and getting tired."

All the performance of David on a usual camp day was there. The chipperness, the out-of-date sayings, even the sailor swing of the arm. But peering up into the older man's face, Max noticed something. Behind the sharp grin, David's eyes were crinkled with worry. Real genuine concern over the fact that Max might have been trying to skip a meal.

Max so badly wanted to get upset because honestly? The thought of skipping a meal hadn't even crossed his mind. He had just wanted to chat with his friends for a moment before grabbing whatever terrible sandwich was being served that day. And up saddled David, who couldn't even give him five minutes before mother henning him over his eating habits.

But looking across the room Max saw empty bags of chips and sandwich bags lying strewn across all the tables and floor. There was not, however, a cup of yogurt in sight.

So instead he grabbed the strawberry banana yogurt in his still slightly grubby hands and gave David a half-smile. "Got it, Camp Man. Sandwich it is."

David's eyes melted into a grin that felt a little more real and nodded. "Good." He said, before hopping off to check on Erin, who appeared to be turning her chip bags into some sort of sculpture across the room.

The weird look from Nikki was back in full force, as Max grabbed a spoon to get started on his meal. "What was that?" She questioned, poking Max with her ice pack.

"What was what?" Max asked, too caught up in devouring his food to notice her tone. Clearly, he had been hungrier than he had realized.

"That!" Nikki proclaimed, waving her hand towards David.

Max looked over at David curiously, but the man was just taking pictures of Erin's chip art and beaming. Perfectly average David behavior. "No seriously what? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Neil and Nikki shared an exasperated glace. "This whole week," Neil started, "You have been so weird with David! Like, I get it, it's been a year, and don't get me wrong I'm glad you aren't trying to escape every five minutes. But you are letting the man honest to god parent you! That's weird!"

"No, I'm not!" Max snapped, louder than he had meant to.

"You are though!" Nikki insisted. "Max, you walked in together after which he brought you lunch. I don't think I've seen you insult him this whole time! It's not like I'm upset with the sudden change in heart but-"

Max felt like an animal trapped in a cage, embarrassed and cornered and about to snap.

 "Sudden change?" He hurled the words at Nikki like shards of broken glass. "You haven't seen me for a year Nikki! What do you mean sudden change? You don't know me!" Max could see his words hit, digging into Nikki's skin like knives.

She recoiled, shoulder hitting Neil's with a flinch. Max was on his feet, panting, and when had that happened? And when had the cafeteria gotten so quiet? Max spun around and just like the lake he could see everyone staring at him, their eyes bore into him and it made his skin twist and crawl. Neil was saying something, tone angry and biting and suddenly Max couldn't take it anymore.

He slammed his tray down on the table, the yogurt falling over and spilling onto the floor as Max turned and ran. Before he could make it out the door he felt a hand on his arm.

"Max, please-" A soft voice cut into his panic, but Max just shook off the grasp. Still panting, he pushed his way out of the dining hall and into the hot summer afternoon. 

AN: Apparently, 185 emails is a very effective way of getting me to update a story. Especially 185 emails of actual comments and not just plz update spam. I hope you enjoy this incredibly late chapter. I make no promises on the next one but presumably one day it will come. At the very least I have the next chapter planned and the first bit written. Shoutout to my DND Party for inspiring me with all these yogurt based plot points and the rounds of Frantic Fanfic we keep playing. You better not be reading this tho. Until next time!