A Silver Summer

Chapter 9

Chapter nine 

"Let's get started shall we?" Gelsey welcomed everyone into her circle. The girls told Anika that she always let the kids speak about whatever they wanted and not just about their problems. Therefore, this was the best circle to be in. 

"When's the party going to be?" a kid asked Gelsey. 

"Soon. The first week of July most likely."

"Party?" Anika bent over to whisper to Keira who just shook her head and jerked her nose in Gelsey's direction to the right of them. Only when the flames grew high enough to obscure and sometimes hide Ryleigh's intense stare on her face did she begin to relax. 

"For those of you who are knew to us this year, every year we have a party in the middle of the summer. Music, dancing and I'll even let some bad language slide. Just don't walk all over me or you'll spend the rest of your night in your cabin, alone. It's a kind of reward for behaving. So don't ruin it for yourselves or anyone else." Gelsey explain, giving each kid a hard look. 

"Onto other things... As you have noticed, we have two new faces to our circle. Anika and Ryleigh, welcome to our bon fire night." Gelsey inclined her head as she smiled at Anika and then Ryleigh   

"Would you two like to say anything to start things off? Get some things off your chest, so to speak?" some of the kids snickered, as they no doubt remembered the fight yesterday while others flicked their eyes back and forth between them. The flames wavered, creating an opening in the fire's glow long enough so that Anika could read Ryleigh's challenging smirk. 

"Yeah, what kind of guy hits a girl?" Anika glared at him. 

His smirk dropped as it was replaced with a dark scowl. "I was trying to contain your flailing arms so you wouldn't hurt yourself." 

"Hurt myself? I'm not the one that ended up with a bloody nose. But that's not what I was talking about." Anika waved her hand in the air. "I was referring back to the car ride when you slammed my head into the window. I was sleeping for Pete's sake."

"I apologized for that already. Besides, you would've done the same thing if you woke up to some creepy girl's arm on your chest. You probably made me lay my head down in your lap." he accused with a hostile smirk. 

"Oh that's right, you apologized. Well isn't that swell." sarcasm rolled off Anika's tongue and ignored his other jabs. 

"You're in for vandalism, but maybe that's just a cover for the real reason."

"Oh thank god. Please stranger, please tell me why I'm here?" Anika threw her hands around, gesturing to the ground. 

"You probably were hitting the same drugs your mother was on. Only she died and now you're miserable with survivor's guilt." he all but shouted. Anika's heart stopped as she felt the weight of more stares from the surrounding circles looking over at her. 

"Ryleigh, that's enough-" Gelsey tried to cut in with a frown over at him.

"Oh, was I not supposed to say anything about that? Mommy had a little trouble staying away from the pills. Genevieve said so herself." he tilted his head to the side, innocence clouding his voice as his lips pulled into a satisfied smirk. If there wasn't a fire pit separating them, Anika wouldn't have hesitated to beat his face in. Anika was up on her feet, trying to contain her anger so she didn't yell across the circle. 

"She was not a mother. I hate that woman. And I hate you, you conceited scum dealer!" Anika blinked back angry tears as she stepped over the log she was seated on and tried not to run away from him as she walked at a brisk pace.