Bruises in Miniature Form

When we arrived back at the campsite Omar had all the plates set up on the supplied wooden park table, chips, pop cans and beer bottles resting in their places.
Ronnie’s legs were sticking out from the open tent’s mouth, his bubbling laughter making a smile come to my lips.
At the table with Omar sat Robert, who sipped attentively at his beer, cards in his hands.

“Hey, where’s Max?” I asked when I noticed the black haired idiot was nowhere in sight.
“Yah, way to be obvious” Ronnie giggled loudly from his tent, sitting up to grin directly at me.
“It was a question, I don’t actually care” I huffed, sitting on Omar’s lap when he patted his leg.
“Yah sure, and I’m the freaking Queen of England”
“You’re a girl!?” Bryan squealed loudly, “I knew it!!”
“Oh screw off” Ronnie rolled his eyes, pouting his bottom lip out in mock rage.
“I was expecting him to say something more along the lines of a rock god, or sex god”
“But dear. I AM a sex slash rock god” Ronnie winked my way.
“I’m sure”
“Wanna find out?” Ronnie patted the mattress and gave it a little rub, cackling when I backed further into Omar’s chest and shook my head frantically.
“Whoa, there Ronnie! Way to not hit on the only female” Omar coughed over my head, biting his bottom lip to fight back a grin.
“I’m not the only female here” I replied quickly.
“That’s true, Max is pretty hormonal” Bryan teased before his laughter was cut short but a quick ‘thwack’ to the back of the head.

Leaning to the side I stared at Max from around Omar's shoulder, watching him unload the pile of wood.
“You better get making your beds” Omar whispered into my ear, patting my hip to get me moving.
Bryan allowed me to enter the two person tent first, waiting at the entrance while I threw my sleeping bag onto the blown up mattress.
It took me a total of two minutes to get my pillow unpacked and in place and a total of five for Bryan to squish himself beside me and roll up into the maroon coloured bag.

“Pass me a beer!” Ronnie shouted from his tent.
“Get it yourself” Omar called back, winking at me when I poked my head out.
“What time is it?”
Glancing down at his watch Omar answered me with a brisk, “5;42”
“I wanna build a fire already” Robert spoke up from his hand of cards, “Beating you is losing its interest”
“Hah! You wish you were beating me!” Omar snapped, slamming his hand down onto the table.
“Hey Newton, you know how to play?” Bryan asked me, nodding his head in the direction of Omar and Robert.
“I don’t know what they’re playing”
“Poker as usual”
“I’ve never actually played”
“Goody-goody” Max mumbled loud enough for me to hear, kicking the wood into a neat pile.
“Fuck you!” I shouted at him.
Brushing his black hair away from his eyes Max grinned in my direction, “Nice comeback”
“Are they seriously starting already?” Omar whined to Robert, shuffling the deck of cards back together.
“Hey Nettie, go play cards” Ronnie called sleepily.
Shrugging I left the comfort of my shared tent to sit beside Omar and watched as he shuffled cards skilfully.
“Where’d you learn to do that?”
“Daryl taught me actually”
“Really?” I was excited to hear this story; it was well known that Daryl hated playing cards.
“Yah. I begged him till he pulled out a deck” Omar laughed at the memory, “Say, can you get me the other deck from my bag?”

Nodding I quickly grappled with the tent’s zipper until it came loose.
Omar and Robert’s tent was already a disaster zone with clothes spilled about and mattresses pushed to the sides to make room.
“What side?” I yelled back when I couldn’t figure out which belonged to Omar.
“Rightie-Tightie!” Robert answered me with a laugh.
Grabbing the bag from the right I fiddled with a few more zippers until I found the new deck of cards.
“Western lasses?” I choked out a laugh when I saw the displayed front picture.
“Hell yah, now sit down, we’re playing’ bullshit”
“I’m in!!!” Bryan and Ronnie both shouted loudly from their tents, fumbling to get out.
“Bullshit?” I asked as I handed over the cards and sat once more.
Ronnie and Bryan were struggling to get seats, tripping over themselves until they were seated in the dirtied white lawn chairs.
“Yah, I’ll teach you how to play. Max get your ass over here!” Omar spoke.

Max trudged reluctantly over to the last lawn chair and slumped himself down.
Out of everyone he seemed the most exhausted, eyes drooping closed and arms dangling at his sides.
Omar shuffled the double deck of cards together before flipping them out, collecting his own hand and centering the leftover pile.

“Okay so the goal of the game is to get rid of all your cards before anyone else. On your turn you put down like two twos or five threes. The thing is it doesn’t have to be two twos, and when you put your cards down everyone has a chance to say bullshit. If you didn’t put down the number of cards you actually said then you collect the whole pile”
“Best way to figure out everyone’s hand is to look at your own and see whose calling bullshit, or guess” Robert added.
“Okay, I think I got it” I bobbed my head, “So who goes first?”
Robert lifted his hand in response, sorting his cards out before laying down three, “Three sevens”
“BULLSHIT!” Ronnie shouted eagerly bouncing in his seat until Robert flipped the cards over to show three sevens.
“Way to jump the gun” Robert laughed, grinning as Ronnie cussed and added the three cards to his hand.
“Four sevens” Ronnie mumbled and threw the cards back down.

The game continued for a good twenty minutes, everyone laughing and shouting ‘bullshit’ whenever they could.
It got to the point where Ronnie and Max were shouting at each other about when to call and what cards they placed down.
Admittedly I enjoyed the game, sure it got competitive but that was probably the best part.
Robert loved slamming his cards down onto the table and daring everyone to call his bluff, which of course Ronnie did because he just enjoyed saying ‘bullshit’.
Bryan and Max were the only ones close to winning, down to ten cards each and straight faces put on display.
Omar was currently giggling beside me, sipping on a beer that had long since gone flat.

“Six fours!” Max shouted and laid the cards face down, eyeing Ronnie dangerously.
“Bullshit!” I called him, looking down at the eight fours in my own hand.
Flipping the cards over I triumphantly fisted the air as Max collected his new hand, “What the fuck? Don’t cheat Newt”
Laughing Omar leaned between us and pointed out the obvious, “She has all the cards dumb shit!”
Snorting on the bubbling laughter I clutched my sides painfully, trying to bite back the tears that edged to my eyelids.
It hurt to laugh so much; I just couldn’t believe I was having so much funwith Max involved.
“Fuck, I quit this shit,” Max yawned, “How many beers do we have left?”
“Hey! Save it for tomorrow” Ronnie called out to him as his skinny body exited the picnic table.
“Robert’s going to pick some up tomorrow anyway, go with him” Max replied as he uncapped a bottle and took a swift drink.
“Hey Nettie, you want one?” Ronnie asked me as he too got himself his fourth beer of the day.
“She doesn’t drink” Max answered for me, sinking back into his chair.
“I’ve drank before” I snapped at him.
Grinning around the bottle Max lowered it from his lips and held it out to me, “Then by all means: prove me wrong Tea Cup”
Snatching the bottle from his hands I eyed the drink.
“You don’t have to drink just ‘cause Max is being a douche” Bryan spoke up loudly, giving his friend a dirty look when I took a swift gulp.

I held back the cough as my throat burned, instead suffering silently as the cool bottle rested in my palms.
Max looked triumphant at my rather large swig of the alcoholic substance before returning to the mini cooler to get himself another bottle.

At exactly 9:45 pm did I finally realise my mistake of taking the bottle from Max.
Ronnie and Robert were still wildly shouting with each other, bouncing around the campsite with no destination.
Omar, Bryan and I sat at the newly made fire making roasted marshmallows which I burned more times than I could count.
Max was lingering between us all, humming song lyrics under his breath as he munched on our burnt feasts.
Bryans suddenly whipped up his flaming marshmellow and eyed its burning glory, giggling when the stick started to darken.

“Fuck Bryan, take care of that shit!” Omar hollered even though he sat between us.
“Come with me” A voice whispered into my ear quickly, a hand gripping my wrist and dragging my up from my seating arrangement.
Glassy eyed I found myself being pulled in the direction of the water, stepping onto the trail Bryan led us on earlier in the day.
My legs were stubbornly stiff, making my movements sluggish and the person dragging me annoyed.
Over my shoulder the fire was beginning to disappear until all I could see were the slopping ground and rushing waters.
“Fuck, slow down” I tried to slur out; though I was sure my words sounded more like a dying giraffe.

I was finally stopped at the shore of the water, hands holding me by my shoulders and steadying my body.
My sight was blurred though I could make out the tall darkened figure; I wasn’t sure who it was though I knew it wasn’t Omar or Bryan.
His arms seemed to weave up and down like a slinky, his face blurred as if standing behind a rose window.
It made me feel like throwing up actually, my breath hitching when rough hands touched my cheeks and rubbed tiny circles on them.
This person standing in front of me seemed to be acting tender, creating what would have been a romantic moment had I been able to decipher their identity and hold back my urges to throw up.

“Newton, you alright?” They asked me, their voice sounding like they were underwater.
I was getting worried now, my stomach crawling and inching its way into a bad state.
“I think I’m gonna be sick” Again I was sure my words didn’t sound anything like what I meant to say.
As if understanding me completely the person moved me closer to the water, helping me sit down and rubbing more circles onto my back.
What would have been a comforting gesture only helped me empty my stomach contents into the waters moving current, burning my throat more on the way up than down.
Once I felt settled I bent down onto my knees and rubbed at my hair until the hands of the unknown person pulled it back to me and tied it into a loose ponytail.
“You should’ve said no” They muttered, voice still hard to understand.
“I can’t say no to the idiot, if I do he’ll just tease me relentlessly” Wow, I formed a coherent sentence, now if only it made sense to anyone else listening.
“He wouldn’t have teased you,” The voice whispered closer to my ear, “Maybe you should just ignore him”
“Tried and failed”
“Do you want him to leave you alone?”
Swatting the person away from my face I leaned back onto my palms, staring at the water and trying to focus on its movements that made me dizzy.
“I want to figure him out” I answered honestly.
“Maybe he wants you to figure him out” The person answered back, voice sounding much clearer now that my stomach began settling.

Turning my head to the right their features began to become clearer, their soft face and pierced nose standing out prominently.
Their hair was strung out everywhere, black as the sky with pale skin.
Their blue eyes suddenly blinked me back into a proper state of sobriety that made me leap before thinking.
I found my lips upon his and my body pressed against his own, tumbling as backwards onto the sand to share a drunken kiss.
His hands held my cheeks as I felt him press harder, leaning up before pulling away with less determination than when we started.
Had I just kissed Maxwell Green?

“If he did, he would have let me already” I whispered, my fingers resting lightly at my abused and swollen lips.
He blinked at me quietly before bringing his face back to mine, kissing and biting at my bottom lip.
Tugging it towards him I felt the earth slip and my body tumble into his, “He’s letting you now”

I need to stop this. I have to stop this.
Max needs to feel as bad as he made me feel, just like Daryl and I planned!
I can’t let him just kiss me while drunk and just--
He’s drunk. Max is drunk and kissing me. I’m drunk. That’s all this is!

“You’re drunk,” I declared and pulled away, “This is stupid and we’re drunk”
Laughing Max kissed me harder, taking my thoughts and putting them into a bottle that sailed away on the rivers length.
“You’re too much like Vanessa” He whispered into my mouth.
“You’re an idiot” I sighed, getting up to my feet and leaving him sitting on the beach’s sand.

You’re too much like Vanessa.
Who the hell is she?