I apologise to all my readers for the wait! This one is a special chapter to make up for my absence, and I also plan to submit the next chapter soon. I intend to have it written tomorrow. Thanks to all those who have supported Ronnie's Song! Enjoy..
------
The next few days at camp were terrible. I avoided Aaron at all costs, although he didn't make any massive attempts to talk to me. As well as this, Nate could sense my misery and tried unsuccessfully to cheer me up.
This only made me feel worse. Nate was a good person, and I was moping over the events that happened on the cliff with Aaron. I knew nothing would come of our kiss, and yet I longed that by some miracle, something would.
We were rock climbing today, and as I stood at the bottom of the wall, watching Sam being harnessed in, I started to envy her. Aaron could never see anything in me because Sam was everything. She was gorgeous - as much as I hated to admit it. If I were Aaron, I knew who I would pick.
Sam ascended the wall with great agility, punched the red buzzer and propelled gracefully back to the bottom, landing with a bounce. Of course she could do anything perfectly.
"Ok Ronnie, you're next," I heard Gemma saying.
"Oh..uh...no, I-I don't think..." I stammered. There was no way I was going up that wall.
Gemma walked towards me with the harness outstretched to me. "Come on, it's not that hard. Climb, hit the buzzer, and then push yourself off from the wall."
I began to protest again, but a sneer from Sam stopped me in my tracks. I looked at Aaron. He had his arm around Sam, looking at me with disinterest.
I grabbed the harness off Gemma and she helped me strap myself into it. She gave me a pat on the back to signal I was good to go.
With shaky hands, I began to climb. I got about half way up when I looked down at my cabin mates - big mistake. My head swam and I clutched the wall for dear life. I didn't move.
I registered Gemma's encouraging words but didn't retain any of them. "
How could you have been so stupid as to climb a wall when you're scared of heights?!
" I screamed inside my head. I began to hyperventilate.
It felt like I had been up there hours, whereas in reality it had only been a few minutes. My palms began to sweat and I feared I would lose my grip. It was then I felt soft hands around my shoulders.
I looked behind me, straight into Nate's blue eyes.
"I've got you," he said reassuringly.
He stood behind me and clipped my harness onto his own. Putting his arms around my waist, he encouraged me to let go. When I did, he kicked off the wall and propelled us both to the ground.
I landed with a huge sigh. My relief was cut short at Sam's cruel laughter.
"Scared of heights, Ronnie?" she spat.
Looking around at the other people gathered round the climbing wall, staring at me, I tried not to be humiliated, but my face quickly took a blush.
I bit back my retort to her, and ran from the clearing, just holding in my tears.
I wasn't aware I was running to the cabin until I reached it. It was ridiculous the amount of times I had cut my days short by retiring to the cabin to write in my book when I got upset. I hated Michael for dragging me along to this place.
I again started to write. Shortly after, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to Nate.
"Why are you knocking? This is your cabin too," I said to him, letting him sidestep past me before closing the door.
"I knew you were upset and thought you wouldn't want anyone with you," he said in a soft voice.
I made my way back to my bunk and sat down, pulling my book onto my lap.