A Strangers Scars

- Chapter One -

Anthony's POV

It shouldn't have been a surprise and if he had truly thought about it he wasn't surprised in the least.

His mom was only looking out for his best interest.

"You need to get yourself out there again, Anthony. Hiding from the world isn't like you, this isn't who you are." He could hear his mom saying only a week ago," I miss the person you were before all this happened."

He could relate, he missed the person he used to be too. But that wasn't going to change the fact that he was who he was now. Gone were the days he willingly hung in a crowd of people, laughing and enjoying the closeness he thought he had with his friends at school. Now were the days he hid in his room and pretended the world didn't exist outside behind his door. Gone were the days he felt secure in his own skin.

"Honey, I love you, but this has gone too far. You've built your walls so high and so thick that even I can't get through to you." She pulled out a camp brochure that Anthony could recognize from a mile away. "You loved this camp two years ago. I know you missed last year for personal reasons, but you're going this year. I already signed you up and you're still only seventeen, I can still order you around as your parent."

She laughed to herself at the last statement. His mom was never the kind to demand anything, but he also knew that she expected him to go. And he would, for her. Because he knew that the only reason she was making him go was because she cared.

He would go to make her happy.

True to his word, he now sat in the passenger seat of his mom's PT Cruiser with two week's worth of clothes, toiletries, and whatnot in the trunk. He could feel the bubbling of anxiety in his stomach whenever he tried to think about his arrival, it'd been a while since he'd gone last. Would he know anyone? If he knew anyone, would they care to know the new him? He could barely stand his own self. Eventually he had to will himself to shut his restless thoughts down, otherwise he'd beg his mom to take them back and he couldn't bring himself to imagine the disappointment on his mother's face if he let her down.

"Everything is going to be fine." She said, as if she could feel his anxiety. "It's only for a couple of weeks. If you come back and tell me it was awful and you never want to do it again, I will never push you to do it again. Okay?"

He nodded, but the bubbles in his stomach made him wary of talking in case he opened his mouth and spewed the drive-thru lunch they had only an hour ago instead of words. This was the first time in over a year he had knowingly and semi-willingly had made the effort and plan to be in a crowd of people.

Camp Valleyway Peace was once Anthony's' home-away-from-home. He'd been going every summer since he was twelve and never missed the chance to go until last year. Every day was a new adventure, every year was different than the last and he could always expect to learn something in his time there. The last time he had gone the camps' curriculum focused on music and everything music-related, he couldn't remember a time before where he had been so interested in the subject. That was also the year he discovered he liked the feeling of his fingers stroking the strings of a guitar, but that was also the last year he went.

His mother had enrolled him in guitar lessons for half the school year when he came back and couldn't stop talking about the instrument he now loved more than the sports he thought he loved the previous year, mostly because all his friends were in sports. Sports were too easy for him- all you had to do was follow the rules and be athletic enough to do them, the guitar though was a mystery that he wanted to pursue.

And he did.

Even after the incident that ruined his life, he still had his guitar that his mom gave him for lessons. He still practiced every day, but decided he didn't want the lessons anymore. Being face-to-face with a single person made his anxiety spike and he just couldn't deal with the stares anymore. Instead, he practiced alone in his room, away from society and their backstabbing ways.

He didn't know what the theme was for this year, he hadn't taken the time to look at the brochure. Mostly he hoped that he could get away with hiding in the shadows and no one noticing him, but logistically he knew that he wouldn't. The camp was big on involvement, a characteristic he used to love until a year and a half ago. These two weeks were going to kill him, but he had to try for his mom.

Even though the incident didn't involve her and she had tried everything in her power to be by his side through it all, she still had been affected in a different way. She had lost the essence of her little boy that day and he could see the pain in her eyes every time he chose to not talk to her the way they used to. She missed the closeness, but he couldn't seem to bring himself back from the abyss he so firmly planted himself in.

Maybe one day, but not today.

The camp sign came and went as they drove past and down the tree-lined dirt road. Another mile or two and his mom would be dropping him off at the same spot she did every year. This time she wouldn't get out of the car though, not because she didn't want to, but she knew that he wasn't going to talk to her and wouldn't hug her as he had before. She would honk, wave and smile like this was going to be the best experience for both of them, and leave fast so that he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.

The next thing he knew he was standing alone in the middle of a dirt driveway, wearing the same black long-sleeved shirt as the twenty others he had packed in eighty-degree weather. Sure, he would sweat, but he wouldn't complain and he wouldn't dream of taking it off for something else. This was his armor.

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I don't own the images used to portray my characters, they are what closely relates to how I picture them.

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-Sarah