Chapter Text
In hindsight, it was a fucking awful idea.
After the days events, Max was anxious. Everyone knew he couldn’t swim now - well, everyone but David. From past experience, he knew that there was absolutely no chance the campers would be able to keep quiet about it - whether they wanted to or not was another story. They knew he’d do anything to stop David finding out. It was only a matter of time before one of them cracked or blackmailed him and he’d be having lessons with David. Max needed to stop him from finding out. He needed to sort it right now.
Unless...
What if he could swim? It couldn’t be that hard, you can learn anything from the internet these days. If he learned in secret then by the time one of the campers ratted him out to David, he wouldn’t even need lessons. It was the perfect plan.
While everyone else was still hanging around the lake, Max took the opportunity to sneak into the councillors cabin and take David’s phone from his top left drawer. No matter how many times he caught Max taking it he never thought to change the password or even hide it in a different spot. Dumbass. He looked up "How to swim" and clicked on the first wikihow ad that popped up. He skimmed through, making mental notes of the frankly vague instructions of “Let go of your fear” or “Don’t panic” while trying to follow along as best he could.
1. Stay within a depth you can handle.
Not a problem. He’d stay near the dock, that looked shallow enough.
2. Don't swim in water that's too cold.
The other kids weren’t pussies about it, surely he’d be fine.
3. Don’t swim alone.
What choice did he have? It’s not like he could tell the other campers what he was doing. Sure, Neil was a good friend but he wasn’t exactly the best at keeping his mouth shut. As long as he stayed in the shallow end he’d be fine.
He briefly scrolled through the rest until he was satisfied with the information he got. After quickly checking David’s social media, Max deleted his search history off the phone before putting it back where he found it.
And so it began.
The day continued as normal with Max keeping a close eye on the campers, offering the occasional glare or threat to keep their mouths shut. As long as they didn’t say anything during dinner he’d still be on track to start his lessons after dark.
Miraculously, dinner went smoothly and the campers were sent to their tents at 9pm as normal without a word. Max laid in his bed, arms folded under his head as he stared at the roof of the tent waiting for the sun to set. After about an hour of waiting plus making sure Neil was definitely asleep, he made his way out the tent, quietly unzipping it and slipping out into the night.
After the few occasions that the weather sucked and the campers had to sleep together in the mess hall, Max found out Neil was always the last to sleep without fail (other than him of course, fuck insomnia). This was helpful to know in situations like this when he found himself sneaking out late at night, weaving between the tents for a variety of reasons. As he snuck past the councillors cabin and towards the lake, he realised he was still wearing his socks, pyjama pants, and yellow camp shirt. He hadn't even thought to bring swimming shorts to camp at all. Well shit.
He shrugged. "I guess I'm wearing these then."
Max peered over the edge of the dock into the lake. The darkness making the water look like a terrifying black hole in the ground below him. He felt like he’d just fall right through it.
Max’s expression twisted as his confidence in this plan began to falter. He debated if actually going through with this was a good idea, but when the image of David teaching him to swim popped up in his head, he decided there was no way in hell he wasn’t doing this. Nothing would go wrong. The water was shallow enough for his feet to touch the bottom. The dock was in reach if he needed to get out - and Jesus, if Space Kid could do it, so could he.
He took off his socks before sitting down on the dock and dropping his legs fell over the edge, toes skimming the waters surface. Max made a disdainful face at the feeling, pulling his legs away from the unwelcoming cold surface on reflex. So maybe he forgot that the temperature would drop after dark. Not a problem.
Max inched towards the water, pushing himself closer to the edge little by little until he was as far as he could go without falling in. Well, here goes nothing. He thought.
He screwed his eyes shut and slid off the edge in one go, plunging his whole body into the achingly cold water.
Max gasped at the sudden change in temperature, feeling it shock his entire body.
His stomach dropped when he realised his feet didn't touch the bottom.
The water gushed into his lungs and he began to cough and choke. He flailed desperately, trying to stay above the water despite not having a shred of knowledge on how. His head dipped below the surface again. He swallowed more water. He gasped sharply when his head broke the surface - only to sink back down again, swallowing more of the gritty salt water.
This idea was fucking stupid.
He thrashed his arms about above the surface, trying to find something to grab onto. Under the moonlight he caught a glimpse of the dock just long enough to realise that it was much further away than it was a few seconds before.
Fuck.
Every second he tried to breathe resulted in him inhaling more water. There was nothing he could do. He didn’t care about this whole swimming thing being a secret anymore - it was well beyond that now. He tried to shout for help but couldn’t even muster up enough oxygen to take a single breath. Max was tired.
He kept trying for as long as he could until he started to lose focus on everything around him. As the darkness began to swallow him whole, he thought about what David would think when they found his body in the water the next morning.
Warm fingertips brush past his hand.
And then there was nothing.