Page 59 of Dirty Daria

“Quinn?” I hear her. Now I just need to get to her. I must save her.

One.

Two.

Three.

Go.

I dive through the water below and blackness surrounds me.

27

Quinn

I try knocking on the door first. When I don’t get an answer, I use the key that Mack gave me to let myself in. The room is empty, but the patio door is open, so I check out there first. Reed is lounging in a chair, a glass of ice in one hand and three empty bottles from the minibar along with an open bottle of pills scattered on a side table next to him.

“Reed?”

“Quinn? What are you doing here?” His tone is cold and not at all welcoming.

“I came to check on you.”

“I don’t need to be checked on.”

I settle into the chair next to him anyway. “How are you feeling?”

“How do you think I’m feeling?”

“I don’t know, or I wouldn’t ask.”

“I was roofied, Quinn. Drugs that were intended for you. Only instead of knocking me out, they just fucked me up. I dove from the top of a barstool into a crowded dance floor, almost breaking my neck, trying to find you. While you were off face fucking the asshole who wanted to drug you.”

“I wasn’t face fucking him. And I didn’t know he wanted to drug me.” I keep my voice soft in case his head still hurts. The “fall” caused a mild concussion and he sprained some of the muscles in his neck. So now he’s in a soft brace, with an ice pack atop his head.

“Well, maybe if you thought things through before just doing them, something like that would occur to you.”

“Really, Reed? You think I should have been able to foretell the guy I talked to at the bar wanted to roofie me?”

“Yes, Quinn!” He throws the ice pack to the floor and sits up, glaring at me. “You should assume that every man out there wants to roofie you. Trust no one. My god, your ex-boyfriend wanted to sell you into sexual slavery. That wasn’t enough for you?”

“But he didn’t.”

“Then your first vacation after that, and someone almost drugs and takes you.”

“Again, didn’t happen.”

“Quinn, wake the fuck up. There is danger everywhere. You need to pay attention.”

“I do pay attention.”

“You don’t. You are constantly off in some sort of dream world with your head in the clouds thinking everyone is a good person and every place you go is nice, and it’s not.”

“Okay, well, that’s your opinion.”

“No, Quinn, that’s a fact.”

“Do you remember when you kissed me the other day?”