Breathe || Max X Reader - Camp Camp

XXIII

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Notice
This is a bonus chapter! That is why it's so short! However, it does tie in with the canon plot and covers a lot of events, so it is important to read!
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Y/N's POV
Word Count: 669

     It had been two weeks since anything interesting had happened at camp. I'd spent my past two weeks zombie-ing my way through events, taking them as they had arrived.
     Neil was back in working order, now. He was now housed in a separate tent of his own. Max's tent was moved farther away from everyone else's for 'safety reasons'. Other than that, everything at camp was mundane. The incident with Max was still lingering amongst camp, but people didn't talk about it anymore. Max and I hadn't really talked much, either.
     There was the one night at camp where we snuck out of each others' tents, though. We ran out to his little hiding spot and wasted the night away talking about dumb things. I had gotten him to open up that night. He told me about how he had felt like his actions weren't connected to his mind. He felt like his entire life was out of his own control.
     I assumed that those thoughts had stemmed from his parents' abusive tendencies. They took away the control in Max's life, I had figured out. Other than that, I didn't receive much more closure on Max's current situation.

     "Y/N!", Preston greeted. He snapped me out of my thoughts and took a seat beside me. It was during our hour long rec time. Recreation time was basically like recess. "What's cookin', good lookin'?"
     He took a seat on the bench beside me. His somewhat flirty comments were no longer questionable since he was now apparently with Harrison. "Ah, nothing much.", I replied. I stopped picking grass and laid back onto the bench. "How are you?"
     Preston grinned. "Fantastic, I'd say!", he joked. I let out a short-lived laugh as he leaned back with me. "And, so how are you?"
     I smiled as I gave him little shrug. "Relatively okay.", I commented. Preston chuckled. "Ah, no, actually, I'm cool I guess. Things are okay, but I'm still worried about the thing with David. I'm scared he'll do something to separate Max and I." Preston had already known about the situation. I told him about a week ago during our synchronized swimming lessons.
     Preston pursed his lips. "Well," he started. Oh no, he's taking me into the 'Preston Vortex'. That was our special name for when he gave me diarrhea of the mouth. "I think that if David were to do anything about it, he would've done something already. I mean, yeah, I guess he'd wait for things to die down, but to me it feels like things 'died down' forever ago. I don't know, I'm just saying, that's my take on it. And look, even if things do get hard, you'll always have Max's better counterpart." Preston winked.
     I let out a small laugh and rolled my eyes. Preston playfully punched me. "Sure," I jested. "I'd like to thank you for the help, genius."
     Preston waved a hand at me, channeling his inner valley girl. "Actually, I am a genius!", he defended. We both burst out laughing. "Well, you know, if you need anything I'm always just a few tents away."
     I smiled at him and hopped out of my seat. "Why thank you, my good sir!", I exclaimed. Preston rolled his eyes and blushed. A few campers were staring, and sometimes it got him all flustered. "I must leave you, however!"
     Before he had the chance to say anything, I marched off in the opposite direction.
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A/N - I mainly wrote this because I felt like we needed more closure on Preston's character. I never really did cover what happened with him, and I needed a time skip, so making this bonus feature seemed like the best way to work in everything that needed covered, in my eyes. ☁️