Reid's POV
I hated beaches.
I only went because Sadie wanted me to. I liked Sadie a lot, but I knew we wouldn't last long. For now though, I did want to stay with her to see what could happen. With that being said, I came to the beach with her and her gay ass friend.
So, I invited my friends. One of which he turned gay. Oliver should be glad I never told anyone he was gay.
I saw him checking Dakota out and I rolled my eyes. He'd might as well be with him. It's so stupid of him to be afriad. That's why I should've outed him. I'm sure as far as our friend group goes, everyone knew anyway. As annoying as Dakota gets, he's a good guy and Oliver shouldn't be that way to him. We teased Oliver about it a lot, but I guess that made it worse.
I kissed Sadie's shoulder, she was hot as fuck in that swim suit.
"Baby, stop." She giggled, pushing me away.
"I can't help it, you look so sexy." She rolled her eyes, but blushed a little. She kissed me quickly and sat on her towel, next to Dakota.
"Dak, that guy over there's been eyeing you." Felix, one of my friends told him. Dakota rolled his eyes and shrugged.
"Of course he is. He should grow some balls and come talk to me then." I shook my head, but laughed a little. He's always been arrogant, the little fucker. The rest of the guys laughed too and Oliver rolled his eyes, getting pissed.
"Here, I'll go get him for you." I volunteered.
"Reid, no, don't do that." I wolf whistled and he looked over. Me and the guys looked at him and pointed at Dakota, who turned beet red. I'd never seen Dakota blush, but it was quite funny. We all laughed loudly as the guy began to walk over. "You'd better be glad he's hot." He glared at me and I raised my hands in surrender.
"Hey, did you call me over?" The guy asked Dakota, flashing him a smile.
"Uhh, no." Dakota told him, looking down at his nails. The guy frowned, seemingly embarrassed.
"He-" I started. But, Oliver, being the jealous ass he is, ran into the guy.
"Oh, dude, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there." Oliver said. Now, I know what you're thinking. How can he just run into him?... Out of nowhere. Same thing I was thinking, I had no idea where he came from, but his plan failed.
"Yeah. Okay, whatever." He told Oliver, then shifted his attention to Dakota. "Anyway, I'm going to be honest here, I think you're fucking hot. Do you think we could get to know each other?" Dakota smirked and sat up, now acting interested. Oliver grew angry and went back to where he was. Dakota's eyes never left the guy, which sorta surprised me.
"Hmm... maybe we could. What's your name?" The guy grinned, getting cocky now that Dakota seemed interested.
"Grant. What's yours cutie?" Dakota studied the guy before pursuing his lips.
"I'm Dakota. I think we'd be good friends Grant." Dakota said, laying down. "See you around." And just like that, Dakota dropped him. My mouth widened in shock.
Grant stood there, confused. He didn't understand what just happened.
"W-what?" Dakota faked confused.
"I said I'd see you around." The guy blinked and looked around. He laughed a little and shook his head.
"No, I wanted to get to know you a little more." Dakota flashed him a smile.
"Yeah, I know. I just don't want to get to know you." Grant grew angry, glaring down at Dakota. I sighed, shaking my head. All of my friends, including me, stood up.
"Dude, I'd leave if I were you." Oliver told him. Grant looked around at all of us and then shook his head and stormed away. All this fuss over little ole Dakota.
"Aww, you guys are all so sweet, defending me and what not." Dakota said, still laying down, just as calm as ever. I shook my head at him. "To think I just thought you were all annoying."
"Maybe I should call him back over." I muttered. Sadie hit me and Dakota laughed.
"You're going to get fired from being my body guard." I rolled my eyes, not even answering him. I had to admit, he was pretty funny. But, I was confused as to why he was suddenly uninterested in the guy.
"Why'd you piss him off?" Felix asked.
"He called me cutie. I hate that. Instant turn off." I raised my eyebrow. Seriously, this of all reasons, is the reason he suddenly turned uninterested? That's so stupid. Oliver laughed a little and I shook my head, laying down by Sadie.
"Hey, do you want to go swim?" I asked, searching her eyes. She smiled, shrugging.
"Just for a little while." I nodded and she kissed my lips. I grinned and got up, then helped her get up. "Dakota, you'll be alright?"
"Yeah. When are the girls coming?" He asked. I raised my eyebrow as Sadie laughed sheepishly.
"They uhh... they aren't coming." Dakota rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"Why didn't I know that." He grumbled, pulling out his phone. I pulled Sadie away as she tried to talk to him.
"Come on babe. He'll be alright." She sighed and ran with me to the water. I loved to be in the water, it calmed me more than anything. I could swim for hours upon hours, unfortunately, no one else really felt that way about water. So I was usually swimming alone.
I sighed once having the water surround my waist, going further until it hit my chest. I smiled and splashed the water a little, grinning widely. Sadie kissed my cheek and wrapped her arms around my neck. I looked into her blue eyes and smiled, she is a such beautiful girl. Her long, gorgeous, brown hair was pulled up now.
"What's going on in your mind?" She asked me. I shrugged.
"Nothing really." She sighed. "Yours?"
"I'm worried about Dakota." I raised my eyebrow. He's a grown man, he can take care of himself. Why be worried about him?
"He's just... too trusting of people. He's let Oliver come back into his life too many times."
"He doesn't seem too trusting. He pushed that guy away because he called him cute." Sadie laughed a little, but then got serious again.
"Yeah... I just don't know Reid." I sure as hell didn't know either.
"Well, try to help him if you think there's a problem. I don't know what to tell you." I kinda wished I didn't ask her to come out here now. I wanted to relax in the water and not think, and instead she's got me wondering if Dakota really was okay. I mean, he seemed like he was. He always seemed confident and happy.
But I knew from experience that that wasn't always a sure sign things were okay.
~
After swimming around and horse playing with the guys, we all just sat under the tent for a while longer. Dakota had left with some guy and the sun was setting. No one realized he was gone, and I didn't want to bring it up to have people think he was okay.
I stood up and walked around. I went to the tent the guy and his friends were at.
"Hey, have you seen a boy with neon pink shorts? He was with one of your friends." I asked the guys there. They frowned and shrugged. One guy stepped forward.
"Yeah, they went to my buddy's truck. Come on, I'll take you there." I followed the guy, who seemed nice enough. He led me to the parking lot, but right before we got there, I heard two guys talking.
"Did you do it?"
"Yeah, why'd you want him?"
"None of your damn business." I glanced down the alley, between two resturants, seeing the two guys along with a third sitting on the ground. I realized it was the guy Dakota dissed earlier (Grant), and the one he left with.
The guy who was with me saw that it was his friend and tried to punch me but I dodged it and punched him, sending him to the ground.
I walked quietly down the alley way, seeing the other guy leave. I'd get to him later. Grant went to pick Dakota up, and Dakota pushed him off. He punched Dakota in the face and I grew angry.
"Leave him the fuck alone." I told him, running over and punching him. He tripped back a little before standing and running back to me to hit me. I pushed him onto the wall and punched him again.
"What are you, his boyfriend?" I ignored him and kneed him in his balls. He fell to the ground, groaning.
"You stay away from him or you'll have more coming to you. Got it?" He nodded and stood, running away.
Dakota stood from the wall, wobbling a little. I sighed and picked him up, holding him in both my arms.
"Why'd you go with that guy anyway?" I asked him.
"He was cute and didn't call me cutie." I laughed a little and looked at him. "Thank you for saving me. Where are the others?"
"Still at the tent. I noticed you were gone for a while-"
"Aww, you care about me. I'll hire you back as my bodyguard as soon as possible." I rolled my eyes, but smiled. How can he make so many jokes when this just happened? I brought him back to the tent and everyone looked at me surprised.
"What happened?" Sadie ran over to Dakota, holding his face in her hands.
"The guy he was with tried to give him to the Grant guy from
earlier." I muttered, looking down at Dakota. His face was red and a bruise was forming on his cheek. "Did he give you something?" I asked, wondering why he didn't do anything to get away.
"No, they just beat me up." He mumbled.
"Did you drink anything from them?" Sadie asked.
"No, I'm not that stupid."
"Where are these fuckers?" Oliver asked, pissed. I held him back. "I got one of them and the other guy left. I was going to go back and beat his ass too but... what will that solve?" Oliver grunted.
"Where are they?" I shook my head, not saying anything. He grabbed me by my shirt and I pushed him off.
"Calm the fuck down. If you want to know where they are, go find them yourself." He huffed at me and stomped off. I crossed my arms and turned my attention back to Dakota.
"I think it's time we go." I told everyone.
"Well, Dakota drove here. Should we get Oliver to take him home?" Sadie asked me.
"I don't think it's best Oliver do anything right now. He's too pissed. I'll take him." Sadie nodded and hugged me.
"Thank you for helping him." I shrugged and picked Dakota up.
"Thank you Mr. Bodyguard. I may just give you a raise." He muttered, sighing and falling asleep. I laughed a little, he was something else.
Anyway, I brought Dakota to his car and laid him in the backseat. His car was very junky, which surprised me because Dakota seemed like the really clean type. I mean, the way he composed himself, he was really clean and reformed. I expected everything else around him to be so too. When I got in his car, Brittney Spears started playing. I cringed and turned the radio off; I'd rather ride in silence.
But, I drove him home, hoping to get him to his parents as quickly as possible. I knew he'd be okay, but I knew that something bad could've happened to him had I not went looking. I knew that he would be dwelling on that when he woke up.
I pulled up to his house, seeing no cars in the drive way.
"Maybe they're in the garage." I muttered. I went to the doorstep, finding only one key on Dakota's keychain. I opened the door, then went back to get him.
"Where are you carrying me mister?" He mumbled, opening his eyes. I tried not to laugh as I answered him.
"To your house." He stared at me for a while and I pushed the door open.
"Reid, you're pretty, ya know?" He told me. I stopped and raised my eyebrow at him.
"And you're gay."
"I take it back, you're ugly." I rolled my eyes and looked around his house.
"Where's your room? And where's your parents?"
"Up stairs, and not here." He mumbled, leaning up and putting his head in my neck. I shivered and stood rigid, before relaxing. I sighed before walking up the stairs and looking around for a room that could be his. Thankfully, there were only two and one was huge and so... not Dakota. I went into his room and opened the door to see a messy room.
"Goodness Dakota." I mumbled.
"What?" He asked loudly. I shook my head and laid him on his bed. He sprawled out and blinked for a while. He closed his eyes and I looked around, wondering if I should leave him here alone.
I really didn't want to. I had no idea what to do.
He sighed and stood up.
"You can go if you want to. No reason to sit here with me." He mumbled, limping to his bathroom to see how bad he looked. I followed him there, looking.
"Are you sure? Will you be okay?" He shrugged, not answering me. He lifted his shirt and looked at the bruises forming on his ribs. I was pissed, why would someone do that to him? "You should be more careful." I mumbled, staring at it, angrily. "What'd he do to you?"
"He just beat me up. Told me he wasn't gay and he hated faggots. So he was okay with helping the other guy take me. Guess he didn't know what the other guy really wanted, did he?" He laughed and shook his head. "I'm stupid, aren't I?" He asked me, starting to cry a little. I sighed and shook my head.
"No, Dakota. You aren't stupid. It's them. You can't trust everyone. Some people only want to hurt you. You don't deserve that. You have to make people earn your trust. Not just give them a chance right out the gate." He smiled and hugged me, catching me off guard. This was weird, but I relaxed and hugged him back, not minding it so much. I guess I made it weirder than it actually was. Just two guys hugging, ya know?
"Thanks Reid. You can go ahead. I'll be okay." I raised my eyebrow, not really liking that.
"Are you sure?" I asked him.
"I..."
"I'll stay Dakota." He nodded.
"Thank you."