Page 74 of The Vacation Mix-Up
“You think?” Brittany flaps her hands like a spasming bird. “Can you take me, Riley?”
“Sure,” Riles says. “It’s the least I can d?—”
“Not you,” she growls, glaring one-eyed at Riles before pointing at me, “him.You’vedone enough.”
“Me?” Riles rears back. “It was an accident.”
“I doubt that. You aimed for my head.”
“I did not!”
“You did!”
I put myself between them before all hell breaks loose. “I’ll take you to the med center, Brittany.”
“Thank you! Can we please go now? It’s stinging so bad.”
I sigh. “Sure.”
“You’ll have to guide me,” she says, looping her arm beneath mine. “I can’t see.”
I’m no anatomist, but when you have two eyes and one of them is closed, you can still see perfectly fine. But I don’t argue my accurate point, instead guiding her out of the pool and wrapping my towel around her shoulders.
“Where are you going?” Whitney calls out.
“Riley’s taking me to see the nurse.”
“Want me to come?”
“No. You stay.”
“’Kay.” Whitney blows her a kiss. “Love you.”
Sniffling, Brittany rests her head on my shoulder. “Thank you.”
I fake a sliver of sympathy. “No sweat.”
Poppy broke her finger in a doorjamb when she was four, and she didn’t milk the situation as much as Brittany currently is, so to say her woe-is-me acting is grossly over the top would be an understatement. But I’m not a jerk, so I reluctantly play along.
“We’ll be back soon,” I say to Riles, Ben, and an unfazed Whitney, as Brittany whines again.
God, help me!
After takingBrittany to the med center—a claustrophobic dungeon I do not want to visit ever again—and then escorting her to her room at her request, I make my way back to the pool, but neither Riles, Ben, nor Whitney are there. So I head to the cabin, hoping Riles will be working, or at the very least catching up on the sleep I keep depriving her of.
Those damn expensive AirPods better work, because even though I said I’d move cabins if they don’t, I’m no longer confident I can uphold my end of the bargain, especially after spending so much time below sea level in the medical center. I sure as shit wouldn’t cope, the air down there thin and suffocating, the walls and ceiling a constant crushing threat.
Knocking on the bathroom door before entering—just in case Riles’s in there—after she doesn’t answer, I step inside, take a piss, and have a quick shower, tangling myself in her bathing suit, which is hanging to dry on a cord above my head.
What the fuck?
The glue-like material sticks to the side of my face, so I wrestle with it, almost slipping and falling on my ass before eventually smacking the suit to the floor and kicking it aside.Jesus!Why she can’t hang it out on the balcony is beyond me. It’ll dry faster out there and be out of my damn way.
But since Roni constantly badgers me over being a messy slob, I collect the bathing suit and my shorts and drape them over the chair outside, pleased with my efforts. And then I closethe balcony door behind me and head to the closet for my clothes. The safe inside is open, and wondering what Riles stores in there, apart from her passport and maybe some jewelry, I bend over to get a better look, but it’s empty.
Weird!
“Why would she take her passport out?” I mutter to myself. “It’s a sea day.”
