Summer Nightmares

Seven

Kai Young

We wandered for freaking forty minutes looking for Sydney.

The wind whistled. My bones shivered to the point where I stopped and looked down at me trembling feet, rubbing my arms with my cold fingers. Miles looked at me and handed me his cardigan saying, "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Thank you?" I said, confused because there was no way I could ever have imagined Miles Dunne giving me his cardigan after all the times he had to change into new clothes because of me. Yet again, I could've never imagined half the things I was doing at Camp Lakesvilke.

"I won't mind if it gets dirty, okay?" he sighed and gave me a faint smile. "I thought you would not be interested in sneaking out ever again. I didn't know you were lying last night with all that, 'I like to follow the rules' shit." Miles turned around to look at me.

"Jesus, I'll drag you with me everywhere from now, okay?," Regina smiled, looking at me.

With that, I hugged them both.

"Thank you, guys!" I smiled through my tears that we're running down my face as if I had won a prize. I smiled because no one had ever been friends with me. I had friends but not the ones who cared. And I knew that if we were to get into trouble, they'd never ditch me or leave me because they cared.

"Kai Young, you're being way too cute now!" Regina giggled.

"And even though you are annoying and stupid, we're friends and there's no way I'm forgetting you, ever!" Miles smirked.

I couldn't tell if I wanted to thank him for being nice or murder him for calling me 'annoying' and 'stupid'.

"What are you guys doing here?" Sydney said walking towards us and the leaves under her step rustled.

"Oh my God, what do you think we're doing here?" Regina replied dramatically. She sounded rather frustrated and worried.

"We were looking for you," Miles sighed. "because you didn't come back and it was-"

"I didn't want to come back to be honest," She gave a faint smile. "This is so stupid, okay? I was- I was looking forward to being at the beach with Emily and baking cookies and annoying her the whole summer," she sighed and chuckled lightly, "and I can't do this."

I. Can't. Do. This.

That sounded a lot like me.

"But you can't disappear!" Regina said, her voice still worried. "I told you to tell me if you needed anything and 'anything' includes me helping you out with your thoughts!"

"I'm sorry." Sydney said softly, her voice rather shaky.

"We should get back to the camp. Miguel and Emily might kill us when they figure out the things we've been doing." Miles dragged Regina and Sydney along with him.

The way back to Camp Lakeville was quiet and calm and stressful at the sand time. I could hear the birds chirping every now and then but mostly it was the wind. It was strange how the air in the forest was freezing cold while the camp was hot enough to make someone faint.

Everything about Camp Lakesville was strange.

"Sydney, you should tell Emily if you're not okay." Miles looked at me as if he was asking me to encourage Sydney to talk to at least Emily.

"Yeah, you should!" I said, nervously.

Sydney didn't reply. She just nodded slowly and kept on walking.

"She wouldn't want you to hide things from her," Regina sighed.

"Well, she wouldn't be surprised to be honest."

Sydney Jules Lopéz was the most mysterious girl I had ever met. And I could tell this was true in the first four hours I had talked to her. She didn't talk much, didn't talk at all. She had these mood swings that were unnatural and sudden. She had something, I knew, but I wasn't sure what it was.

And I was going to figure it out.

We got back to the camp, ran our way through the uncomfortably dark forest and still it felt like we had barely covered a mile. It took us 15 minutes to realize that we had been running around in circles which was rather weird because last night we knew the way back.

"Okay, so we're lost, aren't we?" I asked breathing heavily from all the running, as I ran my hand through my hair pushing them out of my eyes.

"No, we're not!" Miles said. I could feel the fear in his voice though he tried pretty hard to keep it still and confident.

"I think it's this way," Sydney said, pointing behind me and Miles to the dark forest. "Miguel said the lake was on the right side of the camp and the sign board was in a distance of 5 minutes or something. I think it's the way back to the camp."

I didn't know it was the right way. We could have been even more lost. Forests at night are death traps, hal-abeoji once told me when we were camping in his old town near Seoul. Every wrong step leads to terrible consequences. And we were the last in the long list of 'right things'.

"We're screwed anyway," Regina said and started walking with Sydney who was slowly dragging her feet. She looked tired and dizzy. We were losing it too except for Regina, who seemed way too energetic.

"I think we should wait for someone to get us. I can barely feel my legs," I said and sat in the leaves on the ground. Let's just say, I was not the kid who played and ran and did the things that were not studying or baking, thanks to my umma and appa.

"I-," Miles opened his mouth to argue and most probably for making me get up and walk another mile or something.

"I think we should listen to Kai," Sydney said, "I'm tired too."

Ten minutes slipped away like running water.

"How about we tell each other about our lives?" I said breaking the silence and gave them a big wide smile. They looked at me lost in their own thoughts as if they were considering and reconsidering their 'yes' and 'no'.

And I finally got the one answer I was longing for.

Yes.