Page 68 of Parker
As I’m getting dressed, I realize my phone, left charging on the bedroom bureau last night, is vibrating with messages. I grab it as I head back into the living room, which is now mostly bright with early morning sun.
“You good?” asks Quinn, who’s put his jeans back on, but left his chest bare.
“Yeah,” I say, “but my phone’s going crazy.”
“Everything okay?”
“I don’t know,” I say, sitting down beside him and unlocking my phone. I have six unopened phone messages and forty-seven unread text messages in my family text chat, in addition to more texts from individual family members.
“Whoa.”
“What? What is it?”
Quinn is staring at the screen over my shoulder. I click on the family chat first.
REEVE:
OMG. Have you guys seen this?
A chill goes down my spine.
“Click on the TikTok link,” he says.
I tap on it, and as it’s loading I glance up at him. “What do you think—”
Suddenly, the whiny voice of Skylar Jones fills the room.
“Hey, you guys! It’s Sky-Sky, coming to you from the City of Siiiiiiiiin—Las Vegas! Now, as you all know, I usually stop by TikTok to give you travel and tourism tips…but today we’re going to change up that format, right, lil’ bro?”
Rick Jones appears next to his sister, wearing a matching red polo shirt. With their blonde hair, freckles, perfect teeth, and can-do smiles, they could be Bible salesmen…if they weren’t so totally sleezy on the inside.
“That’s right, Sky! Today we’re going to talk about something that’s all too common. INAPPROPRIATE AND UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR AT TRAVEL AND TOURISM CONVENTIONS!” he bellows, as a graphic reading the same flashes on the screen. The sound of “boo-ing” plays briefly in the background. The text disappears as Rick waggles one finger back and forth. “Folks, what you’re about to see is a serious no-no.”
Skylar nods vigorously. “It’s so cringey, you guys. Like, save it for the bedroom. No one wants to see you getting in on in a public space. Try being professional for a change, huh?”
“I bet you guys are wondering what we’re talking about, right? No worries,” Rick assures their audience. “We have videos of the offending couple…” He leans forward. “And I do mean offending. The following clips are pretty racy, folks. Maybe ask younger viewers to leave the room.”
My stomach turns over. I think I’m going to be sick.
“What the fuck?” Quin growls. “Is this about…us?”
“Shhh. Watch,” I order him.
As Lizzo sings in the background, drawing out the word “Naaaaaaked,” a video clip plays of me pulling off Rick’s polo shirt, handing it to him, and strutting out of the convention center in an aqua bra and no shirt (the use of slo-mo as I walk away makes me look super slutty), followed by another clip of me punching Rick in the face,which honestly, without context, looks like it comes from out of nowhere.
The video montage pauses, and Skylar’s stupid face pops up in the corner of the screen.
“That half-naked girl who’s walking around without a shirt and throwing punches because someone bumped into her online? That’s Parker Stewart. She and her family run a little, tiny tourism business in Skagway, Alaska.” She looks down at her chest meaningfully, then looks back up, cringing for the camera. “I guess we know how they get their clients, huh?”
“And Skylar, who wants to book a tour with people who embrace violence?” adds Rick, looking shocked and censorious. “Putting your hands on someone is never okay.”
“Shall we keep watching?” Skylar asks her brother.
“Let me brace myself.” Rick pretends to shiver. “I’m game if you are, sis.”
Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” starts playing as the video clips resume.
The next, of me and Quinn, was taken at the end of our fancy date.Which means that Rick, Skylar or both, were spying on us from down the hallway. Creeeepy. We’re kissing outside of my hotel room door, and even though Quinn didn’t come into my room that night, the video cuts off at a place where it’s definitely implied. Next, we have Quinn leaning over my convention table to kiss me yesterday morning, and finally, a video of us making out in the phone booth near the food court during our lunch break.