Inconvenience

Cameron Campbell's Camp Campbell

As Max heard the damnable sputtering of the car's exhaust move farther and farther away, it felt as if a ten-tonne weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He smiled, knowing that no matter what he did now, he'd never get belted, or spanked, or tyred ever again!

"So, Max?" David said, taking Max out of his stupor. His voice was as soft as silk in Max's ears, softer than even Walter's had been. It made him feel a way he hadn't in months. Relaxed.

"Yeah, David?" Max asked, the sharp edge he used with David last summer dulling a little bit.

"How, um, how has your year been?" He asked, obviously trying to fill the silence with some form of conversation.

"Complete fucking horse-shit." He answered. It was as honest as it could possibly get, it had been one right pig of a year. The last five months in particular had been absolutely hellish to say the least. Well, a majority of it at least. "Started off shit, had acid poured into my eyes on new-Year's," It wasn't the total truth, technically it was some rancid eye drug, but David didn't need to know that. "then those two started trying to win the cunts of the year award."

"Oh, I'm sorry Max." He sounded awkward but sincere, that was David just being David after all. "It must've been tough." Max could tell by how close his voice was that David had crouched down to his level.

"I survived." Max mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"I know it'd take more than that to knock you down!" David said, placing a hand on Max's shoulder. It was so gentle it almost frightened him, the last time he could remember a touch so soft was when Walter had carried him up those stairs to that tiny crawl space. He didn't shrug it off but turned his head as if to look at it. He felt a little colder when it left, but like hell he'd ask for him to put it back. "Here, I'll load your stuff into the bus, alright?" David said, lifting the straps of the duffle bag around Max's neck.

"Yeah, sure." He said, shrugging his back-pack off too. He really noticed the difference now that they were gone.

"Whaddup, kid?" Max's head snapped in the direction of the new voice. He heard a light pop, and then he realised that the voice was familiar, the voice of someone he'd envied quite a few times during the last few months.

"Ered." He stated. "Didn't think you'd be coming back. Aren't you too old to go to camp?" He asked, feeling a smirk creep its way onto his face. The old camp feeling was coming back to him. Excitement bubbled in his chest. He was really gonna see his friends again. Nikki and Neil mostly, but the others would be great to see, well, hear, again.

"Yeah, well." She paused. "I just shrugged, fyi." She paused again, taking a few steps towards Max. "Don't tell the camp man, but I'm really here to keep an eye on the place, see if Campbell tries to crawl back to his old hidey-hole." She said in a whisper, getting so close to Max that he could smell the perfume. Or was it cologne? He couldn't really tell. That didn't surprise Max too much, Campbell did seem to have a bit of stake in the place and trying to come back wasn't too out of the question for him.

"Your secret's safe with me." He replied, glad for the feeling of solidarity between him and the cool girl.

"Oh it's so great to see old friends talking again!" Burst in David's voice, sounding as if simply holding a conversation with someone was worthy of an entire award ceremony. Max wanted to retort him with some sort of snarky remark, it was almost reflexive, but he didn't want to try and dampen the reunion so soon. He'd give it a couple of days, then he'd fall back into his old habit. "Now we're just waiting for one more camper today." David said, putting a hand on Max's shoulder. "We're just waiting over this way, Max." David guided Max to a table and chairs and helped him find one to sit on.