Chapter twenty three
Anika heard a voice mixed in with Gelsey's as she stood outside the office door. Her palms were damp and clammy with moisture but her throat was dry and made her tongue feel like sand paper against the roof of her mouth.
When lunch had ended and Anika said she had to visit Gelsey. Her friends didn't need to verbally ask their questions; they burned in their eyes along with a sense of worry. But after many assurances that she was fine, Anika branched off from the group as they headed off to kick ball.
Ryleigh had been absent from sight and Anika couldn't stop the guilt that slammed into her gut. Hours before he had been trying to help, thinking she was in physical pain when she had emotional pain. And now that she accepted her hearts calling for him, he probably had forgotten about her already. After all, she had told him to leave her alone.
"Everything will be okay." Gelsey promised. Anika wondered when she had opened the door but the officer in Gelsey's office had Anika freezing briefly.
"Hello. I'm Officer Keye." Anika looked between Gelsey and the other lady cop. She was thin, and professionally dressed in her black pants and her blue uniform shirt tucked in with a thick black belt. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled back in a bun much like Gelsey's.
"Hi." Anika tried to smile, but she was sure it came out more like a grimace.
"Can we do this quick?" Anika shuffled nervously.
The officer nodded with a pity smile on her face but Anika ignored it and kept her eyes on her hands all throughout the questioning.
Anika was asked to give a description of the five guys in the alley as best as she could. This was one of the things that she could recall very easily since she saw them nearly every night in her dreams. Anika didn't miss the angry glint in Gelsey's eyes when she had to go through the night again.
"Thank you, Gelsey and Anika. There have been complaints of a group of men in the area and now we have a profile to fit them. When we do arrest them, they will be charged for this crime." Officer Keye said as she stood up along with Anika and Gelsey.
"Thanks for coming out here." Gelsey showed the officer to the door and gave her the camp's phone number. She left after another minute of talking and throwing another sad smile in Anika's direction.
"Thank you for coming back, Anika." Gelsey tiredly slumped in her seat. Anika frowned at the worried creases in her camp leader's forehead.
"I said I would." she mumbled.
Gelsey lifted her eyes from the stack of papers on her desk to meet Anika's grey ones. A small smile lifted her lips as she quietly sighed.
"Well, there's ten minutes left till second activities are over." Gelsey announced, staring at her wrist watch. "You've been dismissed from them but you could cheer from the side lines. Or you could pass by the nurse. She might want to check up on you." Gelsey said, gesturing to Anika's back.
"Oh, sure." Anika walked across the room to the door but turned around. "Um, do we get phone calls? Being the delinquents an' all."
"Of course. The phones are on the backside of the office building." Gelsey smiled which Anika returned before heading to the infirmary down the hall.
The nurse asked a few questions and had Anika rate her pain on a one to ten scale as she checked over her bruises. Most of them were now a stormy purple or green.
After being given a different pain reliever, Anika set around the building to find the phones. On one of the sides, the whole shingled wall was lined with the chipped black painted phones.
Anika stood in front of the last one and picked the phone off its receiver. A dull ringing rang in her ear before a beep matched every number she pressed followed by the sound of the other line ringing.
A familiar voice answered after the third ring. "Hello?"
"Do I want to know what you're doing with Greg's phone?" Anika held in her chuckle and pulled the phone away from her ear as her old best friend Lex squealed.
"Guys! It's Anika!" she heard Lex scream and two more voices commanded her to put the other phone on speaker.
"Anika! Are you alright? You haven't called in forever." Nick asked first in excitement and then in worry.
"I'm fine... How long has it been?"
"Three weeks." Greg answered smoothly.
"Gosh, it seems a lot longer than that." Anika mumbled to herself. She tested the cord to see if it could stretch enough so that she could sit on the ground. It did.
"You're telling us." Lex scoffed. "Why haven't you called?"
"Ah... been busy?" Anika held her breath as she waited for the questions to come.
"Made any friends? Causing havoc? Doin' us proud?" their voices mingled together.
"Yes... Kind of... and of course." Anika chuckled.
"What do you mean kind of causing havoc? What have you done?" Nick asked in curiosity. Anika could hear the sly smile in his voice.
"You really want to know? There's a lot to tell."
"Well get to it. We haven't heard from you in forever." Lex all but growled in impatience.
"Fine, but if any of you interrupt, I'm hanging up this phone." Anika jokingly threatened. When she was met with silence, she started to recite everything from when she got off the phone at the hospital to now but refrained from telling them anything related to her past.
"Wait, so he actually punched you in the face?" Anika guessed Nick was referring to the time when she met Ryleigh in his conscious state.
"In the chin. The bruise is finally gone." Anika brought her fingers to her chin and poked it, finally relieved that she didn't feel any pain after having the yellowish purple bruise.
"So you hadn't even arrived at the camp before you had your first fight. I'm so... proud of you Annie." Nick faked a sniffle and Anika heard a groan from the other end and Lex giggling.
"What I don't understand is how can you two go from completely planning to kill each other and then be friends." Greg said.
"I'm not sure we're friends." Anika mumbled, picking up a pebble out of the dirt and tossing it away from her.
"Yet. Sounds like there could be something more to this." Lex hinted.
"How about you and Anika can talk about your crushes and other girl stuff at a later phone call date." Anika could picture Nick and Greg shuddering at the memory of listening to Lex squeal on about some new bathing suit model in a magazine one time.
"Fine. That's even if she decides to call us again." Lex grumbled.
"I'll call." Anika promised, a small smile lifting her face. "I've just had a lot to deal with."
"We know kid. And we miss you." Greg chuckled, probably at the pout in Lex's face as she realized the chat was coming to an end.
"Miss you lots." Nick shouted in the background.
"I miss you too." Anika sighed. "Alright, I should run now. Second activities were over twenty minutes ago and my cabin mates must be wondering where I've headed to this time."
"Fine. But you best call us soon." Anika chuckled at the pout in Lex's voice.
"Yeah, we're just glad that you're-" Nick cut off Greg's sincere message.
"Alive? Unharmed? Still the same ol' Anika?"
"Thanks Nick. I can take care of myself." Anika rolled her eyes.
"Oh I know. That was quite the story you told." Lex giggled. "He sounds cute."
"Okay, and this is where we hang up the phone." Nick groaned out.
"Alright then, talk to you guys later." Anika bid them fare well and listened to their goodbyes before hanging the phone back on its receiver. She let out a quiet sigh and started the trek back to her cabin.
"Hey, how did talking to Gelsey go?" Keira asked lightly.
"I feel a little better." Anika looked between her two cabin mates with true honesty lingering in her grey eyes. Mel nodded, sensing the edgy topic.
"So, what do we do till dinner? We have an hour to kill." the red head asked.
"Oh! Can we go to the arcade? Please? They restocked the claw machine." Keira begged.
"Sure. We can swing by Ivy's and Skinner's on the way." Mel proposed and the three were off to collect their other friends.
The sun was still fairly high in the sky for the late afternoon and the air was dry. Altogether it made for one of the best days, weather wise for Anika. She would of offered to visit the beach, but as she passed the area on her way to her cabin from the office Anika had cringed at how busy it looked.
"So how good is this arcade?" Anika asked, slightly interested once they were all together.
"Pretty damn good. For a delinquent camp anyway." Ivy shrugged.
"Yeah, I think Gelsey likes to pull the I'm-taking-your problem-children-off-your-streets-so-they-can't-cause-you-any-trouble-so-you-owe-me card way too much." Skinner chuckled.
"And she usually gets her way too." Keira chirped. "She certainly won the battle for our arcade."
"We don't come down here often, but for some odd reason Keira has this... obsession with the claw machine with the stuffed animals." Mel shook her head at the excitement that burst over Keira at the mentioning of her favorite challenge of winning against the claw.
"Oh..." Anika studied the way Keira was now bouncing with each step that they took closer to the game room with amused eyes.
"They have more blue monkeys!" the golden blond shrieked in sheer joy as she set off in a sprint towards the glass boxed claw game.
"Don't you ever go for anything else? You already have three of those ugly things." Skinner chuckled.
Keira whirled around to glare at him. "Don't diss Blue, Bloom and Bill."
"Original." Ivy commented.
"They're loyal friends." Keira continued to defend her blue stuffed animals.
"I worry about you sometimes." Mel gave Keira a mock worried look, which Keira huffed at.
"You're all just jealous that you don't have my winning talent." Keira propped a hand on her hip and dramatically flung her hair over her shoulder.
"You're winning alright." Skinner snickered and tried to hold in his laughter when Keira swung at him.
"Whatever. At least they're happy to be free of that horrible crowded space when I conquer the claw and snatch up another cute fella'." Keira cooed, pressing her face into the glass side.
"Obsession..." Skinner leaned over to whisper to Anika.
The black haired girl just cracked a smile and let out a laugh as Keira frantically wiggled the claw lever to position it over her newest stuffed friend.