The Regulator (Complete First Draft)

Chapter 23: Brandon - Is A Friend in Deed

He was an absolute mess. Brandon had heard he was bad, but not this bad. It had only been two days, yet Andrew looked like an unkempt mess. He hadn’t left his cabin since then, his campers had been bringing him food and water from the mess hall. Nick had told everyone to ignore Andrew, let him come out of it himself but Monica and his campers were worried, she had made plans to have people try and talk him out of it, and Brandon was first. Andrew was sitting on the side of his bed. Hands folded and in his lap. He was wearing the same dirty clothes he had worn two days ago.

“Sup, man.” Brandon greeted Andrew as he walked in, Andrew didn’t say a word. “You holding up okay?” He asked, it was a stupid question. So stupid Andrew even raised an eyebrow to it. “Yeah I know, that was stupid.” Brandon acknowledged, “But everyone’s worried about you man. We know you’ve been under a lot of stress but, you can’t just like, disappear on us like this. We need you, your campers need you.” Brandon began saying.

“Not campers anymore. This isn’t a camp.” Andrew said. He reached under the bed and pulled out a small cooler. Opening it up, he pulled out two bottles of beer, passing one to Brandon and keeping one for himself.

“See this is probably one of the problems right here.” Brandon said, taking the bottle, “Brad letting us have beer and all.” Brandon gave an awkward forced laugh. Andrew stared at him again. “Man, I’m just killing it with these jokes today.”

“Yes, yes you are.” Andrew said mockingly.

“Look, you know why I’m here. But I want to let you know bro, I think you made the right call. You gave him a choice, and he chose. You shouldn’t eat yourself up over that.” Brandon said taking a sip.

“It’s not just Zach.” Andrew said, taking a big swig. “It was the first day, the barn, the random attacks, the fact that these kids are always in f***ing danger. Every day I see the pain they should be going through. Sure they still laugh and play, but there always cold, always sad, always afraid. They don’t always show it but it’s always there. And then you add on what happened two nights ago, and Zach. And f*** man. It’s all f***ed. What’s the point.” Andrew said again, taking another swig from his bottle.

Brandon gave Andrew a disappointed look, he’d never seen this side of his friend before. Brandon stood up and walked over to Andrew’s shelf.

“What are you doing?” Andrew asked.

Brandon shuffled through his shelf that held books, looking for a particular one. “At the end of the first week you showed me something, a journal you’d been keeping. You called it your notes from zero hour or something stupid like that.” Brandon explained, as he finally found what he was looking for.

“Okay, what of it? I kept a journal at first. I bet a bunch of people did.” Andrew said, taking another sip of his beer.

“It was this entry, the last one you had written in it before you showed me it.” Brandon said, flipping through the pages and finally finding it. “Interestingly, it was the last entry you wrote too.”

“So what?” Andrew demanded, his tone angrier.

“It’s this line, right here.” Brandon said. “I will survive, I won't let this world take me. Or anyone under my protection. That is my promise. You wrote that. Because you wanted to pull through, you wanted to get your friends and your campers through. If you give up now, even if you survive somehow, you will have ‘let this world take you’, you said you wouldn’t let that happen. And I doubt all your campers will make it through this without you.” Brandon said, staring at Andrew. Andrew stared back, taking another sip of his beer.

“Thanks for stopping by man.” Andrew said, glaring at Brandon. Brandon knew he wasn’t angry with him, just annoyed. And he wanted him to leave.

“Yeah.” Brandon sighed, “Nice seeing you. Hope you get better soon man.”

“I’m fine.” Andrew said, taking another sip.

“Not from where I’m standing.” Brandon replied, starkly. He placed the book back on the shelf and walked out.