Slow No Wake

TWELVE

Body Dragging

I was awakened to the sound of rustling in the tent next to us. It was already light outside.

Daniel smiled as he awoke. “Good morning, beautiful,” he said, then planted a quick kiss on my lips.

“Sounds like your friends are getting up,” I said as a caution.

“Ready to face the day?” he asked. I knew he was also asking if I was ready to face his friends and if we were both ready to face Eddie.

I nodded.

We both changed into fresh clothes and I pulled my unruly hair into a pony tail.

“I love your hair pulled back,” Daniel said.

I smiled. I noticed his hair was sticking up in a few places, so I tried to flatten it down with my fingers. “There, much better,” I said admiring my quick-fix hair styling technique.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. “Ready?”

“Let’s do it,” I replied.

When we climbed out of the tent, Joey-G was also climbing out of his. I could hear a female voice from inside his tent whine, “Joe–eeee.” She stretched the second syllable of his name out for what seemed like an eternity because her voice was so shrill. Then she yelled, “Help me out of this thing.”

Joey reached back into the tent and pulled out a small, dark-haired girl. She had such a large voice, I was shocked to see that she was so tiny, maybe only five feet tall.

“Joe-eeee,” she whined again. “You said you’d walk me to my car.”

Joey-G put his index finger to his lips in an attempt to quiet the abrasive young woman. “I’ve got a splitting headache; please keep your voice down.”

“Okay,” whined the girl. She seemed to have no ability to modulate the tone or volume of her voice.

Joey-G grabbed her elbow. “Come on, August. I’ll walk you to your car.”

The girl punched Joey-G right in the arm. “My name’s not August. It’s April.”

“Hey, at least I knew it was a month,” Joey-G replied as they headed toward the parking lot.

Ricky poked his head out of his tent and asked, “What the hell was that racket?”

He emerged from the tent with a buxom blonde. She had on a black mini skirt that just barely covered her butt cheeks and an extremely tight-fitting black tank top.

The blonde leaned up and planted a kiss on Ricky’s lips. The two made out for a few seconds until Daniel cleared his throat.

The blonde said, “The next time you boys are in town, give me a call.”

“Sure thing,” Ricky said, then gave her a quick slap on the rear as the blonde headed toward the parking lot.

When Joey-G returned, he was rubbing his temples. “Someone, please kill me now. I can’t take this headache. I don’t know which made it worse, the shots of tequila or April’s voice.”

Ricky laughed. “Maybe if you actually talked to the girls before you bedded them, you’d avoid situations like that.”

“Maybe I’ll try a little hair of the dog,” Joey-G said as he scanned the campsite, presumably for some alcohol.

We heard an unzipping noise coming from Eddie’s tent and he emerged from its depths.

The guys all stopped what they were doing and waited, but nothing happened.

“What the f*ck, Eddie,” Joey-G said. “Were you alone in there?”

As if he didn’t believe it, Joey-G walked over, stuck his head inside Eddie’s tent and came out shaking his head. “This is a first.”

“Everything okay?” Ricky asked Eddie, with a note of seriousness in his voice.

When Eddie looked at me, his eyes looked vacant. Daniel instinctively put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. Eddie continued starting at me with empty eyes for several seconds. Then a look of disdain crossed his face.

“Did you two sleep well last night?” Eddie said finally, his tone oozing with sarcasm and innuendo.

Daniel’s stare shot daggers at Eddie.

“Better keep that girl of yours on a tight leash, Danny-O. Now that you’ve marked your territory, you don’t want her still prowling around, do you?”

Eddie gave me a look filled with so much lust, it made my stomach clench. I glanced over at Daniel. Rage filled his eyes.

Not good. Years of building animosity and underlying conflict were now bubbling up to the surface.

The air suddenly felt heavy with tension. My hands started to shake as a feeling of dread overcame me. I said a silent prayer to whoever was listening that Eddie would stop. I knew if he said one more word, it would push Daniel over the edge.

Eddie moved in closer to Daniel but he kept his gaze focused on me. My heart started racing.

“Was she good, Danny?” Eddie asked. “Was she worth waiting for? Was she everything you’d hoped she would be? From the little taste I had of her, I’ll bet she rocked your world.”

In an instant, Daniel jumped on Eddie and knocked him to the ground. Daniel quickly pinned Eddie down and straddled him. Then he started punching Eddie’s face repeatedly. Eddie put up his arms in a defensive gesture but didn’t fight back. He didn’t throw one punch as Daniel beat the hell out of him.

I looked over at Joey-G and Ricky. They were shaking their heads. “Aren’t you going to do anything to stop them?” I asked with urgency.

“I’m not,” Joey-G said.

“Nah,” Ricky said. “Eddie deserves it.”

The look on Daniel’s face scared me to the core. He wore a mask of blind rage. I wasn’t sure Daniel was capable of stopping himself and in an instant, I realized, if I didn’t do something, Eddie could get seriously hurt.

I got as close to Daniel as I could without getting hit myself and called Daniel’s name. I could see something register on his face when he heard my voice.

“Daniel, please stop,” I begged. “For me. I want you to stop.”

And he did.

He looked down at Eddie, now bloodied and beaten, and shook his head. Then he rose and walked away.

Ricky and Joey-G each grabbed one of Eddie’s shoulders and lifted him off the ground. They eased him over to one of the folding chairs and set him down in it.

“Dude, your face is f*cked up,” Joey-G said.

Eddie didn’t say a word. He just stared into the empty space in front of him.

“I’ll get you some ice,” Ricky said as he headed over to the coolers.

I hurried to catch up to Daniel, who was walking toward the beach. It was still early on a Sunday morning, so the beach was vacant and desolate. It reminded me of the look in Eddie’s eyes.

When Daniel saw me run up next to him, he grabbed my hand and held it tight.

We walked together down the deserted beach for a few minutes before Daniel spoke. “You know that wasn’t just about you, right?”

“Yeah, I know. But it was a lot about me.”

“I’m now intimately familiar with the term blind rage.” Daniel said and gave one forced laugh. “I could have killed him if you hadn’t…” His voice trailed off then he looked at me. “Thank you for stopping me.”

I stopped walking and Daniel turned to face me. I looked into his eyes. “I stopped the fight for you not for him.”

He nodded then closed his eyes. When he reopened them, his eyes were damp with tears. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but you’re the only girl Eddie ever wanted in any meaningful way. You’re the only girl he ever really wanted but couldn’t have.”

I knew that was true. Eddie was a womanizing a*shole, but I also knew deep down inside he had real feelings for me. I knew he cared about me and maybe even loved me in his twisted Eddie way.

Daniel placed his hand on my face and stroked my cheek. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”

I could feel my heart start to flutter. “I love you, too.”

He leaned down and gave me a gentle kiss.

When he withdrew, he said, “I guess we’d better get back and see how much damage I did to my roommate.”

I nodded and we headed back to the campsite.

Eddie was still seated in the folding chair. A blood-soaked towel was now resting in his lap. The right side of his face had gotten the worst of it. His top lip was busted open and getting fat and his right eye was nearly swollen shut. He held a make-shift icepack on the right side of his head.

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” Daniel said as we stood next to Eddie.

“Yeah,” Eddie said. “I’m not worth rotting in prison for.”

Eddie had his eyes fixed straight ahead. He wouldn’t look at either one of us.

“Guess your face isn’t going to be so pretty for a while,” Daniel said.

Eddie tried to laugh but flinched in pain. “I’ll still get the girls,” he said. “Chicks love tough guys. They love fighters.” Then he looked at me. “They especially love guys who’ll fight to defend their honor.”

My chest clenched as Eddie continued looking at me. It was the first time he looked at me without any lust or desire. His eyes were filled with a bit of sadness and love.

***

The car was heavy with tension during what felt like an extremely long ride home. None of the guys said a word to each other. At one point, Joey-G started to whistle what sounded liked “Tainted Love”, but was stopped mid-whistle when Eddie glared at him.

I rested my head against Daniel’s warm chest. He pulled me close and placed a soft kiss on the top of my forehead. Nuzzling him was fast becoming my new favorite pastime. It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep in the coziness of Daniel’s embrace.

***

Joey-G dropped Eddie, Daniel and me off first. Eddie bolted out of the car before it even had a chance to come to a complete stop. He had his gear out of the back of the car and was in his apartment before Daniel and I were barely out of our seats.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked Daniel as we grabbed our bags from the back of the SUV.

“I hope so,” Daniel said.

“You can stay with me if you want to,” I offered.

Daniel kissed my cheek. “I would love to stay with you every minute of every day, but I don’t want you to get sick of me. And I know you probably want and need your space.”

I touched Daniel’s cheek. “I could never get sick of you. It’s a standing offer. Just let me know.”

“Thanks,” he said as he headed toward his apartment with his stuff. “Wish me luck.”

“I’m right next door if you need me,” I reminded him.