Quiet

Dinner was mostly quiet. It seems the day had worn down even the normally loud Erik as he sat quietly as well. But underneath the surface a lot more was going on.

Makayla was daydreaming. Stranded in the forest, she swung her sword at the monsters, but they surrounded and outnumbered her. She took out two of them with one blow, but they kept coming. Suddenly a knight rode in on a white ATV, sending the monsters running. He then pulled up to her and took off his helmet, she gasped in shock as it was...

"Are you going to eat anything or just keep spinning the spaghetti in circles," Axe asked, bringing her back to reality. Makayla just smiled and slightly blushed which completely confused Axe. She took a bite and looked over at Gaby sitting with Erik, Brian and Pitt. She thought back to earlier. As she was coming inside she looked back at Raz and saw that Gaby had approached him and was flirting with him. Slut, she thought. The gloves were off between them now. Maybe I should dress up and go thank the kind ranger, show her... Erik looked up and smiled at her, she blushed and quickly looked away. What am I thinking, trying to compete for a guy's affection? She looked over to Alex. I took him for granted. She wanted to drag him upstairs and put this whole stupid thing behind them. I should never have doubted him. But now she had falsely accused him and on top of that, there was the thing with Erik. Could he forgive me? Can I forgive myself? She saw movement under the table. She would have been sure it was just her mind playing tricks on her, but she saw Alex smile without looking up. Oh she was going to dress up tonight and fight for a guy, and she didn't care if it was Gaby, Sayen or even Bianca in her way.

Axe had seen the same thing Makayla had as he had followed her gaze to the other table. At first he felt a tinge of jealousy, but he realized by the look on Sayen's face that it hadn't been her. Bianca? Really?

Sayen was growing increasingly uncomfortable. Her and Alex had become friends and were easy around each other, but there was a new tension at the table and it was driving her nuts. She looked to Bianca, then to Alex, but both seemed lost in their own world.

All Alex could do was grin when he felt Bianca playfully kick him. He thought back to a few hours ago. After helping her with errands they had split up and he had gone to lose himself, of course he almost did.

Ugh, if I have to get help from the ranger again, that Taz will probably ban me from the camp, he thought, thinking back to the ranger he had met a few hours earlier. He looked around. He knew he couldn't be far from the cabins, but he'd spent too much time thinking and not enough watching where he was going. He oriented himself to the sun and figured he'd eventually run into something that would get him back. He set off determined. But, turning around the corner of an old shed he ran right smack dab into another determined hiker, knocking them both down but the other person on top of him.

"What the fu..."

"Bianca?"

Her angry scowl turned to amusement as she realized it was Alex.

"You often get women to jump on you in the woods?" she said with a smile.

"Happens more often than you think," he responded.

"Oh really? So what happens next?"

"Maybe we get up?"

"I guess," Bianca said laughing, thinking back to her conversation with Sayen.

"What's so funny?" He asked as she rolled off of him and the sat on the ground next to each other, their backs against the shed.

"Nothing. You know we've known each other a long time, but we don't really know a lot about each other."

"Yeah," Alex sighed.

They both sat quietly for a few minutes, looking off into space. Alex looked at her, for the first time he noticed her glow wasn't there.

"Rough week, huh?" he awkwardly asked.

"Yeah."

"You know what you said earlier, about an ear to listen, that goes both ways."

"You really want my problems on top of yours."

"Won't lie, it'd help me forgot about my own for a while."

"Maybe," she said, contemplating her next words. "You know, both of us moping around is going to make for a really shitty, sorry, week."

Alex nodded.

"Thing is, I can't talk to Brian or even Sayen. I mean, they both know some things, but this sh- stuff..."

"I know what you mean. Makayla obviously, but Gaby, even Axe, I just don't feel like I can put this on them."

"So here's what I propose, whatever you need to say, or I need to say, we tell each other. And if I see you you starting to retreat into yourself I'll step up, and you do the same for me. Just smile, make a joke, whatever. Let's not give any of them that power of seeing us in the dumps."

"Maybe if we pretend to be happy..."

"Fake it till you make it," Bianca responded.

They stood up and walked together back to the cabins. They talked and shared what had been happening to each of them. He told her what had happened with Gaby and she commended him on not giving in. She also gave him a bit of a hard time about it, asking if she should start calling him Boy Scout. She told him about her summer break up, glossing over the more gruesome details, then she stopped and got serious. It was a secret she had long sworn would be only hers, but she had to talk to someone. She looked him in the eye.

"I know I can trust you, but what I'm about to tell you can never be repeated." Alex nodded.

When they got back Bianca had stopped at the party cabin, while Alex continued on. He found a picnic table slightly off into the woods to sit on. As he stared off he heard a vehicle approaching...

Alex took a bite of garlic bread. Bianca smiled.

"Trying to keep the ladies away?" She jokingly asked.

"Very much so," he replied with a a grin.

He remembered her hand playing with his neck and hair, this game of cheering each other up had gone in a direction he hadn't expected at all. He looked over at the other table and his caught Brian's gaze, who again gave him an odd look, before looking away.