silent genius.

8. Speak

"Now everyone take a blindfold and make a line," the camp director tells us. Everyone lines up with their friends except for Atlas who takes his time and ends up at the back of the line. "Daxton! Over here!" I hear Harmony call for me but I shake my head and go towards my partner.

"Hey." He turns around and nods.

"I brought what you told me to," I say motioning to my backpack. "Okay."

As the sun sets, we get guided blindly to a clearing in the woods. When the guide finally leaves us we take off our blindfolds and look around. Some of the really confident kids immediately walk in the direction that they assume the director went.

Jay walks up to me and scoffs. "Idiots." I nod. "When he brought us, he probably took a very long path just so we couldn't retrace his steps."

"Anyways!" Beck says jumping out from behind him. "Wanna chill with us?" I sneak a small glance at Atlas who is currently scoping the area. "Yeah.. Sure," I say hesitatingly.

We walk back to Kim and Harmony and Jay points to an unnaturally positioned bush. "We think that this is the way."

I shrug. "Okay."

Soon everyone is ready to follow the trail they've found. I turn back to the end of the group and fall into step next to Atlas. "You good?" I ask.

"What? Oh um. Yeah." He sounds conflicted.

He stops and looks at me. "I'm just going to rest for a second. I'll catch up soon." I look at him suspiciously. "You sure?"

"Yeah! Just go ahead," he says with a fake smile. I sigh and walk towards the group. I walk with Jay and the others for a good 10 minutes before I look back and notice Atlas isn't here.

"I forgot something back there. I'll be right back," I lie with ease and they believe me. "Be careful man," Jay says and Harmony nods worriedly. Kim looks back at the group and turns towards me with a knowing expression and when the others keep going he stops me and sighs. "You better find him. Knowing Atlas he's probably hurt somewhere."

My eyes widen slightly and I nod. I turn around and sprint in the opposite direction.

I finally end up where I left him and I see him sitting on the ground in tears. "Shit. Atlas." I bend down and crouch in front of him. "Atlas..?"

He shakes his head and groans. "Go away." I scoff.

"No. I'm not going to go. This is your problem for telling me you'd catch up." He wipes his tears away and glares at me.

I keep going, "so, now you're going to tell me why you're still here and why you were crying."

He looks away and says clearly, "they're going the wrong way."

"What." He nods.

"What?" He hides his face in his hands.

"Atlas. What do you mean?" He glances back up at me. "I said they're going the wrong way." I get up. "Let's go tell them then." I begin to walk but I am pulled back by him grabbing my hand.

"Please don't."

I look at his face and roll my eyes. "Why not?"

"They can't know," he says simply. 

Okay. No. 

"You know what Atlas? You and me are going to sit here until you tell me what the fuck is going on between you and Rowan. Now. Speak."

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563 words! <3 

This was supposed to be in the last update but I wanted to stay more consistent with the word count.. lol