Chapter thirty one
"What? You think I'd let you fall?" Ryleigh's laugh, so close to her face that his minty breath fanned her cheeks, made her peek an eye open.
"No..." Anika smiled. He had caught her. Quite smoothly, in fact. One minute she was in the air and the next she has her legs wrapped around his waist with her arms around his neck and her face pressed into the warm crook in his neck. She lifted her neck, expecting him to put her down and raised a brow when he didn't. Ryleigh spared her a glance and shrugged casually as if he didn't notice all the stares they were getting as the songs switched mid beat.
"Need a drink?" he asked her as he stopped by the beverage table where he and Skinner had spotted the girls out on the dance floor a few minutes prior.
"Uh, sure." Anika nodded, feeling a little breathless from the dancing, singing and the jump. Her heart pumped wildly in her chest with excitement and adrenaline coursing through her veins.
Again, Anika waited for him to put her down but he just shifted her to one side of his hip so he could free up a hand as he continued to support her back with the other so she wouldn't fall.
"Alright, so you're pretty strong even though you might not look it, but this can't be comfortable for you." Anika gestured to their position.
"I'm a man, Nick. Men are strong." Ryleigh sent her a wink before he grabbed a bottle of water after Anika had pointed to it.
"Are you not comfortable?" he held the water bottle for her as she unscrewed the cap and then took the bottle from his hand to take a long gulp of it before she replaced the cap and met Ryleigh's dark blue eyes again.
"Not really. You can put me down if you want to." she looked down at his chest to avoid his observant gaze, which was even worse than looking into those intense blue orbs. Why? Because he was shirtless making her bikini top the only material separating their dewy skin for the upper part of their bodies.
"What if I don't want to let you go? I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one thinking that you looked pretty hot up on that table dancing like that." Anika blushed even darker and was thankful that the black lights wouldn't pick it up.
"Can I have a piggy back then?" Ryleigh chuckled at the shy edge in Anika voice, and helped her move around to his back without ever having her touch the ground.
"Better?" Ryleigh half turned his head to see Anika's face right beside his.
"Much. Now, where are we off to?" Anika picked her chin up off his shoulder so she could look around them. A part of her mind wondered where Mel and the rest of her gang went, but another part of her pushed those questions out of mind and brought her back to the present.
"How about we go check out those obstacle courses and visit every food machine until we can't eat any more." Ryleigh suggested.
"Well that's one way of discreetly trying to keep me from getting fat. Sure, let's go to the obstacle course so we can eat whatever calories lost after that." Anika joked.
"You got me..." Ryleigh chuckled and Anika could picture him rolling his eyes.
"Whatever. I bet I can still whip your butt at both." Anika replaced her chin on his shoulder and looked sideways at him.
"Maybe with that," Ryleigh jerked his head in the direction ahead of them where the obstacle course was blown up in the corner of the clearing, "but there's no way you can beat me at a food eating contest." he scoffed.
Anika gently squeezed her arms around his neck for a second before slacking her grip again. "I beg your pardon. This girl can put away a few wands of cotton candy." Anika struggled to hold in her laugh.
"Right... I'll believe it when I see it." Anika could see a smirk stretch across Ryleigh's face and soon wore an identical one to his.
"Game on. I hope you packed diapers when you came to this camp because you're about to depend on depends once I whoop your ass."
"Lovely." Ryleigh let out a laugh before he finally allowed Anika to slide down his back so she could take her shoes off.
"On your mark... get set... go!" Anika shouted and climbed over the first bump in the course. The blow up bounced under her and she laughed as she was thrown into the cushiony wall.
"You're so fat you're shaking the whole damn thing!" Ryleigh heard Anika's laughing on the other side of the wall that separated the two competitors.
"Well see who's fat when I finish before you!" he shouted back as he picked up the rope that helped him get over the sharp incline half way through the obstacle. Anika held in her laugh as she could finally peek over the separating wall at the top of the hill. She jumped into the air and bounced on her back down the other side. She risked taking a look back to see Ryleigh standing at the top with a smug grin on his face. That was, until he spotted Anika already moving to the next obstacle.
Anika let out a squeal as she caught sight of the competitive gleam in his eyes when he tumbled down the hill. She turned back around only to be leveled by a blow up arm sticking about head height out of the wall. With a grunt, Anika found her bearings again and pulled herself off the bottom. Duck... Jump... Focus, she repeated over in her head until she stumbled across the finish line and would have fallen on her face if it weren't for the pair of hands that pulled her against their chest.
"Ow." Anika complained as she rubbed her nose.
"I know you like me, but I didn't picture you to be the type of girl to throw yourself onto someone." Ryleigh teased and pulled away from her to jump off the blow up obstacle course. He turned around and held his arms open to help her down. She slapped his help away and jumped down as her hand shot out to punch his arm.
"Sorry." he suppressed his chuckles and sobered up some. "Are you alright? Are you bleeding? Let me see." he pulled a pouting Anika back into his chest and tilted her head up a bit with his fingers under her chin.
"Ah! Stop! No!" Anika laughed as Ryleigh began tickling her sides. She tried to squirm out of his grip, but he pulled her closer.
Ryleigh quickly bent his head and placed a small kiss on her nose once he stopped tickling her and she had settled down.
"Better?" he chuckled as Anika could only blink back at him in surprise. Then she playfully glared at him and shoved him back so his arms dropped from around her.
"Don't be mad because you lost. You can still beat me at the cotton candy machine." Ryleigh offered a smile to her backside as she began to walk away. In two long strides, he was besides Anika again. His hand lightly clasped around her's and his smile widened when she unconsciously tightened her fingers.
"I thought I wasn't going to be able to beat you at the food part?" Anika raised a suspicious brow at him as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I changed my mind. You might have a chance." Ryleigh shrugged with a smirk.
"Oh really?" Anika narrowed her amused eyes and drew out the words.
"Yep. I figured if you hit like a guy then maybe you eat like one too." he teased.
"So I'm a guy now?" Anika repeated in amusement and continued when she saw him nod. "So you're holding a guy's hand right now. Does that mean you're gay? Cause if I remember correctly you said-"
"Alright! You're not a guy." Ryleigh chuckled. "Definitely not a guy... just a very manly girl."Â Anika swatted his shoulder.
"And apparently very abusive."
Anika rolled her eyes when he gently cradled his shoulder with the hand not holding hers. "Just because I don't jump around and throw a tantrum when I break a nail doesn't mean I'm manly."
"I can't even picture you throwing a hissy fit if things didn't go your way. You'd probably just punch someone."
"You make it sound like I have anger management and that I go off at random." Anika feigned a frown.
"Don't you?" Ryleigh brushed her shoulder with his elbow.
"No. I just don't particularly like dumb people. Especially the ones that annoy me." Anika sent a pointed look at him.
"So I annoy you?" Ryleigh slowed his steps and turned more to the side so he could look at Anika full on.
"At times." Anika pretended to think. "It might have started within the first minute I saw you." she shook her head. "No, you were passed out then. Okay, so sometime within a day of meeting you the pain in my ass started."
"You want me to kiss it better?" Anika's jaw dropped at his playful offer but he was ready this time to block her assault.
"I'm kidding! Kidding!" he chuckled and Anika found herself admiring the carefree look on Ryleigh's face.
"Whatever." Anika shook her head, chuckling along with him. "Are we going to eat or what?"
"You're on but..." Anika caught the curious look on Ryleigh's face.
"What? Are you to afraid now?" she joked and he shook head.
"What happened to your forehead?" Ryleigh asked.
"What? My forehead..." Anika reached up and felt the skin there. Her eyes widened as she thought back to when she was flattened by the obstacle course.
"Are those woven patterns? Hey... didn't the obstacle course..." his voice dropped off as a small knowing smile pulled at his lips slowly. "Anika..."
"Shut up." she muttered in embarrassment.
"Anika, did the obstacle course beat you up?" he teased.
"No..." Anika lifted her eyes to meet Ryleigh's laughing ones. "Just pick the food station already." she huffed and lightly shoved him.
"Okay... but if you want I can go beat it up for you." he sent a wink to her and let out a laugh.
"Good choice. The cotton candy machine it is then." Anika decided for him since he was still shaking with his deep chuckles.