Page 53 of Dirty Daria
“Morning, Reed,” Quinn trills, her voice just as peppy as usual.
Reed looks her up and down slowly. “Is this how we’re greeting each other now?” He shrugs and grabs Quinn pulling her by the hand into him, then gripping her ponytail with his other hand to hold her head in place while he proceeds to kiss her, extremely thoroughly.
Quinn visibly stiffens, her hands flexing at her side, face reddening as she raises one to his shoulder, tentatively. Reed abruptly breaks off the kiss and steps back, releasing her ponytail as he goes.
“We going or what?” he asks looking at us as though that didn’t just happen.
Quinn clears her throat and scurries past him, her eyes downcast. “Let me get my sunglasses.”
Mack has Reed pinned against the wall by his neck before I have a chance to blink. “Don’t even try it, man. I’ve got so many ways to hide your body down here if you hurt her.”
“Get the fuck off me,” Reed rasps, his face turning purple, and his feet dangling.
“Leave her alone. Especially when you’re like this. Quinn is off limits, you hear me?” Mack pushes harder and Reed’s eyes start to bug.
“It’s okay, Mack,” Quinn says as she enters from the bedroom. “We were just playing around, saying good morning, right, Reed?” She looks at the men, her gaze going from pleading when she faces off with Mack, to sadness when she turns it in Reed’s direction.
Mack releases Reed, who falls to the floor with a huff, clutching at his throat and trying to catch his breath.
“What the fuck, dude?” Reed scrambles back up and pushes at Mack’s chest. “I was just following your lead. This is what we do, right? Bring random women on operations so we can kiss or fuck or whatever in our down time? I’m just taking advantage.”
Reed doesn’t even see Mack’s fist coming until it’s too late and he’s flat out on his back and Mack is straddling him, ready to go again.
“What the fuck is your problem, Roberts?” Mack lifts him by the neck of his T-shirt, shaking him once before tossing him back to the floor and getting off him. “You need to get the fuck over yourself. You’ve had more than enough time to get a handle on the situation, it’s time to grow a pair and be a big boy now.”
Reed throws his shoulder forward to right his shirt before standing, he faces off with Mack, both men breathing heavily. Reed’s left eye already starting to blacken and swell from where Mack hit him. I have a feeling the hit is a long(ish) time coming, but it still doesn’t make me feel any better about the guys arguing.
“We can do this another time,” I say.
“No!” Quinn interjects. “No, this place sounds fun and if there’s anything we all need right now it’s some fun. So let’s go.” She stalks out of the villa, not even waiting to see if we follow.
25
Mack
We stop and have lunch on the way to the Fun Zone, so we don’t get there until late afternoon. It’s exactly what you’d expect by the name: part adult playground and part carnival with a bar. Everything the brochure promised and more: a large ball pit with soft foam balls, multiple trampolines, bounce house, inflatable maze, a long curly slide into the ball pit, and swings.
Despite it being adult-sized, I’m still too big for most of the things there, but the girls are the perfect size for everything. I enjoy watching them cut loose and play. Especially Daria, because I know that she missed things like this as a child, so for her to experience them now is priceless to me.
I take a few photos and videos with my phone, but mostly just watch and commit it all to memory. Reed sulks beside me, not enjoying anything. I’m not sure why he even came with us. Other than he seems taken with the drink of the day—the yellow bird. Some sort of hideously yellow colored concoction that comes in a two-foot tall cup with a feather sticking out the top.
He orders me one on his second go round, it’s surprisingly tasty. Deceptively so, I realize when I stand to use the restroom and my head spins a bit. Not so much that I’m drunk, just enough that I know there was a lot of alcohol in the drink. So, when he tries to order them for the girls, I halt the server and get them normal sized piña coladas instead. I’m surprised Daria likes the piña coladas so much since she’s usually a vodka drinker.
Around happy hour time, a dance floor covers the trampoline section much like a motorized cover for a pool, and the place starts to really fill up with tourists and locals alike. A DJ starts spinning tunes, and the girls go a little crazy at the boyband remixes playing. When a slow song comes on, Reed surprises me by grabbing Quinn and pulling her into a dance.
Daria comes back to the table and sits next to me, close enough that her thighs touch the tips of my knees as I straddle the bench seat. We watch as a dreamy look overtakes Quinn’s face. Reed has her in a tight embrace with his cheek resting atop her head. As though he’s enjoying himself.
Daria leans her head on my shoulder and sighs. “If he hurts her, I’ll kill him.”
“You’ll have to get in line, beautiful.”
“I love that about you.”
I look at her questioningly.
“That you love Q as much as I do. You didn’t even know her before me, yet you’d protect her with your life now because she’s important to me.”
I take her chin in my hand and make sure she’s looking at me. “Daria, you are the most important thing to me. Nothing tops you. So everything that means something to you, automatically means something to me.”
