First time, at the Mediterranean sea! Part III.

Part II is here

Getting the low-down from Charles.

The blunt

As I looked at the offered smoke I started grinning. Just a month or so before I had, through sheer coincidence, smoked my first joint and had been smoking once a week ever since. Before leaving on vacation I had spent some time agonizing over whether or not I should take some weed or something with me. With the number of borders we'd be passing and the reputation of the tough justice against soft drugs in France I decided not to. Here I was, in the south of France, and on my first hike around the camping, I'm offered a blunt...

I thought it was pretty ironic at the time. Ten minutes later the blunt was lit and the high settled in. Charles and I got to talking and at some point, he asked me; "So, I'm curious, how much have you figured out about our little group? You know, you met most of them at our little secret beach?"

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The first hint there was more than I thought going on.

This gave me pause. I had not even thought about if there was anything to figure out let alone what. After a few moments of consideration, I came up with something at least. "Karl is pretty much the one at the front of the German contingency. Chryselle seems to be the one for everyone else, including Karl for the moment, as long as he wants to or thinks it is possible to get back together with Chryselle," I said, watching for any reaction from Charles to see if I was right or not. No luck there though, "Go on" being the only response he gave.

The Bavarian "Gesellschaft"

Thinking back to what I'd seen and heard on that beach I came up with some more observations. "Karl and the two Germans, as well as the girl with the local guy, have some kind of connection. I saw them all have the same symbol on them. Either a pin on their jacket or embroidered on their shirt." I told him, to which Charles nodded.

"The Bavarian High Something something beer something-something is what it called. A society of high ups in the Bavarian beer industry. They're here 'roughing' it on their vacation to keep in touch with their roots or something. It's all for show though. They've got sectioned off part of the camping all to themselves and their so-called caravans are at least 12 meters long. Can't even move them without a flatbed truck" Charles told me, in a tone that told me he wasn't their biggest fan.

"So what's the deal with Chryselle and her sister?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could. Suddenly Charles looked me straight in the eye "You didn't fall in love with her already did you? Cause if you did, you're not gonna have a good time, believe me." he said. I passed back the blunt with questions in my expression. Taking the blunt, then a hit from it, he shook his head before letting it hang as if in resignation. "Listen, you haven't heard this from me, let that be clear. The only reason they allow me to be among them is that I can supply things and because I'm not allied to anyone side between them. I want to keep it that way." he said looking straight at me.

"Having said that. The relationship between Karl and Chryselle has been artificial from the beginning. It was something they were pushed into so to speak by their parents. On the German side the desire to settle into the highest social circles around Cap d'Agde played a role and on the French side the hope that if Chryselle and her sister spent their summers hanging around with more 'civilized' tourists, as opposed to the 'rabble' in the cheaper camping sites, they'd be less likely to get into 'trouble'" Charles explained.

I nodded, not unfamiliar with that kind of force working in the social environments that parents were susceptible to. "So things never got real serious between them, at first just acting like boyfriend-girlfriend for their parents' sake." Charles continued, while I listened closely.

His point of view

"Last year though things changed. One thing that had changed was Karl having reached 18 years of age, and being considered an adult as well as getting his car for his birthday. This got his attention from…a wider range of girls and women." the story continued.

From her point of view

"Chryselle on the other hand had been impressed with the importance of their family social image and exposure, with her dad being a Magistrate du siege or something. She became aware that her social life, ie. boyfriend or single, breaking up or being broken up with, status, mattered to people other than her family." Charles said, then stopped for a moment, seemingly considering whether or not to tell me something. Then, obviously having made his choice, he continued.

"When Karl came here last year, in his new car and instantly became the target of almost every girl that got a good look at him Chryselle decided that their relationship should become more defined and formalized…more serious and exclusive. Karl always had a crush on Chryselle from the beginning and followed Chryselle's lead happily at first." Charles said, then pausing to take a hit from the blunt.

Shit hitting fans

"As he realized though that his options had expanded since the year before he began to… taste sample the buffet so to speak. After a few days, he didn't even try to hide it from Chryselle who until then had thought she could trust him and she was his exclusive girlfriend. One night, near the end of the holidays there was a lot of partying going on and Chryselle snapped. I don't know the full details but I do know she managed to push Karl's car into the harbor in a very public and embarrassing scene." Charles finished.

I took in what he told me and for a moment considered he was feeding me a whole lot of bullshit and nonsense. I dismissed that notion though, somehow getting the feeling he was on the up and up. He had no reason to feed me bullshit stories as far as I could tell.

Contemplating in silent enjoyment

After a while of enjoying the effects of the blunt in silence Charles out of nowhere started talking again.

"Listen, if you're smart, you'll stay clear of those two while you're here. Karl's folks have of course started a legal case against Chryselle for the damages to the car, and Chryselle's folks are pressuring her to make up with Karl to motivate his parents to drop the case or settle somehow. That's the only reason she is talking to Karl. What she really wants to do is hurt Karl and humiliate him if she can. Karl noticed that dating Chryselle makes him more desirable to other girls, and wants to recover some of his lost dignity after Chryselle tore him a new one last year. I don't know how that is going to play out over the coming weeks but I do know anyone getting mixed up in that nightmare is going to end up collateral damage." Charles said, seemingly making the point he'd been trying to make from the beginning.

Heading back to the Camping

Soon after that, I said goodbye to Charles, as I had promised my parents to get back to the camping before dark, at least on the first evening of the vacation. Luck more than anything else leads me back to the camping by dusk and I joined my parents for a barbeque and a game of cards we always played when we were at camping, called "Jokeren". The two bottles of wine were almost gone when we went to bed well after midnight.

Early heat, early rise.

When I woke up again, just a tiny bit of a wooden head from the wine of the evening before, my folks had gone to the beach and would probably stay there all day, their note told me. I took my time eating breakfast and copious amounts of coffee before taking a shower and getting dressed. When I took a look at the clock when I was done I was very surprised at how early it was.

It was a little after nine o'clock in the morning, and the temperature was already well above my comfort threshold. Not sure about what to do I looked at the camping's entertainment and activity schedule and saw that there was a football match being organized at 11:00. Not planning on playing but hoping to get to know some more people on the camping I decided to go to the big football pitch at the center of the camping, before trying to find Charles to do some shopping.

Checking out the activities.

When I got closer to the football pitch I noticed there was quite a turnout and when I walked onto the field one of the two Camping employees responsible for organizing the activities immediately came up to me. She introduced herself and began to explain they were one person short of forming two teams and practically begged me to participate. Never one to disappoint anyone if I could avoid it (it never hurts to help) I eventually agreed and signed in.

Identified and whispered about

Ten minutes later the field was cleared and the ones who'd agreed to play were asked to come to the middle of the field. That's when I noticed that Karl and 6 others from their group of beer people were also playing. Before I could even consider backing out, Karl caught sight of me, and the whispering and elbowing ensued.

And what happened is going to be revealed in part IV of this series. I hope you enjoyed reading the story so far and are interested enough to read the next part when I've published it! I love thumbs up's and subs but am thoroughly satisfied with the read-alone as well.

Thank you for reading this.

Stay safe and stay happy!

@AnonSunamun