Nature's Favorite || danvid

t w o

  David awoke in a cold sweat that morning. The cabin was empty, surprisingly. Usually he was the first one up.
  But, there was no sight of Gwen or Daniel. The redhead ran his fingers through his hair as his heart raced. What time was it?
  He grabbed his phone off of his nightstand and tried to turn it on, but the screen remained black. He could have sworn he put it on the charger.
  David swung his long legs over the side of the bed and stood up, rushing over to Daniel's cot to grab his alarm clock. '11:18 a.m.' He overslept by a lot. How did he do that? He was usually a pretty good morning person.
  David rushed to his drawers and grabbed his camp shirt and threw it on in a haste, not bothering to take off his tank top underneath or even change out of his sweatpants. He didn't have time.
  David slipped some socks and shoes on before running outside, only to be met with the campers content and doing their first activity of the day.
  That didn't happen. He always set up the activities. Gwen usually couldn't be bothered. His heart raced as he looked around before his eyes met with Daniel and Gwen chatting.
  It was honestly kind of nice that he didn't have to set their activity up, but it had him all out of sorts. It didn't sit with him right that he wasn't needed to do that. What if the campers weren't fed correctly, or enough, or at the right time? What if they were having trouble starting the activity and David wasn't there to help?
  He let out a hasty breath and walked over to the two counselors. Maybe everything was fine.
  "Morning, David!" Daniel greeted him, cheery as usual. Gwen smiled and waved. "Uh, hey— sorry I slept in. I didn't mean to. I thought I plugged my phone in last night, but it was dead and my alarm didn't go off and—" "It's fine, don't worry. We got the campers fed and set up and they're doing just fine." Gwen interrupted David's rambling, reassuring him.
  "Right! We're perfectly capable of taking care of a few kids. Don't you worry." Daniel said. David's face went hot out of embarrassment. "Thanks. I appreciate it."
  He looked like a mess right now. His hair was unruly, his clothes were sloppy, his face was pale. He didn't want the kids to see him like this.
  He didn't have time to fix himself, though. He had already missed so much.
  A lot had been on his mind the night before. Daniels seemingly endless questions about Texas had his mind racing. His text with Whitney had him homesick, but not for the state. He just missed his sisters. He missed his niece. He wanted to see them so bad.
  As he walked over to the children to see how they were coming along on their activities, he didn't notice Daniel walking close behind him. "David!"
  David let out a breath. "Whats up, Daniel?"
  "You said you'd answer my questions about Texas."
  "You're pretty straightforward."
  "You like that?"
  David felt his face go hot. He let in a deep breath. "What do you want to know, Daniel?"
  David noticed that Daniel sort of brightened his expression. He sat down on a picnic table beside him.
  "So, you said you have sisters? What are their names?" David smiled as he thought about his sisters. "Well, I have an older sister named Whitney and two younger sisters named Mary and Daisy."
  Daniel nodded. "You guys are close?" "Very. They're my best friends. I just talked to Whitney last night, actually!"
  "Do you ever think about going to visit them? I'm sure it would be nice going to Texas again."
  David paused a bit after he said this. "I don't want to go back to Texas."
  "Why not?" That was the question he was dreading. "Just family stuff. No big deal, don't worry about it."
  Daniel shrugged. "Did you have any pets?" David nodded. "We had goats and a border collie when I was little."
  "What are your parents like? They must be great if they raised you."
  David stayed silent for a moment. He didn't want to answer that. Honestly, he didn't even want to answer his other questions. He wanted to forget all about Texas.
  David took a deep breath and looked at Daniel. "Why do you want to know about my family so badly?"
  That seemed like it shocked Daniel. "I just want to get to know you better, David. You're interesting to me."
  David laughed. "Okay."
  David walked off but Daniel kept following him. "Okay, parents, sensitive subject— noted. What are your hobbies, David?"
  David stayed silent.
  "David?"
  David didn't say anything.
  "David!"
  "What??" David turned and looked at Daniel. He didn't mean to get angry, especially not in front of the kids, but he just couldn't take it anymore. Daniel was driving him crazy.
  "Look— I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk about Texas. I don't want to talk about me. Frankly, Daniel, I barely know you. How about we wait a little bit before we start getting all close and personal. Okay??"
  Daniel stayed silent and nodded. David nodded as well and took a deep breath, and walking away.
  David felt bad for being harsh. It wasn't usually in his nature to just be mean to someone for no reason, but hearing so much about Texas and just being expected to be fine with it really riled him up. Usually, he'd just suck it up and answer any questions thrown at him. He was extremely patient when the campers would have this, but this was a grown man asking about something that was obviously hurting him. It reallly ticked him off.
  David hated that he acted that was towards Daniel. He didn't mean to, really. These were the moments where he really missed his sisters, or when things were normal.