A Silver Summer

Chapter 30

"What are we doing?" Ryleigh breathed against Anika's lips.

"Uh... kissing." Anika pulled away with a slight blush on her face.

"I know that smart ass." he rolled his eyes before he looked at her with a more serious expression. "The first day we hate each other."

"Well, who's fault is that?" Anika offered a small smirk to let him know she had forgiven him.

"Mine. I know." Ryleigh dipped his head down to rest his forehead against her's before he continued. "Then Gelsey advises that we talk... which we did, kind of." he sighed. "And then you threw me for a loop and pushed me away."

"And I tried to apologize and you pushed me away." Anika added.

"Then the next thing I know, you're off with that kid." a tinge of anger slipped into Ryleigh's tone.

"I really am sorry, Ryleigh. I didn't actually want you to leave me alone. I was just scared of the things you were making me feel. I didn't, I don't want to lose another person in my life. Then you said to leave you alone and I didn't know if you truly meant it. I thought I lost my chance to talk to you."

"So you tried to make me jealous?" he surprised Anika by giving her an amused smile.

"I guess." Anika's blush returned. "It was sort of a test to see if you meant what you said."

"I didn't." his smile dropped from his face as he became more sincere.

"I know." Anika shocked the both of them for the second time that night as she wrapped her arms around his slender waist and gave him a warm hug. The evening air was a little sticky with humidity as their skin tingled in the places they touched.

She looked up at him with her face pressed into his chest. "You wouldn't have kicked that kid after he was down if you really didn't want anything to do with me."

"How is it that we've only known each other for a few weeks and somehow managed to evolve from hating each other to this." Ryleigh twirled one of Anika's curls around his finger.

"What is this, exactly?" Anika asked almost shyly.

"Friendship, I think. For now." he glanced at Anika's hopeful face unsurely.

"Oh right, you've never had any friends before. So this is how it works; we try not to kill each other and play nice." Anika smirked at him.

"Really?" he asked, faking shock but rolling his eyes.

"Then again, I'm not sure. Friend is a fairly new term to me too. I only have a few of those." Anika scrunched her nose up and stepped away from him, letting her arms relax to her sides.

"You seem really close to your cabin mates, that blond kid and the pink haired chick." Ryleigh raised a brow at her.

Anika shrugged, suddenly feeling guilty about keeping her past from them. After all, she did know some of theirs.

"They know my name and that's about it. At least you know about my mom." Anika whispered, looking to the side.

"I thought you didn't want to think about our pasts tonight?" Ryleigh reached for one of her dangling hands and played with her fingers as he slowly began to walk back to the path.

"You want to head back to the party?" Anika mentally thanked him for keeping her mind off of her issues.

"Unless you want to go back to my cabin..." Ryleigh lowered his voice to sound alluring.

"Hell no. I worked too damn hard on setting up some of the decorations to miss out on them just to spend the night with some boy." Anika blew out her breath through her nose in a soft snort.