Chapter 5
Sam reached the camp in less than 5 minutes. She ran into Joey at first. Still out of breath, she managed the utter, “Vicky’s in trouble.”
“I knew sending Justin out was a bad idea. By the way, who are you?” Chris asked as he came closer to her.
“Sam,” she heaved. “Vicky told me to tell you something happened to Justin, and she needs to know what to do.”
“What happened to Justin?” JC joined in. He strode up to Sam and stared at her. “Aren’t you Vicky’s friend?”
“Yeah, but right now, I can’t talk. Come with me and you’ll see what happened. It’s not far if we run.” Sam took off with JC and Chris following while Lance and Joey stayed behind. They soon reached Vicky, who was still in shock. Her eyes were puffy red as the tears kept streaming from them.
“I didn’t mean to. It was an accident,” she cried, holding Justin’s head close to her chest.
“What did you do exactly?” Chris asked in a calm voice as he approached Vicky.
“I punched him, he fell onto a sharp rock, now he’s unconscious and bleeding. I didn’t mean to,” she bawled.
“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be just fine,” Sam comforted as she stepped closer to Vicky.
“No, it’s not! I almost killed Justin!” Vicky screamed. She cried even harder at the thought of losing someone she could have been a little friendlier with. She felt so bad for treating him like shit ever since they met. Now the only thing she wanted to do was take it all back.
“Don’t keep blaming yourself, Vicky. It’s not all your fault,” Chris added. He put his hand on her shoulder for comfort. “Get up and help us bring Justin back to camp.”
“I don’t deserve to come back with you,” she complained, backing away from everyone.
“Stop it, Vicky. You have to understand that everything’s going to be okay,” JC started. He took her arms and held her so she wouldn’t run off again.
“Let go!” she yelled, struggling to free herself from his grip. It was no use. She couldn’t free herself from JC’s strong arms. She let her head drop as he carried her back to camp while Chris and Sam carried the unconscious Justin.
As they reached the camp, Lance and Joey ran over to them to help. They laid Justin on the sandy beach and waited to see what they could possibly do. Meanwhile, JC and Vicky sat down for a long chat.
“Vicky, please listen to me,” JC begged as she kept staring off into space not wanting to listen. “Vicky, come on. Give me a chance.” Seeing it was no use, he said, “I’m just gonna let Chris handle this. Since he’s supposed to be your friend, I think he’ll be a little more successful.”
JC stood up and walked over to Chris. Vicky watched as he now came over to her.
“Hey. It looks like you did a number on Justin. What have you been doing ever since you moved out of your parents’ house?” he tried another tactic.
“Nothing. Just some tennis, that’s all,” Vicky replied. She looked away as Chris tried to make eye contact.
“You’ve got a nice arm. It gave him a black eye. Could you possibly tell me why you hit him?” he asked calmly.
Vicky took her time. She didn’t want to answer right away. Finally, she said, “He was insulting me. I got pissed. He was really hurting my feelings by calling me ‘Miss Thang.’” She began to cry softly thinking about the nasty comments.
“Oh, don’t cry. You’ve already done enough of that. Besides, I really don’t think Justin meant any of those things anyway. He told Lance that he didn’t know why his attitude spiked in the first place. He also said that he was really sorry about it,” Chris explained.
“How did you find out?”
“Let’s just say I have my ways of getting things without people knowing.”
Vicky laughed. For the first time in what felt like hours, she was feeling a little better about herself.
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for. Now come on and give me a hug,” he said.
Vicky stood up and gave him one. It was comforting to know that someone was there for her.
“Thanks Chris. You made me feel better,” she replied.
“Hey, it’s what I do best.”
They walked back to the others. Sam looked at them with a confused expression on her face. “What were you two talking about?” she asked.
“Chris was just helping me realize that this all wasn’t my fault,” Vicky answered. She put her arm around Chris and smiled.
“Okay, JC said that you two were friends. Why haven’t you told me that you knew ‘N Sync?” Sam questioned.
“Well, I didn’t know that Chris was in ‘N Sync until today. Yeah, we talk every once in a while. He was my neighbor before I moved out of my parents’ house. We were best friends even though he was older than me. He’s a cool guy, and he knows me better than Chad,” Vicky explained. She looked at Justin and added, “He’s getting worse. I think there’s a first aid kit in the boat. I’ll go get it.”
“Hey, what did I tell you earlier?” Chris asked, grabbing her hand.
“Fine, I’ll take someone with me. Come on Sam,” she said. They left to get whatever was left on the boat.