It’s what he does.
The longer she stares at Ryke, the more her smile fades. She turns her back to us, hunches forward and says something to the bandana guy. He lowers her to the ground, safely on Earth, and before she returns to our group, she continues talking with him, even with the loud music.
She nods a lot. He smiles even more. I don’t like it. Because he looks in his late twenties and she’s just a teenager.
And then his hand rests on her hip and starts traveling to her ass.
“I’m thirty seconds,” Lo says under his breath, his eyes flickering to Ryke.
“I’m fifteen.”
I frown. For what? To intervene?
Connor looks between them. “You both can’t be serious.”
Ryke glances at his watch. “Five…”
“She’s a smart girl,” Connor reminds them.
“She’s sixteen,” Lo says.
“Three…”
And then the guy slaps her ass, and Ryke is about to drop Melissa on the ground. But Daisy just smiles and waves goodbye to the guy and comes over to us. When she meets our faces, her smile contorts into a frown, confused like I was. Now I’m pretty positive there’s too much testosterone pumping in this area.
“What’s up with all of you?” Daisy asks. “Lo, you look like you’re going to pop a blood vessel.” He does. But she tries to shrug it off. “That guy told me a good place to swim with sharks. Anyone up for it?”
Everyone stays quiet.
And she deflates again. “What? What did I do?”
“That guy practically stuck his hand down your bathing suit,” Ryke tells her, “and you didn’t care.”
Melissa has her arms crossed over her chest. Her mood is slowly tanking.
Rose shoots me a harsh look and mouths girl time. Yes. Definitely.
I take Daisy’s hand, wanting air too but mostly wanting Daisy out of their judgmental gazes for a second.
“Wait, I didn’t do anything wrong,” she says. “He was just being nice.”
“Are you really that na?ve?” Lo questions. “Because if you are, we should consider sending you home before something terrible fucking happens.”
“I’m not na?ve,” she says. “He was happy.”
Ryke cringes. “You let him slap your ass because it made him happy?” Yeah, that doesn’t sound right.
“Okay,” I interject. “We’re leaving. Right Rose?”
“Yes.” She sets a glare on each of the guys.
Connor raises his hands. “I didn’t say a word.”
Her eyes soften at him. “You’re exempt.”
“Daisy,” Ryke says with so much emotion to the name that shivers run down my arm. And it’s freakin’ hot out here. I think he wants to say a lot of things to her—give her some sort of pep talk about how she doesn’t have to please other people to make herself feel better—that doing so will hurt her in the end. But Melissa leans her head down and starts whispering in his ear, deterring him from speaking his mind.
So Daisy says, “I’ll see you around.” And she actually drags me off towards a tiki bar that sits on the beach. Rose races behind us, wanting out of the mobs of people too.
We rest our elbows on the counter, and I buy a water bottle while Rose and Daisy wait for the bartender to blend their margaritas.
Rose raps her nails on the counter, antsy as always. “Daisy,” she says. “Do you have something you need to tell us?”
Daisy stands between Rose and me, and she rocks on the balls of her feet. “I’m not going to sleep with that guy,” she says. “I wouldn’t. I just told him I thought he was good looking, and then afterwards, I asked him about sharks.”
I frown. “Really?” It was that PG? Maybe all of us are so focused on sex. We’re the gross ones.
“I mean, he said some suggestive things, but I wasn’t trying to flirt back. Honest.” She shrugs like it’s nothing. “I’m used to it.”
“Which part?” Rose asks icily. “The touching or the flirting? Because if you’re going on photo shoots where the crew is putting a hand on you—”
“Nonono,” she says, slurring the word like me when I’m trying to cover up a lie. “That has never happened. Mom comes with me. She wouldn’t let anyone touch me inappropriately.”
Rose believes her. She nods, but I stare at Daisy for a long time, not as trusting. Maybe because I have lied for so long that I can see right through it.