Tom smiled a bit as it was getting dark, and they were heading to the campfire. Rose had caught up with them and ensured nothing was going on between the two. It seemed like Roy was wrong, thinking anything would go on between the two. They all made it to their campsite, and Jacob brought food for everyone.
"That's so nasty looking; what is it?!" Casey asked.
"It's bean stew; if you don't like it, you can starve. We don't have anything else here besides beans," Casey informed.
"This is great, thank you," Maxwell smiled as Casey looked at them, disgusted.
"Think about the carbs!" she put in.
"Stop being picky rather already," Sofia said as she ate her food happily.
"Well, you need the carbs; I, for one, don't. If you want to be a fat ass, go ahead, I'm not!" Casey informed as they put the container of food on the ground and the spoon on top of it.
They ate in silence while Casey was on her phone but smiled as she remembered the piece of paper she had found in the office. She got it out and unfolded it carefully. Stacey looked at Casey, confused, and so did Roy as she looked at the paper.
"Who wants to play a game of truth or dare?" Casey asked.
"We are not playing that game every time we play this game; someone always gets hurt," Rose informed.
"Live a little, and who made you in charge? You never let your husband have a say in anything; you are controlling," Casey informed.
"She is not controlling! I don't want to play that game either. It's stupid, and for dum kids, I'm not letting anyone get hurt on my watch!" he explained.
"Well then, I guess I will have to read a juicy secret I found in the office, or we can ask questions about each other," she smiled.
"Who's the secret about?" Stacey asked.
"Not telling until Tom asks a couple of questions," she smiled.
"Fine, I know this might be personal, but you are very protective of Maxwell. Why? I know he's shy but is there another reason?" he asked.
"Can I pass on answering?" Rose asked defensively.
"It's alright, Rose, really promise. I was abused heavily as a child, and being around people freaks me out. She is also protective of me because her household wasn't that great either. We both called the police the same day and met at the police station. Our moms became friends, and the rest is history," he said with a sad, soft smile.
"Shit, man, seriously?! You two met at a police station, and you both turned in your fathers on the same day?" he asked.
"Yeah, I promised him that I would help him talk to the police. He wouldn't talk to anyone because he was too scared to speak. His dad got free from the cops, and I protected Max from him. I used every curse word I knew, and I may have punched him in the balls. Max had to hold me back, and my mom was shocked I did that. I had to take anger management classes once a week for a year and therapy for six," she informed.
"That's nice; I like that. No wonder you are so protective of Max," Tom said.
"So, who's secret do you have?" Jacob asked.
"It's about our sweet little Sofia here," She smiled as Sofia's face drained of color.
"Hey, Casey, don't read what's on that paper. You are freaking her out," Tom said defensively.
"Okay, Tom, tell the truth; do you like Sofia or not?" Casey asked.
"You are holding this over our heads? You are a cold-hearted bitch! Tom said coldly.
" Tell us! Tell us! Tell us! Come on, man, it can't be that bad of a secret. Is Sofia secretly a trans guy or something? Roy asked.
"Can we stop? Sofia doesn't need to talk about anything she doesn't want to. If it's private, then she doesn't want us to know about it!" Rose remarked.
"Fine, I care about Sofia, yes. I regret that I have been avoiding her, but I am a fuckboy. I don't do commencement, and I have been thinking about doing a real relationship with her, and I know now I will never have a chance. I screwed up, and I own up to it, and I know she doesn't like me back, so now I'm a moron happy now?" he asked as Casey laughed.
"You must care if you just admitted your deepest darkest secret. You're into children!" Casey laughed.
"She is not a child! She has a high metabolism, and she can't help it!" Tom growled.
"Whatever, you sick fuck. You are into child-looking women. It's nasty; just saying, anyway do you want to tell it, or do you want me to?" Casey asked.
"Okay, this is going too far," Roy informed.
"Sofia has PNES, stress-related seizures. Why didn't you tell us about your fake illness?" Casey asked with a smug grin.
"It's not fake... I don't tell people about it because, in school, my bullies used to trigger them all the time because they thought k was faking it," she said as Tom could see she was stressing out badly.
"Am I stressing you out? Maybe because your illness is fake," she chuckled.
"Stop it! You have gone fucking far! You can make fun of the rest of the people here but not Sofia!" Jacob growled.
"Come on, Sofia; it's fake! You want people to feel sorry for you!" she informed as Sofia stood up and emptied her bag on the floor and took out her empty medicine bottle.
She threw the bottle at her, and Casey caught it and noticed it was empty. Casey looked at her in shock and then realized why she never said anything. She was out of her medication; she could have a seizure at any moment now, and she could maybe die from it.
"Why didn't you say anything?!" max asked.
"I ran out this morning; I thought we would be going home... I didn't have a chance to say anything to Hence before he left for town," she explained.
"Roy, you idiot! You had to throw that arm in the lake!" Tom yelled.
"I'm sorry, Roy got us stranded here?" Stacey asked.
"Roy said he was to get Casey back, and I thought he was going to keep it on it so if we needed to go, we could go, but he threw it in the lake!" Tom informed.
"You thought you could get me back?! You are such a dumb fucker!" Casey yelled.
"I love you, alright! I had no idea she had a medical condition! If I did, I wouldn't have thrown it in the lake!" Roy defended.
"You knew he did something to that car, and you didn't say anything?" Sofia asked.
"If I knew you had a medical condition, then I would have said something!" Tom informed.
"Sofia, this is all your fault; I hope you have a seizure!" Casey growled as Sofia looked at her, scared.
"Everyone, calm down. We can talk about this like adults and figure out a way to keep everyone calm! We need to make sure Sofia doesn't have one. If she does, then we need to make sure we know what to do so she doesn't get hurt or die," Jacob pointed out.
"Are you kidding me? This whole mess is all her fault!" Casey yelled as Sofia headed to the woods quickly to calm herself down so she wouldn't have a seizure.
"Where you are going, you little bitch! No wonder Tom likes you; you are just as stupid and selfish as he is!" Casey yelled, making Sofia take off running.
"What is wrong with you?! You are going to kill her!" Tom yelled as he quickly went after her.
"I'm going to go get some flashlights; save your phone batteries so if we need to make a call, we can try later. We need to find Sofia before she gets hurt or, worse, dead. A cop told Max and K there were wolves, and with some of the evidence I saw, there are hunters too. Poachers, by my guess and I, know they won't give a fuck if they shoot us if we get in there a way of making a quick buck or two," Rose informed.
"We found some guns; I think they are like BB guns; I can go get them just in case," Jacob informed.
"Okay, get them, and hurry. Tom might stress her out more by accident," Rose informed.
"We are going to help her? After all the mess she has caused?" Casey asked.
"Well, now, if she dies, you can be charged with involuntary manslaughter. You have that paper, and it's all of us against you. She was trying to make sure this whole time she stayed away from stressful things and talked about what she has made her stressed. Sofia never had a seizure, and now she might, and you were egging it on that her illness wasn't real," Roy informed.
"You would seriously make me go to jail for her being too stupid not to take enough medication?! You won't be able to make any of the charges stick, so you know," She chuckled as she headed back to the cabin.
"You chose a keeper," Maxwell muttered as he headed to the cabin in hopes of getting there before she did.
Rose had told him. She trusted Maxwell the most with her medical issue because he helped her calm down before having a seizure a couple of weeks ago. A kid was stressing her out by being unruly and went into the woods to scare her. It worked too well, and Max was there, thankfully, to calm her down. He thought she was having an anxiety attack, but it was worse than he thought, which was why her phone was always on and charged, why Hence had her emergency contact information saved on his desk. Max promised not to say anything to anyone, and he felt his promise only to have Casey make fun of her. This wasn't going to end well.