Romancing the Rebound

15

୨𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚢୧

I think I just made my entire year with this day plan.

ATV riding in the dirt and mud of Costa Rica with Skylar, the girl who looks like she's going clubbing every day and is always in the highest of high heels. She didn't want to drive her own, so she chose to climb onto mine with me. She sat down right behind me and dropped her hands onto my back where she held her phone.

I warned her about having her phone out like that. She flipped me off.

So now, Skylar screams at me every time I allow most of the mud along the way to splash on her. Because that's what happens when you flip your driver off. At least she didn't wear her pretty dress and heels today. Instead, she wore a tight, cropped tank top and equally as tight matching shorts.

So much skin exposed. So many places for mud to be splashed. She brought this upon herself.

We're taking a ride up to some place we can zip line. I'm not entirely all that interested in the zip line part. Mostly the part where I get to go through mud, dirt, and large puddles of water to get Skylar to squeal at me.

Skylar gasps the moment she notices the giant puddle of water that is more like a stream in the middle of our path. Everyone else drives straight through it. We're no different.

"Daniel, don't you dare."

I dare. I speed up and pass by a few people and I head straight for this puddle.

People have heard her yelling at me, so they keep their distance if they don't want to get splashed as much. They seem to find it as funny as I do. Skylar hides her face in my shoulder to try and save as much of herself as she can. I take pity at that point, slowing down after we go through the big puddle.

"Asshole." She tells me in a huff as she lifts her head from my shoulder. I just smile to myself, happy with this idea. Skylar sighs and starts leaning away from me. I'm tempted to look over my shoulder when her hands leave my waist, but I don't. I slow down even more, not wanting to actually hurt her. Just get her messy.

After a moment, her hand lands on my shoulder and she starts leaning forward. I sigh when I realize it's for a picture.

She likes her damn pictures.

Nonetheless, I smile a little at the camera. I don't exactly look at it, more at the dirt road ahead of us. "Smile." Skylar urges. I guess my smile isn't wide enough for her.

Annoyed, I let myself grin as stupidly and over exaggerated as I possibly can and look at the camera. That gets her to laugh and snap multiple pictures before I look away and shrug her off of my shoulders. Instead of returning her hands to my waist after she puts her phone away to wherever she's hiding it, she rests her hands on the spot between me and the handles. I'm not sure why. I glance down at her hands then back up ahead of us.

I lift one hand from the handles to grab one of her hands, moving it to press it against the lower part of my stomach. She moves her other hand along with it. For a second, I leave my hand on top of hers. Just to make sure she leaves them there. For safety reasons.

"How much longer do we have?" Skylar sighs deeply, having had enough of getting messy with dirt, water, and mud.

"I don't know." I admit. I've been having too much fun to be paying much attention. I'm just following the rest of the group and our guide.

"Daniel,"

"I mean it." I insist. "Ten minutes, maybe." I guess at random.

"Ten?"