Chapter 8
“Justin! Oh, Justin! Where are you?” Vicky yelled as she walked around the camp in search of him. It was like he was nowhere to be found.
Justin, on the other hand, was in the forest watching where Vicky went. He was ready to jump out from the bush when Chris came up from behind and scared him.
“Ah! What the hell do you want?” Justin asked as he turned towards him. Chris just stood there and laughed.
“Nothing, I was just wondering what you were doing here,” he replied.
“For your information, I was trying to scare Vicky for a little fun. Now that you’re here, I guess I can’t,” Justin retorted. Suddenly, his head began throbbing with pain. He fell to the ground as Vicky spotted them in the trees.
“Justin, what’s going on? You trying to avoid Vicky now? Well, that’s gonna be hard to do because she’s coming our way,” Chris said.
“Hi guys!” Vicky chimed as she walked up to them. “Hey, Justin. Where have you been all day? I was trying to find you.”
“He wanted to give you a little scare before you could find him,” Chris informed.
“Really? Justin, you little evil boy. How could you?” she asked as Justin lay on the ground in front of her. “Justin? Are you okay?” Vicky added when she noticed that he was not getting up.
He stopped moving as if to give up the struggle he was in. Vicky bent down and moved him to his side. “Justin, what’s wrong?” she repeated. He just stared off into space as if nothing was registering.
“Justin?” Chris asked as he also bent down to look at him.
“My head,” Justin whispered as Vicky gently began unwrapping his bandages.
“It’s okay. You’re going to be fine,” she whispered back. As she pulled away the last bandage, Vicky discovered the problem. There was a large area of swelling around Justin’s cut, which was probably the reason he was in pain. “Chris, can you help me out? I need you to drag him to the tent so I can take a look at him.”
Chris nodded and began to drag Justin to his tent. Vicky went off into her tent to get a bottle, then it was off to the waterfall for some fresh water. As she reached the pond’s clear water, she was that Sam was already there with Lance. She stayed off behind the bushes to see what they were doing.
Since Sam didn’t know Vicky was watching her, she lightly kissed Lance on the forehead as she held him in her arms under the cascading water. His head cocked to look her in the eye. With a quick reflex, he planted a soft kiss on her lips while reaching for her hair. They kept their lip lock for a long time until Vicky finally got sick of their affection and popped out of the bushes.
Sam jumped when she heard the crackle of dead leaves from the forest. She pulled away from Lance to see Vicky standing at the edge of the pond, laughing. “You two know how to get it on!” she commented.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Sam yelled as she waddled to Vicky. “I was having a private moment with Lance when you finally decided to come here. Why can’t we get any peace?”
“Well, I don’t know, but the reason I’m here is because Justin’s not doing so good and needs some water. I couldn’t care less about what you and Lance were doing because as soon as I get my water, I’m gone,” Vicky replied as she filled the bottle with water and screw the cap on it.
“Now can you leave?” Sam inquired as Vicky stared at her for a few moments.
“Yeah, but I wanna get a little more of the view from here, you know?” she sarcastically said, trying to make Sam a little more unease.
“Get going!” Sam yelled, becoming tenser than ever. She’d rather be with Lance instead of Vicky.
“Bye!” Vicky yelled back as walked away from the pond. She walked back to camp with the bottle of water in hand and a smile on her face.
“Vicky, Justin’s getting worse. I think he needs medical attention,” Chris said as he saw her emerge from the forest.
“Damn, what are we gonna do now?” she asked, walking into his tent.
Justin struggled to keep his eyes open. He was confused, and the headache from the swelling wasn’t making him any more comfortable. “Vicky,” he softly whispered.
“What is it, Justin? What’s wrong?” Vicky replied, kneeling down beside him. Her hands removed the bandages as she examined the swelling. “Well, from the looks of it, the swelling is only from the healing process. I don’t see any discoloration. I think he’ll be fine in a couple of days.”
“Take care of him while he’s sick. We don’t want out star member dying on us,” answered Chris as he left the tent.
“Vicky,” Justin moaned again.
“Shh… It’s okay,” she said, reaching for his hand to comfort him. With her free hand, Vicky stroked his cheek. It was warm, but there was no sign of a fever. “Do you want some water?”
Justin nodded. She unscrewed the cap from the bottle and held it up to his mouth. He drank as if he hadn’t had water in days, which was pretty true for the most part.
“Get some rest now. Take a nap. I’ll be back in a little while to check on you.” Vicky kissed Justin’s cheek, then left the tent to find Sam and apologize to her.
“Sam!” she called out. “Sam! Where are you?”
“Over here, bitch,” Sam replied in an angry voice. She was still soaked from her little waterfall experience with Lance.
“Sam, please don’t get angry at me for what I did. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Vicky began as she walked into the tent they were sharing.
“Of course you’d be running to say you were sorry. You’re so predictable, Vicky. Just go away. I’m sick of your apology shit. Every time you pull one of these, you always come running to apologize. Well, you know what, I don’t accept your apology. Hell, I don’t even wanna be your friend anymore. It’s like every time you find someone else to hang around with, you ditch me. And I’m tired of being ditched,” Sam vented. She took her suitcase and whatever other belongings she had and left the tent in anger.
“Sam! What the hell are you talking about?” Vicky yelled as she ran towards her.
“You and Justin. It’s so plain to see. You spend every waking minute with him. It’s like you two are inseparable. And then you also neglected to tell me about Chris being your friend and all. Jeez, Vicky. You sure are one of my best friends. I’m not taking any of your crap anymore. Good bye!” Sam stammered. She walked into Lance’s tent leaving Vicky dumbfounded.
“Well, you know what, you’re a bitch too!” she yelled back.
“What did you call me?” Sam came out of her tent.
“Bitch! Whore! Mother fucker!” Vicky reiterated. Sam ran towards her in an angry fit.
“You’re the mother fucking bitch among us! You’re the whore! Haven’t you told Justin about your little run ins with other guys besides him? Haven’t you told him about that time you nearly got pregnant because you screwed around with someone other than Chad? Well, Justin, I hope you heard that, because Vicky’s your little hooker!” Sam yelled at the top of her lungs. She was making sure everyone in camp heard her.
“Oh, now you’re in for it!” Vicky lunged for Sam’s neck. They were both on the ground dueling out seconds later. Vicky’s hand swung for Sam’s face as her head filled with anger. Sam was trying to dodge the powerful hits being thrown at her.
Chris, JC, Joey and Lance all burst out of their tents to see what was going on. Chris was the first to try pulling the two girls apart. With one punch, Vicky had him on the ground also. JC came in next trying to stop the fight. He and Lance were able to pull Vicky and Sam apart without being hit themselves.
“Both of you stop it!” Lance yelled as he held Sam from moving.
“Let me at that bitch!” Vicky screamed in an angry rage as she tried to wiggle out of JC’s grasp.
“No, Vicky! You’re not going anywhere,” JC replied as he dragged her to her tent. Chris and Joey followed.
Vicky was able to taste the bitter blood in her mouth every time she swallowed her anger. Her lip had a large gash on the left side that appeared to be swelling along with several abrasions on her arms and legs from the repeated punches. JC gently set her down on a blanket seeing her injuries. Her cut arm was now throbbing with pain.
“Vicky, what were you trying to do out there? Kill Sam?” Chris asked. “I thought you two were best friends. What happened?”
“It’s all her fault. She’s been bitching at me for catching her and Lance messing around by the waterfall. I only went to apologize, then she started to get pissed at me for other reasons,” she explained.
“Okay, I can see that you could get angry about those kinds of things, but starting a fight over them. I don’t understand. What made you so angry?” he kept questioning.
“I’m not about to tell all of you. You’ve gotta be kidding me. This is for me to know and you to find out,” retorted Vicky as she tried to stand up.
JC pushed her back down on the blanket. She landed with a thud and stayed there. “We heard what Sam said about you screwing around with someone else besides Chad,” he said.
“So I screwed around with someone else. Doesn’t everyone? And I wanted to break up with Chad anyway. I don’t like him anymore.”
“You got your point across, but you didn’t have to fight with Sam about it. You should have been able to control yourself. Next time, think before you act,” said Chris as he left the tent with Joey and JC.
Vicky looked away from their departing figures and began concentrating on her injuries. Her lip and arm were bruised badly, and she had scratches all over her legs. She thought about everything said, then about Justin. She was hoping he hadn’t heard anything.