A Silver Summer

Chapter 41

Chapter forty one

"I'm sorry." Ryleigh's voice continued to ring in Anika's ears even after five minutes had passed. 

Sorry. Did than mean he was sorry for ever meeting her? For every time they laughed together? Was he sorry for giving her false hope? 

Of course he was sorry, Anika thought bitterly as her skin numbed over. Not her heart though. His voice was stuck in her ears and the look of pure disgust and horror was burned into her memory. She had opened the walls that heavily guarded her heart and he ripped it out and tore it apart a little more with every step he took out the door. 

Anika drew her legs up to her chest and buried her head in her arms as they wrapped around her knees. Her shoulders shook as silent sobs clenched painfully in her chest. She felt hallow from the tips of her fingers to her toes. 

"Anika?" the voices of her friends broke through her silent sobs. 

She didn't bother to look up or hold in her tears as they followed in time with the choking sounds in the back of her throat like someone had unmuted her. 

"What did he do?" Mel asked with a hard edge to her voice and Anika forced herself to look up to see Mel glaring at the door. She met every pair of eyes in the room before she shook her head lightly. Anika was sure that if she tried to speak she would just cry harder so instead she held her breath until her heart pounded in her ears. After releasing her breath slowly she wiped her face and took another breath to speak in a low, hoarse voice. 

"It doesn't matter."

"What doesn't matter?" Skinner asked from his seat at the end of the bed next to Ivy. Anika ignored his confused glance and returned to staring at her knees. 

"How do you do it? How are you still here?" 

"What do you mean?" Keira reached a comforting arm around Anika's shoulders. She stared at the arm around her and pushed down the burning tears that wanted to escape. 

"How can you touch me?" Anika's voice cracked at the end and she risked glancing at Keira's confused face.

"Enough of that." Ivy snapped with a slightly irritated look in her baby blue eyes. "Do not for one second think that we will abandon you because of your past."

"I swear, if that jack wagon said he was walking away from you, don't expect us to follow his lead. You're our cabin mate and friend. Hate to break it to you, but there's no getting rid of us." Mel pledged. 

"He said he was sorry." Anika was surprised at how strong her voice came out. 

"The only thing he'll be sorry for is for coming to this camp in the first place. If he didn't, this would have never happened." Keira growled, her hands clenching into fists. 

"It wasn't his fault for being sent to camp." Anika defended him, surprising everyone. 

"Of course it's his fault. Everyone that goes to Silver Lake is to blame for their enrollment. We're delinquents." Skinner protested, irked that Anika was standing up for Ryleigh after he walked out on her. 

"Not him. He's different." Anika said, meeting his eyes squarely. She kept running his past through her head. It took a strong person to protect their little sibling from their own father and despite the pain she felt with his departure, Anika still respected him for all that he's had to deal with in his life. She was just another thing to deal with and that's why she didn't blame him. That didn't mean it hurt any less. 

"So what's his past?" Ivy asked, placing a hand in Skinner's shoulder and giving him a stern look. 

"Exactly that. His past. I don't have a right to retell. We had an agreement. He told me his, I told him mine. Ryleigh's been through his fair of shit and more. I'm just another thing to add to his mind."

"No. You're a person, Anika. Not a thing. Okay, so if you say he's been through the ringer, fine. But haven't we all? Sure, some more than others but still. There's no reason he should put you through more pain after you explained your past. You've been through the worst and you didn't shun him out when he told you his past." Keira said. 

"I was in a coma when he told me." Anika replied blankly. 

"You know what she means." Ivy switched her stern gaze to Anika. "His past wasn't too much for you to bare and you still went on to tell him your past."

"Everyone's different." Anika begged weakly in her eyes for them to drop it. 

"But he's still hurting you." Skinner stubbornly continued. 

"I'm fine." Anika willed all emotion from her face. She was just about numb everywhere anyway. 

Ivy sighed and let her face soften with defeat seeing how Anika would close them out if they kept talking about Ryleigh. 

"Okay."

"Wh-" Skinner cut off with a hiss after Ivy pinched his leg. Her smoldering blue eyes told him to drop it, which he complied to reluctantly. Anika had become a sister figure to him like Mel and Keira had at the beginning of summer. He didn't want to see her break even more due to a guy after everything that's happened to her. 

"Thanks." Anika nodded her head in appreciation but still kept her emotions locked up. She wasn't trying to block them out on purpose but she also didn't want them to see how hallow she felt. Like she would be crushed under the weight of the world. It was all too much. Her mother's lack of parenting throughout her life and then her death, the men in the alley which resurfaced the same level of fear in her today as the day in the alley, finding out the results of the attack, Ryleigh.... It all caught up to her and she felt exhausted. 

"Right, well, just get some rest. Okay? We're supposed to go back to camp tonight. I don't want to spend the whole week getting yelled at by Sargent because I won't be following his orders while your here. So, rest up and hurry back to camp or I might just beat someone up." Keira smirked and the tension in the room lightened. 

"Maybe we can ask Gelsey if we can just not do any activities." Ivy raised a brow in hope. 

"Or maybe we can just skip the activities altogether and go hunt down the kid that spiked the lemonade." Mel offered with her dark smirk playing at the corners of her lips. 

"Ooh, that sounds fun." Ivy quickly agreed.

The door to the room opened. Gelsey and the doctor stepped in. 

"Alright, girls and guy. Time to head back." Gelsey announced and chuckled at the whines that filled the air. 

"I know, I know. But Anika will be coming home in a couple of days. You'll see her then." Gelsey chuckled at their pouting faces before she turned and signed the papers the doctor had in his hands. 

"I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over for tonight." the doctor gave a frown at all the delinquents in the room before he shook Gelsey's hands one more time and left the room. 

"Alright, well, get some rest." Ivy patted Anika's leg lightly and gave a small smile. 

"Will do. See you guys later." Anika gave them a wave and watched the door click closed after them. 

She sat in silence for a few minutes before lying back on the bed and closing her eyes. Luckily, the night passed quickly and she didn't dream of the worst night in her life, which today had been dangerously close to becoming. Instead her dreams were empty. Like her heart.