It all seemed to happen so fast, Max could barely wrap his head around the situation.

He could tell the rest of the day wasn't going to be as enjoyable as he thought it would be. Besides waking up in the early hours of the morning because the sounds of nature woke him up so easily, he found himself in a bad mood once he noticed that he wouldn't have been able to fall back asleep. Wide awake, he stayed in the same unmoving position until he heard the chatter of fellow campers what seemed like hours later.

Neil was awake not long after Max was. He glanced over at him, looking him up and down to make sure that he was awake and not just sleeping with his eyes open.

"Morning, Max."

His face scrunched in disgust and he let out a groan.

Neil nodded in agreement, though Max could barely see him in his peripheral vision.

"I'm going to the mess hall."

"I don't.. care." He said, now slowly sitting up on his bed.

"Damn," Neil muttered, focusing all of his limited energy into tying his shoelaces into perfect knots.

Max patted his bedside, frowning when he couldn't feel where his inhaler had gone.

"Neil, have you seen my inhaler?" He asked.

"No, sorry."

Max scowled, "If you find it-"

He stopped as soon as David entered the tent.

"Neil, I.."

"What?"

David gestured for him to leave.

"I need to talk to Max."

"Okay..?"

Neil glanced at Max one last time, before leaving.

"What?" Max asked, standing.

David walked towards him and held out an envelope. Despite not knowing what it was, Max already felt his heart dropped to his stomach, seeing as his name was written on the front in familiar cursive handwriting.

Daniel's handwriting.

"What is this?" He demanded.

"I haven't read it," he admitted.

"David, what the hell is this?" He repeated.

"I don't- I'm not don't know what's on it."

Max's tight grip on it loosened. His gaze returned to the neat handwriting on it, implying that whoever did write it had spent a while on it.

David left.

Trembling hands carefully tore the top off the top of the envelope, and pulled out a sheet of paper folded to fit the inside of it.

It was short, but enough to make sure that the churning feeling in his stomach, similar to what one would feel while falling, would only get worse by the minute.

Daniel was gone.

He left with a note telling Max to watch after his stuff. There was no way of knowing if he needed his things to be watched because he was coming back and needed it to be in good condition, or if it was because he wasn't coming back and wanted Max to be left with it as a painful reminder that, soon, he'd have to take Daniel's job and do it on his own.

Daniel wouldn't just leave me behind, would he?

Max scoffed, feeling warm tears going down his face the more he let it sink in.

Well... He just did.

He felt his knees buckle, and he felt as it got increasingly more difficult to focus on anything.

Maybe he was overreacting.

Maybe he was dreaming.

Maybe-

"Max?"

David was back at the tent entrance again, peeking in just in time to see Max drop to his knees.

"Get out."

He blinked in surprise.

"What..?"

"Now."

"Max, it's okay to feel-"

"David. leave me alone." He interrupted.

"If you-"

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY TENT."

For a few seconds, he didn't say anything. It was shocking, listening to a kid who once seemed so happy and nice act like the complete opposite.

David composed himself.

"Okay, well... if you need to talk to someone, I'm a counselor for a reason..."

He disappeared as fast as he entered.

Max sat there for a while, resting on his knees, unbothered from any of the other campers there as well. When he got the motivation to, he neatly folded and tucked the note away into his backpack. Then, he fell back on to his bed.

He was stuck in the same curled-up position on his bed all day. He didn't move, not even when Neil came back in to check on him.

He made sure to stay in that same goddamn position throughout the whole day, listening to the sounds of the others having fun outside- without him.

Just as it should have been.