Chapter Text
David stood in the doorway of the camp bus, waving at the last couple of kids who scampered out to their parents. Tears would’ve been visible in his forest green eyes if it weren’t so dark out. “Golly! It was so fun having you at camp Nerris and Ered! I hope to see you next year- Gwen sends her regards!” David grinned as they gave him a simple wave back, getting into their respectable cars. He turned and trudged back up the few steps inside the bus for what felt like the 100th time today. “How many more stops, Quartermaster? It’s getting quite late out.” David checked his watch with a gasp “Oh goodness! It’s already 9:40!”
“Chill out Camp Man. It’s not even that late you’re just being a big f*cking baby.” Bellowed a raspy voice near the rear of the bus. David glanced up and let a smile take over his features. Again.
“Oh Max, don’t you want to get home? I was hoping to have everyone with their parents by 10…” He muttered the last part to himself, disappointed by his poor estimation of time. He pranced over to the back of the bus, taking a seat across from Max’s. “Where’s your stop? I’m sure we’re almost there and you can sleep in your nice warm bed!”
Max groaned and shoved his hands in his front pocket “God, your voice is so annoying. I live up in Bucksen.” Max heard David let out a gasp. He turned his head to stare at that stupid man childs’ face. “What??”
“Oh nothing, it’s just a coincidence you mentioned Bucksen! I’m moving there after I close down the camp in a few days- maybe we’ll see each other around!”
“Fuuuuuuuck, I better not. I don’t know how much more of your face I can stand.” Max retorted, craning his neck back around to press his temple against the window. He felt the bus jerk as it began moving.
“So…are you excited to go home? You can see your family and your friends at school and-“ Max cut him off mid-sentence
“Shut the f*ck up and let me take a nap. M’tired.” He growled, curling his legs up to his chest for comfort.
“Sorry..! You’re right; there’s still around an hour or so until we get to Bucksen. Try and get some sleep, I’ll wake you up when we get there.” David smiled at him and stood back up. The tall counselor leaned over and ruffled Max’s raven curls before walking down the aisle.
Max let out a grunt and didn’t bother fixing his hair. Instead, he flipped his cyan hood over his head and put his chin into the crook of his elbow that rested atop of his knees. He yawned and shut his eyes, trying to ignore the fact of the matter.
He didn’t want to go home.
— — — — — —
Max awoke to David shaking him gently. He pried his jade eyes open and stretched out his sore arms “Ugh..what.”
“We’re here, bud. I don’t see a car outside, are you going to be walking? You know it’s dangerous to walk alone at ni-”
“Shut up.” He sneered. Max lifted himself to his legs and swung his tattered bag over his shoulder. “Um, bye. I guess.”
David gave him that same look he did at the Pizza Place. Max hated it. It looked almost pitiful. “Bye Max, it was lovely having you at camp. I hope to see you next year, yeah?” Max glared up at him for a few seconds before shoving past him to walk down the aisle.
“We’ll f*cking see. This summer sucked but..it wasn’t so bad; I guess. Oh my god, what am I saying? f*ck off. Go jump off a cliff” He shoved his fists into his hoodie pocket and trudged down the steps of the bus, hopping out. Before David could say anything else to his face, Max was already walking down the sidewalk.
“Have a good school year!!” He called out behind him. Max didn’t even turn around, flipping him off with a scoff. David smiled and strolled back up the steps, doing one more check around to see if anyone left belongings. When nothing was found, he sat down in the seat behind Quartermaster. “All good! Gosh, I’m going to miss those kids.” Quartermaster muttered something inaudible as he shut the doors and pulled out away from the run-down bus stop.
* * *
Stupid bus. stupid camp. stupid David. . .
Max sighed and kicked a stray pebble across the pavement. He drew his old phone from his pocket and clicked it on to check the time. 10:56. Just as he was about to shut it off a water droplet landed on his screen. “Oh for f*cks sake.” The boy hissed and looked towards the sky. Rain?? Seriously?! He still had a f*cking 15-minute walk! Max groaned and put his phone back into his cyan pocket to shield it from the drizzle. At least he hadn’t taken his hood off. He took hold of the drawstrings and pulled them tight. Only five minutes later, it was full-on pouring. Max felt his socks start to get soggy from inside his sneakers as he stepped in puddle after puddle. “Why. Why do you do this to me.” He announced to nobody. The world sucked and it was mighty clear at that point. The raven-haired boy sped up his pace and arrived at his sh*tty apartment in under 10 minutes. Mostly because he didn’t look both ways when crossing, but he didn’t feel the need because it was f*cking 11 at night. Who would be driving? Especially in Bucksen. Bucksen always got quiet at 9, barely anyone driving unless they were going to and fro the store. It was great from his point of view because nobody would drive by and question why he was out at night. Who wouldn’t? He was a 10-year-old boy walking alone in the middle of the f*cking night in a relatively dangerous town. It had happened before when he was nine. Multiple times. He always cursed them out and said he was just fine.
Max walked into the apartment and flipped his hood down, shaking his head side to side to spray any water that may have gotten into his curls. He let out a sigh and walked over to an empty chair near a window, plopping his soaked bag down. The boy dug around inside the backpack before he retracted his hand, pulling out a key from inside. He could guess the door to his room wasn’t locked- but just in case. His parents were always too lazy for sh*t like that. Max grabbed the bag by the strap and trudged down a long- honestly kind of creepy- yellow hallway. He stopped outside of room 24 and tried the handle before attempting the keys.
Click!
Just as he expected, it was unlocked. Max pushed the door open and trekked into the sh*tty-looking expanse. The smell of booze immediately hit him like a brick wall; he almost gagged. Gross. He walked in and pushed the door shut behind him with a creak.
“Hello?” He called out. Max waited a few seconds to see if anyone would answer. When nobody did, he silently cheered and patrolled toward his room. He was glad to see it look just as he had left it back in June. His bed was pushed to the back right corner of the room, and a desk was up against the left wall with a simple lamp and a couple of papers scattered across. There was also a slim closet to the right of the desk with his clothes hung up inside. It was a pretty bland room- though he wasn’t exactly expecting much since his parents weren’t that wealthy. Also because of the fact they refused to spend money on him unless it was necessary for his survival.
Max tossed his backpack against the foot of the bed, crouching down in front of it. He dug around inside until he pulled out his prized possession. Mr. Honeynuts. Mr. Honeynuts was an old, tattered teddy bear. It had an eye missing and several stitches protruding with stuffing, but it still meant the world to him. Max grinned when he had a hold of it, standing back up. He chucked the bear onto his bed and kicked his shoes off, immediately feeling the wetness in his socks.. “Oh, right. Rain.” He groaned and walked over to the closet, opening it up and staring inside.
There wasn’t much- a couple of pairs of pants, T-shirts, a hoodie or two, and the necessities. He always had limited options of clothing but always made it work. Max peeled his soaked clothes off and tossed them in a pile on the floor; getting changed into dry, comfier clothes.
“Jesus Christ, my parents really did guess my size; huh?” His sweatpants ran past his ankles and his shirt sagged halfway down his thighs. Max let out a huff of annoyance and threw a hoodie over his thin black shirt. His stomach released a growl of hunger and he realized that he hadn’t eaten since this morning at breakfast in the mess hall. The boy sighed and grabbed his phone, stuffing it in his hoodie pocket as he walked out to the kitchen. The kitchen looked even sh*ttier than his room- sink filled with dirty dishes. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the 90s. Max glanced up at the cupboard and opened it, expression falling into one of disappointment
“Did they seriously buy paper plates because they’re too lazy to clean? Even I’m more responsible than that.” He grumbled to himself, grabbing one of the paper plates and opening up the fridge. There was barely any food- well, barely any that he could eat. His parents usually set limits to what he could and couldn’t have. Max sighed once more and forced the freezer open, taking out a microwaved dinner. It wasn’t much, just some chicken and peas, but it would do.
He set it in the microwave and watched it spin until it beeped. Once it was finished heating up, Max took it out and shoveled it onto the plate with a fork. At least they cleaned the utensils. Just then, he heard the front door open. Max whipped his head around and stared at the doorway. Two adults entered, the taller one supporting the shorter one.
“I told you not to drink so much, Priya. I hope you realize I’m not going to help you with your f*cking hangover tomorrow.” The man declared, guiding her to the couch to lie down. He didn’t even glance over at the boy in the kitchen.
Max quickly and quietly picked up the plate and began the hike toward his room, only to feel a hand on his shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look up at who he assumed was his father.
“Where do you think you’re going, boy? No food in your room.” The man glared down at Max with the same piercing green eyes.
“Oh. R-right. Sorry, I forgot.” He looked back down at his food
“Don’t stutter. It makes you sound like a child.” The man bellowed and removed his hand from the boys’ shoulder, trudging away to a room ajar to Max’s.
The raven-haired boy took a deep breath and watched him walk away, then turned and went back to the kitchen. He set the plate down on the dirtied counter and pulled a stool over so he could sit and eat.
— — — — — —
A few days passed since camp ended and Max was bored out of his f*cking mind. He didn’t really have any friends to text, call, or hang out with; so he was stuck in his room watching Youtube. He occasionally went out to a gas station and bought snacks with the stash of money he had in his desk drawer, but besides that, there was nothing to do.
Max decided he would go to the park today. It was more or less an abandoned playground for kids- nobody really went to it anymore since it was so run down; but that’s what made it a good hang-out spot for him. Nobody would bother him.
He got dressed for the day into a pair of dark jeans and a dull green hoodie, shoving his phone into his front pocket. He shucked his red sneakers on and made sure to grab the spare keys before leaving. Max walked down the hall and out of the sh*tty building. It was only a 10-minute walk and he was fairly athletic from walking everywhere, so it was practically nothing to him.
Max trotted down the streets until he arrived at his destination. He entered through the squeaky black gate and approached the play structure. The boy cracked his knuckles and began climbing up. It wasn’t difficult, it was made for kids after all, but he liked to climb to the veeeeery top. Which meant climbing the pillars and spots he wasn’t supposed to.
Once Max made it onto the tippity-top, he balanced himself and perched, watching people walk by. He found it pretty entertaining- given he had nothing else to do. People were interesting. Some were on phones, some were walking dogs- he even saw an old man walking a cat. That made him chuckle.
After 30 or so minutes..he got bored. Max slid down from the cover of a slide onto the grate that was used as flooring throughout the whole jungle gym. He approached a pole that was used as an escape route from the structure and leaned out to grab onto it. “Huh. So this is how Nikki’s whor* of a mom feels.” He snickered to himself and jumped off the grate, sliding down the green pole. He scowled at how his hands burned from being dragged down the metal when he made contact with the ground. “f*ck. ow.” He hissed and shook his hands back and forth as he made his way to the black gate once again.
His stomach produced a low growl from hunger while trudging through the double doors of the apartment, making his journey back toward his room. “Stupid camp. Made me get used to three f*ckin’ meals a day.” Max whined. He had a thought protrude in the back of his mind.
*I could really go for some of Quartermaster’s sh*tty pancakes.*
When he looked up from the ground he saw two things he never expected to see. One, someone actually moving into room 27, the room across from his parents’ (Well, technically not ACROSS because it was a little ways down- but he still counted it); and two, that person being David.
