Walking in the general direction of where the girls went, we hear the rush of water and figure Daisy would’ve been attracted to it. Voices echo the closer we near the stream or waterfall.
“It’s leeching all my nutrients!” Lily shouts. And Lo takes off, his walk turning into a sprint.
“Hold still,” Daisy says calmly.
Rose winces loudly. “I’m going to murder every one of these disgusting things!” Connor matches Lo’s pace, and I stay behind them, thinking Daisy’s fine.
When we come into the clearing, Lily looks like a deer caught in the headlights.
A naked fucking deer.
I try not to look, but black leeches are stuck to her abdomen and arms while Daisy tries to pry them off…who’s also naked.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her completely undressed. Last year. New Year’s Eve at Rose’s house in Princeton, Daisy had a scheming look on her face with this really playful smile. The countdown to midnight happened, and while her date, some fucking Abercrombie model, was about to kiss her, she avoided his mouth by starting to strip, backing up towards the kitchen with each discarded article of clothing. She said that the new year couldn’t start off right without someone streaking.
Her eyes were on mine.
Mine were on hers.
And then the model she was with—he cut in and helped take off her bra.
I grabbed him by the shoulder, instinctively, a gut reaction out of irritation and anger. I didn’t want her with this fratty fucking guy, a grade A douchebag. She finished undressing, and I caught a glimpse of her body before she sprinted outside, laughing in the cold. And then her date went off on me, yelling in my fucking face, and my date—she shot daggers at me from across the room, holding a champagne glass in a tight hand.
I can’t even express how many months we both tried with someone else. But even seeing her now naked another time, it’s different. My concern is at a fucking peak, heightened, revved to the max.
My brother has blinders on. He just goes straight to Lily without looking at anyone else.
Connor is already beside Rose while she stubbornly tries to pull a leech off her shoulder blade, refusing his help at first, and so Daisy is instantly pushed to the side.
Or rather, pushed towards me.
I grab her wrist and tug her to the tree line, away from the rocks, creek and waterfall. I spin her around so I’m blocking her from my brother and Connor’s view. If there’s any girl comfortable in her skin, it’s Daisy Calloway. The only time I’ve heard her freak out about being naked was during the fashion show, when she was stripped in front of complete strangers.
That fucking violent act would’ve affected anyone.
I’m not even sure how much it’s left a mark on her. Maybe she doesn’t either.
“Don’t they just suck the blood and then fall off when they’re bloated?” Daisy asks, eyeing the two leeches on her arms and the one that sucks her neck. Blood drips from underneath the leech’s belly. I glance at the other girls, and they don’t seem nearly as fucking bloody right now.
Connor answers Daisy, “You girls have too many on you.”
“I told you!” Lily shouts. “It’s taking our nutrients.”
“It’s not, actually,” Connor says.
Lo focuses on Lily’s back which has five fucking leeches attached. “How many diseases do these carry?”
I fucking swear Lily yelps in fear, like a wounded animal.
Rose squirms more fiercely now. “Get it off, Richard!”
He holds her shoulder firmly now that she’s conceded, and he pries the leech off with the pinch of his fingers. “Leeches can be used for medicinal purposes. Think, Rose,” he tells her. “You know this.”
She breathes through her nose.
To reassure everyone, Connor adds, “The girls are fine.”
“Should we burn them off?” Lo asks.
“No, their stomach contents will explode on the wound.”
“Gross,” Daisy says, poking at one on her abdomen. She slowly starts peeling it off and then stops as her skin pulls with it, the leech not detaching easily.
I scan her body quickly, my eyes falling to her back. Two on her shoulder blades, one on her lower back, none on her ass, but one on her calf. My stomach twists because I can tell she’s in pain—that these actually hurt to remove.
“I’m going to rip them off like a fucking Band-Aid, okay?”
She nods a couple times, not complaining. I start with the one on her calf, squatting, and she clenches my hair while I grip the leech and tear it off in one motion. The spot bleeds profusely. Fucking Christ. I wish I brought my water bottle to wash the wound.